The Northern Witch's Book Blog

The Lamplighter  by Crystal J. Bell 2 out of 5 Synopsis It’s an honor to bring light to the dark. The nineteenth-century whaling village of Warbler is famous for its lucky ship figureheads—and infamous for people disappearing into the nightly fog. In this murky locale, the lamplighter is synonymous with safety and protection, and it’s a position Temperance assumes when her father is found hanging from one of the lampposts. Though Tempe proves competent, the town is still hesitant to let a woman handle this responsibility. When a girl disappears after two lamps go out, Tempe’s ability to provide for her mother and younger sister hangs in the balance. She scrambles for answers, hindered at every turn by the village authorities’ call for her removal. As more villagers vanish under her watch, Tempe discovers unsettling truths about the famous Warbler figureheads and her own beloved father. But her warnings of a monster are ignored, even by her own family. Now she must follow the light ...

And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky 4 out of 5 Synopsis Harry Bodie’s been called into the delightful fantasy world of his grandmother’s beloved children’s books. It’s not delightful here at all. All roads lead to Underhill, where it’s always winter, and never nice. Harry Bodie has a famous grandmother, who wrote beloved children’s books set in the delightful world of Underhill. Harry himself is a failing kids’ TV presenter whose every attempt to advance his career ends in self-sabotage. His family history seems to be nothing but an impediment. An impediment... or worse. What if Underhill is real? What if it has been waiting decades for a promised child to visit? What if it isn’t delightful at all? And what if its denizens have run out of patience and are taking matters into their own hands? Review Harry is an out-of-work TV presenter, who has lived his whole life in the shadow of his late-grandmother's popular children's books. Strange things start to happen, an...

Hidden by Shalini Boland 3 out of 5 Synopsis Falling in love has never been so dangerous... Madison Greene is in foster care until one day she inherits a fortune, she inherits a house, she inherits a cellar full of danger. Alexandre Chevalier lives in 19th century Paris. On an archaeological expedition, he discovers a lost underground city where his life changes forever. A romantic supernatural adventure that spans the centuries. Can a human save a vampire? Review A hidden history binds modern Maddie, with the hundred-year-old vampire, Alexandre. When Maddie inherits a house, she uncovers a locked room, filled with strange statues... I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Our main narrators are Maddie and Alexandre. Maddie is an orphan, living with her brother in London with their foster parents. Life is hard, and people are constantly judging Madiie before they know her. Her relationship with her foster parents is close to breaking, and Maddie is only ...

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth 2 out of 5 Synopsis Our story begins in 1902, at The Brookhants School for Girls. Flo and Clara, two impressionable students, are obsessed with each other and with a daring young writer named Mary MacLane, the author of a scandalous bestselling memoir. To show their devotion to Mary, the girls establish their own private club and call it The Plain Bad Heroine Society. They meet in secret in a nearby apple orchard, the setting of their wildest happiness and, ultimately, of their macabre deaths. This is where their bodies are later discovered with a copy of Mary’s book splayed beside them, the victims of a swarm of stinging, angry yellow jackets. Less than five years later, The Brookhants School for Girls closes its doors forever—but not before three more people mysteriously die on the property, each in a most troubling way. Over a century later, the now abandoned and crumbling Brookhants is back in the news when wunderkind writer, Merritt Emmons, ...

Black Witch Moon Tyburn, 1625. A young woman hanged as a witch. A doctor plagued by nightmares. Wracked by guilt, Robert Winter struggles with the notion that a witch may have been wrongly accused. But if that is so, what can he do about it? When strange things begin to happen, Winter’s understanding of good and evil are put to the test. Compelled to choose one or the other, he soon learns that taking sides is the least of his problems… In this horror series set in London, the novella Black Witch Moon is book #1 in the Black Witch Saga. Purchase Links https://geni.us/fU08JG ~Review~ Author Bio Colin Garrow grew up in a former mining town in Northumberland. He has worked in a plethora of professions including: taxi driver, antiques dealer, drama facilitator, theatre director and fish processor, and has occasionally masqueraded as a pirate. All Colin's books are available as eBooks and most are also out in paperback, too. His short stories have appeared in several literary mags, incl...

Black Witch Moon by Colin Garrow 3 out of 5 Synopsis Tyburn, 1625. A young woman hanged as a witch. A doctor plagued by nightmares. Wracked by guilt, Robert Winter struggles with the notion that a witch may have been wrongly accused. But if that is so, what can he do about it? When strange things begin to happen, Winter’s understanding of good and evil are put to the test. Compelled to choose one or the other, he soon learns that taking sides is the least of his problems… In this horror series set in London, the novella Black Witch Moon is book #1 in the Black Witch Saga. Review Doctor Winter was involved with a trial that ended with a witch being killed. Unfortunately, the witch doesn't want to stay dead. I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. This novella follows Robert Winter, a professional doctor involved in a trial against a witch. It starts with execution day, and follows as Robert starts to investigate the investigation, as he's concerned she may be in...

Triflers Need Not Apply by Camilla Bruce 4 out of 5 Synopsis Early in life Bella Sorensen discovers the world is made only for men. They own everything: jobs, property, wives. But Bella understands what few others do: where women are concerned, men are weak. A woman unhampered by scruples can take from them what she wants. And so Bella sets out to prove to the world that a woman can be just as ruthless, black-hearted and single-minded as any man. Starting with her long suffering husband, Mads, Bella embarks on a killing spree the like of which has never been seen before nor since. And through it all her kind, older sister Nellie can only watch in horror as Bella's schemes to enrich herself and cut down the male population come to a glorious, dreadful fruition . . . Based on the true story of Belle Gunness whose murderous rampage began in Chicago in 1900, Triflers Need Not Apply is a novelistic tour de force exploring one woman's determination to pay men back for all they have t...

Midnight in Everwood M.A. Kuzniar 4.5 out of 5 Synopsis A spell-binding retelling of The Nutcracker, filled with enchanted toys, decadent balls, fierce feminine friendships and a forbidden romance. For fans of The Toymakers, Caraval and The Bear and the Nightingale. There’s nothing Marietta Stelle loves more than ballet, but after Christmas, her dreams will be over as she is obligated to take her place in Edwardian society. While she is chafing against such suffocating traditions, a mysterious man purchases the neighbouring townhouse. Dr Drosselmeier is a charming but calculating figure who wins over the rest of the Stelle family with his enchanting toys and wondrous mechanisms. When Drosselmeier constructs an elaborate set for Marietta’s final ballet performance, she discovers it carries a magic all of its own. On the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, she is transported to a snowy forest, where she encounters danger at every turn: ice giants, shadow goblins and the shrieking mist a...

Raising Hell by Bryony Pearce 3 out of 5 Synopsis Meet Ivy Elizabeth Mann: "I know what you're thinking, but I'm not half faery, or demon, or angel or anything like that. Mum's a Body Shop consultant living in a bungalow in Birmingham and Dad enters crossword competitions." Once upon a time, Ivy and her friends did a very stupid thing and now there's a rift letting dark matter into the world. Dark matter that manifests as black magic which actually works. Now every teenager with access to the Internet is raising hell. Literally. Ivy's doing her best to stem the tide, but her new job working school security barely pays the bills and there's only so much one girl with a machete (and a cat possessed by her own dead grandmother) can do against the forces of evil. Now she's facing a teenaged goth with an attitude, a dark cabal with a terrifying agenda and a potential zombie apocalypse. Ivy losing her job might be the best thing to happen to the world!  ...

Last Time She Died by Niki Kamerzell 2 out of 5 Synopsis A rainy night. A slick road. A car crash. ‘A puff of yellow dust blew from the vent, and the car filled with a strong sulfur smell. Laughter whispered through the speakers, then blared at full volume.’ Everything changes for Alexia Harper the night she leaves late from her waitressing job. When voices threaten her through the radio, she wonders if she’s gone crazy. Then lightning explodes close by, and Alexia crashes. Following the accident, every day is the same. Every night the same nightmare stalks her. It’s like her life is on repeat, but she can’t shake the fearful warning her subconscious is screaming at her. When Leland starts working at the diner, Alexia is drawn to him. He’s kind, funny and handsome, and he’s…familiar. It’s like they’ve spent the past eight lifetimes getting to know each other. Now, the memory-like dreams make sense. She recognizes people she doesn’t know—and they are giving her clues; answers she desper...

When Angels Fear She runs from a terrifying past, to a village with problems of its own   Exhausted, desperately seeking sanctuary, Emma arrives at the pretty English village of Flammark.  But she cannot rest. A strange sleeping sickness stalks the village and a young woman has disappeared. Why won't the police investigate? As events unfold, Emma becomes embattled yet again, compelled to fight for her life against a deadly curse linked to a past about which she had no knowledge. She is the only one able to vanquish the evil but doing so will entail confronting an horrific and all-too-familiar enemy. The question is, will she be strong enough? Purchase Link http://getbook.at/WhenAngelsFear ~Review~ Author Bio I've been writing blogs and stories off and on for years, but quite new to writing novels. My background is in teaching - I ran my own English and Drama departments in three inner city schools - then became the owner of a radical bookshop. Now I write full time. I love sup...

When Angels Fear by P.J. Mordant 3.5 out of 5  Synopsis Exhausted, desperately seeking sanctuary from a terrifying partner, Emma arrives in the pretty English village of Flammark. But she cannot rest. A strange sleeping sickness stalks the village, and a young woman has disappeared. Why won't the police investigate? As events unfold, Emma becomes embattled yet again, compelled to fight for her life, against a deadly curse linked to a past about which she had no knowledge. She is the only one able to vanquish the evil, but doing so will entail confronting an horrific and all-too-familiar enemy. The question is, after all she's been through, will she be strong enough? Review Emma runs from her violent ex and hides in a small town, only to find herself in more danger. Sickness and violence are creeping in, and a family curse may be the cause of it. I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. After suffering at the hands of her abusive ex, Emma flees to town picked at ...

Last one at the Party  by Bethany Clift  5 out of 5  Synopsis  THE END OF EVERYTHING WAS HER BEGINNING It's November 2023. The human race has been wiped out by the 6DM virus (Six Days Maximum - the longest you've got before your body destroys itself). The end of the world as we know it. Yet someone is still alive. Alone in a new world of burning cities, rotting corpses and ravenous rats, one woman has survived. A woman who has spent her whole life compromising what she wants and hiding how she feels to meet other people's expectations. From her career to her relationships, to what she wears and where she lives, she's made a lifetime of decisions to fit what other people want her to be. But with no one else left, who will she become now that she's completely alone? Review  When a global pandemic hits, we follow a woman who may just be the last human alive. I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This is set in the very near future....

Madam  by Phoebe Wynne  4 out of 5  Synopsis  A darkly feminist, modern gothic tale pitched against a haunting backdrop, and populated by an electrifying cast of heroines For 150 years, high above rocky Scottish cliffs, Caldonbrae Hall has sat untouched, a beacon of excellence in an old ancestral castle. A boarding school for girls, it promises that the young women lucky enough to be admitted will emerge “resilient and ready to serve society.” Into its illustrious midst steps Rose Christie: a 26-year-old Classics teacher, Caldonbrae’s new head of the department, and the first hire for the school in over a decade. At first, Rose is overwhelmed to be invited into this institution, whose prestige is unrivaled. But she quickly discovers that behind the school’s elitist veneer lies an impenetrable, starkly traditional culture that she struggles to reconcile with her modernist beliefs—not to mention her commitment to educating “girls for the future.” It also doesn’t take l...

Beryll and Osiris Brackhaus have a new sci fi/space opera book out, Virasana Empire: Dr. Laurent Book 1: "The PV-3 Mutagen." As a history scholar and courier for the secretive Circle of Thales, Rene Laurent is a man of many talents - none of them lending themselves much to a life of adventure. But when a chance meeting with a young, idealistic Belligra priest drags him into a wild quest to keep a dangerous mutagen off the streets of Floor, his curiosity gets the better of him. Between monsters both human and man-made, he realises that maybe fieldwork is more of his game than he had ever thought possible... Written by Rainbow-Award-winning authors Beryll and Osiris Brackhaus, 'The PV-3 Mutagen' is a colourful non-romance sci-fi adventure set in the wildly diverse 'Virasana Empire', and the first novel of the 'Doctor Laurent' series. Warnings: Not a romance. Harsh setting, but hopeful. Amazon US | Amazon CAN | Amazon UK | iBooks | Barnes & Noble ...

The PV-3 Mutagen  by Beryll & Osiris Brackhaus  3.5 out of 5  Synopsis  As a history scholar and courier for the secretive Circle of Thales, Rene Laurent is a man of many talents - none of them lending themselves much to a life of adventure. But when a chance meeting with a young, idealistic Belligra priest drags him into a wild quest to keep a dangerous mutagen off the streets of Floor, his curiosity gets the better of him. Between monsters both human and man-made, he realises that maybe fieldwork is more of his game than he had ever thought possible... Written by Rainbow-Award-winning authors Beryll and Osiris Brackhaus, 'The PV-3 Mutagen' is a colourful non-romance sci-fi adventure set in the wildly diverse 'Virasana Empire', and the first novel of the 'Doctor Laurent' series.  Review  Rene is a native to the Floor and knows how this profit-driven world works. When naive Brother Riccardo shows up with a mission to help people, they are going to have ...