Bittersweet Book in Every Sense!
Kate Pearsall, with her new release, Bittersweet in the Hollow, entertains readers, bringing a cast of unforgettable characters that makes it impossible to put this book down once started. Within these pages, readers are introduced to the James family and the youngest ones- four sisters- Rowan, Sorrel, Juniper, and Linden, the last, our main character. And while the Jones women fall in love, every relationship they have is either doomed or unrequited- the girl's father, Sheriff Chapman, having left their mother and his girls long ago. And while Linden and Cole Spencer, the son of the mayor, were getting close at one point, him having given her a necklace, the night she went missing a year ago, it was gone and the only thing left, a scar that she doesn't remember getting.
Because a year ago, she had begged to go into the forest, the first on the night of the Moth festival, like all the other older kids in town. However, she went missing that night and was left with no memory of what happened. All people knew was that they last saw her by the rhododendron and 24 hours later she was right near there- back without any memory of what occurred.
When she and Cole are in the forest a year later, she begins to feel the foreboding she felt that night, echoes of the panic and terror that she remembers, and then finds Dahlia Calhoun's dead body. The first scandal since the disappearance of Elam McCoy many years before, and the first murder in the town, something is going on and it may have to do with the myths of the Moth-Winged Man that the town so strongly believes in. So much so, that they have a festival to celebrate it.
Pearsall is an amazing writer- the descriptions she makes, the words she twists for her characters- “It’s there, deep inside the hidden places, where the Moth-Winged Man is said to make his home. When we were little, tales of the monster terrified me, but they thrilled Rowan. Maybe it’s innate in some of us to be drawn to the unknown, to both fear and desire it in equal parts. She’d tease me relentlessly, hiding dead moths under my pillow and tickling like a blade of switchgrass against my skin like the brush of a wing, all while filling my head with the most lurid tales she could imagine until I’d run crying to Mama.” This is only a sample of the beauty you find in the book, the words that surround and entice readers to go further in the tale.
Bittersweet in the Hollow is a mysterious, wonderful, well-written, and plotted story, with twists and unknowns that keep the page turning until the end. Hard to put down, you delve into a different type of world, slightly magical and mystic, while James's women try to run the fine line, in their town, of practicing the paranormal talents they have without going deep into them.
While the James women make tonics and potions that they sell to people in town and the people in town may buy them, their thoughts of the James women still do not normally run positive or nice. This may be one of the reasons that Linden's grandmother keeps the greatest family magic locked up, in a book, out of reach (and knowledge) from the sisters and their mother. Long ago, when their grandmother was young, there was a disagreement between her and her sister about what the James women should know when it came to this paranormal magic. This led to a split and her sister left, the magic was locked up, and rather than teaching the strongest things the James women knew, to the next generation and the one after, now they are only taught so much--- and no more.
What will happen if this magic is released? What will happen if the James women learn the magic they are capable of- what can they do with it? And what will they do with it? Would Linden be able to find out what happened the night she went missing? And can it protect the James women and the town from whatever is going on- why Dahlia was murdered? And, what if it is the Moth- Winged Man? What then?
Read Kate Pearsall’s Bittersweet in the Hollow to answer these mysteries and more…. entertaining, beautiful, with strong, brave characters-- this book will keep you wanting more, even after its end….
Happy Reading!!
Because a year ago, she had begged to go into the forest, the first on the night of the Moth festival, like all the other older kids in town. However, she went missing that night and was left with no memory of what happened. All people knew was that they last saw her by the rhododendron and 24 hours later she was right near there- back without any memory of what occurred.
When she and Cole are in the forest a year later, she begins to feel the foreboding she felt that night, echoes of the panic and terror that she remembers, and then finds Dahlia Calhoun's dead body. The first scandal since the disappearance of Elam McCoy many years before, and the first murder in the town, something is going on and it may have to do with the myths of the Moth-Winged Man that the town so strongly believes in. So much so, that they have a festival to celebrate it.
Pearsall is an amazing writer- the descriptions she makes, the words she twists for her characters- “It’s there, deep inside the hidden places, where the Moth-Winged Man is said to make his home. When we were little, tales of the monster terrified me, but they thrilled Rowan. Maybe it’s innate in some of us to be drawn to the unknown, to both fear and desire it in equal parts. She’d tease me relentlessly, hiding dead moths under my pillow and tickling like a blade of switchgrass against my skin like the brush of a wing, all while filling my head with the most lurid tales she could imagine until I’d run crying to Mama.” This is only a sample of the beauty you find in the book, the words that surround and entice readers to go further in the tale.
Bittersweet in the Hollow is a mysterious, wonderful, well-written, and plotted story, with twists and unknowns that keep the page turning until the end. Hard to put down, you delve into a different type of world, slightly magical and mystic, while James's women try to run the fine line, in their town, of practicing the paranormal talents they have without going deep into them.
While the James women make tonics and potions that they sell to people in town and the people in town may buy them, their thoughts of the James women still do not normally run positive or nice. This may be one of the reasons that Linden's grandmother keeps the greatest family magic locked up, in a book, out of reach (and knowledge) from the sisters and their mother. Long ago, when their grandmother was young, there was a disagreement between her and her sister about what the James women should know when it came to this paranormal magic. This led to a split and her sister left, the magic was locked up, and rather than teaching the strongest things the James women knew, to the next generation and the one after, now they are only taught so much--- and no more.
What will happen if this magic is released? What will happen if the James women learn the magic they are capable of- what can they do with it? And what will they do with it? Would Linden be able to find out what happened the night she went missing? And can it protect the James women and the town from whatever is going on- why Dahlia was murdered? And, what if it is the Moth- Winged Man? What then?
Read Kate Pearsall’s Bittersweet in the Hollow to answer these mysteries and more…. entertaining, beautiful, with strong, brave characters-- this book will keep you wanting more, even after its end….
Happy Reading!!