The Bitterwine Oath
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Every fifty years, a cult claims twelve men to murder in a small Texas town. Can one girl end the cycle of violence - and save the boy who broke her heart?
"A richly woven tale of magic and murder and vengeance. This book kept me up all night! One of the best stories I've read all year." - Shea Ernshaw, New York Times bestselling author of The Wicked Deep
San Solano, Texas, is a quaint town known for its charm, hospitality, and history of murder. Twice now, twelve men have been brutally killed, and no one knows who did it. A shadowy witch? A copycat killer? Or a man-hating murderess?
Eighteen-year-old Natalie Colter is sure that the rumors about her great-great-grandmother's cult of wronged women are just gossip, but that doesn't stop the true-crime writers and dark tourism bloggers from capitalizing on the town's reputation. It's an urban legend that's hard to ignore, and it gets harder when Nat learns that the sisterhood is real. And magical. And they want her to join.
The more Nat learns of the Wardens' supernatural history, the more she wonders about the real culprits behind the town's ritualistic murders. Are the Wardens protecting San Solano from even darker forces? There are shadows in the woods, bones on the outskirts of town, and questions Nat needs answered.
But everything becomes more urgent when people start getting "marked" as new victims--including Levi Langford, the boy whose kiss haunted Nat for a year. With Levi in danger, doing nothing would be harder than fighting back.
Nat knows that no one is safe. Can she and the sisterhood stop the true evil from claiming their town?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
West (the Nissera Chronicles) packs the thrills of the Vampire Diaries series and Buffy into a smart, wry supernatural novel set in East Texas. In 1921, teenage witch Malachi Rivers and three friends botched a spell to expose their abusers fatally poisoning 12 men by mistake and unleashed a haunting that claims 12 boys every 50 years. A century later, Malachi's 18-year-old descendant Natalie Colter's biggest problems are nosy tourists and her awkward kiss with poet Levi Langford. When cult symbols and decapitated deer appear around her house, Natalie discovers that her town's women secretly protect the town's men from dark possession with hereditary magic and that they need Natalie's powers to prevent another tragedy. Despite blind spots on race, West's nuanced handling of gender politics and cycles of misogyny avoid easy answers, and Natalie and Levi's kind romance is one to root for. This fun, chilling, and sincere gothic novel keeps its head and its heart. Ages 14 up.
