I cannot believe how good this was! I feel like the wind was just knocked out of me. I'm speechless! Please let this become a movie! Please let this become a movie! Please let this become a movie! *clicks my ruby slippers together as many times as it takes*

I'm going to try to settle down here for a second so that I can try to form a somewhat coherent review. Bear with me. lol

The writing in this book was STUNNING! There were so many times when I would have to slow down and read the book out loud so that I could feel the shape of the lovely prose on my own lips. It was so gorgeous at times, it was almost poetry.

I could not put this book down once I really got into it. At about the midway point of the book, I guessed the plot twists and I was SHOOK! This was so much better than I could ever have imagined and I'm so glad. Normally when I hype a book up in my mind, it backfires on me. Not this time, Satan!

The magic in this book was not the kind that I was expecting. There are no spells or sorcery, but what there is is so much better! (is is. seriously, kristen? that's weak. i know.) The magic of loooooove! lol Also just the general idea behind this book was thebomb.com.

Okay, I think this review has officially derailed. I'm tired. I'm going to bed. READ THIS BOOK! Good night.

I love stories about Witches and this Practical Magic meets Hocus Pocus tale grabbed my attention and held it so that I could not put it down until I was finished! The pacing was slow at times but the twists near the end more than made up for it.
I did like the relationship between Penny and Bo. It was an insta-love relationship, which always annoy me, but some how the author made it work so that Penny and Bo may have fell for each other fast but the rest of their relationship progressed at a normal, steadier pace.
The Swan Sisters and their story was sad yet wicked. I started to sympathize with them because I understood their pain and rage but at the same time their terrible deeds were wrong.
The Wicked Deep is very atmospheric, you can almost feel the spray from the sea on your face or see yourself walking through the gray, misty port side town of Sparrow. This witchy tale of revenge, love, betrayal and loss will captivate you and ensnare you until the very end.

This has got to be one of the most beautiful covers I've seen in a while. I'm sure it's even more so when you're holding the hardback cover in your hands.

So, real talk: when the publisher comps this book to stories like Hocus Pocus, I just have to get my hands on it because that's one of my favorite stories ever. It's not quite up to par with that story because this is so not the story of the Sanderson sisters we know and love and we watch every year on FreeForm (formerly ABC Family).

What this story does involve are three sisters who are accused of being witches based on their power they have over the men in the town. And according to the legend and actual events, these sisters come back to the town and inhabit the souls of actual girls on the island, claiming the lives of young men.

Morbid much? Absolutely. And what I got from reading The Wicked Deep was this weird and quirky little story I did not expect in the least. It's hard to review this one without giving much away but let's just say that I figured out the big twist or reveal pretty early on, given some of the facts that were presented. But that still didn't matter because there are so many mysteries I needed resolving, that I was intrigued to keep reading.

Also, there's something to be said about this being Ernshaw's debut because she is so adept and talented in her world building. Seriously, she's a great writer. But I think everything surrounding the mystery of this island needed to remain so much a secret, I didn't really get invested when it came to the romance, but I did, however, feel the pain and the suffering that came from this town and the big issue it had with a curse for the last 200 years.

Either way, I think everyone should read this one because unlike many books, this one provided so many topics of interest - things like what makes us good, what truly motivates us, or even, why love prompts us to act in uncanny ways - that I'm still thinking about it long after I closed it.

Thank you so much to the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Wicked Deep
by Shea Ernshaw

Publication Date: March 6th, 2018

A sleepy town which wake every summer to their own curse. The Swan sisters were persecuted as witches nearly 200 years ago and every summer they come back to exact their revenge on the boys of the down. Marguerite, Aurora, and Hazel Swan inhabit the bodies of three girls every summer and lure unsuspecting boys into the harbor to drown. Penny has always known about the sisters and dreads the Swan season. We follow her struggle as she navigates her mourning mother, a new outsider, and the island that has a huge place in her heart.

Shea Ernshaw weaves a beautiful story of love and loss that keeps the reader enthralled until the end. The twist and turns of this story draw you in and tug at the readers emotions. I loved the mythology put into the novel and the development of the plot. The only thing that I would have like more would be a little more character development and relationship development with the main character's romance and her best friend's romance. I do agree that it worked well with the plot, but I think I just wanted more of the story.

If you're looking for a fun paranormal romance stand alone novel, then I highly recommend this!

Thanks so much to NetGalley for providing me with an egalley of this fabulous novel.

#Netgalley #WickedDeep

Another one that I can’t get on my kindle. We will purchase anyway - sounds Amazing!

I really liked this.

The Wicked Deep takes place in a small town in Oregon named Sparrow. Every year on June 1 three sisters come back from the dead and inhabit the bodies of three teenage girls. In 1883 the Swan sisters were accused of being witches and thrown into the ocean to drown. Every year because of this they seduce the boys in the town and then drown them as revenge for being murdered by the town over 200 years ago.

Our main character Penny Talbot lives in Sparrow and is resigned to the fact that every year just as school ends, the sisters come back, and the murders begin again. But this year something is different. Because this is a widely known local legend, every year there is an influx of tourists coming in to see if they can get a glimpse of the sisters, but one boy named Bo stumbles into town looking for work and has no idea what happens every year or who the Swan sisters are.

I really can’t say anything else about the plot because it’d be considered a spoiler. I think it’s just best to go into this just knowing the blurb of the book and nothing more. This is a paranormal mystery and it kept me on my toes the entire time. Honestly, I was kind of confused almost the entire time but never in a frustrating way. I was just dying to what the fuck was going on. I wanted to know who the Swan sisters were possessing and how exactly everything would end.

The weakest part of the book was probably the romance, but it wasn’t even because of the characters, it was just a bit underdeveloped compared to everything else. Since Penny is the MC and we’re in her POV throughout the story, we didn’t learn that much about Bo (but what we did I liked.) There is also a case of insta-love, I’ve definitely read worse but it’s still there a little bit.

I loved that we got glimpses from 200 years ago. We got to see a little bit of how the Swan sisters were while they were alive. Overall, this had a creepy and atmospheric vibe and I recommend it to readers who like YA paranormal and fantasy. Also the cover is absolutely drool-worthy and it fits the story perfectly!

I wanted to love this book because I'm really into witch trials and all that good stuff. But I don't feel that I can give it a positive review, so I'm not going to review it.

Rating: 3.5 The concept of this book really interested me. I love anything witch related and it sounded like Practical Magic, Hocus Pocus and Siren tales--sign me up. While I did enjoy it, it was rather predictable. All of the twists seemed obvious and I am not a huge fan of the romance. It felt way too insta-love for me. (I chose to think of it as being a longer period of time because if it was I think I would have really enjoyed the relationship. However, I really liked the island and small town setting and liked Hazel's story. But the ending felt a little rushed. Overall, I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received this arc for an honest review thanks to Netgalley.
I was first intrigued by the description and once I started I was immediately hooked. The overall idea and character development, as well as the back story was fantastic, it really was similar to hocus pocus or practical magic. I highly recommend to anyone who love books with magic and strong female characters. I can't wait to get a hard copy.

Rating: 3.5 stars

The Wicked Deep was such a wonderfully atmospheric novel. The premise was absolutely stellar. I loved how the author kept me in suspense the entire time, even though I guessed most of the twists. As the story was slowly unspooled, I kept changing my opinion about certain characters. While there were some parts I didn't like, The Wicked Deep was overall an engaging and intriguing book. 

Two hundred years ago, three sisters were drowned as witches. Since then, they've been taking their revenge on the town of Sparrow every summer by drowning local boys. On the eve before the sisters again steal the bodies of three unsuspecting girls, a young man named Bo Carter arrives and meets local girl Penny Talbot. As the murders pile up, the atmosphere in town soon turns suspicious. Mistrustful of each other, even as they fall in love, Penny and Bo must decide what is real and what they're willing to give up to stop the curse. 

Ernshaw did an excellent job of bringing to life the small town of Sparrow. Despite the yearly murders, the townspeople stay. For some of them, it's the only life they've ever known. For others, they tried leaving and ending up returning. And others are unable to leave, trapped in a place they dream of escaping. Being able to picture the town so vividly definitely helped me find the magic in this book. The fear and mistrust that slowly spread throughout this small town felt so authentic and real. Nonetheless, I would have liked to see a bit more of how the events affected the non-teenage inhabitants of the town.

The Wicked Deep was a slower paced novel, which allowed me to fully enjoy the atmosphere. I was able to anticipate most of the twists in the plot. Oddly, I actually enjoyed the experience more because of that. I loved seeing how everything was connected and everything changed when viewed from a different perspective. The author did a brilliant job exploring the idea of identity. The Wicked Deep was definitely more of a psychological mystery than I was expecting and I loved it. And yet there wasn't an explanation for one of the most important parts of the book. I would have liked that question answered but I can see why the author choose to have the story be more mysterious. 

The flashbacks to the sister's story were some of my favorite parts. I always love seeing how villains are formed. Their story was nicely interwoven with the rest of the book. However, I found it hard to connect to the two main characters. Since the second half of the book focused heavily on the romance, I didn't like it quite as much as the beginning. There was also insta-love, a trope that I'm not a huge fan of. I actually preferred when the book focused on the relationships between the sisters and the townspeople and the three sisters themselves. 

The Wicked Deep was a unique book that was full of creepy happenings, mysterious murders, and intriguing characters. I would recommend if you're looking for a wonderfully atmospheric YA read that's a bit darker. 

*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I think this was pitched as Hocus Pocus at sea...and it's like that, but oh so much more (And I love Hocus Pocus).

Two hundred years ago, the Swan sisters were accused of witchcraft and drowned in the harbor by the townspeople of the fictional Sparrow, Oregon. Each summer, from June 1 to the summer solstice, they return, inhabiting the bodies of three unsuspecting girls and luring boys to their deaths in watery revenge. But this year it's different. Penny Talbot has always avoided the Swan festival—the pageantry and spectacle of tourists and accusations that fly in the summer—until she meets Bo. But outsider Bo, who has a mystery of his own, has been marked by the sisters and she must do everything she can to prevent his death...

There are twists, turns, and wicked magic aplenty. And lighthouses. And Oregon. Just to tell you how sucked into the story I was: I was able to ignore the lighthouse on an island (that is not Tillamook Rock and definitely a fictional Oregon lighthouse) and the fact that I'm 90% certain there are no inhabited islands along the Oregon coast (this had me frantically trying to figure out just where along the coast Sparrow is supposed to be...someplace south of Newport and probably north of Winchester Bay because of the whole cliffs thing, but it could be south of there? Possibly near Yachats because it has a private lighthouse? ...I dunno), and no lighthouses built on the coast in the early 1800s.

With all that being said, the story was completely captivating and enchanting. The Oregon Coast has an incredibly rich history of shipwrecks and ghost stories, and I'm very happy to see it featured so beautifully!

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

This arc was provided to me for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

4 Beautiful Stars.

Based on the blurb alone, I thought I was getting some form of a Hocus Pocus retelling. But while it may have some similarities it is entirely its own story. The Wicked Deep follows the legend of the Swan sisters, who two centuries ago arrived in Sparrow, Oregon. Soon after their arrival, they were tried as witches and drowned. Now each summer the Swan sisters arrive, taking the bodies of young girls to lure boys to the sea. The girls taken remember nothing and the boys are dead. Swan season is approaching again and this time we follow Penny, a young local girl who believes in the legends of the Swan sisters and Bo, a mysterious stranger from out of town.

This book didn't capture my attention right away, but the moment it did, I was hooked. It was intriguing to watch the story fold out. I should have seen certain aspects coming but I didn't. The twists and turns keep coming and soon enough it was over, and I was crying. I didn't expect an ending like that, but I absolutely loved it. Shea Ernshaw created a beautiful book and I cannot wait to read more from her.

In the town of Sparrow, there is a season, the summer season, where the spirits of 3 dead sisters come and possess the bodies of 3 girls and then go on a drowning of boys spree. This is the story of the events that took place during one of those seasons, a story about a local girl and an out of town boy and their plan to stop the drownings.

I learned of this book a little late in the game it seems. Just before its release, however, I was approved for the galley and I was so excited. I started reading it pretty quickly. Witches, evil curses, and all that stuff... yup it sounded like the book for me. Let me say this book did not disappoint in any way. I loved it!

I really liked everything about this book, including the title and the cover. It screamed eerie, dark, and twisted from cover to cover. It was all that and more. The story itself was so good. I loved the idea of the curse, the drownings, and the possessions. It was unique for me. Sometimes unique can get a little weird and unbelievable if not done right. This book was done so perfect.

I was drawn in from the very beginning and just couldn't put the book down. The tone, the setting, the beautiful writing, the character development. It all went together flawlessly to create such a tragically beautiful story.

One of the things I really enjoyed was the tidbits of the sister's past. I was able to know what happened and why the town is cursed. The sister's chapters were done in an entirely different tone and I love that the chapters of present and chapters of past felt like two different stories but still connected.

What I also found so interesting was the sense of excitement and dread felt from the townspeople when the season was coming around. I felt that same sense of excitement and dread. IT was a horrible thing in a way to get excited over body possessions and boy drownings... but it was in a way still exciting. I didn't know what to expect and was very curious but also felt the dread that someone was going to die. It was just a little twisted... which in this book was a great thing.

The characters were all great. Very developed and I connected with so many of them. I adored the main character. She was a bit strange, loner, but she had a lot going on in her life and I could feel her pain. She definitely had a unique air about her. She wasn't just one of the townspeople. I could feel she was differnet and she had secrets but I wasn't sure what and how it would take part in the series of events. I really enjoyed watching all those secrets play out.

I also really liked Bo. He was a little naive and had some questionable motives but all in all he was very sweet and loveable. I can't agree with some of the actions he was willing to take but I could understand the reasoning. In the end, even with this flaws. I loved him.

The sisters were also very fun to get to know. There were each very different and their personality shown through in their chpaters and in the bodies they stole. They were developed to perfetion in my book.

There is romance but just a hint. I mean it is central to the story. A very important part of the story and yes a little bit on the insta-love side however, it didn't suck in all the good stuff of the story and feel like it was way out of place. Even though it was intsta-love it was sweet and fit with the entirety of it all. In the end it made a whole lot of sense. So beware it's there but with reason.

The pacing was just perfect in this book.I have a hard time with pacing in most books. I feel they either drag or they rush. It's just hard to get it right for my ADD but wanting detail kind of mind. It's a constant battle. This book's pacing was just beautiful. I felt alive in the story, the amount of time that passed while reading felt invisible.

The ending was just so fitting too. I felt good with how it ended. The book as a whole just amazed me and I wait to see more from this author in the future.

In the end.... Great read, one of my favorite this year.

I’ve always been drawn to books that feature witches, so as soon as I saw its alluring synopsis promising “Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic meets the Salem Witch trials,” Shea Ernshaw’s debut novel, The Wicked Deep, quickly became one of my most anticipated reads of 2018. So, did it live up to expectations? Well, yes and no. The Wicked Deep is an atmospheric and engaging read — I read it easily in about a day. That said, however, it was also the kind of read that had me yelling at the characters as I was reading because I just couldn’t believe some of the things I was reading. I’ll try to elaborate on that without giving away any major spoilers…

Set in the cursed town of Sparrow, Oregon, The Wicked Deep is a story of revenge. Two centuries ago, beautiful sisters Marguerite, Aurora, and Hazel Swan moved to Sparrow. They were disliked immediately because of the way the townsmen fawned all over them and eventually they were accused of being witches and drowned in the town’s harbor. Every summer since the drowning, on the anniversary of their deaths, the spirits of the three sisters wait for teenage girls to enter the water and then they inhabit their bodies until the summer solstice. Their goal? Revenge. Like sirens, the sisters use the bodies they’ve stolen to then lure unsuspecting teenage boys into the harbor where they drown them. No one ever knows whose bodies have been taken over and once the summer solstice comes, the spirits go back to the bottom of the sea and those who were inhabited have no recollection of what has happened. Everyone in Sparrow seems to just accept that this is their fate and they have even gone so far as to morbidly exploit the curse, even referring to it as “Swan Season.” The curse has made Sparrow quite the tourist attraction and people come from miles around to see if what they have heard is true. The town throws ‘Swan’ parties and then just passively waits for the ritual to play out each year, with no hope of ever stopping it.

Things change this year, however. A young man named Bo arrives in town on the same night the Swan sisters are set to return. Bo meets 17-year-old Penny Talbot, a local who like most others, has just accepted this as her way of life. Penny fills him in on the curse and warns him that as a teen boy, he’s likely to be a potential target. The two of them start to bond and, instead of passively riding out the ritual like she does every other year, Penny becomes determined to keep Bo from falling victim to the sisters. While Penny is busy trying to keep Bo safe, seeds of discord are being sown in the town and some of the boys decide it’s time to end this curse once and for all. Someone comes up with the idea that perhaps if they can figure out which girls are inhabited by the spirits, they can kill those girls and thus prevent the spirits from returning to the sea, thus breaking the curse. This leads to a modern day witch hunt with the girls now in just as much danger as the boys.

Can the townspeople stop the curse? Can they even justify taking the lives of three innocent girls to possibly stop the curse? Can Penny protect Bo from the curse? Why did Bo conveniently show up in town that night anyway? So many questions….

I absolutely loved the atmosphere that Ernshaw creates in her novel. It’s an enchanting recipe of quaint small town quirkiness combined with the haunting and creepy vibe that this two-hundred year old curse casts over everything. Small details like the sisters using song to lure teen girls into the water to steal their bodies just added to the overall sensory experience of reading. If I was rating on atmosphere only, this would be five stars for sure.

The legend of the Swan sisters was fascinating as well. I really liked how Ernshaw allowed more and more details about their story to unfold as we’re watching the curse play out in real time. The Swan sisters were actually interesting enough that I would have loved an entire book devoted just to them, but Ernshaw does a nice job of seamlessly weaving together the past and the present to show us how the curse began and why the sisters are so bent on seeking revenge against the people of Sparrow.

Out of all the characters, Bo was probably the character who intrigued me the most. He was so mysterious and it felt like he was hiding something when he first arrived, especially the way he claimed to not be a tourist yet conveniently showed up on the first night of “Swan Season.” I felt like I was watching him most closely while I was reading, trying to figure out if he had ulterior motives for arriving in Sparrow when he did.

Okay, so let me reiterate that I enjoyed reading The Wicked Deep. As I’ve already mentioned, I read it in a day and literally could not put it down until I knew how it was going to end. That said, there were some things about the story itself that just drove me crazy and had me yelling at the characters (a lot!) while I was reading…

I could not understand, for the life of me, how an entire town of people could continue living in a place where they know the same thing is going to happen every year. You know young men are going to drown and yet even if you are the parent of said young men, you’re cool with staying in this town? I couldn’t get past this because I just can’t fathom staying in a place like this. It should be a deserted ghost town.

Speaking of being a tourist haven – Even if you have accepted your fate as some kind of “collective guilt,” why would you exploit this tragedy by bringing more people to your town? Are they hoping to lure in other families so that maybe non-local kids drown instead of their own?

The teenagers’ cavalier attitude toward the entire curse. Again, you know as a teen girl in a small town, you have a very high chance of being one of the three who are “chosen” by the sisters and that if chosen, they, using your body, will murder young men. And you know as a teenage boy, that you stand a pretty good chance of being lured out to a watery grave. So why the heck do these idiots have a huge party down on the beach the first night of “Swan Season” every year and dare each other to drunkenly wade out into the water to see what happens?

Aside from not understanding why the people of Sparrow do what they do, I also guessed what was supposed to be a huge plot twist very early on, so that was a little disappointing. I will say it’s a great twist though, a total game changer, so if you don’t guess it early on, it will blow your mind when you get there.

One other area where I felt things were a bit lacking was in the area of character development. You’ll notice that aside from Bo, I didn’t really mention any other characters and that’s because I didn’t really feel all that invested in any of them. It felt like they were just there to advance the plot regarding the curse. Penny probably had the most development out of any of them but I still didn’t really feel any connection to her. Since I’m one who likes to connect with the characters, I’m reading about, this was a little disappointing.

While in many ways The Wicked Deep lived up to expectations – it’s one of the most atmospheric books I’ve read in a while and I definitely enjoyed the unique premise of the cursed town and the three sisters’ quest for revenge, the book fell a bit flat for me in other ways just because I couldn’t get past the unrealistic behavior of the people in the town and didn’t feel much of a connection to the characters. I still wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a haunting and creepy witch-themed read.

Sparrow a cursed island on the west coast where, two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town.
Since then every June 1st when summer starts the three sisters steal bodies from the local girls and take revenge, taking boys into the deep sea and drown them.

In this dreary, foggy gloomy town lives Penny Talbot whose commitment to her broken heart mother, avoid her to leave the island and start a fresh and secure life like all the other teenagers. She has accepted her fate, stay there forever, unaware of the danger he has just stumbled in.
Both of them have hidden secrets and death is just coming swiftly to those who cannot resist the three sisters’ enchantments.
Only Penny has the key to unravel the mystery and perhaps end the curse.

I adore the story, I could not put it down. The way the author combined the mystery, sadness, gloominess of the town, with the mystery and the curse. The plot well crafted, with an unexpected twist in the middle of the story, and a reasonable end.
Living on an island myself, which I do not know it has any curse, give me the desire to explore more about the story. Any small town has its myths and folklore.
For those who believe in spirits, I might say the story is within magical realism, for those who do not, it is fantasy.
Easy reading, I love the way the story goes, from the island in present time, and the story of the three sisters in the 19th century. The art in every beginning of the chapter super adorable. I think is pure magic and mysticism.
Thank you to let me read this ARC and I am looking forward to having a hard copy to add to my library. Publish March 6th, 2018

After several attempts, I have been unable to load this title. No review will be forthcoming.

Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow

Where two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchcraft. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the river.

Now for a small amount of time each summer, the sisters come back by stealing the bodies of weak hearted girls and lure boys to the harbor and pull them under.

Like all the locals, Penny has accepted the fate of the town. But this year, the eve of the sisters return a boy named Bo comes to town unaware of the danger. Mistrust spreads quickly and the town folk turn against each other.

Penny and Bo suspect the other is hiding secrets. And death comes swiftly from the sisters. But Penny can see what the others can't and she has to make a choice- save Bo or save herself.

This book was incredibly interesting. I liked the idea of a book being Supernatural-esque (OMG Sam and Dean,guys! *drool*). I love how dark and magical it is. I love how well the author writes and is able to keep a fresh take on witches. Plus the cover is absolutely gorgeous! Do yourself a favor and pick this book up!

I've been researching the paranormal quite a bit lately, especially folk tales and legends around witchcraft. Because of this recent interest, the premise of The Wicked Deep, by Shea Ernshaw sounded incredibly promising. I have always been fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials and societal panic that led to the senseless persecution of women. 

Note: I received an advanced reader's copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Sparrow is a small town cursed by three sisters seeking revenge. Every summer, the sisters return to claim the bodies of three girls. In these new bodies, the sisters seduce young men and drown in the harbor, collecting their souls in revenge for the injustices they faced centuries ago.

There is a lot to unpack here. The Wicked Deep is told in the present tense from Penny's point of view as she watches the events of this summer's Swan Season take place. The prose keeps the story moving rather quickly and I never found myself getting bored. While the book has elements of the paranormal genre, it's also a bit of a mystery/thriller, since no one truly knows who is murdering these young men and which girls are the Swan sisters this summer. Well, one person knows, but that's a plot twist for another day. *wink*

Interspersed between the present are scenes from the past. We read about the Swan sisters' arrival to Sparrow and what their lives were like. Were they truly witches, or were they simply alluring women that men could not resist? These scenes from the past gives the readers clues to the present and asks us to figure out the motivations behind the killings. There is a social commentary here about women's sexuality and shame, and that was a thrill to unpack as I was reading what seemed to be just another Young Adult book. There's a nuance to the conflict of this book that makes it multi-dimensional and more complicated that it seems at first.

The Wicked Deep contains some amazing plot twists that will cause readers to reread the book again and again. It is like a nicely-wrapped present, with a compelling story from start to finish. As a standalone novel, I must say that I was also very satisfied by the ending, which is difficult for a book of only 320 pages. 

I rate The Wicked Deep 4/5 stars!

If you are a fan of Paranormal Young Adult or Urban Fantasy, I'd recommend picking up The Wicked Deep. It releases on March 6th, 2018 and you can pre-order it now!

"'This town was built on revenge,' I say. 'And it's never made anything better or right.'"

Sparrow is cursed. Two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death and drowned for alleged witchcraft (but really for being too friendly with the townsmen (married and single both). Now, for a few weeks every summer, the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three local girls and using them to lure boys out into the sea to meet the same fate they once met.

Penny Talbot has a secret. She knows that the legends are true. She knows that there is plenty to be afraid of each summer during "Swan Season" as the locals call it. She knows that it's not a game. But when Bo Carter shows up, unaware of the dangers of being an outsider boy during this tumultuous time, the stakes suddenly become a whole lot realer for her. Now, she has a boy to keep safe. And the Swan Sisters do not like her meddling in their affairs.

This book is so freaking beautiful and creepy and lush. I loved the alternating timelines - the glimpses of the past were some of my favorite parts of the whole book. They reminded me of the past flashbacks in Holes by Lois Satcher. They have this mystical vibe even though they're historical as well. It's easy to lose yourself in them as the tragic story of the Swan Sisters unfolds.

"We would not be spared. My sisters and I were finally being punished: adultery, lust, and even true love would find atonement at the bottom of the sea."

The Swan Sisters' story is interwoven with Penny and Bo's story in the present and I wa actually very surprised by exactly how the pieces all fit together. There are some unexpected twists and it made the journey that much more succulent. I'm not much for books about witchcraft, but this one is phenomenal - one of a kind - exactly the sort of book we need more of it. It's unputdownable and irresistable and I hope to see so much more of Shea Ernshaw's writing in the future.

Rating: 5+/5 stars

The Wicked Deep was my first 5-star read of 2018. I was drawn in by the beautiful writing and Shea Ernshaw’s ability to create mystery and magic.

The coastal town of Sparrow is covered in darkness and fog as it hides the spirits of three witches who take hosts every June. To the town, June brings folklore and booming business as tourists appear in droves. But to Penny, the folklore is not only true but a threat. When she warily allows an outsider named Bo to come help her manage the lighthouse, she wasn’t expecting romance, nor was she expecting her role in freeing the witches from their curse.

Again, I loved this novel. I purposefully read it slowly because I didn’t want it to end. In my opinion, the cover doesn't truly embody the tone of the story. The cover (especially the random pentagram) makes the story seem a little darker than it really is. The witchy element is done very tastefully and very little witchcraft is used in the story.

The Wicked Deep is a beautiful novel, and I highly recommend it!