Emily Carpenter had me at faith healers, and she kept me glued to the pages with this captivating story, effortlessly weaving the past and the present into one haunting tale. RTHS is a return to Carpenter’s Southern Gothic roots...and she does the genre like no other. Lush and atmospheric, with pitch-perfect prose and filled with characters you won’t soon forget. All hail the Southern Gothic queen! 👑

Dove is in her nintys looking back on her memories. I liked Dove. I liked the dialogue. I was curious to see what would happen Dove. The tone and pacing was okay.

REVIVING THE HAWTHORN SISTERS by Emily Carpenter is a gripping and atmospheric story full of haunting family secrets that held me captive from the very first page to the last. It is a follow-on to her debut Southern gothic mystery, BURYING THE HONEYSUCKLE GIRLS, which I loved, but it can easily be read as a stand-alone. The story is told in alternating timelines and points of view: those of renowned evangelist and faith healer Dove Jarrod in 1934 and her granddaughter, Eve Candler in present day. Eve has been hiding her grandmother’s long-buried secrets for all the years since her death fearing their revelation will destroy her family and the charitable works done by the foundation honoring Dove’s legacy. When a dangerous stranger assaults Eve and threatens to expose her grandmother’s secrets, Eve knows she will do anything to keep those accusations from coming to light. Going back in time to the Deep South and the rise of traveling evangelists and their often shady ways, I was completely immersed in the setting and the perils Dove faced as a young girl. Both timelines are filled with history, suspense and rich family drama. I was entranced with this heart-wrenching and evocative story and highly recommend it! Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy.

Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters is among one of my favorite books I have read this year. It was a phenomenal read. I loved it!
Five stars.

Another great read by EC! I was so connected to these characters. Having Althea from Burying he Honeysuckle Girls in the story was a great treat. Dove is the main character for this book and Dove was who helped Althea know what happened to her mom and grandma in Honeysuckle Girls. Doves story is quite a ride as the story goes from past to present with her Granddaughter being threatened to find a valuable coin that was supposedly in her grandmothers possession. I really enjoyed the story of the 1930s of the Healer Camp and Tent meetings. Growing up in the south, I knew all about them. Great southern gothic read. Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the ARC

Emily Carpenter’s latest novel, “Reviving the Hawthorne Sisters”, is an epic novel that spans generations of a family with a past that has a secret that has the ability to destroy a family and all that it stands for. Eve is the caretaker of the family and when she arrives back to her grandmother’s birthplace for a building dedication, she is threatened by an intruder who is willing to expose her grandmother as a thief and a murderer. Dove, Eve’s grandmother, is a famous evangelist who had spent most of her life preaching and healing throughout the United States. As Eve tries to clear her grandmother’s name she learns more about the woman she thought she knew and develops a sense of understanding regarding the struggles she went through to build the ministry that Eve is attempting to protect. I was given an advanced copy of this book, and all of the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. While I have read most of Carpenter's books, I haven't read the 1st one which ties in to characters in the new book. This return to a Southern Gothic mystery was enjoyed, regardless if you read the Honeysuckle Girls.
Eve Candler works as director of fundraising for her family's foundation, based on her late grandmother's work with the spiritual healing of her husband's church. I apologize if I can't explain it well, being Jewish, but Dove Jarrod was known as a faith healer since the 1930's. The book goes back and forth between the 1930's and present day. I didn't find the 1930's timeline confusing, but unfamiliar with the hymns that Dove, known as Ruth sang, the author gave good context and explanation. Eve believes her grandmother was a con woman, letting people believe she had divine help healing folks. Eve is attacked by someone who threatens her family foundation and her grandmother's reputation. She has 3 days to find a mysterious coin worth a lot of money. In that time, she learns about her grandmother's time as one half of the Hawthorn sisters who sang Christian songs and touched people who believed they had a divine connection to their Lord. The book was suspenseful, interesting and the last 1/3 especially was hard to put down. The romantic connection Eve had with the filmmaker took a backseat to the story, but the ending left things open for more story to revisit.

I was pleased to be taken back to Alabama to revisit the location and some of the characters from “Burying the Honeysuckle Girls”. I hadn’t paid much attention when I read the synopsis of this book and didn’t realize that this book was sort of a sequel to (or expansion on) that title, so it was an added bonus because I already knew I liked the author.

Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters is about Eve’s pursuit for the truth about her family, specifically her grandmother’s legacy. Her grandmother, Dove, was born at Pritchard Psychiatric Hospital and grew up there. Growing up in an psychiatric hospital was not easy, especially since she was there more by chance than as a patient. She managed to escape and eventually crossed paths with a wealthy young woman named Bruna from whom she got a job caring for the elderly grandfather. Her relationship with Bruna grew until they became the very popular and successful faith healing duo known as The Hawthorn Sisters.

When Dove passed away, she left most of her estate to restore the Pritchard Hospital. Eve, along with her mother and brother, have worked hard to publicize the restoration and get donors. Many donors are more than willing to give back in whatever way they can because of the way Dove’s ministry had touched their lives.

On the night of the dedication, Eve is attacked and her attacker reveals that there is more to Dove’s legacy than everyone thinks, in fact, it is much darker.
Eve has to race against time to discover the whole truth of her grandmother’s legacy before her attacker exposes everything.

The author does a really great job of creating the setting, with that touch of southern atmosphere. There was an interview with the author in the back of the book in which she hinted that she might explore more characters’ stories from this story and I really hope she does!

Thank-you to NetGalley and the publisher for my advanced reader copy.

Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Mystery: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Writing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Atmosphere: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ½
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Emily at her “Southern Gothic” best, book 2 but even if you have not read book 1(Burying the Honeysuckle Girls) I think you will still understand and follow the story line.This story bounces back and forth between 1930’s Dove and present day and her Granddaughter digging into her grandmother's early years and history. It can be a bit confusing at times but all comes together into a great ending.
Thank you Net Galley, Lake Union Publishing and Emily Carpenter for this ARC in exchange for my honest review

Eve has spent her life adult life shielding her brother and mother from the lies her grandmother, the late famous evangelist Dove Jarrod, told throughout her life. When Eve travels to Alabama for the grand re-opening of the hospital asylum where Dove was born, she becomes entangled in a mystery and hunt for a precious coin which leads to some truths about her grandmother and the person she was before she was THE Dove Jarrod. Told in dual timelines, current day and 1930's Alabama, the story eventually grabs the reader compels them forward to find out what really happened to Dove all those years ago.

Carpenter spins an entertaining tale that threads the characters together in more than one way. The mystery is a good one and not easy to untangle early on in the book. The characters and premise are interesting but the characters from the 1930's portion of the book are the only ones that are really well fleshed out. The current day timeline characters are mostly two-dimensional stereotypes: the recovering alcoholic, the addict psychic, the weak-minded overzealous Christian.

I struggled with the first half of the book and almost gave up a couple of times, but the end made up for it. There are some plot holes and extremely convenient circumstances to overlook, but this ends up being an interesting and compelling read. I would recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book.

Thank you to #Netgalley and #LakeUnionPublishing for the chance to read #RevivingtheHawthorneSisters in anticipation of its October 20th release! I give this book 3.5 starts out of 5.

Wayward evangelist faith healers, asylums, family secrets, outlaws, rare coins, missing corpses, and things hidden in walls? Sign me up! This book was not at all what I expected and I was more than pleasantly surprised. I needed something fairly light to read during a stressful time and this ticked all of the boxes of a light but still well-plotted and engaging read. I found Dove's character and timeline fascinating, and though I did think it was much stronger than the modern timeline juxtaposed to it, I found the multiple perspectives really useful in exploring the complex character and history of Dove.

My biggest worry with this novel was that it would end up more of a Christian fiction novel than a Southern Gothic novel, and it did veer in that direction a few times but never quite got there! I'm not a fan of Christian fiction, but I loved the framing of the mystery at the heart of this novel around faith healers and travelling preachers. It was fascinating to see so many different sides of this moment in history. While this book was described as Southern Gothic, it wasn't QUITE as gothic as I'd hoped, but I would absolutely recommend it for a quick read about a fascinating and unique topic.

(Disclaimer: This book does not go into problematic historical occurrences happening in the same timeline as the Hawthorn Sisters; don't expect anything except for an escapist read!)

Try as I might, i just could not get into this book. From it's abrupt time line changes to its multiple characters, the real story seemed to be lost in a fog. Through the back and forthing, the author tries to introduce Dove Jarrod and her story as being an evangelist con artist. We meet in the other time line, he granddaughter Eve, now the head of Dove's charitable foundation.

However, after Eve is assaulted by a man intent on getting revenge on the foundation by revealing Dove's possible murder connection and a missing valuable coin the story tries to connect the dots behind a murder in the past, a grandmother's somewhat shady past and the fate of the foundation and its works for charity. Can Dove's reputation be saved by a granddaughter that really doesn't think much of her grandmother or are evil things afoot that will bring the foundation and ultimately Dove to its knees.

There seems to be a lack of flow in the story although I found the premise to be good, it never really seemed to hit its stride. On the plus side the author did establish a setting that seems authentic to the times described.So sorry to say I am placing this book into my "I wish I had liked it better" file.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an arc of this story.

“Of course, that, too, had been a lie. But now lies wouldn’t do. Now it was time for the truth . . .” From the moment I read Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, I thirsted for more of the story about these remarkable characters. In this outstanding follow-up, we meet Eve Chandler, the granddaughter of renowned faith healer Dove Jarrod. Eve has become the keeper of Dove’s lies, and now she must unravel her grandmother’s long-buried history to protect herself and her family. The setting and the mood of this book are a trademark of Emily Carpenter’s books, a vital piece that separates her work from many suspense novelists’. The story is set against the backdrop of the Depression and the desperation of those who sought healing and salvation from traveling evangelists, which evokes a sinister and seedy mood that permeates this book from beginning to end. Reviving the Hawthorne Sisters is a compelling and moving novel, rich in family history and secrets and lies...and perhaps, murder...

Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters by Emily Carpenter is a fantastic southern fiction novel.

We meet Dove Jarrod, who is a faith healer that has takes advantage of people that are ill and convincingly make them think they have been healed.

The timelines alternate between the present and the past.

This is a stand alone novel that is a follow up to Burying the Honeysuckle Girls.

The setting in the South is beautifully written . The characters are well written , complex and well fleshed out.

This was a rich, exciting mystery combined with elements of historical fiction .

How do you like the sound of the word “coin?” Coin. Coin. Coin. Coin. Coin. If you’re still with me, it’s a good sign that the hundreds (thousands?) of times it’s used in this novel won’t drive you to drink.

There’s a missing coin, you see? And our present-day main character needs to find it ASAP or the scam that is her grandmother’s faith-healing legacy and murderous past will be exposed. Flash back (in alternating chapters) to said grandmother’s path to the revival tents by way of a psychiatric hospital and circus.

If it sounds like there’s a lot going on here, there is. And there are a lot of characters to keep track of too. Some seem to be present if only to tie this book to the author’s previous bestselling southern gothic novel, BURYING THE HONEYSUCKLE GIRLS. Once I discovered this, I felt a bit duped as a reader. I wish the publisher would make it clear that while this isn’t a sequel per se, it’s not really a standalone either. I never like to read a #2 before a #1, so I wouldn’t have committed to reading this follow up had I known.

I seem to be somewhat in the minority in my experience with this novel, so I don’t doubt that fans of this author and the genre may enjoy it more. I just never latched on to the characters or their storylines and looked forward to bringing this 332-page reading journey to an end.

Oh, and for good measure: coin.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

"The figure in the dark wasn't a ghost, or an ephemeral memory from her past, but a real flesh-and-blood man. And he hadn't come as a friend. He'd come for revenge."

Emily Carpenter is the queen of lush, atmospheric gothic fiction. She has a way of turning a slow burning mystery into a page turner of epic proportions, which is why she's remained amongst my top auto-buy authors for years. While this book is a follow-up of sorts to the author's debut, Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, I've heard from multiple early reviewers that they found Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters to read just as well as a standalone novel. As someone who has read both, I highly recommend each one in whatever way suits your fancy. If you enjoy complex, well-researched mysteries that will grip you from page one, you need to get your hands on this book in October!

A Southern Gothic novel that floats effortlessly between past and present. In the past we follow Dove Jarrod, an evangelist who preys on the faithful to make them believe they’ve been healed. In the present, Eve, Dove’s granddaughter, who learns that beyond Dove’s cons, she may have also been a murderer.

To protect her family and find the truth, Even sets out on a journey to unravel the truth behind the accusations.

While this is a stand alone, the story is a follow up to one of Carpenter’s previous novels, Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, blending historical fiction with a sense of magical realism. A deeply entrancing, suspenseful story with gorgeous prose and an evocative setting in the South. This was my first Emily Carpenter book and it won't be my last!

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book for my honest review!
This book was was written around a Grandmother and her Granddaughter. Women overcoming terrible odds and building a life for themselves. For me I felt I needed better character development however I found out this book follow .the 1st book, "Burying the Honeysuckle Girls" So I would recommend reading "Burying the Honeysuckle Girls" first, then on to "Reviving The Hawthorn Sisters"
3 1/2 stars for me

This is a solid mystery. The main character, Eve, has to wade through years of family secrets and lies to find a missing coin. I liked the dual timeline that gives insight into the events of the past that help unravel the backstory.

This is my second book by Emily Carpenter and I remain a huge fan.

This book takes us on a twisted ride and follows Dove, who escapes the psychiatric hospital where she was born, to forming the Hawthorn Sisters group, and then her marriage to Charles Jarrod, a leader in the evangelist world, and then links back to modern day.

Flipping back and forth between Tuscaloosa 1934 and present-day this is such an amazing ride into this family legacy - with a little bit of supernatural tossed in. I could have done without the supernatural aspect but it seemed to work for this story.