I did not want to put this book down! I loved how the two timelines and points of view dovetailed. Since I work in archives, I thoroughly enjoyed the museum setting and the way Augusta somewhat obsessively researched Margaret's history for the exhibit she was planning. I had hopes at first that Margaret's spirit was more benevolent, but as her motives were revealed, I went willingly along for the ride. I will definitely be looking for more books by Hester Fox to read!

I love Hester Fox. Her historical gothic novels are must-haves for me and I keep copies on both my "forever shelves" at home and on my Kindle. They do not get loaned out to anybody ever because they're precious and I don't trust people.

I couldn't finish this one.

I loved the historical parts but the modern day characters and story just ... nope. I even canceled my pre-order of the paperback when I realized I couldn't make my way through the e-ARC I received from NetGalley. I wanted to cry.

At some point I may decide to give it another go and, if things improve, I'll come back and re-review. For now, though, I'll stick with the first three and keep my fingers crossed for the next one.

I enjoyed this witchy women’s lit novel. It has a little romance, a little supernatural excitement, a little historical curating, a little female empowerment, and it all comes together in a satisfying tale of self-discovery and happy endings (for most of our characters…).
If you like romance with a supernatural slant, you’ll enjoy this book!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

Unfocused story, bad “historical fiction,” meh characters

I would like to thank Hester Fox, Harlequin, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Also thank you to Justine Sha for inviting me to participate in the blog tour.

This is a long one, so grab a snack and settle in.

Spoilers

I tried to convince myself I liked this book, because in theory it had everything I typically like, but truth is reading it was a chore. It wasn’t so bad that I had to resort to a DNF, but I don’t know if I’d have finished it if I wasn’t obligated to review it for the tour.

Foremost, this story wanted to be and do too much at once. It’s classified by the publisher as historical fiction—more on that in a moment—but it was far more focused on present day. There were also elements of women’s fiction, romance, fantasy, mystery, and sometimes there was a gothic flavor, but ultimately it failed to settle into any of those. Not that a story has to tunnel vision on one genre, but it can be tricky to balance tone and elements of different genres and form a cohesive narrative. When there are too many genres, there’s too much story, and that means not all story threads will receive the attention they deserve, and the story will end up feeling unfocused, unsatisfying, and perhaps even unresolved, as this one did.

The historical fiction plot was lame. Forget delving into the time period or exploring known notable figures, forget casting spells or brandishing power or anything magicky and fantastical and interesting, no, it consisted of a vain and selfish witch-girl whining about the fact that she got involved with the village player and, oh damn, he done played her. The shock. The horror. You have a witch near Salem, Massachusetts, and you give her the pitiful plot you could give any teenage girl in any century? Didn’t even set it in the right century to best utilize the witch aspect. Lamented a woman’s limited power over her own life, which is hardly news or unique of that time, and that was about it.

I despised both Margaret and Jack (the witch-girl and her player) and had no sympathy for either of them. Additionally, Margaret’s thoughts didn’t make much sense to me: She was a cat in heat for Jack and wanted a baby; marriage didn’t seem to enter her mind in the beginning, so I assumed that wasn’t part of her goals. Then suddenly she’s pregnant and like, um, where’s my ring, Jack? Maybe I’m supposed to assume she simply expected him to marry her, but she definitely came off as the type to not care about formalities. It didn’t quite add up. And sure Jack claimed in the end that he truly loved Margaret but boo-hoo his hands were tied—don’t even. All his problems were caused by his inability to keep it in his pants. He was as selfish, arrogant, and entitled as Margaret.

But you want to know what really didn’t make sense about Margaret? She knew all the dirt on everyone. She literally had a ledger in which she wrote down the gossip and secrets she received as barter for her witchery. Yet she didn’t know Jack was betrothed? Had been for YEARS? Am I supposed to believe she never asked anyone what they knew about him? Margaret just thought that because he was forking her that she knew all she needed to know? What a stupid dillweed. Never considered anything but what she wanted in any given moment. If that was Fox’s way of making the villain sympathetic—yikes.

The fates of Margaret and Jack weren’t satisfactorily concluded. We didn’t find out what happened to their spirits. They were just conveniently POOF gone. Poorly written all the way around. And don’t get me started on how unnecessary Henry was.

As for present day, Augusta wasn’t nearly as grating a character as Margaret, but I can’t say I liked her much. She was at the center of the genre mess; Fox wanted her to have a huge personal empowerment journey, a conflict with her parents, a romance, solve a few mysteries, be haunted, and discover latent witch powers, and none of those arcs or threads were well developed. Because it was TOO MUCH. Her witch powers were only vaguely present at a couple ex-machina moments, she didn’t really seem to grow much as a person—except precisely when she needed a boost of inner strength *eye roll*. She and Leo had chemistry but were lazily ascribed insta-love, especially on his part, and her research into the mysteries just wasn’t thorough or intriguing enough to be satisfying. Actually she cheated; instead of discovering new information for herself, she learned almost everything from visions Margaret’s spirit induced. Margaret literally put all the clues in front of Augusta. Lame, lame, lame.

And all that business with Chris felt shoe-horned in—did the narrative really need the conflict of an abusive boyfriend? He really didn’t seem all that bad. I mean, obviously his showing up half drunk at her work was inappropriate, even after hours, and shoving her was definitely assault, but before that he was just kinda sulky and moody and self-involved; not a great person, and one I wouldn’t tolerate as a boyfriend, but he was hardly manipulative and abusive and horrible. I didn’t buy what Fox was trying to sell regarding him. To me it felt like he knew he wasn’t a great boyfriend and was trying to do better but not really succeeding.

Some random things that either didn’t make sense to me or irritated me:

The narrative hinted at Augusta having an eating disorder but I don’t think it was ever actually acknowledged, much less battled and conquered, which I found strange. Speaking of, what sealed my disinterest, if not dislike, for Augusta was the fact that she not only refused to eat chocolate cake but planned to throw it away. That is not a character I could root for or care about. Not joking. If you can’t get over yourself long enough to enjoy the occasional piece of chocolate cake, bought for you by your concerned crush to lift your spirits no less, then I don’t like you. Also you need help. If not for the blog tour, that would have been the moment at which I stopped reading.

The title was very forcibly made relevant. I hate when books do that. I’d rather have a silly or cheesy title that knows exactly what it is than a seemingly tasteful, intriguing one that’s misleading. The only thing worse is when the title literally has no meaning, nothing to do with the story whatsoever, purely for marketability.

The use of “CV” instead of “resume.” It’s possible a job in a museum, even a little historical house museum, is one of the few jobs in America that requires a comprehensive account of all your education, achievements, certificates, and publications—god, it sounds horribly pretentious—but you can’t just throw an uncommon term out there without explanation or acknowledgment and expect it to not distract readers. It confused the hell out of me, for one—I was just reading along, then see “CV” and immediately wondered what the hell I missed—is the character from the UK? Did the setting switch to the UK and I wasn’t paying attention? Why the hell is a term pretty much exclusive to the UK in use? Oh, the copyeditor just failed to do their job. Gotcha. I suppose I can hope it was edited for the final.

So Augusta doesn’t have a car to begin with, doesn’t need one, then she gets a job that’s farther away and Chris gifts her a used one to save her time (the narrative tried to twist his intention as manipulating her into having more time to spend with him *eye roll*. Giving her a car to make her life easier really didn’t seem all that evil to me). And she just starts driving. But hold on a second—does she even know how to drive? Does she have a driver’s education, license? I don’t remember the story saying (apologies if it did); she just POOF starts driving one day, and I was like, Um . . . There’s a little more to it than that.

One thing that really drove me nuts—why in the world would Ida have her own letters? That’s not how letters work. Perhaps she asked for them back from George to keep as keepsakes, provided he saved her letters, but then where are the ones he wrote to her in response? Wouldn’t she have kept those, too? It made absolutely zero sense.

So at one point Leo suggests Augusta check out the Boston site to see if she could find any information there in the archives. Good idea, except he offers to drive her. His office is at the Boston site, he only travels to Harlowe House in Tynemouth a couple days a week. So . . . he drove the hour—maybe it was only a half hour each way, wasn’t clear—to Tynemouth on a day he didn’t have to, picked her up, drove back to Boston, then drove her back to Tynemouth and drove himself back home to Boston? Holy Jesus, WHY? This was after she had a car, so she could have just met him in Boston. What a horrible waste of time and gas on his part. Maybe it was a day he needed to do some work in Tynemouth anyway, the story didn’t say, but that would have been no less impractical.

Lastly, there was a point where Augusta “hallucinated” a scene with George as if she were Margaret. I have no idea why it was included. It accomplished nothing new and confused the timeline, because it occurred after Margaret had gone to Boston and supposedly seen George for the last time. If the scene took place before that, like if it was just one of Margaret’s memories, it didn’t say.

All right, I’m done tearing this book a new one. Overall, it was a hot mess of genres and un- or poorly developed characters and plots. What’s extra frustrating is that Fox could probably write a damn good book if her story wasn’t a mess. As I said, in theory I should like what she tried to do here; I’m curious enough that I plan to check out some of her other work and see if this was just anomalously horrible execution.

"Two women. A history of witchcraft. And a deep-rooted female power that sings across the centuries.

Once there was a young woman from a well-to-do New England family who never quite fit with the drawing rooms and parlors of her kin.

Called instead to the tangled woods and wild cliffs surrounding her family's estate, Margaret Harlowe grew both stranger and more beautiful as she cultivated her uncanny power. Soon, whispers of "witch" dogged her footsteps, and Margaret's power began to wind itself with the tendrils of something darker.

One hundred and fifty years later, Augusta Podos takes a dream job at Harlowe House, the historic home of a wealthy New England family that has been turned into a small museum in Tynemouth, Massachusetts. When Augusta stumbles across an oblique reference to a daughter of the Harlowes who has nearly been expunged from the historical record, the mystery is too intriguing to ignore.

But as she digs deeper, something sinister unfurls from its sleep, a dark power that binds one woman to the other across lines of blood and time. If Augusta can't resist its allure, everything she knows and loves - including her very life - could be lost forever."

Oh, that looks like the House of the Seven Gables in Salem on the cover!!!

I am immediately drawn to gothic sounding stories about mysterious houses, so I was so excited to read A Lullaby for Witches!

I liked the tension that is created by the narration as the story is told from two points of view- one in the past and one in the present. The story is absorbing, and I liked that there was some historical information woven throughout the story. There were pieces of information that seemed to be missing at times, or details I would have liked as a reader. Overall, a quick fun read.

A Lullaby for Witches is a wonderfully atmospheric and magical novel.

Augusta Podos is tired of her job as a tour guide for a historic jail in Massachusetts. When she sees a job posting for Harlowe House, a once historic house turned into a museum, she leaps at applying.

One hundred and fifty years ago, Harlowe House belonged to a wealthy family in Tynemouth. Margaret Harlowe has always felt like the odd one out in her family. As Margaret grows older, she also grows into her power. However, it is not long before people become suspicious of Margaret’s power, which seems darker than initially supposed.

When Augusta begins work at Harlowe House, she soon becomes fascinated with Margaret. The historical record doesn’t have much information on Margaret, nor does it seem to know if she ever really existed. Augusta makes it her mission to uncover the truth about this mysterious woman. The more research Augusta does, the more she feels a strong connection to the past. Strange occurrences begin to happen, which spurs Augusta even more.

Is Margaret trying to tell Augusta something, or is it something darker?

A Lullaby for Witches uses alternating perspectives across two timelines. Both POVs have very distinct voices. Margaret’s POV has a lyrical writing style, while Augusta’s is contemporary and less flowery, but no less engaging.

Initially, I preferred Augusta’s timeline, but I quickly became invested in Margaret’s as well.

I loved the details of working behind the scenes in a museum. It reminded me of my short stint working/volunteering as a university student in an art gallery. I also appreciated the author’s acknowledgment of the need for museums and galleries to begin the process of decolonizing these spaces.

If you like witchy novels, I would highly recommend giving this one a try.

CW: disordered eating.

Thank you to Graydon House for providing me with an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://booksandwheels.com

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a fun, interesting, and surprising book. The timeline fluctuates between Augusta, in the present time, and Margaret in the past and as a spirit in the present. Augusta has been working as a tour guide in Salem when she sees a job ad made for her: Harlowe House. She is barely living her life: dead end job that she hates, a boyfriend she's with out of convenience, and an eating disorder. After she accepts the job at Harlowe House, pieces of her life begin falling back into place, and she becomes obsessed with the story of Margaret Harlowe, a woman who has been left out of history.

Margaret lived in the 1800s, and her spirit is present at Harlowe House. She connects with Augusta and helps Augusta understand what happened to her. But is she a kind spirit or a spirit set on revenge?

A Lullaby for Witches by Hester Fox follows the story of two different women that are connected in surprising ways. Augusta seems to be drifting through life. She works at a dead end job and lives with her boyfriend that she isn't really in love with. She gets the opportunity of a lifetime when she lands a job working at Harlowe House. Right away she feels a connection to the house that she can't ignore. She feels connected to a mysterious woman from the past, Maragaret Harlowe. She believes that she was meant to uncover Maragaret's life story. She discovers truths about herself along the way. I found the story to be fascinating and magical.

Thank you, NetGalley, Hester Fox, and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the opportunity to read this book. This book will hit shelves everywhere on February 1st, 2022.

“Love is the centre of all we see, Love is the jewel that guides us true, No matter what, love, you’ll stay with me, No matter what, my love, I’ll stay with you.”

A LULLABY FOR WITCHES
I will always and forever read anything that Hester Fox writes. She always delivers with Gothic vibes. In previous books, she took inspiration from classic authors like Edgar Allen Poe and Mary Shelley. A Lullaby for Witches brings in the lore of witches from the North-Eastern part of the United States, including Salem, Massachusetts. Augusta has been working tours in Salem and comes home to a dwindling relationship. So things begin to look up when she gets a job at a small museum in Tynemouth called Harlowe House. She immediately connects with the house and the woman who possibly lived there centuries before. Her name is Margaret Harlowe and she is known for being a wild one in a wealthy family. But soon, rumors begin that she practices witchcraft. She finds herself in trouble and then betrayed by those she loves and vengeance and a hunger for all that she has lost will span time itself.

Trigger Warnings: emotional and physical abuse, murder

I can honestly say I had no idea where this book was going in the beginning. The beginning gives the impression of time travel. Boy, was I wrong! I loved Augusta and I think many women and men can relate to her. She finds herself in a relationship and a job that puts her down and makes her invisible. She loses her self-confidence. When people show true concern and care, she doesn’t know how to respond. Those of us who have been in her shoes, know the emotional toll that takes on a person. Then add a ghost that is up to no good.

The pace does drag a bit. There is a lot of time spent on Augusta’s research about the Harlowe family and her search for Margaret. –But I actually enjoyed that part. It was one of my favorite things to do in college, so I may have a little bias there. Then there are the time-jumps and the switching of points-of-view which didn’t come together all that smoothly. But the tie to history is everything. The ghosts of the past and the people trying to study them are just fascinating, even if it is fiction. I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars!

"A Lullaby for Witches" is a thoroughly enjoyable historical fiction piece set against the backdrop of the historic Harlowe House of Tynemouth, Massachusetts.

For me, the alternating narratives really worked to bring the story together, and both of them center on strong female characters--Margaret Harlowe from the past, and Augusta Rodos, historian, from the present. Fox's writing is easy-to-read and beautifully descriptive, the story was paced perfectly and riddled with folklore, whispers of witchcraft, and New England history that's sure to appeal to a wide variety of readers. Lovers of Salem history, look no further than Hester Fox's newest title, this is a solid read & one I flew through in two sittings!

*Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the gifted advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review*

I absolutely loved this book. Museums, History, Witches, Mystery, and dual timelines! This is every reader's dream. I especially enjoyed Margaret's storyline and the witch trial/mystery at the museum vibe of the book.

In The Lullaby of Witches, Hester Fox gives her readers two strong willed protagonists- Margaret and Augusta. Augusta is living with a boyfriend that she is struggling to maintain a relationship with, but finds herself with an interesting new job: exploring the mysterious Margaret and her connection to the historical house where Augusta works. But what Augusta does not realize is that Margaret is an unsettled spirit and she has her eyes on Augusta. Fans of Alice Hoffman and Louisa Morgan will love this novel. Hester Fox is spellbinding!

*Thanks to NetGalley and Graydon House for the arc of this novel.*

𝘈 𝘓𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 by Hester Fox was was a sumptuously gothic ghost story, chilling and spellbinding at once. I had a hard time putting it down, and can’t wait to read more of Fox’s work. Be mindful of trigger warnings, but definitely pick this one up!

𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙣 𝙚𝘼𝙍𝘾 𝙘𝙤𝙥𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙗𝙮 𝙃𝙏𝙋 𝘽𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙂𝙧𝙖𝙮𝙙𝙤𝙣 𝙃𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚 (𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠-𝙮𝙤𝙪!). 𝘼𝙡𝙡 𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙮 𝙤𝙬𝙣.

If you have ever dreamed of working in a small museum, love local history, or wondered about small museums after dark, this book will pique your interest. While some of the story dragged and the writing was at times weak, this was a fun story of dark magic and body snatching set in a local history museum.

I thought this was a fascinating historical witchy fiction. I loved the jumps between the historical and present-day views. There's a spooky atmosphere hanging over the story as we learn more and more about Margaret, her history, and her motives. I am a huge fan of historical home tours, so I really enjoyed all the details about the house, and the research being done. I liked the story and the mysterious aspects! I would definitely recommend this one for readers that enjoy a slightly spookier witchy read with a heavily historical view.

Loved the atmospheric setting around Boston and descriptions of old houses/museums. The characters really seemed to be aimed at a YA aged audience because of light treatment of issues like eating disorders and partner abuse. There also seemed to be some omissions in the storyline and one grievous mistake: how could an only child who never had children have a direct descendant? Still It was an easy and entertaining, if predictable, read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing/Grayson House for the ARC to read and review.

This was the first title I have read from Hester Fox. The characters were brilliantly depicted and I was unable to put it down.

“A Lullaby for Witches” by Hester Cox 320 pages

Wow! Somebody is as bad as math as I am. This is a dual-timeline story (one of my favorite plot structure!): 1876 and 150 years later. Well, 150 + 1876 = 2026. I don’t think it was meant to be futuristic. The story doesn’t give any indication of that.

In 1876, Margaret Harlow is the daughter of a wealthy New England family in Tynemouth, Massachusetts, a town not terribly far from Salem. It is time for Margaret to marry. Her father has picked her husband, but Margaret has other ideas. Margaret isn’t like all the other girls. She does not want to do needlework all day and raise a passel of children.

Margaret likes to roam the cliffs and the nearby woods. She learns about plants and their natural healing powers...both positive and negative. It isn’t too long before the word “witch” becomes synonymous with her. Women with a variety of aches and problems seek out Margaret, meeting her in her little cabin in the woods in the late evening/early morning hours.

Fast forward to what I will call contemporary times. Augusta Podos has a job as a tour guide at the Old City Jail, in Salem. She hates giving the same tour day after day after day. When a dream job as a curator at Harlow House (Margaret’s ancestral home), Augusta jumps at the chance to work there.

As she is getting the grand tour, Augusta sees a painting that is Margaret. Little is known about Margaret as she had fallen off the family tree. Augusta takes on the challenge of uncovering Margaret’s story. Along the way, Augusta dumps her fiancé and falls for one of her co-workers.

Augusta feels Margaret’s. When she enters certain rooms, she is transported back to 1876 and sees what is happening through Margaret’s eyes. As time goes by, the hallucinations become stronger and stronger

I really enjoyed the sense of the paranormal and Augusta’s hunt for Margaret through the paper trail. However, in the last fourth of the book, the story took an evil and twisted spin that came from nowhere. It was a three-hundred-sixty degree turnaround that was not smooth. “A Lullaby for Witches” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Reviewed for Shelf Awareness. Review will be posted around publication date.
***
Hester Fox returns to historical New England in her fourth novel, A Lullaby for Witches, a haunting story full of long-buried secrets and narrated by two determined women. Told in two timelines, the novel follows Augusta Podos, a museum worker in the present, and Margaret Harlowe, a wealthy young woman in the 1870's.
Fox lets the reader know from the start that Margaret fell in love with a young man, became pregnant out of wedlock and was ultimately murdered, but the circumstances of her death are unclear. When Augusta takes a position at historic Harlowe House in Tynemouth, Massachusetts, she's drawn to a portrait of a woman who can only be Margaret, a woman seemingly lost to time and record. While Augusta slowly pieces together Margaret's past, Margaret describes her life as an independent, wealthy outcast, pregnant and trying to find a path forward for herself and her unborn child.
A Lullaby for Witches is still a gothic mystery at its heart, but Fox cleverly weaves in elements of class difference, prejudice, disordered eating, grief and even a romance. Margaret is a complicated character and the magic at work is decidedly unfriendly, but the decisions and obstacles both women face are relatable. Readers of Louisa Morgan and Susanna Kearsley will want to pick this up.