This was a fun read but I didn’t absolutely love it. I struggled with how controlling Victoria was (obviously a key plot point) but it made it a bit too over the top for me. I cannot imagine a grown woman (Willow) and an almost grown woman (Nickie) actually going along with Victoria’s rules and stipulations. I did really enjoy the back and forth with Augusta remembering her past and how her actions affected the generations that came after her.

The Montrose family is full of secrets, the women of the family collecting them and keeping them from each other. Augusta, Victoria and Willow have managed to create a relatively good life for themselves, despite the curse on their family. But as Nickie gets older and develops her first crush, the women of the family come to realize that maybe it isn’t for the best to keep all those secrets to themselves - because they could harm those they love.

I like this book. I love books about strong women and also magical family women. I like going through each woman's story and how what one woman's choice changes the lives of them all.

BLACK CANDLE WOMEN by Diane Marie Brown is a tale that brings in an entire mix of spiritualism and curses, mostly to the women of the Montrose family. Anyone to whom they fall in love will die, according to the curse. This story follows the four generations of women each with their own stories of how this curse has followed and shaped them.

I was hesitant to read this due to the inevitable and unavoidable comparison to another story of similar premise. I was pleased to find that though the curse was similar, there were plenty of differences to make the plot distinct and truly enjoyable. I enjoyed the four generations of women and that they each get to share their unique voice. This provided a depth and various perspectives on how generational trauma can manifest. I also felt like the mother/daughter relationships were very interesting as were the sibling and intergenerational ones. To me, this is really what the story was about and the magic/curse aspect was a fun catalyst to explore these deeper and complex issues.

These familial relationships are what made this a fun read for me.

Thank you to #netgalley and @graydonhousebooks for the opportunity to read and share my thoughts. As a @readwithjenna pick, I still feel confident in her choices!

Debut author Diane Marie Brown has crafted a wonderfully engaging and beautifully written novel about the relationships between familial women and the secrets that are kept within and from one another. As in any family, the Montrose women are about as different as they come from: silent great-grandmother Augusta who knows the true circumstances surrounding the family curse, to Augusta’s absent daughter Madelyn who left her daughters Victoria and Willow with Augusta so she could chase after her next high. Victoria the bread winner of the family who using her gift of helping others works as a licensed therapist out of their home finds it hard to confide in her own daughter Nickie when she needs it most, having found her on the cusp of her first crush and possible love. Not understanding why her mother is so adamant that she does not pursue a relationship with the young man she brings home to meet her family, Nickie turns to Willow and the spells that only Willow can teach her.

Family is definitely at the forefront of this novel, but the most interesting aspect of the familial interactions between the characters was just how uncommunicative they were with each other. Despite having suffered a stroke and having aphasia, Augusta has found ways to communicate with her offspring and descendants through hand gestures and via texting apps, she still continues to hide the truth behind the curse and how exactly it came about. A truth that if she had shared earlier could’ve potentially saved the other women from the heartbreak they experienced, especially the loss of Nickie’s father which left Victoria convinced to keep her daughter from ever falling in love herself. The lack of communication amongst the women makes it so that many of the problems they find themselves dealing with become larger than they should have if they had simply talked with one another.

The other larger theme that I found interesting, was how isolated the family kept themselves. In not wanting to experience loss or cause anyone they fell in love with to die as a result of the curse, the Montrose women lived in seclusion within their home. There’s a rather poignant moment in the book when Nickie is reflecting on the isolation that she has lived in and realizes that not only did it result in her missing out on such childhood rites of passage as the sleepover, but it also meant that they never went anywhere, not even to Disneyland despite only being 25 minutes from the park. The only people who made attempts to break out of the family home and be a part of society at large were Willow when she went to meet with January and Nickie when both when she attended school and when she spent time with Felix outside of school. While Augusta’s staying home made sense due to her stroke, Victoria’s refusal to be a part of the world more than what she was I found to be a contributor to her insistence about keeping Nickie safe from love. It was as though Victoria correlated the outside world with everything that could go wrong in life, and it was this outside world where the curse existed, but if she stayed home and could keep her daughter with her then there was no need to worry about even discuss the curse with Nickie.

While I loved story about family curse that plagued the females of the line and anyone they fell in love with, it was the women themselves and their relationships with one another that I loved the most. It was such a joy to read a book about strong Black women caring for, supporting and loving one another. I would not be surprised if Black Candle Women found itself being optioned for tv or film in the future and I’m happy that it was chosen as the March Read with Jenna book so that others may find and enjoy it.

Before delving into this book review, let us admire the cover. The rich shades of purple, pop of yellow, brown-skinned women and of course, lit candles. Along with the title is what caught my interest. Unfortunately the buck stops there.

Black Candle Women is a family drama with a magical twist about four generations of Black women with a family curse. The Montrose women have always lived together. But when a boy is brought home for the first time, each woman has to reckon with her own past choices and reveal the secret that any person a Montrose woman falls in love with will die.

Then the story goes back to 1950s New Orleans with a mysterious book. Random, right? It was all too confusing, jumpy and simply not my kind of story. Although, it has been named Best Book of the Month by several media outlets including Shondaland, Reader's Digest, BookRiot and Goodreads. So it may be to your liking!

Happy Belated Pub Day, Diane Marie Brown! Black Candle Women is now available.

Disclaimer: An advance copy was received directly from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own and would be the same if I spent my hard-earned coins. ~ LiteraryMarie

Black Candle Women is a multi-generational story of a family of women living with the circumstances and consequences of both a curse placed on them in 1950s New Orleans, and of their own actions. This novel closely follows Augusta, Madelyn, Victoria, Willow, and Nickie Montrose as their lives get turned on their heads after the youngest Montrose woman, Nickie, begins to show feelings for a young boy in her class. Her feelings send the rest of the women into a tizzy because the decades-old curse, which was placed specifically on the women in their family, greets anyone they fall in love with an untimely death.

This novel was my second 5-star read of 2023. As I delved into the story, I quickly fell in love with each of the characters, flaws and all, and found myself attached to their stories as if I knew the women personally. With strong writing, essential character development, and rich descriptions of both people and places, Diane Marie Brown has woven a beautiful, complicated story that centers on the very core of family and relationships between women. Here are a few of the main themes that I found integral to the story:

Isolation - Although the members of the Montrose family reside together in various combinations throughout the decades in both New Orleans and Long Beach, California, they live a considerably isolated lifestyle, often shutting people out of the truths of their lives, or simply never giving anyone the chance to be let in. This is largely due to the curse placed on the family, but even the members who aren’t fully convinced of its hold on them have lived their lives walking on eggshells when it comes to love and even basic human connection. It is their isolation from the outside world, and even their isolation from one another within the house, that complicates their understanding of themselves and their place and calling in life.

Miscommunication - Miscommunication is the source, in my opinion, of the majority of the problems that the Montrose women face. I’m not a fan of the miscommunication trope normally, but it actually felt necessary to the plot and realistic based on the nature of the secrets the women would keep from one another. At the epicenter of every argument, blow up, disagreement, and tiff is a truth that could have been told, but wasn’t. Each woman has her own reasons for withholding the truth, lying, or deceiving those around them, but much of the pain and hurt they face could have been avoided had they rethought those reasons. The phrase “the truth shall set you free” was possibly made with the Montrose women in mind.

Mothering & Sacrifice - I feel that these two words are almost synonymous. To mother someone is to sacrifice in every sense of the word. Opening your body and mind and heart to the growth, development, and guidance of another is one of humanities’ truest sacrifices. Mothering is absolute. All of the Montrose mothers have complex relationships with their daughters, all of them informed by the sacrifices they did (or did not) make for the sake of their children. They all have also altered their lives, or fates even, for the sake of one another, highlighting the bonds that love brings and what mothers are capable of in order to protect their babies.

Revenge vs. Forgiveness - The Montrose women grapple with this dichotomy consistently throughout the novel. They are often faced with the decision to exact revenge on someone (or on someone’s behalf), or to forgive them of their wrongdoings. The duality of this choice, and the frequency with which all of the Montrose women make both decisions, really speaks to their nuance as individuals and the influence of their family history.

Freedom - The need for freedom is ingrained into the story of the Montrose women, dating back to Augusta’s initial desire to live a life that was not the one prescribed to her. Each Montrose woman seeks the “freedom from” or the “freedom to” in many areas of their lives, and they are often discouraged from chasing it because of generational curses passed down in the same way that the actual curse was. They’ve taken to heart the idea that their lives were to be in service of others to the point where it’s difficult for them to even imagine a life lived on one’s own terms.

Overall, this was a fantastic read for those interested in intergenerational family stories, extraordinarily strong and complex female characters, and a touch of magic.

This was a heartwarming story of love, mistakes, consequences, and redemption.

At first glance, one would assume it's "basically Practical Magic but with hoodoo" but that'd be a great injustice. It stands on its own merit and only shares "generational love curse" and, well, magic. Besides, this story--as told to us in the Author's Note at the end--was inspired largely on Diane Marie Brown's own experiences and family, down to the book, which was based on a collection of papers in a folder her mother had curated to be passed down. It would be a very surface-level observation to call it "Practical Magic but with hoodoo."

Anyway, this was a steady story with a very realistic conclusion which--minor spoiler alert here--some might be disappointed isn't some edge-of-your-seat fantastical climax. It's a very human, very real climax. The whole book is like that--everyone and every situation is sometimes mundanely realistic and that makes it a deeply relatable story. A quiet climax and resolution--a peaceful climax and resolution--is honestly refreshing to read and I quite liked it. It made me release the breath I'd been holding for a couple of chapters before. It helps that it is voodoo/hoodoo that is the magical focus; it is a very real practice/religion and while I feel it'd be insulting to call this story "magical realism" it is literally realistic magic. You'll find people just like the Montrose women in our own world. Thus, this should be taken as exactly that--a slice of life story that is perfectly relatable and can easily be set in our reality (what helps even more are the references to people and places that really do exist in our reality).

I love how it goes back and forth between the points of view of all five of the family members with each new chapter. It gives us unique insights into the situations that would be hard to get if it were omniscient in the traditional sense. And these insights and perspectives are exactly what we need to make sense of what is going on. We need everyone's individual part of the story to piece together the overarching one, to get to the bottom of whether the curse is actually real and what to do going into the future, to get the closure that each one needs straight from their perspectives. Yes, some of them are frustrating in their thoughts and actions. That's the point. They're human! They're just like the rest of us! It wasn't overbearing though and everyone was multidimensional.

There were two things I had trouble with, though. One was the almost-sex scene between Nickie and Felix that was graphically detailed (it made me uncomfortable because Nickie is 17 and I can't remember if Felix is too or if he's 18 but they're still so young; to be fair there is also an almost-sex scene that's just as graphic between adults Willow and January) and the other was how some things felt like they were convenient stories, answers, and solutions that had no prior hint that they were even a possibility. This was mostly an issue with Augusta, the matriarch and beginning of the curse. It felt they were tacked on at the last moment to make things make sense, but seemed to fit a bit wonky into what we'd already been told. Augusta was throwing out things from her memory at the end there that even I was surprised to read because her chapters were pretty much all flashbacks and memories and there had been no hint at these things. This didn't detract too much from the plot, though (thankfully), just made me go "hm" a couple of times throughout the second half of the story.

Overall, I loved it. It's an excellent moral story about love and forgiveness, not just of others but of yourself as well. If you're a fan of domestic and women's fiction and love some realistic magic on the side, this is a good read to pick up.

A new version of Practical Magic featuring four generations of women living under one house in the greater LA area. I loved this book, which was a bit of a slow burn, but full of wonderful characters and magical voodoo references. I loved the historical New Orleans storyline and how it came full circle with the youngest daughter of the family as she tries to figure out how to break the family curse that kills off any man these women fall in love with.

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

REVIEW TO FOLLOW.

This is a story of magic and family curses and secrets told through four women (a grandmother, mother, sister and daughter) discovering and exploring their power.

For such an awesome premise this book is pretty dry. There is so little happening for a big chunk it was a slog to get through.

The flashbacks to Augusta’s younger days are the most exciting pieces for me personally.

Black Candle Women is about four generations of women who are under a family curse where everyone they fall in love with dies. The perspectives shift between the women in present day California to New Orleans in the 1950s. I thought that a family curse and New Orleans magic sounded fun and was excited to read it!

I had a really difficult time getting into this book. It shifts perspective every two seconds, which can be difficult to follow. I was looking forward to learning about hoodoo in New Orleans and was disappointed that the book is mostly set in California. I liked the characters okay but the plot just really dragged for me. It picked up in the last third as all of the threads started to come together.

I'm rating this book 3.55 stars rounded up to 4 because of the cool premise and the way that it picked up at the end. While I ended up liking the ending a lot, it's hard for me to wholly recommend this book since the first two thirds did not hold my interest. If you read this book, I highly encourage you to keep going if you're not getting into the beginning! Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for the electronic advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Black Candle Women is a book I would love to see as a series. Augusta, Madelyn, Victoria, Willow, and Nickie Montrose live together and are descendants of a powerful ancestor named Lenora. Nickie is the youngest Montrose woman, daughter of Victoria, learning about the downsides of descending from such a powerful woman. The story weaves matriarch Augusta’s past in with the present day lives of Victoria, Willow, and Nickie as they try to honor the legacy of Lenora, find joy in their lives, protect each other and deal with the aftermath of Augusta’s life before their existence.

I was really hoping that a good portion of the story would be set in New Orleans, but California offered some needed distance from Augusta’s life. The distance allowed the lives of Victoria, Willow, and Nickie to shine through without seeming like background stories to Augusta and her mentor, Bela Nova. I also loved Victoria and Willow’s mother, Madelyn, once she arrived in California especially how she was offered a kind of redemption like the other characters are later.

Their brief time in New Orleans resolved much of the storyline and brought closure and peace after some seemingly unforgivable acts. While each character had their frustrating moments, Victoria and Nickie were particularly frustrating, though I also understood where they were coming from. Overall, the story was about family, redemption, and finding happiness.


Thank you to Netgalley and Graydon House Books for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Oh how I love a generational story that makes you laugh and connects women through family love and bonds. These ladies and their voices come through so clearly, you feel like you’re able to conjure up a bit of magic yourself.

What a fun book— The audiobook is just as enjoyable as the book. I went between reading the book and listening to the audio version while I worked. Both are super fun. It actually had me laughing and forgetting I was the only one that knew what was so funny.

Thanks for sharing the kindle version with me!

THE 411...

This multi-generational story follows the Montrose women who’ve all been cursed with having anyone they fall in love with die. Augusta, Victoria, and Willow live in a Californian bungalow where they keep a low profile, their roots however are in New Orleans. Whether they believe in the curse or not, they all try to play safe by not falling in love. My favorite of the Montrose women is Willow who secretly practices Hoodoo with tinctures and spells, she gets joy from helping others who have fallen on hard times or just need a bit of luck. Victoria is the older sister, she runs her therapy practice from home and takes the curse very seriously. Perhaps the MOST cautious of them all, Victoria pays her respect to the Oya’s to stay in their favor and ensure the women and her daughter Nickie do not fall in love. Nickie is sixteen, she doesn’t understand why her mom is so strict and even less, why they can’t have anyone over. She’s also falling HARD for a guy in her photography class which leads to her digging for answers. Why are the Montrose women scared to fall in love? the answers are rooted in the Crescent City and their Matron, great grandmother Augusta.

Augusta's story is told in dual timelines with flashbacks of her youth in New Orleans falling in love and apprenticing for a local Hoodoo practitioner. In present time, Augusta has lost the ability to speak after having had a stroke. She's the bearer of many truths and secrets and her granddaughter Nickie is set on uncovering them. A generational curse, stories of love lost and NOLA vibes...if you love a good character driven multi-generational story then this one is worth a spin. 

WRITING & FINAL THOUGHTS...

Multi POV stories aren’t the easiest to pull-off and this one saw us alternating quite often. The characters all multi-dimensional with their own distinctive voices were easy to identify. That being said, we were also jumping between past and present timelines for one of the women and this could’ve been better formatted. I would’ve loved to see the years on the page because it’s a multigenerational story where the past is relevant to the curse. This was a love letter to NOLA and I loved the atmospheric writing, down to seeing Willow gather her ingredients for a spell. Victoria’s love for NOLAN food even if it didn’t always agree with her stomach, I can relate! and Augusta, our matriarch has secrets and I found her back story to be so interesting! I do want to emphasize that this is NOT a book about magic and I do feel like that has been a major misconception. It also isn't plot heavy, it's character driven and slow to unwind which means it's exactly the type of story for me. Overall this was a 4 star read I enjoyed getting lost in. I highly recommend listening to the Spotify track list along with the read, I found it enhanced my experience.

I feel bad for doing this but I had to DNF this book! I couldn’t connect to the story, the characters and the writing. The writing was all over the place for me. The characters just wasn’t my jam. I gave it three try’s before leaving the book completely.

I was really sold on the promise of this book, but was left a little disappointed. A family curse? Magic? A complicated family history? While all of these elements are in the novel, I felt that there was more miscommunication and family drama than anything else.

I’m not a huge fan of miscommunication so this story started to drag for me, despite having some really poignant, dramatic, and entertaining moments. And, the book left me with a few questions about plot points that weren’t clearly explained.

Overall thoughts, it was fine and I enjoyed it for the most part.


LIKES:
✊🏽 Complex Black MCs
🕯️ Voodoo/Hoodoo
🖤 Themes of loss/grief
👑 New Orleans
🌴 SoCal setting
💪🏽 Strong FMCs
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Complicated family dynamics

I loved this book! The Montrose women live together in California. Augusta is the great-grandmother, who brought her granddaughters, Victoria and Willow, to California from New Orleans when they were young. The women have been keeping a secret from Victoria's daughter Nickie: that any man they fall in love with will die. They have avoided telling her this secret until Nickie brings a boy home. Victoria struggles with how to reveal this secret to Nickie and also tell her that the women practice hoodoo. They have a special power that has been passed down from generations.
I loved the chaotic family dynamic in this book. Although it was a little predictable, the characters kept me invested. Each woman has her own unique struggles, and I loved seeing them work through their past trauma and issues with each other to protect Nickie.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, publisher, and HearOurVoices book tours for the arc of this book. Black Candle Women follows several generations of women in one family. They all reside in a home together and stay to themselves. Mostly because of a curse, which will kill anyone that the women fall in love with. 17 year old Nickie is having a hard time with the rules that her mother is putting on her especially after she meets a boy that she likes. Her mother does everything she can think of to get them apart even hoodoo. Nickie doesn’t understand because no one in the the household has told her about the curse. That is until someone lets it slip out but they still never tell her the full story so she searches for answers herself. While reading this book, I kept asking myself why don’t any of the women in the house just explain to Nickie about the curse especially her mother. If you’re trying to protect a child from something you have to be able to explain it to them because they are naturally going to have questions. Yes she probably would have still made some rash decisions to try and rebel against her mother’s reins but it wouldn’t have been as bad as them sitting her down and talking to her. Like she’s 17. She should have been told about the curse when she hit puberty. The ending was a bit abrupt for me. And I don’t want to give any spoilers but I agree with Willow about the book.

Secrets can only stay secrets for so long before they begin to eat away at someone. Especially when it's a curse that takes away any man you or your descendents love.

Diane Marie Brown did an amazing job weaving together the past and present of the Montrose women. From the beginning of Augusta to newly 17 Nickie. Each of them holds a secret and information kept from one another. Communication is a struggle when they have their own demons to work through.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book

I was grateful to receive an ARC of this novel from @htpbooks and the cover is absolutely beautiful. The history of the women and the curse was something that really drew me to this novel. The magical and hoodoo aspects were great, but I wanted more of it. I think incorporating pieces of the spell book or more stories of the success with their clients would have enhanced the novel. The miscommunication trope was at the center of this storyline and it is one of my least favorite to experience as a reader. This negatively impacted my enjoyment of this story, which thankfully may not be the case for others. Although I enjoyed the intergeneration aspects, I felt the storyline progressed very slowly and the multiple POVs made it feel very disjointed. The last 25% did pick up and the ending provided some closure, but at that point I felt as though I was no longer invested in the story.

Thank you @htpbooks for the gifted copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review #htpinfluencer. Although this book wasn’t a good fit for me, I’ve seen a lot of amazing reviews and it’s a @readwithjenna pick, so I’m hopeful others will enjoy this novel.