This is the perfect mix of a dark fantasy and horror that will keep you turning the pages late into the night.

Deep in Caball Hollow live the James women who have all inherited mysterious powers, which they must keep secret from the people of their small town. Linden, who can taste what others feel, disappeared last summer only to reappear 24 hours later with no memory of her missing time. This year another girl has gone missing, but when she is found in an unusual way she won’t have any memories, because she is dead. Linden and her family are soon pulled into a mysterious dark tale of a Moth-Winged Man who has been rumored to haunt the town.

This is a great YA dark fantasy with elements of horror. The way the author describes the setting is so vivid and clear, it definitely added to the overall ambiance of the story. The plot was enjoyable and the characters were interesting and I felt invested in their stories. There was plenty of suspense, mystery, and a dash of romance.

My only issue is it took about 100 pages before I really felt invested into the story, the beginning was a little slow for me. At the end there were a few times when I had to reread a paragraph because the point the author was trying to get across came out a little messy.

Bittersweet In The Hollow is a perfect spooky season read! Linden James may not remember what happened to her last year but when her former friend goes missing the same night she did one year later she starts to have flashbacks of that night.

I absolutely loved all the twists and turns this book had. The author did a fantastic job of keeping me on my toes and in my feelings the whole books. I had a hard time putting this one down!

I highly recommend it!

Four sisters live in the forest of Caball Hallow. The James women are born with unnatural abilities. A girl goes missing and the sister use what they can to find the mystery around these disappearances and the rumors of a Moth winged man.

This was part mystery with mixes of magic and intrigue… A dark fantasy. The magic system was really unique and I like that it added to the story. The characters were also relatable. The atmosphere was desirable with that tinge of creepiness to make it more than just another basic disappearance mystery. And the twists kept me guessing.

If you’re looking for something refreshing and different for spooky season, than look no further. You’ll definitely be captivated by this story.

Bittersweet in the Hollow is a phenomenal start to an exciting new series by Kate Pearsall.
This book is very atmospheric. I believe I read this is record time.
Kate Pearsall has created a story that is mysterious and engaging.
The small West Virginia town of Caball Hollow was beautifully described.
This book was absolutely phenomenal! I was hooked right from the deliciously dark prologue to the brilliant ending.
The imagery was phenomenal, and it was compelling and well-paced, with gothic vibe to it.
A beautifully dark contemporary, fantasy, mystery and all the witchy vibes!
Overall, an enthralling YA, of four sisters with unusual talents investigate a mysterious disappearance in their secluded Appalachian town.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

ARC REVIEW: I was absolutely hooked from page one! Having grown up in the Appalachian Mountains, nothing got me more excited than a spooky book set in the hollows and hills. The legends of the Moth-Winged Man, the mystery, and the magic were beautifully crafted. Kate Pearsall has a lyrical way of writing so much emotional depth that I laughed and cried with the characters and couldn't put the book down.

It's interesting to me that the one of the comparable books mentioned is House of Hollow because imagine that sisterly bond but with a more straightforward story and with the close dynamics of a small town with a dense, complicated history nestled in the already mystical Appalachians of West Virginia. Everything about that sentence makes me want to snuggle under a blanket by the fire and read this - while it takes place in the summer, everything about this is autumn vibes. And if the Mothman is your favorite cryptid? You're gonna love it.

Linden, our lead, is the third of four sisters, born into the James family - and the James women have always had abilities. They are one of the families in the town of Caball Hollow that goes back a few hundred years, and during that time they've run their farm, opened a diner called the Harvest Moon, and existed in a liminal space of belonging within the town. The rumor says the James family are witches, and they're as feared as they are needed.

Twenty years ago, a little boy named Elam McCoy disappeared on the summer solstice, and the loss of him reshaped the dynamics of the town. A year ago on the summer solstice, Linden disappeared. She returned with a concussion and no memory. This year on the solstice, Linden's friend is murdered. Linden suspects that everything is connected, and she dives into both the human and the mythical history of Caball Hollow. Something someone doesn't want her to do, and it puts her in harms way.

And she does all of this while dealing with her complicated feelings for her estranged best friend Cole Spencer - son of the Mayor, member of one of the founding families, town golden boy. Did I also mention her complicated family dynamics?

It takes a moment to warm up to this book, but once I did, I loved it. I loved the sisters and their relationship to one another, the complicated nature of being in a small town like Caball Hollow that can provide support and condemnation in equal measure, and the fact that the end was harrowing and emotional but ultimately did not destroy my heart.

This is a perfect fall cozy read - with enough beauty for a crisp, sunny day, and enough mystery for a rainy afternoon.

I love a good atmospheric book. Bittersweet in the Hollow is exactly that. Witchy, mysterious, and just a little off-putting. It's perfect for the season and the cooling weather. I really enjoyed it and will absolutely be recommending it to anyone who loves these types of books.

Four sisters, their mother, and their grandmother all have special abilities. And a book of secrets that has been hidden away. They work hard at their cafe and on the garden that supplies produce for the cafe. They all live in the same house, in a small town, that has secrets and a mysterious legend about a moth-winged man. Some say he can be summoned.

Over the years, there have been disappearances, attempted murders, and murders. The people become scared and suspicious of each other, but particularly of the women who are reputed to have strange abilities.

When Linden survives a near murder, and another murder does take place in town, Linden and her sisters want to investigate strange disappearances from the past.

This is a different sort of mystery and thriller, with unknown forces aiding both the sisters, and the evil that lives in town. I recommend it for people who like to read books that make them feel uncomfortable, or even a bit scared.

The ending certainly surprised me.

This is the second book set in Appalachia that I've read recently and unlike Midnight is the Darkest Hour, I feel like Bittersweet in the Hollow is a beautifully written book that discusses similar themes and elements without parodizing the Appalachian people.

I read another review about this book and someone described it as the Appalachian witch book of their dreams and I can get behind that assessment.

Bittersweet in the Hollow tells the story of Linden and her three sisters who spend their days working in their family diner and listening to stories of their gran's secret mountain magic. Each of the sisters has a magical ability and Linden's is taste - specifically, she can taste other people's emotions and later on this evolves into her infusing the things she makes with emotion.

The magic is subtle and so lushly described. I really appreciated the inclusion of pages for each month - in season produce, each month's moon, a little spell to cure small ails.

Linden has a hole in her memory. Once, she went into the woods, the very same woods where it's whispered people have been taken by the Moth-Winged man, and when she came out bleeding she can't remember what happened. When an old friend, Dahlia, is found dead in the same woods, Linden reconnects with a past love to pull on the thread of that mystery.

I don't read a ton of young adult anymore, but if I was recommending anything to anyone, it'd be this book. I found the writing to be so immersive and interesting.

Looking forward to reading anything this author comes out with in the future! 4.5/5 stars.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
4.5/5 STARS

Genre: YA suspense

Similar Books:
Together We Rot
Wilder Girls

Synopsis:
4 sisters with a touch of magic try to solve a town’s murder

This YA was a perfect mashup of mystery, magical realism, suspense, and horror. The story telling and world building were excellent and it sucked me right in. It has mothman vibes without being too scary. It is the perfect spooky fall read. If you enjoy YA supernatural suspenseful books, check this one out!

Thank you Penguin Teen for the gifted copy! 🖤

Real rating 2.5/5 rounded down.

I just want to say, I understand completely why people would be intrigued by this book. I too was sucked in by the gorgeous cover and interesting synopsis about a family of sisters who have special abilities and are witches (lack of a better term) and there’s a mystery to be solved. Unfortunately almost everything in this book for me fell absolutely flat.

There was definitely things I loved. The spell castings, the sisterly bond, the moth winged man was interesting and I liked some of the reveals, but other than that I was incredibly, Incredibly bored. I struggled a lot to even finish this, I was about to DNF this ARC. The writing was kind of dull, the build up to the reveals was boring, predictable but somehow simultaneously confusing. I felt like there were peaks and flatlines constantly of interesting things happen.

I couldn’t really connect with many of the characters, even the main character was not interesting, they were written at face level. I wanted the sister’s powers to be more prominent in the story. There was no diversity in this book, well there was a cop that was POC (only one that I know for sure, the character descriptions were little to none) and Sissy was LGBT, she barley was in the book. The lack of diversity was disappointing like most of this book.

I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately this book wasn’t for me, it will for someone else. This “Dark” Fantasy, mystery thriller left me feeling very lacklustre and I don’t know If I will be continuing to the next book in this series.


Thank you to Penguin Young Readers Group, Penguin Teen, and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved this. I was expecting to find the supernatural elements of it a little cheesy, but it was done so beautifully and I loved how everything pieced together in the end in an unexpected way. The descriptions of food and feelings was such a cool concept and the characters were all quite lovable. Definitely would recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Penguin for this ARC
I started reading this book, and could not put it down! Absolutely enthralling, positively mysterious, and wonderfully magical, this is easily one of my top books of the year.
Set in the Appalachian Mountains, Bittersweet in the Hollow follows Linden and her sisters investigating a mysterious disappearance. As tensions rise and secrets are uncovered, what little love the magical family has from the town soons turns bitter...
This book is just such a fun read, it's tense and I love reading about the James family and their "practical magic". My favorite is Linden, her ability to "taste" what others are feeling leads to wonderfully written prose and descriptions that had my stomach growling. I am very grateful to live in Texas, because after reading about crispy fried chicken, fried green okra, and butter heavy desserts, I have quite the appetite! (Seriously I think my stomach growled for most of the book!)
There is also some romance, and there is chemistry, sweetness, and the perfect amount of tension between them.
Much like the namesake, this is quite a bittersweet book. Don't go into this expecting fluffiness and comfort, but do expect a supportive family of strong woman, and a town full of dark secrets. I did enjoy the ending, the payoff was perfect and the suspense that had me staying up late to read did not disappoint with the reveal.
I was planning on finishing this book tomorrow and reviewing it then, but I couldn't put it down! I had to find out what happened next, and the next thing I knew I had reached the conclusion and sadly the end of the book. Honestly I wouldn't mind if this wasn't a standalone and instead a series. (Perhaps focusing on each sister?) Also mostly because I really want to see [ the parents get back together. That was so heartbreaking to learn of sacrifices that were made. I wouldn't mind seeing "Hadrian" somehow getting a happy ending with Rowan either. (hide spoiler)]
Perfect for fans of dark fantasy, Krystal Sutherland, or excellent books in general, I HIGHLY recommend this book! This is Kate Pearsall's debut novel, and I need more from her immediately!
I will say I am not crazy about the cover. In fact I very much dislike the cover, it has fair composition and design, but does not convey the theme or mood of the book well. It feels a bit plain and dry compared to how wonderfully dark and magical the story is. The author name being in a script font looks like it was added as an afterthought, and just looks completely out of place. (It makes it seem childish) I hope that this book receives the success it deserves, and perhaps at some point a new cover for a different edition.

Linden was born with an unusual ability. She can taste what others are feeling. The night she shared her ability with her boyfriend, she ended up vanishing into the depths of the forest and returned with no memories of what happened.

Now on the hottest day on record another girl in town is gone and the similarities to last years events. Except this year the missing girl doesn’t make it home, and her body shows she was murdered.

As tempers boil, Linden enlists the help of her sisters to find what’s hiding in the forest. But as she starts digging for the truth about the Moth-winged man rumored to haunt the Hallow. She is starting to wonder if some secrets are better left buried.

I really wanted to love this one as it sounded like such a spooky story. However, when I started listening to it, I really struggled. The story was incredibly slow and uninteresting to me, I think if I would had been able to get into it then my view would have been different. The pacing did pick up a tad after about the first 20% of the book, and it was easier to enjoy. The writing was very descriptive and immersive, and exactly that you would expect from a gothic tale. I struggled with how the Linden family all had their own ability. But we didn’t get a ton of details into each ability. This book has some awesome elements, and some people will enjoy it if they have the patience to do so.

Thank you to @PRHAudio and Penguin Young Readers Group for the ALC and e-arc copies in exchange for an honest review.

Book Name: Bittersweet in the Hollow
Author: Kate Pearsall

ARC
Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group, G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers ****for an ARC of Bittersweet in the Hollow by Kate Pearsall

Stars: 5
Spice: 0 (YA)

Standalone
Fast Paced
FMC POV
Magical Realism
Southern Gothic
Similar to Together We Rot, Hollow Heathens and Practical Magic

- Topics
- Prejudice and Rumors
- Responsibility
- What would you give for…
- Tropes
- Murder Mystery
- Hidden Identities
- Cryptids and Folklore
- Second Chance Romance
- Friends to Lovers to “Enemies” to ….
- Curses and Spells
- Strong Practical Magic Vibes
- Thoughts.
- Great YA Fantasy Gothic Mystery
- Lots of spooky vibes no outright scares
- Engaging but slow first 20%
- Picks up speed at 20% mark
- Flying in last 20%
- Hadrian Romance for book 2??? Can we have a book 2
- GREAT YA Hallowen pick!

Honestly this book isn’t what I was expecting. I was hoping for more magic and less murder mystery. I did love all the witchy stuff. I think this book was out of my wheelhouse more then I expected because I can see how a lot of people will and do enjoy it it just wasn’t for me.

This is the perfect fall read, especially if you live somewhere where it's still hot. It takes place in a small town deep in the wooded mountains of West Virginia, and having spent a lot of my life in North Carolina and Virginia, the setting really came through in the writing. It was atmospheric and immersive, but authentic. If you've spent time in the South and roll your eyes at campy "Southern" dialogue, this will be a treat for you. If you, like me, though, have friends from the western US who think it's a typo when you try to tell them how excited you are about someone having hair "an improbable shade of red, like it's been poured directly out of a Cheerwine bottle", I offer myself as a support system.

Linden James is one of four sisters in a family where all the women are born with a unique special ability. Linden's is that she can taste other people's emotions. If abstract flowery descriptions in other books usually confuse you (like, how can his kiss taste of rainclouds and melancholy? what do you mean?) this might work for you, because YES Linden can assure you that sadness reminds her of buttermilk, and here's why.

Linden went missing in the woods a year ago and has no memories of what happened before she was found. She's tried to put this incident behind her, busying herself with shifts with her sisters at the family's diner, Harvest Moon, where she bakes unique and rustic-sounding desserts that made me unbelievably hungry. Unfortunately, Linden wasn't the first to go missing in the forest, but she was the only one to turn up alive, and legends of the Moth-Winged Man haunting the woods persist. When it happens again on the anniversary of her own disappearance, she feels driven to investigate.

Linden's sisters help her look into the town's mysterious history as well as their family's, and find that the two are more entwined than they realized. I loved the sisters' relationship; the scenes with all of them gave strong "performing a seance at a sleepover" vibes, which is something I didn't know I wanted in a book, but definitely recommend.

I wasn't super invested in the romance subplot of this, and I did predict a couple of the plotlines, so it wasn't an all-time favorite story, but I really loved the writing so much that I was thrilled to see there will be a book two! Things wrapped up nicely in this one, so I'm kind of hoping that the next book will be about one of the other sisters---I'd love a Rowan book!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and the author for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Bittersweet in the Hollow was everything I was hoping for and so much more! I loved the plot, the characters, and the entire world that Kate Pearsall has written. The magic is fun and different, and I loved seeing Linden work to uncover what happened to her friend Delilah and what happened to her a year ago, which she only remembers snippets of.
I loved all the members of the James family, and the mystery along with the atmosphere had me completely sucked in until the last page. I was expecting the magic and mystery, but the heartwarming moments took me by surprise and made me love this story all the more. This is a 10/10 for me and I will absolutely be getting a physical copy of this book to add to my library.
Also, I had no idea there would be a second book until today and I can't wait to continue in this world!!

"These hills and hollows are where legends and lore thrive, alive and well. Mine is a story of being lost for a night in the vastness of the National Forest, of fearing the unknown and what may be hiding in shadows of the deepest dark. But make no mistake, it’s far from the only mystery held beneath these ancient peaks. And as much as I want to forget, I know that sometimes secrets are seeds, just waiting for the right conditions to sprout. The deeper you bury them, the stronger they grow."

When it comes to reading, there are few things better than when a book hits all of the right notes (or in this case, flavors), and BITTERSWEET IN THE HOLLOW did just that. With atmospheric writing and unexpected suspense, I didn't want to put it down once I started. Pearsall combined threads of belonging, love, and sisterhood with a mystery steeped in lore, creating an unforgettable story.

As shared in the synopsis, the James women have had unique, uncanny abilities for generations. While this is a multigenerational story, the focus in on the four sisters that comprise the youngest, and I loved how open and honest their relationship was with one another. The way that Linden's ability was described was absolutely beautiful.

"Emotions are complicated things. Sometimes a strong flavor, like anger or sadness, hides a whole host of others underneath—guilt, fear, hurt, nostalgia. Yet other times they enhance each other, like salt to caramel or coffee to chocolate, like grief bringing into sharper focus the shame of letting a friendship fade away."

BITTERSWEET IN THE HOLLOW has light magic that is easy to understand, and it's perfect for either summer or spooky season. Based upon the title of the sequel, I'm hoping that the next installment is told from Rowan's point of view. If you're not a fan of starting a series before all of the books have been released, Linden's story was wrapped up nicely and could easily be read as a standalone. Thank you, Penguin Teen, for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Additional quotes that I loved:
"The old grist mill that houses the Harvest Moon has creaky, wide-plank floorboards, worn smooth by generations of hard work, with cracks between them just wide enough for secrets to fall through."

"What does it mean to go missing? To become lost, to disappear. None of the tales we’re told as children are useful instruction. We don’t hike with pockets full of bread crumbs to leave a trail, and no fairy godmother will appear to point the way. Sometimes, no matter how good and righteous we are, we may never find our way home. Being lost is as existential as it is physical. The loss of your spatial orientation, an unmooring of your place in the world. The disorienting sensation that nothing is as it was before."

This book was interesting and had a nice spooky vibe. I think it's great for it's age group and kind of have off house of hollows vibes.