I am always going to be interested in a book about witches, and then to find out it is historical fiction… even better! I also loved the fact that it was a book about the witch hunts that highlighted these events outside of Salem (and even took it all the way back to England!). I so enjoyed the bits of history weaved into the storyline, and I found myself googling the events/names to read more about it. So a job well done! I found that this book had me hooked fast, and the time I spent reading it flew by.

The characters were pretty well done, and I feel like the author had a solid, realistic approach to a teen boy’s narration (which some authors and books struggle to achieve).

The only problem I had with this was I felt events toward the ending were a bit predictable, which was a bit of a letdown because I felt like the first 60% of the book had so many interesting twists and turns. This was not the worst problem though, predictable is not overly bad. I was just hoping for something a bit different. But I did really enjoy reading the entire book, even the ending.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narration was great. The character’s voices were easy to follow and it was an easy read.

Overall this was very enjoyable and totally scary! I think this has the perfect amount of gore and spooky things in it for the intended audience.

I found myself really enjoying this book, and wondering what was going to come next. Both the book and the narration were interesting and engaging.
I did have one potential plot issue with the book, and while I don't want to give away any spoilers when there's a familial relation revealed near the end my question was -- HOW? Maybe I missed something but I really don't understand how that happened.

This book wasn't necessarily my cup of tea, I liked the spooky witch vibes it provided, and it was an interesting plot. I also really loved the incorporation of the story from the past, into the story of present day. However for me there were far too many different character POVs that slowed down and confused the text. At the start of the book when it switched to Jen's POV I found myself checking if this was an anthology of short stories as we kept changing characters. There were also many elements that didn't feel like they made sense (Nate and Mark lived alone in NYC after their dad died even though they're minors? What happens to the clothes he was wearing when he becomes a crow? Why was the key out in the open for the boys to find if she didn't want them in there?) It's a fun spooky listen, and perfect for the fall, but it simply wasn't my cup of tea.

After the death of his father, Nate Watson and his younger brother move to Windsor, CT to live with a relative they hardly know. Their curiousity is piqued when their Aunt Celia immediately declares a locked room to be off-limits, leading to their discovery of the witchfinder's serpent, which is an old relic with a dark past. Rooted in the premise that Matthew Hopkins (aka Hodge) - the Witchfinder General - lives on as a witch, it packs a nice little punch.

The writing style and narration were excellent as an audiobook. Although the story began with Nate in 2019, it felt primarily like a historical-fiction novella blended with magical realism because many of the modern scenes were centered on the fictionalized history of 1647, which I didn't find necessary with Nate as the main character. Perhaps if Celia had been the main character, the large chunk of the book set in 1647 would have mingled much better.

Overall, I loved the concept but Allie and Hodge were at the heart of both timelines and, while they connected with Nate as backstory to Celia and the serpent, the extent to which the events of 2019 and 1647 were intertwined didn't flow organically. Getting immersed was challenging up until chapter 5 because it alternated back and forth between 2019 and 1647 every other chapter before I really got settled onto Nate as the main character in the beginning.

I addressed this by going back to the beginning, bookmarking chapters 2 and 4, then listening to them after I finished with chapter 7. This flowed much better. In doing this, there was one little jewel that shined bright, which was the description of the fireflies coming to Alse at her low moment. It was so magical that it instantly transported me to that moment in time. More, more, more of that, please!

If you love Salem Witch Trial stories, this should be your next read.
The story is told in two settings. It’s very suspenseful. I would pair this The Crucible.
#NetGalley

I love the intertwining of the history of witches and the Salem Witch Trials (even though it's enraging) into this story! This was a cute and fun read and I can't wait for the 2nd book to come out so I can find out what happens and how they take down that terrible witch hunter! I am now adding all of Rande Goodwin's books to my ever-expanding TBR!

#TheWitchfindersSerpent
#NetGalley

Nate and his brother Mark move in with an 'aunt' that they never knew they had when their Dad passes away. There is something strange about her, but they aren't sure what, until they find the key to her locked room that points to witchcraft. When they accidentally unleash the evil witchfinder nobody is safe.

I appreciated the historical value behind this book. You can tell that the author did his research into the time period around the Salem Witch Trials and I learned quite a few facts that I didn't know before. I also felt that the parts of the story that took place in the distant past were well done and flowed very well.

Where I had problems were the modern day portions of the story. There were so many different points of view that it was hard to get a good feel for what made any of the characters tick or to really make any connections with them. There were also some elements of the story that just didn't add up and you had to wonder why nobody in this smallish town was freaking out.

I really enjoyed following the adventures of Nate, Marc and all the others.
I really liked the "found family" aspect of the book. The characters were touching. The story was intriguing. I listened to the audio version, the narrator was very good!
I can't wait for the second volume to find out what happens to the various characters.
The author did a great job of working back and forth between the present and the past, and also with the different POVs.
I have a soft spot for anything to do with the history of witchcraft, and I think the author has treated subjects from the past that actually happened with a great deal of respect, using them in her fantasy novel.
Excellent first novel!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC audiobook of The Witchfinder's Serpent by Rande Goodwin (Pub Date 12 Sep 2023)
Audiobook Narrated by Nick Mondelli

When fifteen-year-old Nate and his younger brother Mark move to Windsor Connecticut to live with his mysterious Aunt Celia after their father's untimely death and mother who died years before, the last things on Nate's mind are witches, magic, or ancient dissent. They are in awe when they arrive at their aunt's 3-story mansion which is massive compared to the apartment in NYC they used to live in and the area was quiet compared to the bustling city they were used to.  She said that the third floor of the house was theirs to live in and they had unlimited freedom and could go wherever they pleased in the mansion and could come and go at their leisure as long as they picked up after themselves.  The only rules they were told to abide by while living there were to do well in school, complete a few small chores around the house, and under no circumstances go into the one locked room on the 2nd floor. As Nate gets used to this new life with his brother and to know his aunt they had not only never met but also his father never mentioned, going to a new school, and making new friends, things seem a bit... weird.  

After settling into the routines of their new life, he finds old photos in a box that belonged to his father with a few pictures of him when he was younger with a woman who looked exactly like his aunt.  But that's impossible because in the photo the woman looked to be the same age as his aunt is now.  Surely it is just a strong family resemblance, right?  Nate’s little brother can't seem to escape the temptation and mystery beyond that one locked door they are forbidden to enter.  Nate too has difficulty staying away as one day he hears his aunt speaking to someone behind that door and it is concerning.  When his aunt leaves the room and locks it behind her he notices that there is no light under the door and she comes out alone.  So what happened to the man behind the voice he heard her speaking to?   Unable to resist any longer, after his aunt leaves the house, Nate and his brother enter the room after his brother locates the key in his Aunt's bedroom. They find numerous objects that seem to be from a witch's lair.  Some date back to the early settlers who came to New England to start a new life.  Back when the witch trials happened.

Is magic actually real?  Nate remains skeptical until he picks up something powerful that latches on to him and he is unable to remove it.  Not only did he disobey the one thing he was forbidden to do, but now he is faced with a big problem that could get him into even more trouble with his aunt.  He must find a way to remove the object and if he cannot, face his aunt to help him.  Something wicked is coming and it involves Nate's family and their history in this old New England town. 

Something wicked this way comes

I admit that I have a soft spot for anything witch-related, so this book intrigued me immediately.  Growing up in New England myself and not far from Salem Massachusetts, the unfortunate witch trials are known by many. Salem during Autumn for those who love the spooky season will find it to be quite bustling and beautiful with the changing foliage.  Having the story dive into that history was familiar and it felt like you got a little taste of the fears surrounding that time period while learning how this story started and how it affects these teens in the present day.  It also introduced information I was unaware of until listening to this book on witch trials that happened before the infamous ones that happened in Salem that are known worldwide.  

It was an interesting take and I enjoyed this story.  I found the pace good and enjoyed the flashbacks in time, although the language used when it did was more common now than what would be used in the 1600s.  I assume the characters would also have an English accent sounding from England since the people who pilgrimaged to Massachusetts were from various parts of England and their accents would not suddenly change just because they left to settle in the new colonies. 

If you read the book rather than listen to it, the accent will not be an issue, but if you expect old English dialect you will not find it.  That may have been a deliberate choice made to avoid turning off readers if they are not fans of that old sing-song flowery language which would be understandable.  It was just a bit odd to hear common wording without much change in accent since people who came over from various areas of England would certainly have and not morph into a different sound for a very long time. 

I look forward to hearing the next book to see what happens to these boys and their new found friends.  Hopefully, I will be able to listen to that one as well through NetGalley before it is officially released to the public.  






#TheWitchfindersSerpent #NetGalley

I really enjoyed this! It's well written and creative. The narrator of the audiobook did a fantastic job! I would recommend this! Special Thank You to Rande Goodwin, Greenleaf audiobooks and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a complimentary copy prior to publication in exchange for an honest review.

Rande Goodwin’s “The Witchfinder’s Serpent” is a fun, contemporary witch’s tale appropriately set in New England. The cast of characters and tropey plot are perfect for fans of Halloween-season movies and shows like “Hocus Pocus” or “Sleepy Hollow.”

After Nate and his little brother lose their father to cancer, a mysterious aunt takes them in, moving them into her large, Connecticut house. Things seem normal as the two boys start at new schools and begin making friends. But when Nate's brother steals his aunt’s key to the mysterious locked room, things start to go very wrong, very fast.

I enjoyed the mix of high school drama and Stephen-King-like macabre description in this story. Parts are not for the faint of heart, but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to teen readers who love horror with a splash of romance. The narrator, Nick Mondelli, did a fine job (even with the female character voices) and added the right amount of emotion and tension to the story.

I am looking forward to the next installment in Rande Goodwin’s The Witches of Windsor series, as there are definitely loose strings to be tied up. I’m also invested in the characters and their relationships, and I want to see where it all ends up. I received this audiobook from NetGalley.

A story spanning across multiple timelines. At the present time, Nate is warming up to his new life with mysterious aunt Celia. His curiosity about Aunt Celia persuades him to investigate the locked door. The pursuit of seeking the unknown lands him with a witchfinder's Serpent bracelet that wraps itself on his wrist and refuses to budge. The only way forward from here is to confront his aunt and find a way to get rid of this bracelet before the actual evil owner returns to claim what he lost years ago.

Filled with magic, the lives of witches over the years and a plot set up in the city where the Salem witch trials were held, this book was a really good read for autumn. With lives at stake, the zeal for survival is presented to you in varied circumstances. The book did have a slow start, but the patience is rewarded after 50% of the book when the different timelines start knitting together.

Recommended for people who enjoy the above-mentioned themes in a slow plot buildup and a full-swing climax.

Thanks @netgalley @greenleafbookgr for the digital ARC.

Genre: #fantasy #magic #witches
Rating: 4/5 ⭐️

Happy Publication Day!

The Witchfinder’s Serpent is a great paranormal mystery for young adults. When Mark and Nate are sent to live with a mysterious Aunt in the town of Windsor, they soon start to look for answers on who exactly their aunt is. Their search leads them to the mysterious locked door in the mansion where several artifacts are locked away. When the brother’s find the Witchfinders Serpent, it quickly latches on to Nate’s arm. The journey to remove the serpent will lead the brothers on a dangerous journey where they will confront their aunt’s past as a Witch work together to defeat a powerful force that will stop at nothing to get the Witchfinders Serpent.

I was actually surprised on how much I enjoyed this book. I liked the two different timelines and was impressed on how much research was done on the witch trials as stated in the author notes. The ending had me questioning on if this book would be part of a series or a stand-alone with some unanswered questions. Readers should be aware that this book did contain some trigger warnings such as animal deaths and bullying. Overall, this is a great historical fiction/mystery just in time for Fall.

Thank you to NetGalley and Greenleaf Audiobooks for the opportunity to listen to The Witchfinder’s Serpent. I voluntarily listened and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

When I read the synopsis for this book, I knew I had to grab it! I enjoy reading stories that have an air of mystery in them and this one was no different. With a story told through flashbacks in time, along with present day, this story shared history of witches and it's presence in the present world. Even though Nate was new, he quickly found a support system of friends who were there to back him up and defend him. I found myself wanting to keep reading to find out what was going to happen! Thank you to NetGalley and Greenleaf Audiobooks for an advanced copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own!

I really enjoyed this witchy book. I loved how it went back and forth from the past to the present. The mystery pulls you in from the start and makes you not want to stop reading. I did not see some of the twists coming. I loved the creepy mansion and Aunt Celia. I will be reading more by this author. Thank you to NetGalley and Greenleaf Audiobooks for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Rande Goodwin for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC audiobook for The Witchfinder’s Serpent coming out September 12, 2023. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

15 year-old Nate Watson has to move to Windsor to live with his mysterious Aunt Celia. While Nate focuses on building a new life for himself and his younger brother, making new friends and adjusting to a new high school, he can't escape the feeling that something is off in his new home.

Nate's search for answers leads him to a forbidden, locked door in Aunt Celia's mansion. Inside, he finds a witch’s workshop full of mystical artifacts, some dating back to the time of the earliest Puritan settlers. It's no coincidence that Nate is now living in the very same town where, forty-five years before the Salem witch trials, Alse Young was hanged as America's first witch.

Could magick be real? Nate is skeptical until he picks up the witchfinder’s serpent--a powerful, demonic bracelet that wraps itself around his arm and permanently digs into his flesh. Now Nate must confront the truth about Aunt Celia's unlikely ancestry--as well as his own. And with her help, he must find a way to remove the bracelet before the serpent's previous owner returns--an ancient and powerful enemy who will stop at nothing to get it back.

This is the first book I’ve listened to by this author. I’ve always been fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials, so I was excited to check it out. I thought this was an interesting plot. It was a good YA book. I thought Aunt Celia was an interesting character. Overall, it was fun to listen to, but I think it’s more geared toward a younger demographic.

Thank you Netgalley, Rande Goodwin, and Greenleaf Audiobooks for giving me this arc to read. This book reminded me of the TV shows from the early 2000s where all the cliche story plots were held for the main character: the main character changes towns and schools, his life changes 360 degrees because he gets involved with the supernatural, the main character gets to be the chosen one, he tries to survive high school and its bullies, the main character's best friend is always the smart one who hits the library to research about the supernatural phenomenons and help the main character, and this book even has the iconic "whatever you do, you CANNOT enter this room, you can enter any rooms in this house except for this one. It is off-limits" plotline, and don't get me wrong. I don't hate these cliches but in this story specifically, I felt like the target audience would definitely suit middle-schoolers and maybe even high schoolers rather than adults. I love reading from the young adults category but this one wasn't entirely for me. You can definitely notice some flaws in the writing and some scenes that younger audiences would brush off or wouldn't notice too well. I feel like I personally would have enjoyed this book more if I read it instead of listening to the audiobook since I wasn't a big fan of this audiobook. On the other hand, I would like to say that I liked the scene with the grandma and it definitely had me engaged while reading.

Wonderful story of 2 orphaned boy who are sent to go live with their “aunt”, and after being told that they cannot go into the one locked room, they start to get curious after hearing their aunt taking to a stranger in the room. Finally they get inside the locked room they discover artifacts that she is a witch, and after getting spooked accidentally breaking a bottle that contained a witch hunter. The boys must defeat the wotch hunter with the help of their friend after he stole their aunt but in return he wants the snake that jas attached itself to one of the boys arm.

I tried to get into this book twice, but really can’t do it. The plot seems ok but the narrator doesn’t work with the YA vibe.

I did enjoy the jump between POVs and dates, and the descriptive language meant I really painted an image in my mind of the environment.

I did a triple-take at the opening scene, in which an accused witch is being burned at the stake. In the main narrative, which is present-day, the protagonist is 15-year-old Nate, which would probably make the audience for Witchfinder's Serpent late-middle-schoolers; as much as I'm in favor of books for young people addressing difficult/terrible issues, that scene struck me as straight-up nightmare material. Maybe Kids These Days are tougher than I was, but ...

Moving on, though, I kept being distracted by aspects of the narrative that didn't make sense. Nate and his younger brother, Mark, are sent to live with their hitherto unknown aunt Celia after their father dies. Speed Bump #1: their apartment is packed up by some unspecified adult(s) and they are left with only one box of mementoes. (I guess they get to keep their clothes, at least.) They get no say in any of this. Who's staying with them during this in-between time? Goodwin handwaves the legalities and practicalities here, not to mention the basic emotional sense (who on earth discards all of a family's household goods without consulting the tween and adolescent kids?).

I do realize that the target audience for this book is unlikely to pick up on any of that, but in a way it makes matters worse, as if young people don't deserve careful plotting because they don't have the real-world knowledge to spot mistakes. Anyway, Speed Bump #1 heralded any number of successors. Nate and Mark have lived in NYC, apparently all their lives; I promise you they have never thought of the city as the Big Apple, nor will Nate be impressed at finding that Aunt Celia's Connecticut house appears to be over a hundred years old.

And the narrative just kept clunking. The white blonde who's the leader of the Mean Girls at Nate's new high school has two brown acolytes. One of Nate's close friends, Zach (or Zack -- this was the audiobook, so I can't be sure) is of Native American ancestry; after the day's history lesson addresses British settlement in what's now Connecticut, he says something to the effect that his ancestors wouldn't have been welcome. Never mind that this understates the case considerably, it's a weirdly off-kilter take coming from a young person I miiiiiiiiiiight expect to be hip to the idea of settler colonialism.

There's a gang of bullies. The lead bully is stupid and dirty. Because bullies are low-class, of course. Sigh.

There's also a plot problem in screaming neon: why doesn't Celia keep the key to the locked room with her rather than leave it hanging in her bedroom? Do we not all know that saying "You can go anywhere in the house except for this one room which I keep locked and you must not enter under any circumstances!!!!" ensures that your interlocutor will stop at nothing to find out what's behind that door? Come on, Celia, have you never heard of Bluebeard?

I rounded up to 3 stars because I suspect many early-teen readers will find the story absorbing without picking up on the overtones and general ineptnesses. Also, the narrator does a good job. But I'm rounding up with misgivings, because I do think kids deserve better and because I really am troubled by that nightmare material at the start.