Brunonia Barry is one of my favorite authors. The Lace Reader was one of the first books I read that so completely surprised me with a twist. The Fifth Petal is a different type of book, but just as compelling. I really appreciated the experience of revisiting my favorite characters.

Bad writing. Bad editing. A covulated mess. Couldn't finish.

I have always been fascinated with witches and the story of Salem. In Brunonia Barry's "The Fifth Petal" (the 2nd book in The Lace Reader series) we are, once again, transported to that town where she fully captures the essence of present day Salem and its dark and mysterious history.
In 1989, three young women are brutally murdered and the crime hasn't been solved. The victims were believed to be witches and their descendants were women who were hanged for being witches in 1692.
Callie's mom was one of the women killed that horrific night and 25 years later Callie returns to town to see if she can figure out what happened. With the help of the police chief together they uncover haunting secrets, discover missing pieces to the puzzle and end up involved in the supernatural.
This story is a blending of mystery, suspense, romance and family drama.
An intriguing and well-researched novel about the history of the Salem witches and their influences in present day Salem.

Thank you to Net Galley and Crown Publishing for an arc of this novel.

The Fifth Petal is book two of The Lace Reader series. In this portion, a few years has passed since book one. Towner has decided to stay and although the relationship with her mother is strained at best, Towner has restored her aunt's tea room, and has it serve as a halfway house for the women living at Yellow Dog. The mystery opens on Halloween night, teenage boys heckling an old mentally ill homeless woman. They claim she's a witch, and when one of the boys die. The outraged people of Salem want justice to finally be served. Will Rafferty be able to find the killer before there is a witch hunt like olden days?

Brunonia Barry once again brings us a story rich in the history of the Salem Witch Trials. There was so much suspense, this book held me at the edge of my seat. I was engrossed until the very end and was taken by surprise by the end. This was a great suspenseful novel with lots of unsuspecting twists.o

I loved Barry's The Lace Reader & was so excited to get the chance to review the second book in the series. The only downfall I had, was remembering what happened in book 1 & how it related here. Some of the characters were very easy to remember, Rafferty & Towner. Where I had issue remembering others at times & how they related to book 1. The story really unfolded the more you read & the end wasn't something I saw coming at all. Barry again was able to pull me into Salem & enjoy her amazing writing.

I liked the twist at the end that tied the storyline together. I usually don't venture into witches and demons, so this was a hard read for me. But if you are into the darker side of witches, the story may fit you better.
Well constructed theme and good character development were appreciated.

​This happens to be the second book in the series. It's rather engaging though, and while I feel I missed something, this book was still complete on it's own.

Salem, MA., still famous for witches and this is not an exception. Callie was a little girl when her mother and friends were murdered. She was quickly relocated for her own safety. Now quite grown, she is back in Salem. Her former friend is the only other person who knows what happened, who saw it. So now it's time to solve this, if possible.

What I didn't like. Callie isn't rational. She makes stupid decision after stupid decision. She puts her life in the hands of random people who have drinking problems, and other issues, are cheaters and liars. I wasn't able to connect with her never ending bad choices.

My copy came from Net Galley. I wasn't required to leave a review, I do so because I can. My opinions are my own.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book...romance, mystery, the occult-all taking place in Salem, MA! Callie witnessed the murders of her mother and her firends when she was five years old. She is whisked out of town "for her own good" and sent out to western Mass, where she remains for about 25 years until she sees something on tv that stirs a memory from her past. She returns to Salem and is reunited with her old friend Rose Whelan, the only other witness to that long ago crime. The years have not been kind to Rose, her memories and preoccupation with the"singing tree" have driven her slightly mad and she is not regarded kindly by some of the townspeople. With help from the local police, Rafferty and his wife Towner, Callie slowly pieces together the truth from that long ago night, and finds love in the process.

I had not read The Lace Reader before reading this book, and even though I don't feel you need to, I wish I had just to understand a bit more.

Whenever you read a story and one chapter in you are already regretting that it will end then you have found yourself a good book.. Love witches. love , Love Salem so it was a win win from the beginning - very well written, great sense of pace and interesting characters

This wasn’t my kind of book.
The story went on longer than it needed to be, with multiple parts of it dragging. I eventually skimmed many paragraphs wondering what the point of them was as they took me away from (what I thought) was the main story.
Which is another problem I had—there were multiple individual story lines, differing points of view within the same chapters—and the combination of these things made it difficult to track where the story was going. Characters’ thoughts were repeated many times, way beyond what was needed.
At the end, there’s a huge gap when Sheriff Rafferty plunges into a room only we never know what he does, we simply move onto a new chapter. Did he come to the rescue or break through to the wrong room? Settings and locations were unclear and relationships were blurry.
There’s a chapter where the main character, Callie, goes to confront the nuns who raised her (and the nickname Sister Agony was used to the point of nausea.). This could have been a very powerful scene, moving the story quickly along, but instead it was dropped mid-confrontation with nothing important having been discovered during their conversation. I felt let down.
I read the kindle version and found multiple typographical errors. I was surprised because the novel reads as if it were edited.
The actual writing is well done, with nice turns of phrase, which is why I continued to read it. It was the story itself that will keep me from reading this author again.

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I finally made it to this book and so happy I did. The story kinda jumps around from person to person without really giving the reader any warning, but I'm not sure if that is a formatting issue through Kindle (where I downloaded my ARC) or if that is the authors authentic writing style. Since this is my first experience with the author, I will let it slide.

Down to business now, characters I liked:
Rose, Callie, Rafferty, and Towner
I either hated or disliked everyone else in the book. Everyone else just rubbed me the wrong way I guess. There was one other issue that I wasn't quite able to figure out and that was the chainsaw noise.... oh well. *insert dramatic sigh just to appear whimsical*

I love the authenticity the author weaved into the story but, don't quote me on this because I'm using Google as a source, wasn't the original pandemonium located not in Salem, but one of its neighboring towns? *another dramtic sigh*

There are a lot of books that have a setting involving the Salem witch trials. Most of them aren't worth reading and have a tenuous ties to that place and period in American history. This book is one of the rare exceptions. The plot is well structured and well executed. Characters are flawed and have depth. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more by this author.

I really enjoyed Brunonia Barry’s first two novels (and I met her during her tour for her second novel) so I was eager to read this one. And it was rather good. I would say the rating would fall between 3 and 4 but I’m rounding up because I really did enjoy the book quite a bit. There is character overlap between this one and her first novel, The Lace Reader. If you read that one, this is a nice revisit to some of the characters. If you didn’t, this one is perfectly good as a stand alone! This is a mystery that plays with the historical witch trials and current life in Salem, MA. I really like the subtle magical touches that are at play throughout the book. Those touches gave the book a little something special for me. Overall, the mystery (well, mysteries) were really well done and I thought the conclusion was thoughtful and satisfying. I will say that the pacing was imperfect. It felt like it took me a longgggg time to get through this novel. It wasn’t fast paced. I was never bored but it didn’t fly by or anything. That’s not a big issue for me but if you need something with fast pacing, this might not be the right book for you. If you love a good mystery, especially one that is connected to witches and the witch trials; this is definitely one you should pick up!

The Fifth Petal
By Brunonia Barry

You know what I like reading about almost as much as plagues? Witches. I loved Brunonia Barry’s first book, The Lace Reader, so much that when I saw another book was coming out, I jumped on it. I am not generally a series reader, though I will often read the first one in a series and nothing else (yes, I’m a quitter, I admit it.) But Barry sucked me in last time, so this time I was a willing victim. I completely believed her tales about the lace readers, and honestly, I was stunned that she made everything up (sorry, spoiler alert). I was completely convinced, and I am telling you that so when she tricks you with her voluminous knowledge of old Salem and throws in a bunch of hooky, you will not feel bad like I did. You’re welcome.

So anyway, here’s what you need to know. Read this book. There is high drama, grave danger, horrible childhoods that need to be redeemed and reclaimed and also, witches. Did I mention that? What could be better? Nothing. It takes place in Salem and surrounding areas, so of course there are witches. There are also regular people, unfortunately, with all kinds of unmanageable, overwhelming problems. There are bad characters I kind of liked, and good ones who do the wrong thing, so basically, it’s perfectly balanced. And don’t worry if you didn’t read the first one – this one stands alone just fine. (But I’d read The Lace Reader anyway, because really, aren’t you better than that?)


For Goodreads:

Why I picked it — I love stories about witches!
Reminded me of… The Lace Reader, and The House of Seven Gables
For my full review — click here

Had I determined a rating based solely on the first half of the book, it could have easily been 2/5 stars. The book meandered a bit in the beginning stages and I wasn’t yet emotionally invested in the characters. I think that this was simply because there were many characters being introduced, and some of them fell a little flat. But, as the book found its pace it became more of the “whodunit” mystery that I was expecting. Vital players emerged in the scheme of the book, and the more I got to know them the more I liked them.

In regards to the plot itself, what kept this book intriguing was the fact that I could start to predict a few key pieces of the mystery, but not enough to guess it completely until the ending pages. I think veteran mystery readers like myself will be able to predict the culprit sooner than intended, but despite that, I was still interested in HOW the events would unfold. The author did a great job of leaving little breadcrumbs throughout the story, but didn’t give away too much, too soon. This is vital in any suspense story of this nature: too predictable and the reader gets bored, too many crazy twists and the reader loses interest in trying to keep up.

What really made this book special to me was the history of Salem. Combined with the nods to mythology and an interesting process known as “sound healing,” a lot of new information was brought to me via the passions of the characters. It presented a lot of new facts that I found myself looking up after I read the book. I like when a book has these little gems because it shows that a lot of time and research went into the book.

What keeps this book from a 5-star rating is a few minor details. Though I appreciated the story, the slow pacing at certain points was tedious. There was also a major plot change in the book, so I feel that readers that liked the first half will have trouble with the second, and vice versa. At once point it felt like reading two different stories, though Barry did her best to tie them together for a satisfying ending. I did enjoy this book, though it is not one that I liked so much that I plan to return to the story someday. In the end, I do think that many people will like this book. It’s great read for those just looking for an enjoyable story, not a book with complicated storylines or a long read.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Well written book but not my cup of tea as I am into supernatural style books. So no thanks.

Brunonia Barry continues to write an intriguing historical book. I really enjoyed the backdrop of Salem MASS. Characters were well developed through the book.

The story was a bit complex and long winded. But I wish there had been more about the history of Salem. The book has a bit of mystery, a bit of romance, lots about witches and you need nothing more!