by Hazel Beck
First published 2022
Emerson Wilde runs the only indie bookstore in St. Cyprian, Missouri, and serves as the youngest Chamber of Commerce president the town has ever had. She is preparing Main Street for an annual festival when odd things start happening around town. The strangeness peaks during a confrontation with Mayor Skip Simon, her lifelong rival, who appears to send paranormal creatures after her. Emerson stops them cold, though she has no idea how. That moment cracks open a truth she never expected: witches are real, and she is one. At eighteen she failed the one coming-of-age test that would have unlocked her powers, the only failure of her life, and now those powers have returned with force. She is also a descendant of a woman hanged during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, a fact that suddenly feels less like family trivia and more like a blueprint. With her abilities just waking up, Emerson learns that a secret group has been using dark magic to control St. Cyprian for years. She has to stop them, figure out what she can actually do, and navigate her feelings for Jacob North, a childhood friend and local farmer who is equal parts gruff and impossible to ignore.
Genres: romance, mystery, fantasy, contemporary
Vibes: charming, empowering, romantic, suspenseful, whimsical
Tropes: childhood-friends-to-lovers, chosen-one, enemies-to-lovers, hidden-powers
Setting: St. Cyprian, Missouri, Main Street, Salem
Period: 1692, Contemporary
411 pages · Paperback · Graydon House