by Shea Ernshaw
First published 2022
Penny Talbot lives beyond the bay in Sparrow, Oregon, where three sisters drowned for witchcraft two centuries ago return each summer. The sisters steal the bodies of vulnerable girls to lure boys into the harbor and drown them. When Bo Carter arrives looking for work, Penny tries to warn him about the danger beneath the waves. Bo doesn't believe the stories. Mistrust spreads through the rain-soaked streets as townspeople turn on each other and Penny and Bo suspect each other of keeping secrets. Death strikes those who cannot resist the sisters' call, and Penny must choose between saving Bo or herself. In the second story, Nora Walker knows the woods around Fir Haven hold magic. The townspeople call her a witch like the Walker women before her. Her connection to the forest leads her to Oliver Huntsman, who disappeared from the Camp for Wayward Boys during the worst snowstorm in years. Oliver should be dead but stands alive with no memory of his missing time. Nora feels the woods shift uneasily at his presence and must uncover how he survived and what brought him there. Oliver carries buried secrets of his own, including the truth that he wasn't the only one who vanished that night.
Genres: romance, fantasy, thriller, paranormal
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, supernatural-elements
Setting: Sparrow, Oregon, Fir Haven
Period: two centuries ago
656 pages · Paperback · Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Content warnings: death, violence