The Witch of Tin Mountain

That intriguing cover image. Phew just suckered me in and got me to request the book from Net Galley.

Dual timelines with witches and an evil demon were enough to get me excited to get into the book. And for the most part, the author has done excellent work, taking the reader thru a fictional town called Tin Mountain and the curse that exists in the land from the burning of a witch called Annaliese. The journey then takes us thru two timelines, Dierdre in 1881 and Gracelynn in 1931 where the women in both eras must fight against more than poverty to live life on their terms.

Paulette Kennedy captures the imagination of the reader with some flawless writing. Tin Mountain was a picture in my eyes easy to imagine with its set of small minded people and their prejudices, asking for help from the witches but afraid to declare to the world. The spooky atmosphere of the hollow and the paranormal elements with visions adds to the chilling scenario even though the author carefully controls her tale without veering towards horror.

Dierdre is characterized as wilful and headstrong initially and I loved how the author showed her growth as she learns from her mistakes and takes on the demon to save her granddaughter. Gracelynn is however kinder as she has seen the darkness hidden inside a man from a young age and knows to be wary of all men. There are elements of LGBTQ romances in both timelines and a considerable number of characters and subplots in the story that tend to confuse the reader a bit. And even though the overlapping becomes clearer towards the end, I wish there was a clear demarcation of Gracelynn and Diedre’s thought process that would have helped to keep the timeline separate. Sometimes the emotions conveyed by both women are so similar that I had to return and check if I am reading about Deidre or Gracelynn and the only reason why I am going with 3.5 stars.