Genre: Mystery
Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9780997866117
Melissa Bourbon Ramirez Publishing
306 Pages
$14.99' $4.99 Amazon
September 22, 2020
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Every book tells two stories -- one written on the pages with pen and ink, and one woven into the paper, a story of the soul. The Lane women have the gift of bibliomancy. They can read both.
But Cassie Lane doesn't see this as a gift. For her, it is a curse because the book magic comes with a price -- the Lane women die young and the men are lost to the sea. As soon as she's able. she leaves Laurel Point, Oregon, running from her past and her fate, ending up on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. There she meets Leo Hawthorne and lives a perfect life with him in an old Sea Captain's house.
Perfect, that is, until an old book foretells the future, and the curse that has plagued the Lane women comes true for Cassie.
Twenty years later, Cassie and Leo's children, twins Pippin and Grey, are back in Devil's Cove. Long forgotten secrets surface and an old crime comes to light. Now Pippin must learn how to be a bibliomancer if she is to discover the truth about her father and continue his effort to stop the curse.
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I wanted to read this book because the blurb sounded interesting, and the protagonist wasn't running away from an ex or a scandal. Instead, I found her running away from life...
Pippin Lane and her brother Grey have returned to the Outer Banks of North Carolina where they spent their younger lives after being raised by their grandparents. They've been deeded a home from their father, and Pippin has decided to turn it into an inn in this tourist town. But then there is a discovery that changes their lives, and turns Pippin's well-ordered world upside-down. Now left with more questions than answers, and having to rely on people she knows little of, Pippin has suddenly found that living a solitary life might not be the best way, especially with others who are willing to help in any way they can.
But the discovery of people who knew her parents and are giving her information that she never thought possible is also giving her the possibility of learning to trust others, and even more important, allowing them into her life. This she will need if she ever wants to find out the truth of her history, since she was never allowed near books while growing up, and now learns that she needs to face her family legacy of being a bibliomancer if she is ever to find her future...
This is the first in a new series and it wasn't what I expected. There is much sadness within, yet without it the story cannot be told. Falling into Pippin's life, I found myself feeling empathy for her situation, and why she's chosen the lifestyle she has, along with her brother choosing his. They face life differently; face situations differently; yet have always been there for each other since they are all there is left of their immediate family.
It would be hard not to be drawn into this story from the beginning, when we are given the background by starting with Pippin's mother Cassie and her story. How her love for a seagoing man gave her a brief happiness and then stole it all from her. (I am not giving anything away as this is all told in the blurb).
Enter their grown twins, Pippin and Grey, to take over their lives where they began them almost thirty years ago, and how by doing so it brings them more pain the need to find the truth. It's a haunting story while drawing you in and hoping that they can find the answers they're looking for. But along the way both make friends, some from their childhood, and Pippin is now finding that maybe this is where she belonged all along.
However, while searching for her past, a murder occurs and in trying to find the killer -- since the sheriff thinks it was just an accident, even though the man's widow doesn't believe it -- Pippin starts to believe that the man's death may tie in with her own father's disappearance all those years ago. But searching for a killer who has managed to remain hidden isn't going to be easy, especially since he's managed to stay hidden and closer to Pippin than she knows...
The rest of the story will have to remain as hidden as Pippin's history, since saying too much would give away the rest of the tale, and I have no wish to do so. Let me just say that this story, filled with sadness, longing, and anger, gives way to new beginnings and answers, and gives Pippin a reason to look forward to the future. Highly recommended.
More on Melissa Bourbon's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/melissa-bourbon/
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