Spooky season is coming, and for me that means reading books that will drag a long hag’s nail down my spine, insight fear, and shiver my timbers. Today, I bring you a new release, courtesy of Turn the Pages Tour! Click here to see the rest of the creators on the tour! CW for this read include, but are not limited to: death of a character (on page and off), gore/blood, partaking in alcoholic beverages, harassment, and perceived sexual misconduct. Please be sure you are in the proper headspace before reading this one, beloved.
The Witch Haven is set in olden times — before mass produced cars, cellphones, and decent electricity. Picture it, readers, a time where there is no WalMart. No Target. No TJ Maxx. If you want a new outfit, say a dress, you’d go to a seamstress or clothier’s. That’s where we meet Frances. She works in Mrs. Carrey’s shop, owned by Mr. Hues. Everything is going along just fine, a normal day, when Mr. Hues decides to drop by and pay a visit to his shop. Mr. Hues is the worst kind of manager/owner: the underlings do all the work, he collects all the money, and the circle goes on.
Mr. Hues gets a bit fresh with our girl Frances and winds up on the receiving end of a pair of sewing scissors to the neck and her holding the handles. Only Frances didn’t stab Mr. Hues, never lifted a finger, it just happened. Magic, some would say.
Frances tries to keep her head down and not talk too much for fear of ending up in prison or on the gallows. Her plan to keep quiet, however, doesn’t go well because two people claiming to be from the Haxahaven Sanatorium come calling to collect Frannie due to her recent (phony) diagnosis of tuberculosis. (If you know anything about Ye Olde Days, TB, also called consumption, was a fairly common diagnosis. Those found to have it were usually committed to hospitals or confined to their homes for fear of spreading it to others.) Only problem is…Haxahaven isn’t an infirmary or a mental institution at all…it’s a school. For girls with supernatural abilities. A school, in short, for witches.
The Witch Haven is a wonderful story about a girl who discovers she has magic and immediately makes friends with everyone at her new school and all the teachers love her and she gets the boy/girl/theyperson of her dreams.
Just kidding.
Frances has become the latest student at Haxahaven and while she’s there, she’ll uncover more secrets than you can shake a stick at and (hopefully) make a few friends that will help her parse together the truth of her brother’s mysterious disappearance and death, figure out who the strange man in her dreams is, and help her find out who she is too.
Sound intriguing? Enter the tour-wide giveaway to win one of (2) copies of THE WITCH HAVEN using this Rafflecopter link! You can also purchase a copy using my Bookshop link, or by visiting your favorite bookstore or bookseller!
Sasha Peyton Smith grew up in the mountains of Utah surrounded by siblings, books, and one very old cat. She attended the University of Utah and the George Washington University where she studied biology and public health. She is not a witch, though she does own a lot of crystals and always knows what phase the moon is in. She currently lives in Washington D.C. with her partner and collection of porcelain hands. The Witch Haven is her debut novel, released August 31st from Simon & Schuster.
You can keep up with Sasha online at her website sashapsmith.com or on Instagram where she is @sashapeytonsmith.
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