2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This is where we will discuss the book after we start reading it in October .

Please remember to mark spoilers by using spoiler tags: [spoiler]...[/spoiler], but replace [ by < and ] by >

This is your space to chat about this month's book selection with other readers. There is no set schedule to follow, and no discussion leader is assigned. Everyone should feel free to post comments, share pertinent articles or interviews, ask questions, share likes or dislikes, etc. Most importantly, enjoy reading together!

What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

I listen to this as an audiobook driving back-and-forth to work each day. This was a great book and I was so entranced that I didn’t take notes going along as I usually do!

At first to confuse me going from one person to another different chapters for each person so that helped, but it wasn’t one story the whole way through. When I realized how these ladies were connected, and as a genealogist, I loved that, that made the reading flow much better

These women should such strength, such life force! Definitely recommend this book.

I have usually found that when a story has more than one POV, there will be one POV that I'm in love with and, sadly, the rest will be "meh." I have to admit -- this seemingly happened with Weyward as well. I thought Altha's story was really interesting (because who doesn't enjoy a witch accusation). I connected with Kate's story, though, and even though it took me at least 50% of the book to really start caring for Kate and "getting invested"... her story ended up being really contemporary and easy to identify with.

Violet. I don't know. I see how she linked the other generations and stories together. I felt horrible for her situation (you'll know the one I mean) and wanted to exact revenge on her behalf. But I just never "fell in love" with her story and I feel like I wanted to, just didn't.

Maybe multi-POVs just aren't my thing. But then I get frustrated when they're not my thing!

Lines that stood out to me [some of them just infuriated me]:

"It was hard to tell if Father loved her. Often, it seemed that all he cared about was whether or not he could mold her into something pretty and agreeable, a present to be given away to some other man" (129).

"As we know, our womenfolk in particular are at great risk from the devil's temptation, being weak in both mind and spirit" (186).

"Powerless, once she had robbed him of his only weapon: her fear" (313).

Also note the multiple references to 'green' throughout the novel.

Loved this book! Finished it a week ago and the characters are still in my mind.

My library hold became available at the right time for me to read this one with the group. Yay!

I enjoyed all three POVs and liked hearing how each of these three strong women triumphed over their particular circumstances. I especially appreciated Violet's (view spoiler)[infestation revenge against cousin Frederik. How apropos that he was unable to actually enjoy the estate that should have gone to Graham and Violet. Better still that Frederik was plagued for years by unwanted creepy critters much like himself. Hah! (hide spoiler)]

I read this earlier this year and loved it. I bought a shirt with a crow on it that I thought looked just like the cover!

The fact that I stayed up reading until midnight because I had to know what happened to the Weyward women says enough, I think.

I could easily identify with the three women, but found the short chapters and the quick switching between the characters a bit frustrating.

I’m half way through the book and am finding it a bit middle of the road at the moment. Like others Kate is the character I’m connecting with most but perhaps this is because she is a modern woman making brave and bold decisions for her life which is the easiest to relate to. The exploration of how (view spoiler)[Kate is sensing and experiencing magic as a result of her pregnancy with her daughter and linking it with the earth and the natural power of nature (hide spoiler)] is an interesting idea and I hope this element develops further as the story progresses. Altha’s story is the most interesting for me (as someone else said who doesn’t love a witch trial) and I’m most intrigued by her character but I don’t think her story is being given the attention it deserves, which is a shame as I have been trying to find a 5 star fiction book that explores witchcraft for a while - seems like I have to keep looking. Violet’s story is the one I am most meh about (which is surprising as I do love a 2nd world war story). (view spoiler)[ I’m assuming there will be a pregnancy for Violet in the second half given that there has been a lot of mention of Violet being disowned and a pregnancy out of wedlock, even though it was the result of a horrific attack, is likely to do that in a storyline set in the 40s (hide spoiler)]. It’s not the most original mechanism on the world but will likely do what it needs to do in terms of freeing Violet from the life she does not want and take her back to the Weyward cottage.

As Baukje said above the quick chapter switching between the characters, along with the changing 1st to 3rd person/present tense to past tense writing for each characters chapter, is a bit frustrating and making the book a bit disjointed for me. I love multiple POV books but I think the book is too short to have 3 POVS, 2 POVs (for me its Altha and Kate) would have allowed the author more scope to develop the depth of the characters and storyline. At the moment I feel like the book is a 3 star but I still have 47% to go.