The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs - by Katherine Howe (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A bewitching novel of a New England history professor who must race against time to free her family from a curse by Katherine Howe, New York Times bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane.

A magical bloodline. A family curse. Can Connie Goodwin break the spell before it shatters her future?

Connie Goodwin is an expert on America's fractured past with witchcraft. A young, tenure-track professor in Boston, she's earned career success by studying the history of magic in colonial America--especially women's home recipes and medicines--and by exposing society's threats against women fluent in those skills. But beyond her studies, Connie harbors a secret: She is the direct descendant of a woman tried as a witch in Salem, an ancestor whose abilities were far more magical than the historical record shows.

When a hint from her mother and clues from her research lead Connie to the shocking realization that her partner's life is in danger, she must race to solve the mystery behind a hundreds'-years-long deadly curse.

Flashing back through American history to the lives of certain supernaturally gifted women, The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs affectingly reveals not only the special bond that unites one particular matriarchal line, but also explores the many challenges to women's survival across the decades--and the risks some women are forced to take to protect what they love most.

Review Quotes

"The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs combines exacting historical research with compelling, imaginative storytelling. There is real magic at work in this book, which illuminates, like a candle in the dark, the enduring courage, wisdom, and searing power of women, passed down through countless generations."
--Kathleen Kent, New York Times bestselling author of The Heretic's Daughter

"Katherine Howe invites us into a richly imagined, intricate world of family curses and secrets waiting to be unlocked. Elegant, twisty, and timely, The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs has it all."
--Matthew Pearl, New York Times bestselling author of The Dante Chamber and The Dante Club

"Katherine Howe is back and in fine, bewitching form. I relished criss-crossing centuries as Connie Goodwin--equal parts scholar, sleuth, and sorceress--tackles the mystery of a curse on the women of her notorious lineage, racing to break the spell before it breaks her."
--Julia Glass, National Book Award-winning author of Three Junes and A House Among the Trees

About the Author

Katherine Howe is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and The House of Velvet and Glass, as well as the young adult novels, Conversion and The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen. She served as editor of The Penguin Book of Witches and her fiction has been translated into over twenty languages. Descended from three women who were tried for witchcraft in Salem, she and her family live in New England and New York City, where she is at work on her next novel.