Black Candle Women: A Novel

by Diane Marie Brown

Overview

A Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Seen on the Today Show

“If you like Practical Magic… you will love Black Candle Women.” —Jenna Bush Hager

Named a Best Book of the Month by: Shondaland, MS. Magazine, TODAY.com, Reader’s Digest, Katie Couric Media, AARP Sisters, Goodreads, BookRiot

A warm and wry family drama with a magical twist about four generations of Black women, a family love curse, and the secrets they keep for and from each other over one very complicated year

Generations of Montrose women—Augusta, Victoria, Willow—have always lived together in their quaint California bungalow. They keep to themselves, never venture far from home, and their collection of tinctures and spells is an unspoken bond between them. But when young Nickie Montrose brings home a boy for the first time, their quiet lives are thrown into disarray.

For the family has withheld a crucial secret from Nickie all these years: any person a Montrose woman falls in love with will die. Their surprise guest forces each woman to reckon with her own past choices and mistakes. And as new truths about the curse emerge, they're set on a collision course dating back to 1950s New Orleans’s French Quarter—where a hidden story in a mysterious book may just hold the answers they seek in life and in love…

“Richly imagined and elegantly told, with plenty of satisfying secrets, heartaches, and twists.”
—Sadeqa Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of The House of Eve, a Reese's Book Club Pick

“Propulsive and poignant, Black Candle Women concocts an intoxicating potion of warmth, wisdom, and wonder.” —Ava DuVernay

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781525899911
Publisher:	Graydon House Books
Publication date:	02/28/2023
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	21,956
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Diane Marie Brown is a professor at Orange Coast College and a public health professional for the Long Beach Health Department. She has a BA and MPH from UCLA and a degree in fiction from USC’s Master of Professional Writing Program. She grew up in Stockton and now lives in Long Beach, California, with her husband, their four daughters, and their dog, Brownie. Black Candle Women is her debut novel.

Editorial Reviews

11/07/2022

Love and death plague four generations of magical Montrose women in Brown’s middling debut. Augusta; her granddaughters, Victoria and Willow; and her great-granddaughter, Nickie, all share the Montrose curse: any person they fall in love with dies. The women have managed to live self-sufficiently in California thanks to Willow’s hoodoo and Victoria’s successful therapy practice. Then, on Nickie’s 17th birthday, she invites a boy home for dinner. Her mother, Victoria, is determined to stop the relationship before it can start and encourages Nickie to focus on her destined gift for helping others. But Nickie, who’s unaware of the curse, instead turns to her aunt, Willow, to learn love spells to keep her crush. As past mistakes and present secrets threaten to break the family, the secret of the curse’s origin—and the only hope of breaking it—lies with Augusta, who is unable to speak after two strokes. Interspersed with flashbacks to 1950s New Orleans, this multiple POV narrative offers a holistic portrayal of voodoo practices, but doesn’t offer as well-rounded a portrait of its heroines, who come off oddly flat. Still, for fans of intergenerational family dramas, this magical twist on the genre will prove refreshing. Agent: Cherise Fisher, Wendy Sherman Assoc. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

If you like Practical Magic… you will love Black Candle Women.” —Jenna Bush Hager

“Propulsive and poignant, Black Candle Women concocts an intoxicating potion of warmth, wisdom, and wonder. I was completely and gladly under Ms. Brown’s spell.”
—Ava DuVernay

“Richly imagined and elegantly told, with plenty of satisfying secrets, heartaches, and twists. Black Candle Women is a promising debut.”
—Sadeqa Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of Yellow Wife and Reese's Book Club Pick The House of Eve

“A spellbinding romp. This book will have you asking yourself, who amongst us isn’t cursed? More importantly, how far would you go for a chance at love?”
—Carolyn Huynh, author of GMA Book Club Pick The Fortunes of Jaded Women

“Written with warmth and an eye for detail, Diane Marie Brown’s Black Candle Women explores the bonds of family and the magical power of belief to transform our lives.”
—Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman, authors of The Thread Collectors

“Black Candle Women is a bold and tender story about three generations of women each attempting to find their way amidst the gifts and curses they've inherited. This novel is a wondrous celebration of womanhood.”
—Cleyvis Natera, author of Neruda on the Park

“Black Candle Women is a compassionate novel about motherhood, sisterhood, independence, and the reflection and forgiveness required to break generational curses. Diane Marie Brown’s prose, as well as her fascinating main characters, will win you over immediately.”
—De'Shawn Charles Winslow, winner of the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and author of Decent People

“A big-hearted debut, with complex, flawed, and compelling characters I was rooting for every step of the way.”
—E.M. Tran, author of Daughters of the New Year

“Brown deftly portrays an insular family of women in all of its complicated glory...The spiritual angle gives this powerful family drama a magical twist that will delight readers.”
—Booklist (starred review)

“For fans of intergenerational family dramas, this magical twist on the genre will prove refreshing.” —Publishers Weekly

“[A] gripping Black family drama...Brown’s debut tackles generational trauma in an engaging and heartfelt way.”
—Library Journal

“Told with warmth and wit, this page-turner cooks up a complex stew of family, love, and magic.” —Woman’s Day

From the Publisher

12/01/2022

DEBUT Brown's first novel is a gripping Black family drama that involves four generations of the family living under one roof in California. The Montrose women have been cursed for generations. Thanks to a curse cast by a New Orleans voodoo priestess in the 1950s, anyone whom a Montrose woman falls in love with will die. When the youngest Montrose daughter, Nickie, brings home a boy for the first time, the other Montrose women must decide how to tell her about the curse and come to terms with their own past traumas. The story switches between four points of view, spanning three generations of the women in the house; each of the women feels real and complex. The voodoo in the book is rooted in actual practices, and at the end of the book Brown credits the people who helped her research it. While this novel deals with grief, generational trauma, addiction, and more, it provides readers with a feeling of hope at the end. VERDICT A cozy autumn or winter read with a main cast of complex Black women. Brown's debut tackles generational trauma in an engaging and heartfelt way.—Carleigh Obrochta

Library Journal

05/01/2023

In the decades before the novel's present, Augusta Montrose was blessed with a gift from her ancestor, the loa Lanora; recognizing this, the powerful Bela Nova began training her in the religion of Voodoo and the practice of hoodoo magic. But when Augusta ran off with Bela Nova's son, Bela Nova cursed the Montrose family: the men they love will die. Years later, as her daughter, Madelyn, struggles with addiction, Augusta takes her granddaughters Victoria and Willow and moves to California. Now the women, including Victoria's daughter, Nickie, cohabitate in an uneasy alliance. Victoria uses Lanora's gift as a therapist; Willow creates spells and potions. When Nickie invites a boy over for her birthday dinner, the women find themselves trying to explain their family curse to a teenager ignorant of their history and gifts. Augusta, left unable to speak after a stroke, struggles to communicate with her family the events that led to the curse. Madelyn joins the household, adding to the tension as she tries to redeem herself. The family fractures, culminating in Nickie running away and the women returning to New Orleans to confront Augusta's past so they can move forward. Chapters provide alternating points of view, and the lack of Madelyn's voice reinforces her outsider status. Augusta's narrative focuses on the past, illustrating the ripple effect of her actions. A Spotify playlist is provided by the author. VERDICT Generations of women must confront their fears, resolve their issues, and rebuild their relationships. Good general purchase.—Tamara Saarinen

School Library Journal