Devil's Call is a haunting and engaging read that will appeal to fans of historical fiction, Westerns, and horror alike. J. Danielle Dorn's atmospheric writing and strong protagonist make for a thrilling journey through the eerie landscapes. Although the pacing may falter at times, the book's unique blend of genres and its exploration of profound themes make it a compelling and memorable reading experience.

This was a bit special for me. Not necessarily in a bad way, but in a bit of a dragged out way. So much story. So much richness in the history of it all. Yet somehow, despite the depth of the characters I felt it rambled on more than was needed. Some parts felt underexplained, while the over arch felt a as if it went on forever. I had no problems finishing it, yet it didn't really leave me wanting more either.

Written in the form of a letter from the narrator to her unborn child, the novel chronicles the life of Li Lian MacPherson, also known as Lily, a mixed-race witch who hails form a long line of magically gifted women

Devil's Call is an interesting read that mainly focuses on a traumatized witch hunting the band of men who murdered her husband. Of course, this situation is compounded by the fact that the witch is pregnant, and slowly learns that the leader of this murderous band of men may not be all together human.

I enjoyed the family saga aspect of this novel. Learning about the family history of magic, sisterhood, and strength reminded me of Practical Magic; these are strong, opinionated, talented women with strong magical powets. Despite this intriguing plot line, I found that the build-up to the final conflict was lacking. The momentum of the story dragged, when I was expecting more action. Additionally, when we finally catch up with the main antagonist - I felt that there was something missing. In reality, the threat didn't seem that concerning.

Finally, the ending stood out as the most difficult part to relate with, and accept. The calm with which the protagonist accepts the issue is unbelievable, and took me out of the story.

Ultimately, if you enjoy revenge tales with strong, powerful women; or Westerns; I think you will enjoy Devil's Call. I was looking for more on the magic side, then on the revenge.

The only thing about this book that did not please was that it was over much too soon! Not a bad thing, but I felt it would have benefitted from a bit more detail. Apart from this, it is well developed and intriguing, telling of Lily, a woman hellbent on finding the murderer of her husband, using her witchy powers to do so. Recommended reading.

The below 5-star review was posted to Every Day Should Be Tuesday, Amazon, and Goodreads on 7/25/17:

Devil’s Call is one hell of a story, a bloody weird western propelled by protagonist Li Lian’s remarkable voice.

Li Lian is the mixed race daughter from a family where witchery runs on the female line. She follows her husband, a former army doctor, to the Nebraska frontier. It is there that something goes terribly wrong.

Li Lian’s husband is killed. Killed by men who left no tracks. Li Lian must track them down with nothing but the help of a drunken butcher and her own magic and with a former cavalry commander turned lawman on her heels.

Devil’s Call is written from the POV of Li Lian, writing to the daughter she is pregnant with when her husband is killed. Li Lian does many stupid things. They’re a lot easier to swallow when it is an older, wiser Li Lian admitting as much. She has enough self-awareness to recognize her flaws and mistakes, if not to rectify them or avoid making new ones.

Devil’s Call is a slow burn, and 275 pages proves to be the perfect length to bring things to a boil. Dorn ever so slowly begins to suggest just how much Li Lian’s vengeance will cost and just how dangerous the man who killed her husband is. Devil’s Call turns into something genuinely horrifying.

5 of 5 Stars.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of Devil’s Call through NetGalley.

The first thing any reader will notice about Devil's Call is that the entire story is told in a first person narrative. The main character is telling her tale from her distinct point of view after the events have already taken place. I know some people are bothered by this technique but in this case I thought it was highly effective, especially given the unique voice of the main character Lily, a member of a family of witches living in the midwest during the mid-1850s.

Lily recounts the harrowing tale for her daughter to provide in the future as Lily seems convinced she won't be around to provide it for herself. More than anything else, Lily seems intent that her daughter should learn from her own mistakes and shortcomings so she can grow up to be a better person and live a happier, more peaceful life.

Although I enjoyed the unique narrative, I thought the pacing and direction of the story meandered a bit. There were entire sections devoted to events that seemed fairly minor and should have been quickly brushed over. In addition, the actions of a few of the characters seemed a bit odd given the circumstances taking place in a few of the scenes. It's possible the author intended to keep the reader off balance given the supernatural aspects of the story but some struck me as just plain inconsistent.

Overall, Devil's Call is a fun and unique read. If you can sustain interest through a few spots where the pacing grows a bit tedious, you'll be rewarded with a thrilling that includes a few unexpected twists.

The nitty-gritty: A bleak and violent story, made beautiful by exquisite writing and an irresistible female voice.

I hope you grow up to be a wild one, that you learn to spit and curse and shoot a gun. This country is not kind to soft women.

This book came out of nowhere, but when fellow blogger Mogsy raved about it, I knew I had to track it down and read it. Inkshares is a new-to-me publisher, but if Devil’s Call is anything to go by, I’ll certainly start paying more attention to them. This was a short, fast read, but not just because of the page count. I could NOT stop reading once I started! The story is a first person accounting of a woman’s search for vengeance, written in the form of a letter to her baby daughter. The woman, a mixed race, fatherless girl named Li Lian, recounts the story of her life from childhood up to the present time, delving back into her family’s rich history of witchcraft to tell the story of her fascinating—but bleak—life. Not only is this a story about witchcraft, but it’s a western, set in the 1850s and moving from Chicago to the untamed Nebraska territory to New Orleans.

Li Lian’s real adventure begins when she meets and falls in love with her future husband, an Army doctor named Matthew Callahan. They eventually marry and begin their lives together in the bustling but dangerous city of Chicago. Li Lian fears raising their children in the city, partly because she’s of mixed race and her children will be too. Matthew is worried that someone will find out that his wife is a witch, and so they jump at the chance to move to Nebraska when Matthew is offered a job there.

Finally free to get pregnant and raise a family without fear of persecution, Li Lian sets about making a wonderful life for their growing family in the wide open spaces of the plains. But one night two strangers come to the door, begging for medical help. One of them has been shot, and it’s Matthew’s duty as a doctor to help. In an instant, things go terribly wrong, and Li Lian watches as her husband is shot and killed right in front of her. Full of rage and determination, Li Lian sets out to track down the men responsible for her husband’s murder, accompanied by the town butcher, a man named Roger Hawking.

This book was so addictive, which is mostly due to the wonderful voice of Li Lian. Dorn’s writing perfectly captures a strong woman who is trying to get by in a male dominated world, where violence, harsh weather, and other hardships are all obstacles that she faces on a daily basis. I have to admit I’m addicted to sweeping stories that encompass the entirety of a character’s life. Li Lian’s story begins with her ancestors the MacPhersons, a Scottish clan where the females are all gifted with magical abilities. But as cool as that sounds, the MacPherson women were harshly persecuted for practicing witchcraft—and even Li Lian and her mother, aunts and sisters must be careful to hide their abilities.

And there is something irresistible about a Western setting for me, especially when you combine that setting with magic. Dorn’s imagery is spare and evocative, and I could practically feel the heat of the sun and the grit of the dusty plains as I was reading. And like the best Westerns, the characters are in constant danger. The violence often comes out of nowhere, shockingly sudden, and perfectly captures the lawlessness of the wild west.

I loved the magic of Li Lian’s witchcraft, which enhances the story rather than taking it over. Li Lian can use her Will to make things happen, from moving small objects with her mind to affecting the way a person acts. She can also make vines bloom simply by touching them, and I loved the way her magic was elemental, earth magic. But every time she uses magic, there is a price, and so Li Lian must choose carefully when to use it.

To kill a man with magick is no task to take on lightly. It is difficult enough to do good with it, and to kill a man takes something from the soul of the one who does the taking.

While Li Lian is the driving force behind this story—and one of the best characters I’ve run across this year—I also adored Roger Hawking. Although the relationship between Hawking and Li Lian never crosses the line into a romantic one (hey, she just lost her husband!), I thought their banter was adorable. If Devil’s Call is ever made into a movie, I know exactly who should play the part of Roger Hawking: Adam Baldwin, who played Jayne in Firefly. I could not read his dialog without imagining Jayne’s sarcastic drawl!

The pacing is relentless, and so I was a little worried as I neared the end that Dorn was not going to be able to wrap things up. The ending did feel a little rushed to me, which is my only criticism of the story. A lot happens as Li Lian and Hawking get closer to their target, and within a span of a few pages everything manages to come to a head. A twist that I didn’t see coming ends the story with the possibility of a sequel, or maybe that’s just me wishing really hard!

This was a fantastic surprise and an assured debut. I can’t wait to see what J. Danielle Dorn does next.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

This isn't my usual kind of book, but I'm so glad I gave it a chance! It's relatively short and easy to read, but it'll keep you intrigued the whole time. Full of strong women, determination, and magick. It's written as a sort of diary or letter and set in the 1800's, and I was left wondering until the very end.

"Girlhood is a magick all its own, and our girlhood was a shared one."
Li Lian hails from a long line of gifted women. They can track people or hex them. They can make things grow or make them die. They can protect, or they can harm. Not only is Li Lian gifted, she's feisty. She doesn't take crap from anyone, even though her lineage comes with a certain danger if the wrong people find out about it. It's almost a surprise when she falls in love, but she does. He's a good man, and they move and begin a life together. They're happy for some time, and eventually she allows herself to become pregnant.

"It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man. You take away all he’s got and all he’s ever gonna have." —William Munny, Unforgiven
They live together peacefully until three men arrive at their door and ruin everything. Her husband has been shot and killed, and she has no idea why. Blamed for the murder, she runs. Escape is necessary, and she can't do it on her own. She has Hawking for company, a town drunk who was injured by the very same men who took her husband from her and the only one on her side. Despite her pregnancy, she's determined to get justice for her husband... but she may not he chasing ordinary men.

Warning: if you are very sensitive to animal abuse, as I am, there may be a few paragraphs in the book you want to skip.

I received an ARC of this book from Net Galley and Inkshares, thank you! My review is honest and unbiased.

This is a tale of loss and revenge. Li Lian, or Lilian as many call her, writes to her unborn child about her life and the tale of why she won't be there to raise the baby she is writing to. Li Lian shares the story of her life growing up and the past of the family of witches. Li Lian thinks she can have a "normal" life with her husband until the devil comes calling and kills her husband. As Li Lian chases the devil across the country seeking revenge it is hard to tell who is the cat and who is the mouse in this game of revenge.

I was given an eARC by the publisher though NetGalley.

When I was sent a copy of DEVIL'S CALL by J. Danielle Dorn, all I knew was that it was considered a 'Western Horror' - color me intrigued. Taking place in rural America just before the Civil War, we are brought on Li Lian's journey to avenge her husband. Told to us in the pages of her diary for her unborn child we follow her from Nebraska to New Orleans to St Louis to find the man that murdered her husband.

Li Lian, or Lily, is from a long line of powerful women. She is gifted in a way that scares most around her, she is a part of the MacPherson clan of witches. Growing up she needed to learn quickly that she needed to have control over herself and her urges to will things with her mind. One day, Lily meets a young soldier, Matthew Callahan, and a romance blossoms while he's away at war. She moves to Illinois with him so he can attend medical school, which then brings him out to Nebraska to be De Soto's doctor (small town).

One night, Lily receives a warning from her mother of three highwaymen coming for her, she did not take heed to her warnings. Two men show up one night to their front door and one is badly injured. When Lily goes to get the local butcher Roger Hawking (to help her husband amputate a leg), she returns with Hawking to see her husband's murder. From that night on, she and Hawking go on a journey to track down the three highwaymen to seek vengeance.

The story is told through the pages of Li Lian's diary to her unborn child. The accounts of what happened and why she will grow up not knowing her father. I really enjoyed the story being told this way. It was like sitting down to hear a story from your parents or grandparents. Dorn was very true to the time period - the language used, descriptions, and everything else were spot on for the pre-Civil War era.

If you want a good period horror story with the occult, then I'd highly recommend this one. At just under 300 pages, this was a very quick read! If you aren't a fan of Westerns or that time period, then you may not enjoy this one as much.

I give this 4/5 stars!

A big thanks to Inkshares for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Even though Li Lian was warned that three bad men were on their way to her De Soto, Nebraska home, she was not prepared for what would happen—not that night and not during the long months she would spend tracking down the man who killed her husband. Devil’s Call, by J. Danielle Dorn is a tale in the tradition of Western revenge, but with the added bonus of witchcraft and devilry. You see, Li Lian is a witch from a long line of witches and the man she’s hunting is no ordinary man.

Devil’s Call is told to us directly by Li Lian, though she is narrating what happened to her unborn child. She grew up without knowing the father who gave her Asian eyes and an Asian name. She didn’t want her own child to not know the kindness of her murdered husband. As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that Li Lian wants her child to understand the choices she made and who she was before she took up her quest for vengeance.

Li Lian tracks back and forth through her life and family history, revealing the witchy history of her female forbearers. While she tells us why the women in her family had to flee their ancestral Scotland, she also traces her too-brief courtship and life with her husband before launching into the steps she took to trace the very bad man who suddenly arrived to destroy her life. Each iteration of these parts of the story takes us deeper into a secret war between witches and the men (or creatures) that have hunted them over the centuries.

Devil’s Call also gets darker and darker as Li Lian learns more about George Dalton, the man (sort of) she is hunting. Dalton is not a hard man to follow, as the line goes, because he leaves dead people everywhere he goes. We know Li Lian will find him. What we don’t know is who will come out on top in the end. This is a tense, gripping read with an ending that turned everything I had learned on its head. Devil’s Call is short, but it packs a hell of a punch.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration. It will be released 18 July 2017.

Devil’s Call by J. Danielle Dorn is a first person narrative, the memoir of a witch, lovingly written to a daughter she may never be able to know.

Li Lian comes from a long line of witches and has only known female relatives, a family life reminiscent of that in Practical Magic. In St Louis during the mid 1800s, she learns to master the art of magic in a responsible way. When she meets Matthew, a soldier, everything changes. She falls in love and leaves the protection of her family. Unfortunately, a mysterious, tall, dark man murders Matthew while the pregnant Li Lian watches. The killer tips his hat and winks at her as he rides away, hinting something more than a random act of evil. Accused of her husband’s murder, Li Lian goes on a mission of revenge, a mission that takes her across the wild, untamed country with only a drunken butcher for company. Ultimately, she ends up alone when near her due date.

The tale ends in a dramatic and totally unpredictable finale when Li Lian faces the demon.

Li Lian knows she must separate herself from all she loves, including her daughter, so she writes to impart not only family history, but secret knowledge to the daughter she believes she will never see again. Most importantly, she wants her daughter to know that her mother loved her.

The narrative is not only unique, but is notable for the personal connection it makes with readers. Perhaps this connection is enhanced by the overwhelming feeling of love so clearly characterized by the language. The text flows musically and the plot is singular and will keep readers engaged from start to finish.

Non believers may decide to classify Devil’s Call as magical realism. However, those steeped in the craft may choose to perceive it as an act of love, from sister to sister.

Readers who enjoy this story may be rewarded with a sequel subtly foreshadowed in the unexpected conclusion.

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I really enjoyed this one. It was much shorter than I'm used to. I can't tell you how many pages because my kindle only gave me location numbers, but I'd have to guess it was equal to about 200 paperback pages. It was enough to tell the story and anymore would have hurt rather than helped, and that's what matters.

I really loved the format it was written in. Our protagonist, Li Lian, who comes from a long line of witches, is writing a letter to her daughter. The blurb describes it as a diary, but it feels much more like a letter. It gave the whole book a feeling of impending doom. Why is Li Lian writing a letter to her daughter, and saying things like "Nana Cat will tell you when you're older?" Does she live? Or is something more sinister happening here? Is she still chasing the man who killed her husband? They were answers I needed to have and thus I read the whole book in one sitting. The conclusion did not disappoint and I didn't see it coming.

I found myself quite attached to the main characters, of which there were arguably two. This is hard to do in such a short story and I attribute it, once again, to the format it was told in. The author conveyed a mother's real sense of love for her husband and daughter and lineage and you just felt for her. It was very personal. The second main character, Hawkins, is a hot mess when you meet him, and he goes on being a hot mess for most of the book. He's a good man though, trying to atone for past sins, and you can see that from the first moment he becomes an important player in the book.

I loved the witchcraft and the way it was explained in the book. Each woman in the family seems capable of doing what the others can do, but they do it in their own way. One uses beauty. Li Lian uses fire. Her mother uses mirrors. They read tea leaves and palms and tarot cards. They cut locks of hair and recite incantations for hexes, they use ribbon and dust and objects to track people, they use water and mirrors to communicate, and they use stones for protection. It gave the book that little extra element that made it a more unique story of revenge.

The setting was fun. I don't read nearly enough westerns. Li Lian gets her start in a roadhouse in St. Louis, runs away to a cantina in Texas, tracks her target to New Orleans, and back again to the Badlands. Everything felt authentic and included the classic elements of a western, soldiers, cards, gambling, and whiskey.

The only thing that held this back from being a five star read was that I expected a little more horror. Perhaps I'm jaded from all the horror books I've previously read. You'll see body parts and murder aplenty, but I think true horror is more psychological then discarded body parts. I don't know what else Devil's Call might be labeled except maybe as paranormal, but it wasn't until the last few paragraphs that I felt truly chilled.

The conclusion is fantastic though and will leave you wondering, but what happens next? I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good supernatural story or witches or westerns.

Thank you to Inkshares and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

If you were to ask me the best thing about this book, my answer would be Li Lian, the main character. She's strong and independent and never lets up. We see life through the eyes of an ingenious witch in the late 1800s, and it is fantastic. Dorn as a great story here.

“Before what I knew what it was to be a witch, I knew what it was to be different.”

Li Lian – or Lilian, as many mistakenly call her – has never by any means lived an ordinary life. Since before she knew what she was, she could move objects with her mind. Where she walked without shoes, wildflowers grew. She comes from a female-only line of strong witches, long exiled by witch hunters from their homeland of Scotland. But her life is no fairy tale. In St. Louis in the mid 1800’s, the MacPherson women cannot live and practice magic as freely as some of them may wish, especially young Lily.

So, when a young soldier and doctor named Matthew Callahan crosses her path, she quickly falls in love, desperate for a change, and follows him to Chicago and soon after to the territory of Nebraska. Here, he can practice medicine where it's needed, and she can practice magic without constantly worrying about drawing attention to making flowers and trees grow where they shouldn't.

In her new life, suddenly no longer feeling like a child in a cage, Lily practices her magic more freely, as well as becomes pregnant. Before their new, perfect life can truly blossom, Matthew is brutally murdered right before Lily’s eyes. Without hesitation, she vows to go after his killers, alone if she has to, and will travel as far as she has to – baby in her belly or not. The rest of the novel follows Lily and an unlikely companion across the wilderness of the yet young United States, up and down the vast Mississippi, through the unruly streets of New Orleans, and to the unforgiving landscape of the Badlands in the depths of winter.

The entire book is written in a letter to Lily’s daughter. We do not, until the very end, know why Lily must leave her child behind, or why this is her only means of passing on to her both advice of magic and life, as well as the story of how she came to be. Though the tale she tells is perilous, she manages some humor, and does manage to give her daughter some solid advice, that, if Lily had followed herself, she would probably not be in the position that she is. “Be wild, but be wise, darling,” she tells her, someone hoping this will help prepare her child for a better life than her own. “What is what right is not always easy, my dear, but it makes the world a less repugnant place”.

I can say without a doubt that I never read a book quite like this before. The genre blending of fantasy and Western felt incredibly fresh and exciting. Magic and witchy novels are perhaps my favorite genre, and the same setting and character types are repeated over and over. Never has there been a witch like Li Lian MacPherson. She is a fairly layered and interesting character. The love for her unborn daughter on her grueling journey to find her husband’s killer is heart-warming, and Ms. Dorn does a great job expressing it ( "I cannot tell you what will happen after I set down this pen[…]But I can tell you I have loved you since before you were born, and I will love you until my bones are dust” ).

Lily's companion, Hawking, the village drunk, provides occasional comic relief (Lily continually pokes fun of his perpetual drunkenness, with quips like: “[The] only evidence you’re gonna find there is the proof on the front of a dammed whiskey bottle” ). Every other character in the book however, including Matthew, we barely get to know before the either wind up dead or out of the picture.

At times, the writing seemed very rushed. I would have loved for it to have been longer. Learning more about Lily’s childhood, her family background (which was unnecessarily complicated & confusing(, and how she learned the magic that she used along her journey would have made it a lot more enjoyable for me. However, as the book is written as a letter, and as we eventually learn, in an extreme and time-sensitive manner, this makes a bit more sense. The conclusion of the novel also seemed anti-climactic. For a few hundred pages we are following this mysterious villain(s), and it all ended very quickly, with a lot of back & forth banter about whether or not the devil is real or not.

I would have been happy with 100-200 more pages, since Ms. Dorn is quite capable of providing the reader with imaginative details and lush language (some favorite examples: “the air was the ghost of violence”, “my hex had left a stain in the air” ).

It just wasn’t quite enough for me to give this novel a higher rating. I will hold out hope for a sequel, and that we can dive a bit deeper into the unique world of Lily MacPherson and the now three generations of witches in the wild west.

3.5/5 Stars

**Many thanks to Inkshares & Netgalley for my first ARC!**