Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book. I had the highest of hopes for it. Sadly, there was so much disconnect and confusion that I almost DNF. Which is so rare for me. The plot sounded fun, and the characters sounded intriguing before I read. The story just sort of stayed bland, and the characters were just not relatable for me. I wish I could have loved it.

I’m really embracing the influx of witchy fantasy stories and have been trying to pick up a few each season. For the fall season, we have the surprisingly spooky book, The Witches of Bone Hill.
This is the story of two sisters who’re both having difficulties in their lives when they’re informed that they’ve inherited a massive estate in Connecticut from their estranged grandmother. Cordelia is going through a nasty divorce and the mob is calling her up for her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s debt. Her sister Eustace had a successful cannabis business in Colorado until cancer treatments nearly bankrupted her. Cordelia, a real estate agent, has plans to sell the property to make her financial concerns go away, but it seems her ancestors insist the estate stay in the Bone family and the two sisters find themselves with a massive, haunted house on their hands and perhaps something more sinister.
The Witches of Bone Hill shows the goods and bads of the Bone family and has a surprisingly spooky kick to it. Cordelia can see and speak with ghosts and the entirety of the Bone estate is chock full of their ancestors' spirits and it’s terrifying to Cordy. Eustace’s magic allows her a talent for growth and a gift with animals, much to Cordy’s envy - why did she get stuck with the macabre magic? Not only do they have to deal with their magic, which for so many years they had denied or suppressed, but it seems like they might have a human intruder on their hands. Could it be the same person who murdered their mother years before?
I enjoyed the mystery element, the gothic atmosphere of the Bone Hill, and the little thread of romance woven into the story. I thought Cordy and Eustace were great characters and it’s wonderful to see a book where siblings actually love one another, despite being apart for years. Overall, this was a really good story that balanced the darker aspects of magic, with the beautiful bond of sisterhood that Cordy and Eustace have. I think this could be a good choice for folks who enjoyed Sangu Mandanna’s The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, but who don’t mind a somewhat darker aspect with less of the cozy fantasy vibe.

The Witches of Bone Hill follows sisters Cordelia and Eustace as they return to their ancestral home to claim their inheritance after the death of their estranged aunt. As they unravel secrets of their past and ancestry, dark threats emerge.

This was a very fun, intriguing read for me. I enjoyed the spooky, mysterious vibes. Sisters discovering their witch ancestry while also fighting some mysterious force? Sold. The plot did move fairly slowly, but then kicked up the pace quite dramatically for the last 100 pages or so. Even with the slow pace I felt engaged by the humor, the sisters’ relationship, the mythology, and, of course, the magic. There is a small romance throughout the book. If I’m honest, however, if the romance was not in the book, I don’t think we would have missed out on much. The romance did not really add much to the overall plot (in my opinion).

This book does venture slightly to the dark fantasy world. I did not enjoy the vivd descriptions of the animal cruelty that occurs. There are also scenes of violence described.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Witches of Bone Hill. The plot was thrilling and the characters were intriguing. If you like books with a mystery and magic, you’ll enjoy this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an eARC of this book to review.

Star Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️.75 / ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Spice Rating:
🌶 / 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶

Cordelia Bone's life has imploded, and in such a cliched way. Her husband has run off with her assistant,.... but not before racking up a ton of debt in her name, destroying her business, and leaving her with a pile of debts she can't afford to pay. When her older, carefree sister, Eustace—a cannabis grower in Boulder—calls to inform her that the great aunt they never met has died and they must travel to a small town in Connecticut to deal with the estate, Cordelia thinks this might just be the answer she has been looking for. If she can just go up there, bury her aunt, and sell the house, maybe she can pay off all of her debts. But once they arrive, they discover the Victorian mansion they stand to inherit is bound in a dynasty trust controlled by their late aunt's aging attorney, who insists they retain and inhabit the house but keeps them in the dark about the peculiar rituals of their ancestors. As both women grapple with their current predicament, they come face to face with a haunting family secret, the truth of what happened to their mother, and the enemy that's been stalking them from the shadows for generations. The sisters must uncover the power within them to heal their fractured relationship, reverse their mysteriously declining health, and claim the lineage they wanted to escape but now must embrace if they are to survive at Bone Hill.

This started out as a bit of a slow burn for me, and there were moments throughout the book where the storyline seemed to drag, but overall the story was exciting to read. I did feel that it got a bit word-y, and at over 400 pages, it was a fairly lengthy story. It had a little something for everyone - witches, ghosts, a mystery, a romance, blood magic,, Nordic mythology, murder, a haunted house. The one thing I really wish it hadn't had was animal mutilation...some of those scenes, although key points in the story, turned my stomach. Overall, I give this a solid 4 out of 5 stars.

Practical magic meets sixth sense!

Cordelia finds herself in a predicament when her deadbeat husband leaves her for her assistant and conveniently bankrupts her at the same time. Eustace finds herself battling an illness, losing her business to pay for medical bills, and her long term girlfriend dumps her because she doesn’t want kids.

Insert their estranged great aunt dying and having to come to a home and life they did NOT know existed.

Hello to the most beautiful, spooky, haunted house you’ve ever seen. The house on Bone Hill! Picture ghosts, witchy vibes (with lots of baking), an evil entity trying to kick these new babes out, and to top it off: a hot Gardner with all the tattoos.

This was the perfect mixture of romance, suspense, gore, you name it! Would definitely recommend.

All thoughts are my own. Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.

I was obsessed with this book. Hands down this was such a fun read and it had me captivated the whole time. I loved the dynamic between Cordelia and Eustace from the beginning. This was the perfect fall read and the perfect halloween read. I didn’t want the book to end. I would highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

I received this book for free from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press. Thank you to them for the chance to read this ARC! This review was left entirely voluntarily and all opinions are my own.

Heading into Fall, nothing gives those Autumn vibes quite like a book about a haunted house. Luckily for all my friends out there unsure about horror and thrillers, The Witches of Bone Hill offers a unique opportunity to explore some of the genres’ themes and tropes without any real hardcore scares. That aside, the plot does leave me conflicted for other reasons.
Honestly, if you take away all the mystery and paranormal elements, The Witches of Bone Hill seems like it would make a fairly decent contemporary romance. Woman is left financially and emotionally destroyed after catching husband cheating, leaves the big city to reconnect with her estranged sister and moves into her ancestral home that comes complete with a sexy tattooed groundskeeper. As a whole I definitely appreciated how Morgyn incorporated so many different elements from other genres like romance and women’s fiction into this story. It made the narrative feel more accessible and I’m always happy to see a female protagonist who’s over thirty—and this book had two! For all of that alone, I could see The Witches of Bone Hill being a gateway novel to authors like Grady Hendrix, Riley Sager, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
That being said, the book does contain something that turned me off, and that is animal cruelty. I’m not talking animals dying or describing corpses in various states of decay like other horror novels, I mean full blown animal torture. As such I am reluctant to just outright recommend The Witches of Bone Hill to everyone. However, I think if you know what to expect going in and you’re still willing to try this novel out, then I say go for it. Ultimately, it is well written and presents a good ghost story mystery.

Ava Morgyn's The Witches of Bone Hill is a contemporary paranormal centered around a pair of sisters who will shortly learn about their family, including their mother, that they never knew about. Cordelia Bone is a realtor in Texas who has been betrayed by an affair by husband. Her reputation is destroyed and so is her finances. Just when things are looking bleak, her older, carefree sister, Eustace, a cannabis grower in Boulder, calls with some interesting news. Even though the sisters have drifted away over the years, they learn that an aunt they never met has died, leaving them with a house.

Cordelia sees this as the answer to her problems. She’s eager to go see the house, sell it as fast as possible, and use the money to repair her life. But once there, the sisters learn they are getting much more than they bargained for. The Victorian mansion they stand to inherit is bound in a dynasty trust controlled by their late aunt's aging attorney who insists they inhabit the house and retain it or they lose everything. Then there's the tattooed groundskeeper (Gordon Jablonski) with a shrouded past who refuses to leave the carriage house and a crypt full of dead relatives looming at the property line.

As both women grapple with their current predicament, they come face to face with a haunting family secret, the truth of what happened to their mother Magda, who was likely murdered, as well as other devastating secrets about their descendants, and the enemy that's been stalking them from the shadows for generations waiting for the right time to strike and gain their revenge on be Bone's. In a twisting torrent of terror and blood, the sisters must uncover the power within them to heal their fractured relationship, reverse their mysteriously declining health, and claim the lineage they wanted to escape but now must embrace if they are to survive at Bone Hill.

*Thoughts*

This book has all the things...ghosts, witches, blood magic, romance, mystery,murder...the house is its own character, especially when Cordy comes into her own magical heritage and starts understanding that not is all that it's cracked up to be. There were also times when the story dragged a little and I felt like the sisters were just rehashing the same subjects over and over. The story itself is on the dark side with very eerie, ghost like chills to it, and a sickening scene with animal cruelty that will likely not go over well. In the end, the final 3 chapters were definitely the most entertaining and chilling of the entire story.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this complimentary ARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I was excited to read this book as I've never read this author's books before. The opening chapter was great and it pulled me in. Could anything else happen to upend the MC's life? I thought the book dragged a bit in the middle, but it was an overall fun read.

Sisters Cordelia and Eustace have been estranged for five years but now, at just the right time for both of them, they've inherited a house from an aunt they didn't know. Turns out there's a lot they didn't know because their mother kept them from her family and her history and surprise- they're witches. They must stay in the house together in order to take possession (not a pun) and that sets up a coming to terms with each other, their past, and their future. Not all is easy, though, as there's a sort of curse and and bad things happen. Cordelia's voice (she tells the story) is clear but her sister is more fun. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Know that this does get dark, that there's a somewhat unnecessary romantic element, and that it's a good read.

This book is so well done. Interesting, sparkly, witchy vibes, but not too out there. Just enough balance between magical and real life. It was a pleasure to get lost in this special world!

Two estranged sisters must reunite to settle their aunt’s estate. Cordelia and Eustace reveal family secrets and must learn to harness their family’s history to survive.

I liked the overall idea here but I think it took too long to get to the more fantastical elements. I also didn’t love the voices of the characters. That might just be a personal preference though.

This book starts off slow and gets better as it goes along. I would give it 3.5 stars if I could. Cordelia’s life is falling apart due to the misdeeds of her soon to be ex husband. In the middle of discovering another disaster, she gets a call from her sister Eustace, whom she has not spoken to in five years. An unknown great-aunt has died and they have been summoned to the funeral. Quickly after their arrival in Connecticut they realize that things are strange at the house. This is an intriguing story of discovering their heritage as witches and what that means.

Spooky and spellbinding
Though this was outside of my normal scope (I tend to gravitate towards contemporary romance) this book was a delightfully dark and twisty surprise. With sisterly relationships and all the spooky season vibes, this book is perfect for anyone looking for the book version of Practical Magic. Lovers of autumnal vibes and all things witchy and murderous will devour this one.

Thanks so much for approving me to read this! I love witches, mysteries, and haunted houses, so this felt right up my alley. I really enjoyed the writing especially; Morgyn's prose brought the house to life and fit the atmosphere perfectly. It was lyrical, lovely, and she drew descriptions together in a way that made me want to jump into the book.

However, I felt like this was juggling a little too many things for me to really dive in and enjoy the plot. The mafia plotline? The complex family lore? The book builds slowly and lays a lot of breadcrumbs, but the magic system is never fully realized. It felt like wading upstream as I tried to stay invested in the book. I feel like tension was already built in to certain aspects – the sisters are estranged, and should struggle to reconnect. Cordelia could feel conflicted over jumping into a new romance after previous heartbreak, but she goes from being critical of him to liking him with little transition. These are unrealistically easy, and the author creates other confusing tensions instead. I think this is also why I struggled to connect with the characters.

The final battle/unraveling was the most exciting part of the book, and I really enjoyed the final confrontation as it all came together. But everything leading up to it lacked the same excitement and pacing, so while I was intrigued and excited to solve the mystery, I wasn't too invested either.

This book had some gems and some potential, but overall I probably wouldn't recommend it. This was more like a 2.5, but rounded up for the system.

The plot was good but the authors style of writing at times made me cringe. Especially some of the dialogue between the two sisters. Her loins? Seriously?
The witching part was good and the ending okay.

I started recommending this book to others before I even finished it. If you are looking for a book with spooky vibes to read in the fall, this is it. In The Witches of Bone Hill, Cordelia and Eustace find out they are Nordic witches after their aunt dies and they jointly inherit her house. It is a bit gory in a couple of spots but isn't going to force you to sleep with the lights on.

The Witches of Bone Hill by Ava Morgyn
Releases September 26th
Genre: Family Drama with horror elements
Overall (out of 5) ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫
Prose⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pacing(1=slow 5=fast)⭐
Character Development ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Scary (1=mild 5= terrifying)⭐⭐💫
Gore (1=clean 5=splatter)⭐⭐
Atmosphere⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Library or Buy-worthy: Buy-Worthy
Similar vibe:The House on Tradd Street by Karen White, The Whispering Dead by Darcy Coates, Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

***Caution Potential Spoilers Follow***
This story has it all: sister witches, a family mystery, haunted Victorian Gothic Revival style manor, light romance, horror elements and a shady mafioso.

Eustace and Cordelia are estranged sisters drawn together to parse out a deceased relatives estate. Cordelia's situation with her failed marriage were so relatable, it instantly drew me in. The author's writing is nicely descriptive. This is one of those gothic books where the house itself is a main character. You can feel the chill, imposing dread of it jumping off the page. It reminded me of Home Before Dark by Riley Sager and a little of Stephen King's Rose Red or The Haunting of Hill House, without all the horror. Although there is a constant creepy atmosphere, I wasn't scared at any time so I'd say 'The Witches of Bone Hill' falls into a dark/cozy mystery category. In short, I really loved this book. To me it was a much better developed and written version of Home Before Dark by Riley Sager. I loved the witches so much. I'll definitely be preordering a signed copy.

"In the blood dripped and spattered across the opposite wall, righted only by the reversal of its reflection, one gruesome, gut-twisting word had formed. Witch."

3.5 stars Sisters, Cordelia and Eustace Bone, inherit an old Victorian mansion in a small town in Connecticut. This comes at a great time, as Cordelia is going through a messy divorce and Eustace is battling health concerns. A caveat regarding living in the home comes with the inheritance and the sisters find out they're witches, from a long lineage of witches, and all while finding out what truly became of their mother. Major Alice Hoffman vibes with this one.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this e-arc.*

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, NetGalley and Ava Morgyn for allowing me access to this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Witches of Bone Hill is about two sisters, Cordelia and Eustace. The sisters are reunited after many years of no contact, upon discovering that they have inherited their ancestral estate. Neither of them were previously aware of their extended family, or of this property, as their mother was deeply secretive about her past. Cordelia has recently been the victim of grievous dishonesty and betrayal, and Eustace has faced a gauntlet of medical trauma. Brought together by the promise of a new beginning, they begin to uncover their legacy--the good, and the bad. What follows is a discovery of their history, their power, and the potential for a very unexpected future.

The premise of this book was excellent, and I went in very intrigued. I had heard praise of the magic system in the book, and of the relationship between the two sisters. The magic system is certainly not like anything I've found in any other book, and it was interesting to see the details of that unfold over the course of the story. The descriptions of the environment were lush and detailed, and I was able to develop a very specific mental picture of the house, which I appreciated. I love when stories get into the history of a family, and I enjoyed seeing them go through ledgers, old photos, and furniture to investigate a legacy they previously knew nothing of.

I thought that the two sisters could have been developed more fully as individuals outside of their hardships. I didn't feel that I got a clear enough view of them as people. The male supporting character felt more fully fleshed out to me as a real person than the sisters did. However, his introduction featured some elements that were so stereotypical of a romance novel that it almost made me quit on the book when he first arrived. Ultimately, those elements petered out and the descriptions of romance involving him became a little better integrated into the writing.

The greatest disappointment of this book is that it had all the elements of a really exciting story, but they were presented in such a predictable way that not one single thing ended up surprising me. Every single twist in the plot was telegraphed many pages in advance, and I predicted the ending beat-for-beat, which was extremely frustrating. Watching the main characters make "shocking" discoveries at a glacial pace made for a boring experience. After setting up a foundation of rich and unique narrative components, the plot developed with a level of simplicity that I usually see reserved for juvenile fiction. I wish that I could recommend this book to others, but I unfortunately will not be doing so.