I ABSOLUTELY adored this story! It had me hooked from the very first chapter.

Told between two timelines and multiple POV’s, Haven is a marine archaeologist set to find the treasure her father had within his reach in Positano, Italy just before he died. While she’s there, she races an old family friend to get to the treasure and discovers there’s a myth surrounding the islet of Li Galli and why there are so many sunken ships.

We also learn the story of Mari and Holmes in the past and their tale collides with Haven in the present.

Penner also does a beautiful job weaving her past and present timelines together. This story was truly captivating and I really resonate with her writing style. Her characters are so dynamic.

I will read anything she writes. This might be my favorite one yet!

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for this e-copy in exchange for this honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW

Once I started this, I could. Not. Stop. Sarah Penner, you wrote with a cocaine dipped quill because MY GOD.

I can’t remember the last time I devoured a book like this!!!

Full, more detailed review coming closer to release!

I absolutely loved everything about this book! I see this being a big book club pick for next year. I loved the dual timelines & the sting female mc’s.

The Amalfi Curse follows follows two women about 150 years apart. One a women co flicked with her calling in Postino & one who is an underwater archeologist studying in Postitino. Part historical fiction, part romance & part adventure,

I love this book & I cannot wait to recommend it to everyone!

Having read Penner other two books, I was so excited to read this one. Much like her other books Penner builds a beautiful two that reels the reader in. I really enjoyed reading about Heaven and Mari side by side; both of these characters were not exactly the same, but they shared the water. I also really enjoyed reading about the stregheria and learning about this type of witchcraft which I have never I heard of this before, and it was fun to learn something new. Again, Penner has given us a wonderful, powerful story.

I am so obsessed with this book! It’s one of those stories that grabs your heart and doesn’t let go. Haven Ambrose is everything I love in a protagonist—brilliant, determined, and full of heart. Her quest to uncover her father’s treasure had me hooked, but the deeper mystery, with its ties to ancient sorcery and a centuries-old love story, absolutely blew me away!

The dual timelines—Haven’s present-day adventure and Mari’s spellbinding tale from the 1820s—are so seamlessly woven together that I found myself unable to put the book down! Both women are so real, so brave, and their connection to the sea feels almost magical. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to see how their stories would collide, and the way it all tied together was just perfection!

Sarah’s writing is absolutely stunning! Her vivid descriptions of Positano made me feel like I was standing on its sun-drenched cliffs, feeling the salt breeze and hearing the waves crash below. The historical and magical elements blend flawlessly, creating a story that is not only beautifully atmospheric but also deeply emotional.

This book is pure magic! It’s for anyone who loves stories about strong, courageous women, rich history, and a little bit of mystery and magic. Do yourself a favor and dive in. You won’t regret it!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Often with dual timeline stories one timeline is stronger or more interesting than the other. Here I'm happy to say that both storylines in THE AMALFI CURSE are equally engrossing. This novel has a wonderful sense of adventure, and you can tell Penner did her research and carefully plotted the two timelines so that both pull the reader in. Ultimately you will be cheering for the strong women who are constantly held back by men. The Amalfi coast setting is delicious and lovingly conveyed through sensory details. I've never been, but now I want to go!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance e-galley; all opinions in my review are 100% my own.

Thanks for the Advanced Copy!!! I have always been a fan of this time period in History and how women’s stories are told! I absolutely loved the FMC, and would love to read more about what happens next! Would recommend to all who enjoy History!

Beautifully written and I loved the balance between the past and present storylines. I was hoping for a bit more from the romance as I didn't realize it was an extant relationship at the beginning of the story, but I still really enjoyed being immersed in this lovely, sun-soaked story.

Sarah Penner, I owe you.

Have you ever read a book outside of your comfort zone genres, and you loved it and opened your mind to reading more widely?

The Lost Apothecary was one of those books, and so was The London Seance Society. Sarah Penner has done it again with The Amalfi Curse.

The Amalfi Curse mixes past and present, telling the story of the sea witches of Positano, one of the sailors who loves one of them and in the present Haven Ambrose a trailblazing nautical archaeologist eager to uncover the secrets of the shipwrecks off the Amalfi coast.

It’s not ‘one more chapter’ it’s ’three more chapters’ as you get increasingly desperate to read the next part of each thread…And when they start to come together then you’re truly sucked into the whirlpool.

It builds and builds, get better and better as it progresses and the plots twist and tighten.

If you’ve enjoyed Sarah Penner’s previous books you’ll love it. I didn’t think I’d be here recommending a book about 1820s sea witches but the enchanting magic in this book is inescapable.

Very highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Fiction

I simply could not have loved this book more. I absolutely adored Sarah Penners first two books and The Amalfi Curse blows those two out of the water.

In the 1800s timeline, a coven of sea witches use their magic to protect their village from pirates and keep their waters safe and prosperous. In present day, Haven arrives in Positano on a mission to finish an archaeological dive her father started before his death. She unravels the mystery surrounding the island as we flash back to see it play out through Maris eyes.

The way Sarah Penner mixes magical realism with historical fiction feels like crack to me. I could’ve read another 300 pages of this beautiful story. This is the type of book you need a sixth star for.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

“The Amalfi Curse” is a historical fiction dual timeline book by Sarah Penner. In one timeline (1800s) the reader follows Mari - a young woman from a village along the Amalfi coast. The other timeline (modern times) follows Haven, an archeological diver hoping to find the last ship her father discovered before his death. This book explores myth and magic. I thought Ms. Penner’s descriptions of both the coast and the research libraries were rather interesting (yes, not every document has been put into computers yet!). While the love stories weren’t my cup of tea, they were minor enough to hold my interest and not take away from the main idea of the story. I did find it interesting that the words “stregheria” and “strega” were unknown to the Americans in the story (haven’t they read Tomie de Paola’s Strega Nona children’s book series? LOL!) but that was more to my amusement. Both Mari and Haven are strong women - who do not become helpless after meeting their partners. And, totally separate from everything else, the cover of this book is beautiful. I enjoyed reading The Amalfi Curse and look forward to Ms. Penner’s next book.

First of all, I'm obsessed with this cover. Second of all, this is Penner's best work. I've never been to the Amalfi Coast but after reading this I feel like I have, she really brought the setting to life. I love her ability to weave two stories together. Overall, incredibly enjoyable.

Absolutely fantastic. Told in the same duel timeline that eventually collides that "The Lost Apothecary" was, this tale feels cleaner and clearer in its telling and so incredibly vibrant ..like you can almost feel the heat of the Italian sun coming off stone and the salt spray on your face. It makes you want to visit Amalfi and Positano and taste lemoncello in your tongue. I know the author visited these coasts in preparation for writing and it shows, rarely have I felt so transported to a location through pages.

The story itself is spellbinding, if I can use such an on the nose term. I fully believed and embraced the possibility of these women defended from sirens for whom the ocean will heed. Both Mari and Haven are characters with complexity you immediately want to root for. I grieved with Haven since I also lost my father very recently, I felt
blistering outrage on her behalf at her professional struggles.

The pace of the tale ticks up about a third of the way through when Mari's "inciting incident" takes place...from there it's a steady turn of the suspense dial up and up til the very end and it becomes that much harder to put down as you go. This is a "stay up past midnight to finish" story so prepare accordingly.

This is a dual timeline book. One story is from long ago about a group of red haired women who can control the ocean. One day, the strongest is seen and everything changes.

The present day story involves a women who is leading a drive team to do research near the Amalfi coast where many ships have sunk. Secretly, her father found treasure there, but died before he could go back for it.

This is clearly Sarah Penner's best book. She does an excellent job weaving the present and past together with a PERFECT seal as the last paragraph in the book. I thought she did a good job with the storyline lining up in The Lost Apothecary, but even that book had one storyline that was more interesting than the others. I was equally as invested in Mari as I was with Haven. I could feel the urgency to find what Haven was looking for and could feel the disappointment and hurt with Mari's experiences. It will be the book I recommend to people when it comes out in April and beyond. Thanks for sharing your gift with the world, Sarah.

The Amalfi Coast is truly the most beautiful place in the world, and it is hard to capture that beauty without seeing it. That being said, Sarah Penner has done a wonderful job of bringing the region to life. A captivating story set in a stunning landscape, The Amalfi Curse is a must read.

This was such a good and fun read. Siren descendants and water magic and a picturesque Italian setting! This story was just so beautifully written. A curse, Forbidden love, and ancient magic...I couldn't have asked for me!

Sarah Penner has created an amazing, adventurous, romantic tale of the sea set along two timelines that are always yearning to converge in “The Amalfi Coast.” Of her three novels, I think this is her best.

Two timelines: One story is about the 19th century sea witches of Positano on the Italian Amalfi Coast, known as streghe del mare “with unparalleled power over the ocean. They boasted a magic found nowhere else in the world, a result of their lineage, having descended from the sirens who once inhabited the tiny Li Galli islets nearby.” The present story is about modern nautical archaeologists, often seekers of underwater treasures, trying to discover the reasons that ships were sunk and using modern day technology to extract secrets.

The 19th century women used many incantations that can protect the coast for a period of time (calm seas for their fishermen husbands, dissipating storms that could cause damages, vortexes and eddys to repel marauders). Only one single spell, the vortice centuriaria, endures for one hundred years. “It could only be recited if a strega removed her protective cimaruta necklace. And the cost of performing such magic was substantial: she had to sacrifice her own life in order for the spell to be effective”.

At the start of each timeline, each main character is the leader in her group of women. Mari, the strongest streghe del mare/sea witch, leads eleven other sea witches who secretly protect the coast in the 1820s, but their numbers dwindle via kidnappings by pirates and village traitors. Present day Haven, a top underwater photographer, leads four other female nautical archeologists in Project Relic (investigating age-old ship wrecks, possibly sunk by Mari!), but soon has her project pulled out from underneath her and her team sent home by unscrupulous rivals and financiers. In both stories, we watch strong women being diminished by men as we hope for the tables to be turned. Sea magic and karma are closely related.

Penney’s descriptions of the Italian seaside now and two hundred years ago will have you craving ricotta cookies and limoncello spritzes. Her women characters are complicated, both experiencing familial grief and hints of romantic entanglements. The story is brilliant and there are twists in both of them. I didn’t want this book to end! Bravo! 5 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO One might think that the women with hair colors of vermillion, persimmon and blood have green eyes, but we never get to know the sirens’ eye colors.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): YES It’s June and crocus (a late winter/very early spring flower) would be long out of season and never blooming at the same time as chicory. Otherwise, the floral descriptions of the Amalfi coastline have you ready to book a trip even if Mt. Vesuvius is grumbling.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade/Park Row and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

Sarah Penner is a treasure to the book world. She strikes gold with this gem of a tale, her third book not disappointing. Once again, Penner creates a strong female protagonist, one you will cheer on from the first page until the last. The setting is exquisite and immersive, making you feel like you're right there, along with the characters, drinking in the coast's beauty. The mystery draws you in and holds your attention with shocking secrets revealed, ones you won't see coming. Is the Amalfi coast cursed or is there more to the story? The answer will shock you! A page-turner you won't want to miss out on!

Set in the beautiful Amalfi Coast in Italy, Sarah Penner’s “The Amalfi Curse” elaborately entwines together two unique narratives—one from 1821 featuring the powerful strega, or Italian witch, Mari DeLuca, and the other from modern day, following Haven Ambrose, a nautical archaeologist on a special project to uncover the secrets her father left behind. This novel is unlike a typical fantasy, as it is a realistic portrayal of historical events with magical elements. It is not only about secrets and sorcery—it explores the lengths people will go for the ones they love.

Mari, as the most powerful of the streghe, acts as a leader, embodies strength and resilience, and is willing to sacrifice her desires for the safety of her community. Her journey is wrought with challenges and loss, but despite it all, she fiercely fights to defend the other witches and is willing to sacrifice everything for love.

In present day, Haven’s quest to recover lost treasure highlights her desire to connect with her late father, who encouraged her to return to Positano in pursuit of jewels. As she dives deeper in the history of the local shipwrecks, she discovers more than she bargains for.

The parallel tales are intricately crafted, weaving together with themes of empowerment and ancestral legacies. Penner's lyrical writing immerses readers in the rich culture and magic of the sea. The vivid imagery brings the picturesque Positano to life, making the ocean itself feel like a character in the narrative.

The suspense builds beautifully, and while I had some suspicions on how the story would unfold, the journey was anything but predictable. Penner's skillful storytelling captivates, making it near impossible to put the book down.

Overall, "The Amalfi Curse" is a spellbinding tale of enchantment, betrayal, and the treasures that remain unseen. I was left with an appreciation for the mysteries that transcend time, connecting us with the reminder that some curses may only be lifted through love and sacrifice. This is a must-read for anyone charmed by magic and the picturesque Italian coast.