If you liked Square of Sevens or The London Seance Society, you should definitely make this as one of your next reads!

This book pulls you into a world of magic and mysticism—a reprieve from the mire of reality where we follow two women connected not by time nor proximity, as they search for freedom and autonomy in a world where the cards are not always in their favor.

This book said, “What if spiritualism, feminine rage, and the gothic asylum aesthetic had a séance?” And I said, “Take my money.”

Kathleen Kaufman weaves a darkly mesmerizing tale of a Scottish girl with a real connection to the spirit world (and a charlatan father who just wishes he did). The turn-of-the-century setting is deliciously eerie—think tarot cards, shadowy corridors, and ghostly whispers in a place that definitely should be condemned. If you love books that make you want to light a candle, put on a flowy dress, and mutter about The Patriarchy, this one’s for you.

Perfect for fans of Sarah Penner and Alice Hoffman, this is historical fiction with a supernatural twist—and just the right amount of vengeance.

This fascinating novel—dual-time historical with a fantastical overlay, based in part on the life of the author’s great-grandfather, a nineteenth-century charlatan—follows the career of a young Scotswoman named Nairna Liath. When we meet her in 1900, Nora, sixteen years old, travels the Scottish countryside at the insistence of her father, Tavish, who supports himself and his daughter by hawking her supposed skills as a medium—expressed through his own mangled Gaelic mixed with a series of parlor tricks that Nairna has mastered. But we soon find out that the joke’s on Tavish: Nairna really does have psychic talents, especially in reading Tarot cards. Her ability attracts attention from the Society for Psychical Research, setting Nairna on her path to become the spiritualist Nora Grey.

Her tale is intertwined with (in fact, propelled by) that of Nairna’s grandmother, Lottie Liath, in the 1860s. Lottie has just lost her husband in a coal mining accident, and when she protests the lack of financial support provided by the uncaring mine administration, the manager has her arrested and thrown in jail. From there, the pregnant Lottie ends up in an asylum. And it’s the asylum, where she is subjected to psychic experiments, that brings her increasingly into conversation with Nora.

The tale is rich in drama—both tragedy and comedy—as well as rapid switches of identity accompanied by pseudo news reports from various types of sources that illuminate Nora’s and Lottie’s stories in various ways. It’s tremendous fun and heartbreaking at the same time, and it’s best just to suspend disbelief and go with the flow. If you do, I guarantee you will love every minute of this story.

I plan to interview this author for the New Books Network (link below) in August, not long after the book appears.

This was such a fantastically unique story. I usually am not one for jumping around different times and spaces in books, but this was masterfully done. It was really cool to see how the two protagonist's lives intertwined, and how they slowly came to discover their connection. The ending was tragic but absolutely beautiful. One of my favorite books with ghosts I've read in a while!