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…
BIO
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.
REVIEWS
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
“Propulsive and poignant, Black Candle Women concocts an intoxicating potion of warmth, wisdom, and wonder.” -- Ava DuVernay
[H] Graydon House / February 28, 2023
1.6" H x 12.0" L x 7.9" W (1.05 lbs) 368 pages