Slightly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I never would have chosen it but it had free narration via Kindle Unlimited, and it is possible that the narrator's engaging voice and accent helped a lot.

Excellent read

This is a great story from beginning to end. The suspense kept me moving with details in the ending that were somewhat unexpected but satisfying in the result.

Good read

This was a surprising read, I enjoyed the well thought out mystery, the story felt very natural with the flashbacks set into the storyline without being confusing.

I’d give this closer to a 3.5 stars. The plot was interesting and compelling. Quite honestly, I often got annoying with the female leads. The men were downright easy to hate, and that’s fine. But the women were sometimes just so annoying. Perhaps I’m being insensitive to the times they lived in but some of their actions were just baffling. I’d still recommend the book and probably read another of her books.

Excellent pace of the story with a good amount of mystery and horror sprinkled in between. It is a really enjoyable read and hard to put down easily. However, in some parts, I found the character motivations inconsistent and which seem to make the book slightly weaker. In the end, it left me wanting something more from the book. Nonetheless, great as a travel book which you can finish in a few hours.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this free readers edition. In exchange I am providing an honest review.

Althea hears her mother's words echoing in her life, "Wait for her. For the honeysuckle girl. She’ll find you, I think, but if she doesn’t, you find her." For twenty-five years Althea has been hearing those words, wondering what they mean and dreading her 30th birthday, coming up in a couple of weeks. She doesn't dread getting older, she dreads 30. All the women in her family have a history of disappearing on their 30th birthday. Althea would like to break that cycle but first she has to find out why they disappeared and how to stop it. Problem is, the men in her family aren't keen on her finding out the family secrets - they would rather lock her up in the local mental institution and keep their reputations intact. Althea decides to not follow their plan and instead pave a new path for herself and future women in her family.
Carpenter weaves a story of old southern misogyny, mental illness, and the strength required to fight for a new life. This story was disturbing to me - it was the asshole men that kept the women in the story oppressed. They made me angry and it made me angry that the women in the story kept picking such creeps. I read the story and I kept reading it because I wanted to find out the truth Althea was searching for but I'm not sure I was very connected to the story. I was glad to find out the beginning, middle, and end of the women in Althea's family but it was also an easy book to finish and put down. This tells me I wasn't totally bought in to the characters and the storyline itself. I really can't even say what seemed to be the missing ingredient in order for me to buy in 100% but being able to walk away from it so easily tells me there was something missing. It was well written and I would give other titles Carpenter's pens a chance.

This was such a good book! I really enjoyed the magic of it all. Reminded me of a Sarah Addison Allen book with a twist!

Odd version of a mystery but still had me wanting to find out the secrets of the story