The bestselling author of Burying the Honeysuckle Girls returns to uncover a faith healer’s elusive and haunted past.
Dove Jarrod was a renowned evangelist and faith healer. Only her granddaughter, Eve Candler, knows that Dove was a con artist. In the eight years since Dove’s death, Eve has maintained Dove’s charitable foundation—and her lies. But just as a documentary team wraps up a shoot … team wraps up a shoot about the miracle worker, Eve is assaulted by a vengeful stranger intent on exposing what could be Dove’s darkest secret: murder…
Tuscaloosa, 1934: a wily young orphan escapes the psychiatric hospital where she was born. When she joins the itinerant inspirational duo the Hawthorn Sisters, the road ahead is one of stirring new possibilities. And with an obsessive predator on her trail, one of untold dangers. For a young girl to survive, desperate choices must be made.
Now, to protect her family, Eve will join forces with the investigative filmmaker and one of Dove’s friends, risking everything to unravel the truth behind the accusations against her grandmother. But will the truth set her free or set her world on fire?
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I’ve loved everything I’ve ever read by Emily Carpenter, and this one is no different. Lush, evocative, gorgeously written, and compulsively readable. I mean, what more could you ask?
A deeply entrancing, suspenseful story with gorgeous prose and an evocative setting in the South. I loved it!
This book was ahmazing!!! I read it quickly as I just could not put it down! Dove Jarrod is a faith healer. She died 8 years ago and her granddaughter Eve is the keeper of Dove’s big secret, she was a hoax! Eve is in charge of Dove’s charitable organization and while fixing up the psychiatric hospital Dove was born in, Eve finds herself in physical danger! One of Dove’s secrets from the past is about to unveiled unless Eve solves the secret! This book has it all; murder, family drama and secrets, and fantastic characters! It is told by Dove in the past and Eve in the present. I have read all of Emily Carpenter’s books and I am a fan for life! I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.
You know how you finish a book, and you can’t even start another one because you have to sit in the awesomeness of the book you just finished? That.
Carpenter weaves two stories, past and present, seamlessly to keep you turning pages. Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters is Southern Gothic perfection in that there are villains and heroes and a creepy old house along with questions about the past and a missing coin. Religion, both the good and the bad of it, infuses the whole story leaving you with hope but not a lot of answers.
I think you could read this book as a stand alone from Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, so you could start here. Don’t worry, you’ll want to backtrack if you do. If you have read Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, then you get to be reunited with Althea and Carpenter’s wild, weird, and wonderful version of Alabama.
I loved Emily Carpenter’s earlier Burying the Honeysuckle Girls and didn’t imagine she could top that, but her latest is gorgeous, rich in the Southern Gothic tradition, full of insight, humor, suspense, and beautifully women storytelling.
In Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters, Emily Carpenter revisits the southern gothic theme that she writes so well. In this new book, we learn more about Dove, one of the characters in Burying the Honeysuckle Girls. I loved this fabulous story!
I absolutely love this beautiful gothic story! And I love Dove so much! Great story, great characters and I just want to plant a Hawthorn tree!
I absolutely love Emily Carpenter’s books and Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters is just another one for me to love. It felt different from her other books that I’ve read and I was totally into the topic of faith healers, which I’ve never really thought about before. I was glued to the pages and read it in just two sittings because I had to know what was going to happen next. There is such a great flow to the writing, and I loved the switches between present day and 1934. There aren’t that many viewpoints and I wasn’t confused at all, even though this is still a complex story.
I hadn’t realized that Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters was a continuation/follow up to Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, so as soon as I finished this one I went straight to Honeysuckle Girls (thank you Kindle Unlimited) and it is my current read. This was a super quick book that could easily be read in one sitting, and I was hooked from the very first chapter. I love Southern Gothic and Carpenter really kills that genre with Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters. If you are looking for a quick read that you can get lost in, I highly recommend this one!
Thank you to the publisher for my advance review copy via NetGalley. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
REVIVING THE HAWTHORN SISTERS by Emily Carpenter is a gripping and atmospheric story full of haunting family secrets that held me captive from the very first page to the last. It is a follow-on to her debut Southern gothic mystery, BURYING THE HONEYSUCKLE GIRLS, which I loved, but it can easily be read as a stand-alone. The story is told in alternating timelines and points of view: those of renowned evangelist and faith healer Dove Jarrod in 1934 and her granddaughter, Eve Candler in present day. Eve has been hiding her grandmother’s long-buried secrets for all the years since her death fearing their revelation will destroy her family and the charitable works done by the foundation honoring Dove’s legacy. When a dangerous stranger assaults Eve and threatens to expose her grandmother’s secrets, Eve knows she will do anything to keep those accusations from coming to light. Going back in time to the Deep South and the rise of traveling evangelists and their often shady ways, I was completely immersed in the setting and the perils Dove faced as a young girl. Both timelines are filled with history, suspense and rich family drama. I was entranced with this heart-wrenching and evocative story and highly recommend it!
Why did I do this to myself? The synopsis of the book made this story out to be a great mystery but the execution was just not there. The plotlines were all over the place. All I really got was something magical about a coin. The “romances” were just not there for me.
I do not recommend it.
I love all of Emily Carpenter’s books, but this one has become my new favorite!
Dove Jarrod has a gift, enabling her to heal people. Or so the story is – and that her family has perpetuated to keep donations to the foundation flowing. But, her granddaughter, Eve, doesn’t believe it, or believe that she also has a gift. When someone attacks Eve, and threatens to expose a terrible secret about her grandmother unless Eve gives him a valuable coin, Eve struggles to protect her grandmother’s legacy.
Told in alternating timelines, from the 1930s to present day, this is an interesting story with a mystery and the sinister dealings of false evangelists using religion for personal gain.
Dove Jarrod was an evangelist, faith healer and possibly a fraud. As head of her foundation, Eve Candler, Dove’s granddaughter, seems to be the only one who knows that her grandmother is not who is not all she said she was. Flashback to 1934 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama- a young orphan escapes a psychiatric hospital and ends up as one of the popular Hawthorne Sisters. The young girl is pursued by a sinister man that makes her make difficult choices to survive. Eve wants to find out the truth about her grandmother while protecting her reputation and her foundation. Now she must hurry to untangle the past after a stranger attacks her and threatens to expose all of the family secrets. A thrilling page turner of southern gothic goodness.
Emily Carpenter is a master of creating a world that is both of this world and not. This book is no exception, flipping between now and the past, digging at a mystery. If you love gothic mysteries this one is for you.
Engrossing story full of surprises! I loved the memories in the beginning of the story. The story alternates between the 1930s and the present time. during the 1930s, it is Dove’s story. For years, Dove was an evangelist and a faith healer. But her story begins long before that when she was a young girl. The present time Is Dove’s granddaughter, Eve’s story. It’s her work to preserve her grandmothers life and work. But she soon finds out that there were secrets about her grandmother that she never knew.
“But I will restore you to health
and heal your wounds, declares the Lord….” Jer 39:17a
A historical crime novel full of mystery that held me captive until the last pages. The book has duel timelines that span three generation. It’s kind of a “who dun it” mystery that I thought was written well.
Well developed characters to love and hate. Written with precision, revealing the essentials of the human soul. A lot of flawed characters who are looking for answers. Will they find it in God? In uncovering a family secret? Or just running toward something else?
I highly recommend this for mystery lovers. It was good. You should read it.
Thank you NETGALLEY and the publisher for this ARC, in exchange for my honest review.
This story grabbed me from the prologue—a dying old woman facing her past. I just had to find out more about her life!
I’ve read several other books by Emily Carpenter and have always loved the suspense and drama that she puts into her stories. This one did not disappoint. There was plenty of intrigue, secrets, good, and evil to make this a a page-turner that you will race to get through, while not wanting it to end.
I had not read the companion novel to this one, Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, so I did go back and read that one before I started Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters. You wouldn’t have to, to enjoy this story but I’m glad I did, just to get a little bit of the back story of some of the characters.
Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters was an exciting read and I’m always thrilled to start one of Emily’s books. This one is one of her best!
The bestselling author of Burying the Honeysuckle Girls returns to uncover a faith healer’s elusive and haunted past.
Burying the Honeysuckle Girls was my first book by Emily Carpenter and I loved it. I’ve read a few since but not until this one have I felt the same feelings I did reading Honeysuckle Girls.
This book is Dove’s story. From when she was just a young child living in Prichard Institute to her death many years later. There is so much going on in this story and I want to be very careful to not give anything away.
It’s told from two timelines. Past and present. Ruth/.Dove’s story is the past and her granddaughter, Eve’s, is the present. Ruth/Dove escaped the institute. From there she did what it took to survive. She became a nurse of sorts later for an old man and became his granddaughter, Bruna’s, best friend. They could sing and have voices like angels. They sang for evangelicals and made lots of money during the depression. The depression is not what this book is about by the way. It’s about family. Friendships. Love. Loss.
Ruth was in love with a boy, Dell. He was the love of her life actually. She didn’t get to see much of him though and eventually went on to marry a man named Charles. He was a traveling preacher. I like to think that she eventually did fall in love with him. He seemed to be a kind man to her. Ruth/Dove had a hard life in many ways but was also very lucky in other ways. She had a daughter, yet it seems she was not the best mom to her. I think Ruth/Dove tried. At least that is the feeling I got from her. I felt sorry for her when reading her part of this story. The way men treated women even in the thirties was horrible. Dove though really had a good life considering she was taken away from all the bad finally. Her and Charles Jarrod traveled. They were evangelicals and it seems they had some morals. At least some. He seemed to care about her from what was told in this story.
Eve, Ruth/Dove’s granddaughter does not like the work her grandmother did. She believes it was all fake. But her mother and brother both are big believers and she does what she has to to keep them happy and on track. After her grandmother’s death her mom decides to carry on the family business and Eve has to help. At least for a while.
There are many ups and downs in this book. Told from two different timelines you get a sense of past and present and how they will merge to solve a big mystery in Eve’s life. She goes through a whole lot to solve this mystery and takes you along with her. From her life being in peril to finding out more about her grandmother than she ever knew she keeps on going. Nothing can stop her. She helps people along the way too. Falls for a guy and I’d like to think finds her own happiness.
This is a very heartwarming, edge of your seat in parts, sad, tragic and forgiving story. One that will stick with you.
Thank you to #NetGalley, #EmilyCarpenter, #LakeUnion for this ARC. This is my own thoughts about this book.
5/5 stars and a high recommendation. If you read Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, you will love this one too.
What a great continuation of Burying the Honeysuckle Girls! Part sequel, part prequel, it alternates between the 1930s narrative of Dove Jarrod and the present narrative of Dove’s granddaughter, Eve. Eve is working on a documentary about Dove who was a traveling evangelist with her husband, Charles. She was known as a great faith healer, revered by many, and still much loved even years past her death. But even though she’s family and runs the Dove and Charles Jarrod foundation, Eve has long known that it was all a sham. It’s a dark secret she keeps while maintaining a fierce loyalty to her family in the public eye. But the truth she thought she knew is more than she could have imagined.
Through Dove’s narrative, we learn about her youth, born and raised in Pritchard, the infamous local asylum which she escapes as a teenager. After living rough and barely surviving for a few years, she finds work watching over a wealthy elderly man. She befriends his granddaughter, Bruna, who she later joins with to become the Hawthorne Sisters, a traveling faith healing duo, and precursor to her later days with Charles. But Eve? She and her family knew about none of this. They always believed she went straight from Pritchard to California where she joined up with Charles. How and why did Dove keep this part of her life hidden for so long? And why is a man threatening to expose the truth about Dove – claiming she’s not just a fraud, but a murderer? Will Eve be able to protect her family’s legacy by discovering what really happened back in the 1930s or will the truth destroy them all?
An incredible story that spans generations, Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters is a beautiful southern tale of family and faith. The author vividly transports you to every destination, fully capturing the sights and scents of this southern region with the sweet honeysuckle and the blooming white hawthorn trees. I’ve never been to the area described in this story, but it sure felt like I spent time there upon finishing this book. It’s an engrossing mystery that comes to a satisfying and bittersweet conclusion. I hope this author has many more stories to tell and I cannot wait to read every one of them.
A blend of suspense, romance, mystery and beautifully crafted language, Reviving rhe Hawthorn Sisters is Emily Carpenter at her Southern Gothic absolute finest. I became so enthralled by the story that I lost all track of time and missed a work deadline—just the kind of book we all love to find.