Well-researched and well-written story of a Harvard doctoral candidate who discovers the possible existence of a Salem witch's spell book. The central character, Connie, is believable (although a bit slow on the uptake for for a Harvard post grad) as she deals with the increasing responsibilities of her new role as doctoral candidate, daughter caring for an aging hippie mother living across the country, and sudddenly having to sell her deceased grandmother's home - all while preparing her dissertation for an increasingly demanding and unprecdictable department chair. Throw in a little adventure, romance and witchcraft and you have quite a fun read!

I loved this book up until the ending. On one hand, you knew what was coming, but the predictability made it a little stale. The historical fiction aspect of the novel brought out the feminist side of me, reminding me of the inequalities women have endured for centuries and inspiring me to put forth more effort toward equality in today's world. Our book club discussions delved into broad themes of our American culture and the fear each of us has instilled in us. Reading this book was like reading a detective novel: once you were given the clue, it was up to you to be aware of it and apply it to the mystery.

I purchased this book as a possible book club choice - Decided to read just the first chapter to see if it was a good pick.......169 pages later, I dediced it was! You will enjoy this book immensely!! Not your traditional witch story...

Thought it was a very slow read. I was really more interested in the "historical" sections and they were a little fragemented and didn't follow a timeline, which got confusing. The "current" day portion of the book was dry, dry, dry reading. Wanted a good witchy book for Halloween, this one read a bit like a disseration....disappointed. Sorry!

Everyone in the book club enjoyed this book, which doesn't happen all that often. The discussion never dragged, ranging from the Salem witch trials to the modern day who-done-it.