★★★★★ 5
Magic, Mayhem, Ghosts and First Love!
Format: Hardcover
This book has it all: amazing Halloween feels, magic gone awry, ghosts wreaking havoc, family secrets, and even a delightful first crush! As a middle child, Tennie thinks it's her job to keep her big, rambunctious family in order, but she could really use a break. So she's thrilled when she gets the chance to stay with her grandma, away from all the family chaos, but that changes when she accidentally unleashes a whole host of restless spirits. And what's more, those spirits have something to tell her about grandma's mysterious new boyfriend, a secret that might upend everything she knows about her family and their beloved mountain home. This book is teeming with beautiful odes to nature and delightfully folksy language that draws readers into the cozy, bucolic Appalachian setting. The friendship and budding romance between Tennie and Fox shines off the page, and readers will experience all of the tingles, speed bumps and awkwardness of a first crush. Van Otterloo weaves a poignant tale about families going through tough times but ultimately finding hope and strength in each other, and, of course, it's all suffused with a delightful dose of oh-so-cozy magic. Layered alongside the family tale is an important storyline about protecting nature and valuing the "small" lives of country folk, which we can see by the end of the story are anything but small.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2021
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