Once there were three sisters; who weren't quite witches…yet.

In 1893, the three estranged sisters Eastwood - James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth and Beatrice Belladonna - join a suffragist meeting in a park and encounter each other for the first time since the two oldest abandoned the youngest to their father.  It was not to be a happy and heartfelt meeting; too much anger, resentment and misunderstanding colored their memories. The appearance of a black tower against a night sky - in the middle of the park during the day - was overwhelming evidence of a terrible witching. But when Bella collapses in front of her sisters, the paramount thought in their minds was to hide her away from the oncoming city police; because in their world, women are treated roughly if they don't adhere to societal standards or are suspected to be witches.

All three sisters are hiding a terrible secret from each other.  One will change everything they thought they knew about their childhood, one will change how they feel about each other and their future, and one will change the world.  The plot revolves around those secrets in a really wonderfully threaded way.

The lives of the sisters Eastwood get caught up in the suffragist movement, an underground movement of black women (the Eastwoods are not black), and an ancient secret that will either free women or imprison them forever.  All of the plot is about the injustices that women faced then and their desire for true power to control their own lives.  I couldn't help feeling that while the author placed this as a period piece; I think she still feels that women don't have enough power over their own lives even today. Maybe this book is wishful thinking that if only we had witches today, we might actually have enough power to make a difference.  Of course, that might also be this reader's desire.

I really enjoyed this book.  It was long, granted; but it felt so good to follow each sister as they gingerly navigated their past to come together and face the future. It was a long convoluted journey to stitch together events to make it seem that the ultimate clash between controlling men and freedom-seeking women was inevitable.  Although, to be fair to men, it was really just one controlling SOB and there were a couple male supporting roles who believed in the women - not so different from today's women's movement.

The three women's characters were so dynamic; most of the supporting characters were more shallow, of course.  And we didn't really see inside the main bad guy until closer to the end; but that was necessary since more information sooner would have been a spoiler.

I like Harrow's voice a great deal.  This is the second book of hers that I've read and the trend is towards empowering females.  I also greatly appreciated how she managed to allow two of her women to fall in love with each other and make it seem so natural and organic.  I can hardly wait to see what I find next in her writings.  ~~ Catherine Book

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