The River Witch

 

About THE RIVER WITCH:

Roslyn Byrne is twenty-four years old, broken in body, heart and soul. Her career as a professional ballet dancer ended with a car wreck and a miscarriage, leaving her lost and grieving. She needs a new path, but she doesn’t have the least idea how or where to start. With some shoving from her very Southern mama, she immures herself for the summer on
Manny’s Island, Georgia, one of the Sea Isles, to recover.

There Roslyn finds a ten-year-old girl, Damascus, who brings alligators, pumpkins and hoodoo into her sorry life. 

Roslyn rents a house from Damascus’s family, the Trezevants, a strange bunch. One of the cousins, Nonnie, who works in the family’s market, sees things Roslyn is pretty sure she shouldn’t, and knows things regular people don’t. Between the Trezevant secrets and Damascus’s blatant snooping and meddling, Roslyn finds herself caught in a mysterious stew of the past and present, the music of the river, the dead and the dying who haunt the riverbank, and a passion for living her new life.

Praise for THE RIVER WITCH:

“This is a beautiful work of fiction that touches the soul. Although the story is told from multiple viewpoints, it does not lose momentum or become boring. The characters are so vivid and believable that readers will quickly empathize with them and be swept along this solemn journey of redemption, enlightenment and love. Brock creates an enthralling tale with unexpected plot twists that will keep readers engaged to the final page.”

~Romantic Times Book Reviews

“With lyrical prose, Kimberly Brock explores the hidden places of the heart. The River Witch is a magical and bewitching story that, like a river, winds its way through the soul. In the voices of her wounded characters, Brock takes us through both the breaking and the healing of a life.”

~Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of BECOMING MRS. LEWIS

“Kimberly Brock has an amazing voice and a huge heart; The River Witch welcomes the reader to a haunted landscape, authentically Southern, where the tragedies of the past and the most fragile, gorgeous kind of love-soaked hope are equally alive. This is one debut you absolutely should not miss.”

~Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of NEVER HAVE I EVER

“Kimberly Brock’s The River Witch is a modern day classic with a southern accent.

If you yearn for escape yourself — and these days, who doesn’t? — The River Witch is a book that embraces you as only warm-hearted Southern literature can. Don’t expect the quick clip of a thriller. This charming novel by Kimberly Brock unwinds with calm assurance, and takes you along for a compelling ride that calls for a tissue or two as it tugs at your heart.

The writing is never showy. Rather, it’s supple, gentle, and believable with a distinct Georgia accent. “Listening to the nurses…recollect life on the island during their youth, I began to recall a cadence, a rhythm not unlike my own heartbeat,” Brock writes. “They talked of weaving sweetgrass baskets with their mothers and grandmothers. They recalled their wedding days and the days they buried husbands and parents and children. Underneath it all was the magic of our bodies in motion, a celebration. And once Sheree started an old gospel hymn, they all joined in a low mumbling sort of way that grew up into an actual harmony that we picked up quick and sure. A ring shout, they called it… Damascus moaned and rolled her
eyes.”

Don’t expect a happy-ever-after finale. Instead, you are rewarded with a believable picture of human nature and healing through love and the strength of history and family.”

~Sally Koslow, author of THE OTHER SIDE OF PARADISE

The River Witch is a rich, captivating story of loss and redemption., love and forgiveness. Set in the south, Kimberly Brock’s descriptions are so vivid you can almost feel the river’s tide and taste the warm pumpkin bread. If you love Sue Monk Kidd’s THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, you’ll fall in love with Kimberly Brock’s beautiful novel.”

~ Lori Nelson Spielman, international best selling author of THE LIFE LIST and SWEET FORGIVENESS

“Thirty years old, Roslyn Byrne’s charmed life ended with the crash. Her career as a professional ballet dancer on the Atlanta stage ended and while healing at her mom’s house, she gave birth to a stillborn.

Worried about her daughter’s inability to move past her grief, Rosalyn’s mom pushes her to spend a summer healing on Manny’s Island, Georgia, just off St. Simon’s. Roslyn rents a house from the Trezevant family. Their tweener daughter Damascus adits the grieving Rosalyn by introducing her to gators and hoodoo magic as the ten year old knows loss too with her mom dead. As Rosalyn’s past and that of the Trezevant family become known due to the river where the dead rest, the former dancer begins to heal.

The gothic atmosphere makes for a strong character driven tale of people struggling with grief. The support cast is solid especially ephemeral cousin Nonnie and patriarch Urey. However, this haunting whimsical tale of soul healing belongs to the Sea Isle with its magical music by the riverbank and the two females; each barely coping with their respective losses until they meet.”

~Harriet Klausner, The Best Reviews

“I wasn’t even ten pages into this gorgeous novel before I had to start googling things: I needed to KNOW if there was such a thing as Sacred Harp music (even though the way Brock writes I “knew” it had to be real!) and there is! I had to know what alligator bellows sounded like (Oh! They sound exactly as she says they do!). Her characters are as real as he sounds her language evokes.

This is a book that should catch fire and roar through the country. It’s that lovely, that moving. I love this book.

~R.H. Herron, internationally best selling author of STOLEN THINGS

“Kimberly Brock’s The River Witch is as haunting as its title suggest. I had barely waded into the current of the story when I was pulled in by the main characters, Rosalyn and Damascus, whose only similarity is the headache they each try to hide. From the descriptions of Granny Byrne’s mountain music to the alligators that slide through the river surrounding the island, I found myself rereading passages as Brock has an uncanny ability to use words to bring fictional characters and setting to life. I cannot wait to read more of her work!”

~Jolina Petersheim, acclaimed author of THE DIVIDE, THE ALLIANCE, THE MIDWIFE, and THE OUTCAST

“I recently read The River Witch and I was struck by the complexity of the characters, by the way I was pulled into their thoughts and their respective quagmires, by the way I pulled for each of them to find a way out. I kept the book on the floor beside my bed and read a chapter every morning before I got up – it was a perfect way to start the day! Brock’s prose are beautiful, her description compelling, the weaving of the mystical with solid plot lines seamless. Remarks made in the book are more than down-home southern truisms; they are commentaries on the human condition that instill a spark of light, a drop or two of hope not only in the characters, but in readers as well.”

~Susan Crawford, author of THE POCKET WIFE

“Kimberly Brock’s The River Witch achieves what splendid writing ought to achieve – story and character that linger in the reader’s consciousness. Tender and intriguing, often dazzling in its prose, this is a mature work of fiction worthy of the celebration of praise.”

~Terry Kay, internationally known author of the classic novel TO DANCE WITH THE WHITE DOG

“There is magic and wonder in The River Witch, but the real enchantment here is the strength of the characters Roslyn and Damascus. Their voices are the current that carries the reader along in this compelling tale of healing and discovery.”

~Sharyn McCrumb, New York Times Bestselling Author, THE BALLAD OF Tom Dooley