Book Review: Before Women Had Wings by Connie May Fowler

Before Women Had Wings

by 

Connie May Fowler

*This post contains affiliate links

Quote:

" Listen to me, Bird, dreaming is for fools, and I don't ever want to be accused of raising up a little fool."~ Mama(Glory Marie) pg. 45

Started: September 23, 2018

Finished: September 26, 2018

304 pages/paperback

From the cover:

My name is Avocet Abigail Jackson. But because Mama couldn't find anyone who thought Avocet was a fine name for a child, she called me Bird. Which is okay by me. She named both her girl children after birds, her logic being that if we were named for something with wings then maybe we'd be able to fly above the shit in our lives...

My Review:

I have to admit I was intrigued by the cover of this book. I grabbed it and couldn't wait to get reading.

It did not disappoint. It had everything I had hoped it would.

There is struggle from the beginning. Trials and errors made by many. It has innocence of  childhood, yet children seeing and living such things they never should have to.

It is written showing a clear and honest character in "Bird".

The story starts out with Bird vividly recalling the day her daddy walked into the General Store, revolver in hand and threatened to kill himself in front of her mother, sister, and herself.

She was just six-years-old.

From there, the story takes you through her days, living in an abusive home. A drunkard father, a mean tempered mama, a brother that comes and goes, and a sister that loves or hates her depending on the day.

After tragedy hits their home, Mama decides to head south. To take the girls on a journey that will change all of their lives.

While things don't get better, they definitely change.

A new place, new school, and...a new friend.

Miss Zora, befriends Bird, not knowing that Bird has been forbidden from being around her.

Their secret friendship is exactly what Bird, and her family needs.

Will these women ever get their wings?

This is a must read!

Grab your copy here:

Before Women Had Wings by Connie May Fowler

Be sure to let me know what you think of this wonderful book! Leave a comment!

Book List of Witches, Magic, and Superstitions

Welcome.
I am finally getting into the Fall season. I wasn't quite ready to welcome all the changes last week.
I was clinging to the last bits of summer. Trying to wrap up all the tasks I was working on. Which included cleaning up my Goodreads account. I had a few books I wanted to put into new categories and ended up making a new "shelf".
I realized I had a few that really didn't fit anywhere, except plain old fiction or my "read" books.
I decided to add a "witches" category/shelf.
I thought, now is the perfect time to share that list here with all of you.
I'm not into gore or horror so much, but I am intrigued by old time witchcraft. As in healers and using mother nature instead of modern day, first world medicines. I also love anything about superstitions, rituals, old wives tales. The sort that make you question what could be. What you've heard or been taught. Maybe even a little chill up your spine. 
Those things, to me are what make a book more of storytelling. A good old fashioned..."Grandma used to say..." kind of story.
If those are the types of books you enjoy or are looking for, then you will love this list!

*post contains affiliate links

Bloodroot by Amy Greene

Named for a flower whose blood-red sap possesses both the power to heal and poison, Bloodroot is a stunning fiction debut about the legacies- of magic and madness, faith and secrets, passion and loss-that haunt one family across the generations, from the Great Depression to today.

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

The New York Times best selling author of the Girl Who Chased The Moon welcomes you to her newest locale: Walls of Water, North Carolina, where the secrets are thicker than the fog from the town's famous waterfalls, and the stuff of superstition is just as real as you want it to be.

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

The women of the Waverley family--whether they like it or not--are heirs to an unusual legacy, one that grows in a fenced plot behind their Queen Anne home on Pendland street in Bascom, North Carolina. There, an apple tree bearing fruit of magical properties looms over a garden filled with herbs and edible flowers that possess the power to affect in curious ways anyone who eats them.

Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

In this irresistible novel, Sarah Addison Allen, author of the New York Times bestselling debut, Garden Spells, tells the tale of a young woman whose family secrets- and secret passions-are about to change her life forever.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

Sixteen-year-old Kit Tyler is marked by suspicion and disapproval from the moment she arrives on the unfamiliar shores colonial Connecticut in 1687. Alone and desperate, she has been forced to leave her beloved home on the island of Barbados and join a family she has never met. Torn between her quest for belonging and her desire to be true to herself, Kit struggles to survive in a hostile place.

Dark Witch(#1 Cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy) by Nora Roberts

From Nora Roberts comes a trilogy about the land we are drawn to, the family we learn to cherish, and the people we long to love... With indifferent parents, Iona Sheehan grew up craving devotion and acceptance. From her maternal grandmother, she learned where to find both: a land of lush forests, dazzling lakes, and centuries-old legends. Ireland.

Also Books #2 and #3

Shadow Spell

Blood Magick

A Break with Charity by Ann Rinaldi

Susanna desperately wants to join the circle of girls who meet every week at the parsonage. What she doesn't realize is that the girls are about to set off a torrent of false accusations leading to the imprisonment and execution of countless innocent people. Susanna faces a painful choice.

The Winter Witch by Paula Brackston

Fledgling witch Morgana must defend her love, her home, and her life in this enthralling tale perfect for fans of Discovery of Witches. In her small early nineteenth century Welsh town, there is no one quite like Morgana, who has not spoken since she was a young girl. Her silence is a mystery, as well as her magic.

I hope you all will enjoy these books as much as I did. You can also check out my shelf and any reviews I have done on them.

Goodreads and books about witches

Happy reading and Happy Fall!