New Review of "The Witches of Moonlight Ridge"

Thanks so much to the very talented Alabama writer, Mike Burrell, author of  the newly published novel The Land of Grace, for this review. Here's what Mike had to say about The Witches of Moonlight Ridge:

The setting of Moonlight Ridge is a pervading force in this charming novel. It’s a believable setting, filled with loving parents and happy, adventurous children. But it’s also a mysterious land of ruins, a magical forest, witches, sinister lawmen, KKK, monsters, all swirling in history, legends, and myths that its characters can almost reach out and touch.

The timeline of the story is also important in that the tale unfolds back in the 1950s in a Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn kind of world when parents didn’t hover over their children and think it necessary that every movement of their children be somehow supervised. An example is when the grandmother prepared a picnic lunch for the children and told them to go find the cat, knowing they would be wandering the woods all day. I’m not sure this could happen today, and I can almost hear readers wonder “where are the parents?”

The first-person narrator, Lily Claire, is a young girl. She’s convincing in her narrative and the wonder she finds in the world around her. She is drawn so deftly that at no time does the author intrude on Lily’s story. Her sidekick is her cousin, Willie T. All of the characters are sharply drawn, and the dialogue artfully rendered so as to project regionalism without implying ignorance. My favorite character, and the most complex member of the cast, is Erskine Batson, the garbage man/reluctant school teacher who falls in love with the beautiful witch, Evy. 

A delightful and charming story for the young reader as well as certain seventy-two year old men who enjoy a little magic mixed with memories of a rural childhood.

About - Mike Burrell

Goodreads Witches Giveaway

Are you a member of Goodreads? You can enter the Goodreads Giveaway for a chance to win a free copy of The Witches of Moonlight Ridge.

Contest runs from February 28 to March 14, 2017.

           Mr. Erskine straightened up and looked around. We heard old Bu, the hoot owl, calling from somewhere far out in the woods, and a flock of big black crows flew over and landed in a tree beside us.

            “It’s gettin’ late,” Erskine told us. “I’d better get you young people home on this Halloween night.”

            Witch Boy chose that quiet moment to let loose a loud, nerve shattering series of barks. The crows left the tree with a noisy flapping of wings, their harsh raspy voices cawing and fussing as they went.

            “Look here, it’s about to get dark on us,” Erskine announced. “We’ve stayed too long out here tellin’ tales. We best hurry on down the mountain while there’s still light enough to navigate.

            “Come on, dog,” he commanded, but Witch Boy ran off into the woods.

            “He’ll foller us,” Willie T. assured our teacher. “You don’t have to call him.”

            Erskine grabbed hold of our hands in an exuberant grip, me on one side and Willie T. on the other, took a deep breath and broke out singing the end of the Highwayman song in a strong and surprisingly pleasant voice.

            “And still of a winter’s night, they say, when the wind is in the trees …”

            And that’s the last sound we heard before the ground disappeared from beneath our feet.

The Witches of Moonlight Ridge

In the second book of The Moonlight Ridge Series, Lily Claire and Willie T. are back and as spunky as ever! With seasons changing on the mountain, the two intrepid kids venture into new territories, meet surprising new characters, and learn that the mysteries and magic on Moonlight Ridge continue to lead them into new adventures.

Just in time for the holidays, The Witches of Moonlight Ridge is a terrific gift for all book lovers. 

"The first days of autumn on Moonlight Ridge felt like a kind of paradise. The mountain and everything on it, including the people, seemed to relax and breathe easy. After the raging heat and humidity of summer subsided just a little, we were left with gentle warm days when the air around us and the sky above us became crystal clear and expansive. Days were fragrant with the spicy scent of leaves changing colors on sweet gum, dogwood, and maple, mixed with the sharp green scent of tall pines and flourishing cedars. Nights were cooler, the mosquitoes had pretty much decided to call it quits, and dreamy sleep beside an open bedroom window was blessed by gentle, friendly breezes. . . But, as my granddaddy always said, when the witchin' season comes to Moonlight Ridge, there's just no telling which way the cat will jump!

And then, there was that dog!"