Emerson doesn't believe in magic. That's awkward, because it runs in her family. And a witch with an old grudge has been waiting a very long time for her to come home.
Emerson Foster lost her father when she was nine. At sixteen, she loses her mother too.
Orphaned, and carrying everything she owns in one bag, she steps off a train into a snowbound town she has never heard of to live with an aunt she never knew existed.
Aunt Dorothy wears a fuzzy purple bathrobe and talks to her car, which appears to listen. She named her home Butterberry Cottage and shares it with a fashionable pig whose glare could curdle cream. Even the house has peculiarities, like the ability to grow blueberries through two feet of snow when the recipe calls for them.
Emerson is sure there's a sensible explanation for all of it. Then a flock of crows chases her into the frozen woods, and sensible explanations start wearing thin.
For the first time in her young life, she has friends. There's a quick-witted girl who is more than she seems, and a boy whose last name makes the grown-ups go quiet. A scruffy little dog follows her home through the snow and refuses to leave. Emerson wants to stay so badly her heart aches, even if she's sure she'll never be as magical as her surroundings.
Still, every good thing in Whistleborough feels borrowed. And someone is coming to collect.
Her stern grandmother is fighting to drag her back to the city. A raven repeats words she shouldn't know. Odd trinkets around town hum with the wrong kind of enchantment. The weather has also developed an alarming habit of storming whenever Emerson loses her temper.
Something long buried beneath Whistleborough is beginning to stir. By All Hallow's Eve, Emerson will have to stop pretending none of this is real, or risk losing Butterberry Cottage and everyone inside it forever.
Butterberry Cottage is the first book in the Witches of Whistleborough, a cozy small-town fantasy series with a spooky streak. A grieving girl, a house with a mind of its own, and a key to a future she never dared to imagine.
If you love quirky animal companions, enchanted kitchens, and a few shivers with your cocoa, you'll love this funny, warm-hearted series opener from Cecil LaTwine.
