Small Angels by Lauren Owen

 

Rating: ★★★★

Genre: Gothic Fiction

Format: Book of the Month/Physical Hardcover

Pages: 400

Read: 10/29/22

Synopsis:

A wedding in a small English village attracts a malicious spirit, forcing deep secrets to surface--a hypnotic tale of sisterhood, first love, and hauntings.

As a teenager, Kate found a safe harbor from her parents' constant fighting in the company of the four Gonne sisters, who lived with their strict grandparents next to Small Angels, a church on the edge of dense green woods. The first outsider to ever get close to the sisters, Kate eventually learned the family's secret: The woods are home to a capricious, menacing ghost whom generations of Gonnes had been charged with stopping from venturing into the village itself. But as the sisters grew older, braver, and more independent, bucking against the family's burden, the bulwark began to crack, culminating in a horrifying act of violence that drove a terrible wedge between the sisters and Kate.

Chloe has been planning her dream wedding for months. She has the dress, the flowers, and the perfect venue: Small Angels, a charming old church in the village where her fiancé, Sam, and his sister, Kate, grew up. But days before the ceremony, Chloe starts to hear unsettling stories about Small Angels--and worse, she begins to see, smell, and hear things that couldn't possibly be real.

Now Kate is returning home for the first time in years, for Sam and Chloe's wedding. But the woods are coming alive again, and Kate must reconnect with Lucia, the most troubled of the sisters and her first love, to protect Chloe, the village, and herself. An unforgettable novel about the memories that hold us back and those that show us the way forward--this is storytelling at its most magical. Enter Small Angels, if you dare.

Review: 

"Every family has its strange, painful place, Chloe had thought, just as every house has one drawer full of chaos, crammed with nails and knotted string, orphaned keys and half-burned candles."

Mockbeggar Woods is timeless, alive and full of deep magic. It holds its stories deep in the heart of its elements. 

The forest holds onto its memories and the families that grew up on the edges are bound to its foreboding requirements, for thou shalt not fail to uphold thier promises. Its love runs so deeply, it does not ever let go. It keeps its stories and it remembers. 

"The trees in the woods remembered; they could whisper to one another of things past and days long gone. They were hungry for human dramas, and they loved to hear stories from the village below."

A story that goes back for hundreds of years. The dark whispering Mockbeggar Woods and the Gonnes family held in its clutches. The love of brothers and shadowy secrets buried within. A haunting past forever held onto by the families and villagers wanting to forget the terrifying past. But it will always be there and will always haunt their memories. Small Angels is always watching and the woods are always listening.

A story of heartache and finding the strength to love while facing your fears.

Small Angels is steeped in magical realism and hauntings, vivid imagery and foreboding darkness, beautiful prose and deep mystery.

Very darkly atmospheric, I really enjoyed getting lost in this one!

Goodreads Author Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/

Amazon Author Page:

https://www.amazon.com/Lauren-Owen/e/

Review Links:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/

https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/

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