A Southern Enchantress by Deborah Trahan
What's It About?
Two magical women. Two time periods. The balmy sea air of New Orleans in the Summertime. Love, deceit, hoodoo magic, and mysterious ghostly appearances.Deborah Trahan’s A Southern Enchantress, (Atmosphere Press) is a tale of two women discovering and crafting their clairvoyant powers and hoodoo magic in the beautifully historic and mysterious city of New Orleans.
Suzanne, a teacher and out-of-practice clairsentient enchantress living in 2012, navigates a new relationship with the suave real-estate guru Max. On the outside, Max is the perfect guy and potential step-father for Suzie’s twin teenage boys, but Max is harboring a dark past that will soon be brought to the light.
Decades earlier, Addy, the love-struck teen living in 1944 often receives visions of her soulmate but has yet to hone in on her psychic abilities. Her grandmother desperately tries to keep Addy from pursuing her romantic visions with Army Air Force officer Cash Lamar, but Addy is determined. Then a traumatic incident changes the nature of their relationship, along with World War II threatening to separate them forever.
After rejecting her clairsentient genes passed down from her mother, a hoodoo conjurer, Suzanne must embrace her abilities in order to survive the darkness that’s coming for her. An uptick of ghostly encounters demand that Suzanne must help avenge an evil deed from yesteryear, and a Tarot reading brings Suzanne and her ancestor Addy’s spirit together, showing the power of generational love bound even beyond the grave.
“The truth is… that I am an enchantress. From a long line of resilient Lafountain women who’ve been rootworkers, conjurers, hoodoo practitioners. Now it comes down to me, for I’m the one who remains – and am empowered to right many wrongs,” says Suzanne.
Deborah Trahan is a natural world-builder, as her debut novel transported me to the warm salt air and blooming flora of the Louisiana Gulf Coast. I was immersed in the practice of hoodoo, from shuffling angel tarot decks to hanging blue glass bottles outside the house for protection from evil. She also did a magnificent job giving the characters their own unique personality traits, one example being Suzie often pouring herself a chilled glass of Moscato before a tarot reading.
The book had the ideal balance of romance, magic, history and thrill making this novel a truly addictive read. Trahan not only does a beautiful job with world-building and character personalities but also her writing style is fast-paced and life-like, making me feel as if I was an apparition in the story watching the plot unfold.
A Southern Enchantress embodies a tale of two women, decades apart, in one charmingly mysterious city. Heartbreak, deceit, war and hoodoo magic are woven together to create the ultimate supernatural story with many historical elements. Those who have watched and enjoyed shows and movies like Practical Magic, The Craft, American Horror Story: Coven, and Witches of Eastwick would surely enjoy A Southern Enchantress.
AUTHOR
Deborah Trahan is a writer, educator, and author of the novel A Southern Enchantress. She is a lifelong beach lover, now living her dream only steps from the Gulf Coast’s crystal-white sand, where her tropical garden provides joy and inspiration. When she’s not plotting new ideas for her next writing project, Deborah relaxes on her garden swing suspended from a huge live oak tree with her husband, sipping her favorite blueberry wine cultivated and aged in Mississippi. Her golden retriever, Bimini, who enjoys several cameo appearances in her debut novel, is often by her side. Visit deborahtrahan.com.
