Bella, the oldest and meeker of the three, is not interested in joining or causing a stir.

Juniper, the youngest and by far the most headstrong (and also just flat-out angry), sees a chance for change with the women’s suffragist movement. If this isn’t surprising enough, they also see a massive dark tower appear and then quickly disappear in the middle of the city, wrapped in a flurry of wind and magic. Very much a ‘this will happen to you if-’ scenario.) The three sisters find themselves all drawn to the same square, where they run into each other for the first time in many years. It’s also a warning to those seeking to practice witchcraft. Old Salem was burned to pure ash and now serves as a tourist attraction of sorts. Years later, the sisters find themselves in the city of New Salem, none of them knowing the other sisters are there. Their father shatters the sister’s relationships and the pieces scatter in the wind. It seems Mama Mags, their grandmother, is their only source of comfort and knowledge aside from each other. Their mother died in childbirth when Juniper was born and they are left to be raised by their abusive father. We meet each one in turn and get to know them just a little. To start, The Once and Future Witches opens on the three Eastwood sisters: Juniper, Agnes, and Bella. Not because it was my favorite book ever or because I loved it so much, but because my favorite thing about it was the fairy tales and how they all got tipped on their heads. I like that this book is the one I read after making this choice. A place to hide away and read to my heart’s content. I wanted a place I could steal away to on a rainy day. Perched high in one of the towers sits a library, untouched for hundreds of years and yet as pristine as if it were occupied only days ago. I wanted it to feel like I’d stumbled upon a ruined castle, blanketed with moss in an ancient forest. The name Fairy Tales and Tea came to mind because I wanted to evoke something whimsical.

I find it fitting that The Once and Future Witches was the first book I finished after deciding to start a book review blog.

The once and future witches characters