ARC AUDIO BOOK REVIEW: Weyward by Emilia Hart

Publication Date: March 7, 2023 Format: Audio Genre:  Historical Fiction Narrators: Aysha Kala, Helen Keeley, Nell Barlow

Publisher: Macmillan Audio Length:  10 hours 51 min Buy: Kindle | Audio

Synopsis

I am a Weyward, and wild inside.

2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom.

1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives–and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.

Review: 

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher through netgalley.com.  I am leaving this review voluntarily. 

I loved this book. Generations of women in the Weyward family have found themselves victims of either the men in their lives or the men in the world. Healers of natural medicine these women have been accused of witchcraft, and feared for their inner strength and wisdom. 

This story is told through the eyes of three different women in the family. The first accused of witchcraft and standing trial, the second finds herself living with her overbearing father and falling prey to a distant cousin the third leaves her abusive partner only to discover herself pregnant and alone in a house owned by her dead aunt. All of these women are trying to carve out a life for themselves in a world that doesn't see women as anything more than property, including the one set in the present. 

This is a very timely book as we see the Supreme Court slowly chip away at women's rights, what we will be left with is what these women had to deal with. No body autonomy and few rights. It is when they are truly desperate they find their inner strength and the wisdom that has been passed down for generations to protect themselves. Beautifully written and narrated. 

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