The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs

I am always leery when I am told that I don't have to start off with the first book in a series since they can be both read as standalones. I ended up being a little bit lost since there are references to events that happened before. Also, I had a hard time feeling engaged with the protagonist, Connie Goodwin. I thought she was selfish and her not telling her long term boyfriend Sam about what was going on was confusing as anything to me. The ending felt like a bit of a letdown actually. There didn't seem to be much real stakes in the book and I was more interested in learning about witches in the U.S. Southwest and other locations that was brought up via another character.

"The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs" is a sequel to "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane". This book takes place about 10 years later (2000) and follows Connie Goodwin who is trying to get her book ready for publication and is seeking tenure. She's happy with her long-term boyfriend. We quickly find out that Sam wants to marry, and Connie is reluctant. When she goes back to her family home (that is located near Salem) she finds that there is more to her history than she knows and she is faced with giving up Sam or finding a way to break a curse.

Connie takes some time to warm up to. For me I had a hard time with her ignoring her mother and her boyfriend's pleas to get a cellphone finally and also to just call if she will be late. She's focused on her work and book and just takes Sam for granted. I wish that these two had at least one real conversation about their relationship. Instead we hear about a prior event and then they both dance around knowing that some things in their lives are about to change. It was exhausting.

A secondary character who is one of Connie's students, Zazi is more interesting, at least she was to me. She's applying for a position at Harvard and is dealing with some prejudices about her subject matter, being a woman, and also a woman of color too. She ends up helping Connie with her research into her own family.

There's another character that I guess was in the first book, Thomas, who just didn't fit. I don't want to have spoilers, but he was just kind of blah.

Connie's boyfriend Sam and her best friend Liz are given very little to do. Sam keeps pushing Connie for more than she wants to give and Liz is pushing her to stop looking into things.

The writing was good, Howe definitely did research into England, Salem during the witch trials and after. Howe shows Connie in 2000 and jumps back to show different ancestors of her traveling from England and then settling in Salem, Massachusetts. The one we stay most focused on in this one though is Temperance Hobbs and get to see how it links to what Connie needs to do in her present timeline. The flow was fine and I didn't get distracted by showing Connie in the present and the different women in her family in the past. I was actually really interested in seeing how life was back in the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s.

The setting as I already mentioned changes. We start off in winter in 2000 and go back and forth to previous ancestors of Connie's. We focus on the Milk Street House which is near the woods where something special is located. It takes us until the end of the book to figure out what and I was a little bit disappointed by that reveal.

The ending was nice and all, but it didn't feel wholly satisfying. ( )

The author picks up with the same protagonist (and family tree) as in The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. In this book, Connie Goodwin is now a professor in Boston and an expert on witchcraft. She is a descendant of Salem, MA residents who practiced it and has her own "talents" in that regard. Here, amidst her job and associated stress, she and her live-in boyfriend are at a crossroads with Sam wanting to marry and Connie unsure. She realizes that all the husbands in her family tree died young because of a curse. She is determined to remove the curse by delving into her ancestor's recipes and dissolving it, before she marries Sam. In the end, don't know if they did marry; however, the ending was upbeat. Having read her first book and being from the Salem area, I enjoyed this well-written book. ( )

The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs is the follow-up book of the incredible The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (TPBoDD), which can be read as a sequel or a stand-alone though I recommend reading TPBoDD book for background and because it's so well written.

The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs takes place almost a decade after the first book in early 2000. Connie our protagonist is headed for tenure and struggling with her relationship with Sam. The curse of the female members of her family dating back to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 continues but for Connie, it's now more than ever become a bigger stake. Told through the lens of Connie and her research we get interludes, snapshots of her ancestors and their struggles through the centuries, in fascinating and historical detail.

Beautifully written and filled with historical facts that had me googling true events set in this fictitious world. I can't recommend either of these books enough.

I did not read the first book, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane but did go out and buy it when I finished this volume. I enjoyed the mix of witchcraft, magical realism and romance. While this is a sequel it can be read alone quite well. It is a mix of current time and historical fiction and I did enjoy the parts in the past more than the parts in the present as Is typical for me. It's a quick and entertaining read ( )

I really enjoy magical realism, historical fiction, a bit of paranormal, a touch of witchcraft. Put these together and I’m all in. The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs by Katherine Howe is a sequel but can be read as a stand alone. I had not read the first book, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and ended up reading it first. I was glad I did. It gave me a richer depth of knowledge of the characters histories and relationships that added to my experience. Connie Goodwin is a history professor working on tenure, engaged, pregnant, who learns of a family curse... but there may be a loophole. What could go wrong?!? Katherine Howe is an excellent writer who really makes the story come alive as Connie both struggles and succeeds in her journey, making it very authentic. I love how the past was interwoven with the current day. I really enjoyed this atmospheric, immersive read and highly recommend it.
Thank you to LibraryThing and Henry Holt and Co. for the Advanced Reader Copy and the opportunity to review The Daughters to Temperance Hobbs. This was one of the most beautiful ARCs I’ve ever received. ( )