“Piers Corbin has always had an affinity for poisonous things—plants and men. From the pokeweed berries she consumed at age five that led to the accidental death of a stranger, to the husband whose dark proclivities have become… concerning, poison has been at the heart of her story.

But when she fakes her own death in an attempt to escape her volatile marriage and goes to stay with her estranged great aunt in the mountains, she realizes her predilection is more than a hunger—it’s a birthright. Piers comes from a long line of poison eaters—Bane Witches—women who ingest deadly plants and use their magic to rid the world of evil men.

Piers sets out to earn her place in her family’s gritty but distinguished legacy, all while working at her Aunt Myrtle’s cafe and perpetuating a flirtation with the local, well-meaning sheriff to allay his suspicions on the body count she’s been leaving in her wake. But soon she catches the attention of someone else, a serial killer operating in the area. And that only means one thing—it’s time to feed.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got this as an eGalley from NetGalley to review..

Thoughts: This was an intriguing book, and mostly I liked it. I definitely enjoyed it more than “The Witches of Bone Hill”. Some portions of this book are pretty brutal to read. There is a lot about abusive relationships and abuse of women in general (all types of abuse; mental, sexual, and physical).

Piers is trying to escape her horribly abusive husband and is forced to fake her own death to do so. In desperation, she flees to the wilderness to find her Aunt. When Piers accidentally kills a man who tries to take advantage of her on the drive out there she is even more upset. When she finds her Aunt Myrtle, she learns that she has special powers to poison evil men. There is a serial killer loose in the wilderness near Myrtle’s house, and Piers may have ended up here for a reason…it is her calling to hunt and kill this vicious predator.

The story is very suspenseful, although it was also more predictable than I would like. I enjoyed the beginning and watching Piers learn about her mysterious powers. Things got a bit slow in the middle while we were meeting all the Bane witches and waiting for Piers to learn to use her powers better. I was a bit confused about why all these Bane Witch characters were briefly introduced and then didn’t enter the story again. Maybe this is being set up to be a series?

After wading through such slow pacing mid book, Piers’s hunt ended up feeling very anti-climatic. There wasn’t much of a hunt and things were over so quickly. Even Piers’s confrontation with her husband felt strangely anti-climatic and rushed.

I did like the premise of the book, although most of the Bane Witches’ powersare hand-waved as “magic”. It would have been nice to get a bit more lore and depth around how these women gained their power (there is a bit of this, but it feels very shallow and contrived).

I also had some issues with the characters; they feel very distanced. I never engaged with any of them well. Even the love interest here felt rushed and shallow; it was a pretty insta-love scenario which is not my favorite.

This deals very heavily with men abusing women (that is pretty much the whole story here). There are a lot of graphic abuse scenes and a lot of graphic death scenes (death by fast-acting poison ain’t pretty). If that bothers you, I would definitely skip this. I have read multiple books in the last few months with abusive women trying to flee relationships. This led me to look up stats on how common this is and it is way more commen than I expected. It is estimated that about 35% of women and 20% of men have faced abuse at the hands of family members/spouses. That is a huge stat that definitely makes all this literature I’ve been reading horribly relevant to our society. I fear that stat is only going to get worse with the current sociopolitical scenario happening in the US.

My Summary (3.5/5): Overall there were some things I liked about this and some things I didn’t enjoy. I thought the premise was creative and enjoyed the urgency in the beginning and ending of the story. I thought the action scenes were well done. I struggled with the slow pace of the middle of the book and also struggled to engage with the characters; they all feel very distanced from the reader. With this being the second book I have read from Morgan, I think I can say she isn’t the best author for me. Her books have been pretty hit and miss for me; I don’t plan to seek out future novels by her.