In the Owens family, love has always been a dangerous thing.For generations, the women of the Owens bloodline have carried a curse: the men who love them are destined to die, leaving the women behind with broken hearts and lives haunted by grief.Barbora Owens born just before her mother’s death, the youngest of the three Owens sisters. Their mother died of a broken heart, leaving Sally and Gilly to grow up knowing that love could be as cruel as it was beautiful.Sally became the steady, sensible sister, determined to protect the people she loved from the family’s dangerous magic. Gilly remained the wild-hearted, impulsive one, forever challenging the rules that had governed their lives. And Barbora, their baby sister, grew into something of a balance between them: gentle and compassionate, with a quiet strength and stubbornness that could rival any Owens woman who came before her.She is the sister who makes tea when tempers flare, leaves flowers on the kitchen table, and stays awake beside someone who cannot sleep. She is kind without being weak, gentle without being naive, and stubborn.But beneath that softness lies an extraordinary gift.Barbora’s magic is powerful—perhaps more powerful than either of her sisters realizes. While Sally has always tried to approach witchcraft with caution, Barbora possesses an almost instinctive connection to it. Candles flicker when she is upset, flowers bloom out of season beneath her fingertips, and objects sometimes move before she even realizes she has summoned them. Spells come naturally to her, as though the magic itself has been waiting for her to discover it.Still, Barbora respects Sally’s wishes. When Sally becomes a mother, she makes one thing perfectly clear: her daughters, Kylie and Antonia, are to grow up without being introduced to witchcraft. Sally wants them to have a chance at an ordinary life, free from the family curse and the burdens that have followed the Owens women for centuries.Barbora understands her sister’s fear, and she promises to honor it. The Owens sisters find themselves drawn into another chapter of their extraordinary lives. The old house remains their sanctuary, filled with creaking wooden floors, mismatched furniture, bundles of herbs hanging from the rafters, candles burning in the windows, and the comforting scent of coffee, cinnamon, and something sweet baking in the oven. It is a home where laughter echoes through the kitchen, old records play late into the evening, and every room seems to hold a memory.When Sally’s daughters begin to uncover the truth about their family, the Owens women must once again confront the legacy they have spent generations trying to escape. The curse, the magic, and the complicated history of their family threaten to draw them into a struggle that will test their bonds and force them to reconsider what they believe about love.Ian enters Barbora’s life unexpectedly, a man whose warmth, humor, and quiet sincerity make him difficult to ignore. He is drawn to her gentleness, but he quickly discovers that there is much more to Barbora Owens than her soft smile and thoughtful nature. She has a sharp tongue when provoked, a stubborn streak that refuses to bend, and a fierce devotion to her family that makes her capable of standing her ground against almost anyone.Their connection begins with small moments.She has spent her life watching the women in her family suffer because of love. She knows the stories, remembers the warnings, and has witnessed the way fear can settle into a woman’s heart until it becomes almost impossible to imagine a future without grief. He does not treat her as fragile, nor does he attempt to tame her stubbornness. He listens when she speaks, challenges her when she is being unreasonable, and recognizes the quiet courage beneath her gentleness. He falls in love with her because of who she is: her kindness, her fierce loyalty, her humor, her intelligence, and the little glimpses of wildness that emerge whenever she forgets to guard herself. He falls for the woman who dances barefoot in the kitchen when she thinks nobody is watching, who leaves warm blankets on the porch for stray cats, and who will argue until sunrise if she believes someone she loves is being treated unfairly.Their romance grows quietly, woven into the familiar rhythms of the Owens household. There are stolen kisses beneath the porch lights, lingering touches across the kitchen table, and late-night conversations in which Ian gradually becomes the person Barbora trusts with the thoughts she has never dared to share. But the closer they become, the more Barbora fears what their relationship could cost him.As the events of the story unfold, Barbora must confront the truth that hiding from the curse is not the same as breaking free of it. Her magic may hold answers that her sisters have never considered, but discovering those answers means risking the one thing she has always tried to protect: the family she loves.
