If you’d told me a year ago that I’d be living in my mother’s childhood home on the Chesapeake Bay, sharing walls with ancestral magic and my two sisters in full witch mode, I would have called you crazy.

Unlike my sisters, my magic has never really manifested. I don’t light candles with a snap of my fingers. I don’t bake cures into the food I cook or brew potions, tinctures, and oils. What I do is feel and taste what other people are—and what good is that?

But we’re here, and at Swallow Hall I think I will discover my true magic.

I wake up to the house creaking and settling and sighing like it’s stretching its old bones. Sometimes I lie there and just… listen. The swallows sing outside and the low hum of the Bay carries on the wind. I love the way the air feels different here on Bird Island.

By mid-morning, Caraline is usually baking up a storm in the old kitchen. There’s something about the smell of rosemary, blueberry, and lemon scones that makes everything feel survivable. Meanwhile, Saoirse wanders between her apothecary and the woods. Sometimes I think she belongs to the trees and this house more than I do.

Even before we speak, I know my triplet sisters’ moods. A pulse of worry from one. A flicker of determination from the other. We are three notes in the same chord. We’re strongest when we stand close enough for our shoulders to brush.

By midmorning, I’m usually outside, walking the perimeter of the property. I tell myself I’m just getting fresh air, but really, I’m trying to feel and walk in the footsteps of my mother…of Bridget.

Back inside, Everly–the grandmother we never knew we had—watches us with her sharp, knowing eyes. She seems to know us almost as well as she knows the island and Swallow Hall itself. “Magic always asks for something,” she said to me yesterday. “Make sure you know the cost.”

For a while, it has been easy to pretend we’re just three sisters living in an old house. But Swallow Hall isn’t just a house. There are flickers at the edge of things. A shadow where no cloud passes. A breath of cold air in a warm room. Furniture and paintings and windows that all rearrange themselves. The place pulses with life.

At night, I let my fingers trail along the wood railing leading up to my room. I whisper promises to the dark and speak to Bridget. “We brought you home, just like you asked,” I tell her.

I still don’t know what Swallow Hall wants from us. What I do know is Bridget wanted us to find out. Something is coming, but I don’t know if my sisters and I are ready for it.

HOUSE OF SPELLS AND SECRETS
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Release: March 2026
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

When three sisters return to the house that holds their forgotten legacy, the walls whisper of magic, betrayal, and the secrets their mother never told them.

A sweeping story of resilience, magic, and sisterhood, perfect for fans of Alice Hoffman, Heather Webber, and Sarah Addison Allen.

Rowan Connors has lived a fragmented, nomadic life with her triplet sisters, Saoirse and Caraline. Reeling from the sudden drowning of their erratic and secretive mother, Bridget, they uncover an old photograph of her standing in front of a manor they don’t recognize—and a final request scrawled on the back of the picture. The sisters set off to find answers to the questions they’ve always had about their mother’s past, the place she once called home, and their own magical gifts.

They arrive to find Swallow Hall sinking into the bay, and their grandmother, Everly, living alone within its dilapidated walls. But the house is more than crumbling brick and weathered stone. It breathes with magic, bound to the land and to the bloodline the sisters never knew they carried. As they settle into the house and the mystery of their family history deepens, they uncover a hidden enemy tied to the magic of their ancestral line. With every discovery, Rowan begins to suspect that her mother’s drowning was no accident but part of a much older, more dangerous plan set in motion long before they were born.

As the shadows of the past creep back into Swallow Hall and Everly disappears, Rowan must confront whatever forced Bridget to flee Swallow Hall before the house, its secrets, and the magic of their bloodline are erased forever.

Readers looking for emotional sibling bonds and the ancestral mysteries of Nora Roberts’s The Inheritance will resonate with this stunning read.

About the author
Ivy Cassidy writes stories steeped in whispered legends, ancestral secrets, and the quiet magic, all woven into the threads of everyday life. Her novels explore generational bonds, intuitive women, and the unseen forces that shape who we become.

Also known as Melissa Bourbon, Ivy leans more deeply into magical realism and emotional resonance, crafting stories where the past meets the present and long-buried secrets rise, steady and inevitable.

When she’s not writing, she’s walking her dogs, sipping something warm, and dreaming up stories with a soft shimmer around the edges.

For more information visit melissabourbon.com and ivycassidybooks.com and @RealBourbonandBooks on YouTube.