In order to understand me, there are a few things you should know about my family. First, my name. It’s Pippin Lane Hawthorne. My twin brother is Grey. Yes, my dad was a huge Tolkien fan.

The Lane family history, as far as we know, dates back to my great-great-grandfather, Artemis Lane, who left Ireland and ended up on the Oregon coast. We don’t know why, but the women in the Lane family are gifted—or cursed, as the case may be—with bibliomancy.

In other words, we have book magic.

My mother tried to escape the family curse. She left Oregon and wound up in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But she couldn’t outrun fate. She died far too young. Then, when Grey and I were nine years old, my father disappeared. Grey and I were taken in by our grandparents.

Fast-forward twenty years and we’re both back in Devil’s Cove, the town where my parents met, fell in love, and started a family. And we’re renovating their old house. My father’s old fishing boat—The Cassandra, named after my mother—is dry docked in the yard. Seeing it is a constant reminder. Grey and I both need it gone.

Then there’s the stray dog that hides under the Pampas grass. No matter what I do, I can’t seem to coax her out into the open. I’m determined, though. I could use a canine companion, and from the looks of it, the pup could use me.

I’ve been learning about Devil’s Cove since I’ve been back. It’s amazing how some things have resurfaced in my memories, and how other things seem lost forever. I have such a strong memory of crossing the street with my mother, cutting a diagonal between the bookstore and the library. Of her falling down in the middle of the road after a woman dropped a book at her feet. My mother opened that book…and saw something on the page. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was the first time I saw book magic happen.

The home renovations will be done soon. We’ll be opening the place up as an inn.

Sea Captain’s Inn.

But something is going to happen—and soon. I feel it. If only I knew how my family’s bibliomancy worked, but my mother never used it. She never taught me. If I knew how to use it, I might be able to figure out what is behind this haunting feeling seeping into my core.

I’ve decided, though. I’m going to learn this book magic stuff, and when I do, I’m going to use it to figure out where my father is.

Wish me luck.

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Murder in Devil’s Cove is the first book in the NEW “Book Magic” traditional mystery series, released September 22, 2020.

Two best-selling authors, one magical universe.

In the Book Magic Mystery Series, best-selling authors Melissa Bourbon and Wendy Lyn Watson bring you the story of cousins Pippin Lane Hawthorne and Cora Lane. The cousins live on opposite coasts (Pippin in Devil’s Cove, North Carolina, and Cora in Laurel Point, Oregon), but they share the family gift of bibliomancy: the ability to foresee the future and unravel the past with the help of the books we love. Join Pippin and Cora as they use their otherworldly power to solve mysteries in their respective worlds.

Every book tells two stories—one written on the pages with pen and ink, and one woven into the paper, a story of the soul. The Lane women have the gift of bibliomancy. They can read them both.

Almost everyone in the Lane family line dies young. The gift of bibliomancy tells their story before the deaths happen. But Cassie Lane doesn’t see it as a gift. For her, it is a curse. As soon as she’s able, she leaves Laurel Point, Oregon, running from her past and her fate, ending up in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. There she meets Leo Hawthorne and lives a perfect life with him in an old Sea Captain’s house.

Perfect, that is, until Leo vanishes.

After an old copy of Moby Dick foretells Leo’s death, Cassie forbids all books from the lives of her children with Leo. But when twins Pippin and Gray discover a secret room where their father hid away books that were special to him, long forgotten secrets surface, an old crime comes to light, and everything Pippin thought she knew is turned upside down.

Now twenty years later, Pippin must learn how to be a bibliomancer if she is to figure out what happened to her father and stop another murder from happening in Devil’s Cove.

Purchase Link

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About the author
Melissa Bourbon is the national bestselling author of nineteen mystery books, including the brand new collaborative Book Magic mysteries, the Lola Cruz Mysteries, A Magical Dressmaking Mystery series, and the Bread Shop Mysteries, written as Winnie Archer. She is a former middle school English teacher who gave up the classroom in order to live in her imagination full time. Melissa, a California native who has lived in Texas and Colorado, now calls the southeast home. She hikes, practices yoga, cooks, and is slowly but surely discovering all the great restaurants in the Carolinas. Since four of her five amazing kids are living their lives, scattered throughout the country, her dogs, Bean, the pug and Dobby, the chug keep her company while she writes. Melissa lives in North Carolina with her educator husband, Carlos, and their youngest son. She is beyond fortunate to be living the life of her dreams.

Visit Melissa online at melissabourbon.com.

All comments are welcomed.