Blurb:
When the choice is marriage or death, both will end in blood…
When she’s accused of witchcraft, Fortune must flee her village to spare her neck, marrying a man she barely knows. But should one ever really trust in the kindness of strangers?
Fortune Blyth suffered the loss of a secret child when she was sixteen and vowed never to let another man touch her. Ten years later she is content living a spinster life with her Ma and beloved birds.
But when witch hunters come to town, it isn’t long before fingers are pointed her way, and Fortune is forced to choose – stay and hang, or marry a relative stranger and escape. She chooses marriage.
But her husband’s island residence is not the safe haven she was promised, reachable only by boat and housing both a surly housekeeper and eccentric mother-in-law. What’s more, there are secrets lurking in the shadows of the house, and Fortune is about to discover there are some things worse than death.
Praise for Our Gifted Hearts:
“A beautiful yet unsettling Gothic story about grief and self-forgiveness, breathing new life and a feminist perspective to this classic horror tale.”
Sunyi Dean, author of The Book Eaters
“Compulsively readable, romantic, and filled with fun and familiar tropes of the genre, Our Gifted Hearts is a classic gothic novel that nonetheless manages to offer something new due to its witchy touch.”
Johanna Van Veen, author of My Darling Dreadful Thing and Blood on Her Tongue
“This is the only time I’ve ever wanted to put a book away to get some space from what was happening (except I wanted to know what would happen next too much, so I didn’t do that). Had you killed Purdie I might have done it. The slow, quiet horror of everything was incredibly powerful and brilliant.”
Dan Hanks, author of The Way Up Is Death
“A gloriously gothic tale, yet Our Gifted Hearts still managed to surprise me. Creepy, mysterious and magical. I devoured it!”
Jodie Robins, author of The Off-Season
“In the best gothic fairy tale tradition, Kennedy’s Our Gifted Hearts offers readers a sumptuous retelling, with feisty heroine, Fortune, so much more than Bluebeard’s latest wife (and his mother is something else!) The mysteries run dark and deep. Intriguing and compelling.”
Megan Taylor, author, The Therapist’s Daughter and We Wait
Jennifer Kennedy 