**Won this book through Goodreads Firstreads**
Hannah comes home from buying produce at a neighbors house to find Mae (the woman who raised her) coughing and choking. Mae tells her that she tried to keep them away and then tells her to run. Hannah has no idea what Mae is talking about and she goes to get her a glass of water, but when she returns, Mae's dead.
She decides she wants to continue living in the house, but first, she has to ask Christobelle (her birth mother) because she is the legal owner. On the night of Mae's funeral, Hannah meets Callum, the guy who ferried the guests from town to her house on the swamp. There's an attraction there that leads to more later on.
Then Christobelle shows up. Hannah hasn't seen her real mother in a decade. Things are tense between them, but Christobelle allows her to live in the house. When Hannah goes back in, a neighbor tells her that her childhood friend, Sarah Anne, is there. Hannah is excited and cautious about seeing her old friend. Cautious because guilt had suddenly overcome her.
The last time she saw Sarah Anne, they were escaping through Sarah Anne's basement window because her house was on fire. Her brother was badly burned and died a few days later in the hospital. Hannah saw him through the window, but got scared and ran home. Leaving Sarah Anne to watch as the flames tried to consume her brother.
That is just a taste of what is going on in this book. I really like stories set in Louisiana, especially in New Orleans and on the bayou. There is no other place in the world that houses so many unique and colorful people. They are known for the legends they tell and Cauchemar delves into that world.
I wouldn't say that the story was slow-moving; it kept a steady pace. Enough to hold my interest until something new happened. There was an eeriness to it that reminded me of The Skeleton Key.
You will find a somewhat rekindled friendship that may not be as it seems, an unexpected sacrifice, and just enough of the supernatural to keep you alert. I would recommend this book, definitely if you like folklore and legends.
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