What happens when a nightmare becomes the seed for a story about witches, history, self-discovery, and the women whose voices refuse to be silenced? 🔮📖

Welcome to The First Editions, where we’re going beyond the preview and opening the pages to our full Book Club Conversation with Madeline Martin, author of A Time of Witches.

A Time of Witches is a haunting and atmospheric blend of historical fiction, supernatural elements, witch trials, dual timelines, Gothic mystery, family history, and women finding their voices. Moving between modern-day Savannah and 1645 Suffolk, the novel follows Lilith and Sybil two women separated by centuries but connected in ways that run far deeper than Lilith initially realizes.

Madeline describes the book in three words:

✨ Atmospheric. Magical. Hopeful.

And after reading through this conversation, we think those three words capture it beautifully.

So grab your coffee, settle in, and get ready for a seriously bookish deep dive into A Time of Witches, historical research, writing life, favorite books, and everything in between.

🔮 THE STORY BEHIND A TIME OF WITCHES

1. If you had to describe A Time of Witches in three words, what would they be?

Atmospheric, magical, hopeful.

2. What was the first spark for A Time of Witches? Did Lilith, Sybil, the historical witch trials, the dual timeline, or something else come to you first?

The very first spark came more than twenty-five years ago, when Madeline was in high school and had a recurring nightmare that she was being burned alive at the stake as a witch.

It made her wonder: What if it wasn't a dream? What if it was a memory? What if it was her past life or an ancestor?

That became the seed for Lilith and Sybil's story.

3. What drew you to the 1645 witch trials in Suffolk as the historical setting for Sybil's story?

Once Madeline began researching English witch trials, she discovered Matthew Hopkins, the self-proclaimed Witchfinder General, and the terrible wave of accusations that swept East Anglia in the 1640s.

Then she learned about Mary Lakeland, who was burned at the stake in 1645 rather than hanged like most people convicted of witchcraft in England.

Considering the nightmare that inspired the book, that discovery gave her chills.

She knew she'd found her time and place.

4. Lilith begins experiencing strange things after her mother's death, including plants responding to her touch and animals lingering in her path. What made you want to blend historical fiction with these mysterious and supernatural elements?

Madeline had never incorporated this much magic into one of her historical novels before, and she says it was so much fun.

The magic allowed her to explore ideas about intuition, inherited knowledge, and the things women have passed from one generation to another.

She also wanted the magic to feel organic like something that could happen to anyone.

If you've ever felt peaceful in moonlight, grounded in nature, empowered by strong women, or noticed that good things seem to happen when you believe in yourself, Madeline says there might just be a little witch in you. 😉

5. Without giving away spoilers, what can you tease readers about the connection between Lilith and Sybil?

Their connection is much deeper and more complicated than Lilith initially realizes.

And that's all Madeline is giving us without spoiling the story!

🕯️ SYBIL, WOMEN & FINDING YOUR VOICE

6. Sybil is an educated, wealthy widow who finds herself accused of witchcraft partly because of the independence that made her threatening to the people around her. What fascinated you most about telling her story?

Women had very little control over their own lives during this period, and stepping outside what society expected of them could be incredibly dangerous.

Sybil has more freedom than many women of her time, but even that can't protect her once suspicion turns against her.

Madeline wanted Sybil to feel like a woman of 1645 while still giving her intelligence, opinions, desires, and ultimately the courage to use her voice.

7. The story moves between modern-day Savannah and 1645 Suffolk. What do you enjoy about using different time periods to tell one larger story?

This was Madeline's first time writing a dual timeline with a contemporary storyline, and she loved being able to show how the past can echo into the present.

The challenge was making sure neither timeline existed simply to explain the other.

Lilith and Sybil each needed their own story but those stories also needed each other.

8. You're famously a history lover who enjoys getting lost in research. What was one of the most fascinating historical discoveries you made while researching A Time of Witches?

One of the most fascinating and horrifying things Madeline learned was how Matthew Hopkins and those working with him extracted confessions even though torture was technically illegal in England.

They didn't consider what they were doing "torture," although we absolutely would today.

Sleep deprivation, forced walking, isolation, and relentless questioning could continue until someone was utterly exhausted.

Madeline wanted readers to understand what these victims experienced and why someone might agree to witchcraft charges even when they weren't a witch.

9. Witch trials have been explored in fiction many times, but every historical period and community had its own fears, beliefs, and motivations. What did you most want to capture about the realities of witch accusations in 1645 Suffolk?

How frighteningly easy it could be to become a target.

An accusation could grow from fear, superstition, a grudge, or simply being different.

Madeline wanted readers to remember that behind the names in trial records were real people whose lives and families could be destroyed by suspicion.

📜 HISTORY VS. FICTION

10. How did you balance the documented history of witch trials with the fictional elements of Sybil's story?

Madeline says this is one of her favorite parts of writing historical fiction.

She thinks of history as the framework: the major events, people, laws, beliefs, and realities of the period need to be accurate.

Then she builds fictional characters and their lives within that framework.

Even those fictional characters are often amalgamations of firsthand accounts she discovered during research.

Her goal?

For readers to reach the end and not necessarily know where history stopped and her imagination began until they read the author's note.

11. Sybil's education, wealth, and independence become part of what makes her a target. What interested you about exploring the ways women's independence could be perceived as threatening during this period?

Madeline points to the patriarchal expectations women have faced throughout history.

In this particular period, it could be dangerous for a woman not to have a man keeping her within those societal confines.

Sybil's knowledge and independence don't necessarily make her safe.

In some circumstances, they make her more vulnerable.

12. Silence is such an important idea in the book the silence surrounding women, accusations, secrets, and generations of history. When did you realize that silence and finding one's voice would become such a central theme?

The concept grew naturally while Madeline developed both Sybil and Lilith.

They're separated by centuries and face completely different circumstances, but both experience situations in which they've been made to feel they should be quieter or smaller.

Their journeys became about trusting themselves and recognizing that their voices matter.

13. Lilith and Sybil are separated by centuries, yet their lives are connected by blood and danger. How did you approach creating parallels between two women who live in such dramatically different worlds?

Madeline wanted their lives to be vastly different while allowing some of their emotional struggles to feel familiar.

It wasn't about making them mirrors of one another.

Instead, she wanted to show how certain struggles, grief, fear, friendship, self-doubt, and the desire to belong can transcend centuries.

14. Did you find yourself discovering similarities between Lilith and Sybil as you wrote them, or did you intentionally build certain traits and experiences to connect them?

A little of both.

Madeline knew there needed to be echoes between them, but some emerged organically as she wrote.

🏚️ WELCOME TO BRACKENMERE MANOR

15. Brackenmere Manor seems to become almost a character of its own, with its decaying history and secrets. What was your approach to creating a setting that could carry so much atmosphere and mystery?

Madeline has always been obsessed with abandoned manors.

She wanted Brackenmere to feel beautiful, unsettling, and layered with everything that had happened there.

The setting also gave her a chance to lean into the Gothic elements of the book which she absolutely loved.

🔍 THE RESEARCH RABBIT HOLE

16. When you're writing historical fiction, how do you decide which real historical details need to make it onto the page and which fascinating research discoveries have to stay in your research files?

It's hard. 😂

Madeline always reminds herself that she's writing a novel, not a history textbook.

A detail needs to serve the character, the plot, or the reader's understanding of the world.

Unfortunately, that means some fascinating things she spent hours researching never make it into the book.

17. You've said you could happily lose yourself in research all day. What is the most dangerous kind of research rabbit hole for you, the one where you suddenly realize you've spent hours reading about something that may only make it into one sentence? 😂

Pretty much everything. 😂

The more obscure the detail, the tighter its grip on Madeline.

She can spend days researching a single detail that ultimately makes it into one sentence.

18. Was there a historical detail you discovered while researching this book that completely changed the way you understood the time period or a character?

Learning more about the methods used to obtain witchcraft confessions really affected how Madeline viewed the trials.

It's one thing to read that someone "confessed."

It's another to understand what may have happened to that person during the days leading up to that confession.

That knowledge affected how she approached the fear and exhaustion surrounding Sybil's experience.

19. How do you keep the research from taking over the story when you have found something so fascinating that you desperately want readers to know about it?

Madeline asks whether her character would actually be thinking about it in that moment or whether it's an experience her character would organically have.

If the answer is no, it probably doesn't belong.

Historical fiction still has to be a story first.

And sometimes that means deleting a paragraph of fascinating research she desperately wanted everyone else to find fascinating too. 😂

20. Did you encounter any historical myths or misconceptions about witch trials that surprised you during your research?

One of the biggest is the assumption that everyone accused of witchcraft was burned.

In England, those convicted of witchcraft were generally hanged.

Burning was unusual, which is one reason Mary Lakeland's case caught Madeline's attention.

And despite what we often picture when we think about Salem, those convicted there weren't burned either.

✍️ THE WRITING PROCESS

21. What was the biggest challenge in writing A Time of Witches?

Definitely balancing the two timelines.

Each needed to be compelling enough that readers didn't resent leaving it, while both timelines also needed to continually build toward one larger story.

It was a completely different structural challenge for Madeline.

And then came the text messages. 😂

When she reached her first mention of texting, she had a moment of panic about how she was going to handle it.

After a massive existential crisis, she realized it was simply another challenge that would help her grow as an author.

She figured it out and she's glad she challenged herself because she feels she grew from writing the book and is happy with how the contemporary aspect turned out.

22. Was there a particular scene, character, or storyline that changed considerably from your original plan while you were writing?

No. 😂

Madeline describes herself as a consummate plotter, so the book was already outlined before she began writing.

No surprises for her!

23. Do your characters tend to behave themselves and follow your outline, or have Lilith and Sybil ever decided they know better than you do?

Because Madeline follows a strict outline, her characters generally behave themselves.

24. When you're creating a historical character, what usually comes first for you: their personality, their circumstances, their history, or the historical event you're placing them inside?

Usually the historical situation comes first.

Then Madeline asks herself who would be the most interesting person to experience it through.

She loves ordinary women caught in extraordinary circumstances, particularly women whose stories might never have made it into the historical record.

Many of her characters are built from multiple first-person experiences she encountered during her research.

❤️ THE HISTORY LOVER ROUND

25. What is it about history that continues to pull you back in as a writer?

Madeline loves learning about different cultures and periods.

She's endlessly fascinated by how people hundreds of years ago could be so different from us and yet so much the same.

Their worlds, laws, clothing, expectations, and daily lives could be completely foreign, but they still fell in love, worried about their children, laughed with friends, grieved, hoped, and dreamed.

She loves finding the humanity inside history.

26. Is there a historical period you haven't written about yet that you would love to explore someday?

A bubonic plague book. 😂

She has one inside her and says she'll write it one of these days!

27. If you could spend one day visiting any historical period you've researched, where would you go?

There are far too many choices!

Medieval, Tudor, Victorian, WWII, Regency…

Madeline clearly isn't making this decision easy. 😂

28. And if you could bring one modern convenience with you, what are you absolutely refusing to live without? 😂

Contact lenses!

She says she's "blind as all get out" without them.

29. Is there a historical figure you would love to have dinner with?

Jane Austen.

Madeline would love for Austen to know how much of an impact her books have had on the world and how they're still loved and revered today.

30. What's one historical topic you could happily talk about for hours if someone accidentally asked you about it?

Pretty much any topic her books have touched on and then some!

She's always fascinated by history and has researched so many different eras.

📚 QUESTIONS BOOK LOVERS ALWAYS WANT TO KNOW

31. What kind of reader were you growing up, and which books or authors helped shape your love of historical fiction?

Madeline was the kid who was always reading.

She grew up as an Army brat and moved every three or four years, so books were a constant when everything else kept changing.

She loved Little House on the Prairie, Anne of Green Gables, and stories that completely transported her somewhere else.

Books were some of her first friends, and that desire to disappear into another place and time absolutely shaped the writer she became.

32. Is there a historical fiction book you wish you could forget just so you could experience reading it for the first time again?

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.

33. What book has made you want to immediately start researching the history behind it?

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

34. What's one book you recommend whenever someone tells you they're looking for great historical fiction?

The Lotus Shoes by Jane Yang.

35. Are you the kind of reader who researches historical details while reading, or do you prefer to finish the story first and then fall down the research rabbit hole?

During. 😂

Not exactly while she's reading, but when she puts the book down to do something else, she often finds herself on Google digging into more historical details.

36. Do you have a favorite historical fiction trope you never get tired of?

Ordinary women discovering extraordinary courage.

Madeline isn't sure that's technically a trope, but she clearly loves it enough to keep writing it herself!

37. What's a bookish trope that will make you immediately pick up a novel?

Books about books.

Bookstores, libraries, mysterious manuscripts, secret book societies…

Apparently, if you put a book inside your book, Madeline is interested. 😂

38. What's currently sitting on your TBR that you're especially excited to read?

Royal Witch by Philippa Gregory.

✍️ THE AUTHOR LIFE

39. You've been writing for more than twenty years. Looking back, what has changed the most about you as a writer?

Madeline's understanding of craft.

She's never stopped trying to learn.

She still reads craft books, takes workshops, studies books she admires, and recently earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Drexel University.

She's much more intentional now about character, theme, structure, and what a story is really trying to say.

She always wants every book she writes to be the best it can be with the knowledge she has at that time with the hope that the next book will be even better.

40. You spent years writing while working in Corporate America before becoming a full-time author. What is one thing you wish your younger writing self had known?

Madeline went through a divorce during that period, and it was incredibly difficult.

At the time, she had an agent but didn't have a book deal yet.

She remembers many mornings sitting there thinking, "What is the point?"

Looking at her career now, she realizes that every morning she forced herself to write while her heart was broken helped build the success she has today.

She wouldn't necessarily tell her younger self that she would be successful.

Instead, she'd reassure herself that every one of those days would count in the future.

41. You've published through small presses, independently, and now with a major publishing house. What has each stage of your publishing journey taught you?

Every stage taught her something she needed for the next one.

Small press publishing taught her about the industry.

Indie publishing taught her an incredible amount about the business side of being an author and the impact of marketing.

Traditional publishing on a larger scale showed her just how many people it takes to bring a book into the world.

She doesn't regret any part of the path because all of it helped make her the author she is today.

42. What's something about the publishing process that surprised you once you became an author?

How much of being an author has absolutely nothing to do with writing. 😂

There are edits, copyedits, marketing, publicity, social media, interviews, speaking engagements, book clubs, keynotes, teaching workshops, book tours…

And somewhere in there, she's also supposed to write another book!

43. Do you have any writing rituals, research habits, lucky objects, snacks, playlists, or other little routines that have become part of your process?

Madeline has started lighting a candle and using the Brick to block her phone during writing sessions.

It tells her brain that it's time to enter a creative space.

44. Be honest: when you're deep in a research rabbit hole, is there a point where someone has to remind you that you are technically supposed to be writing? 😂

No!

Believe it or not, she's pretty good at staying focused.

She knows she has a limited amount of time to do the research necessary for the book and stay on track.

Otherwise, she'd never get a book written!

45. What does your ideal writing day look like?

When drafting, Madeline likes to be completely immersed.

She generally drafts a book in about a month, so those days are intense.

She loves being able to stay so deep in the story that she remembers all the little details, character voices, and emotional threads without constantly having to reacquaint herself with the book.

46. What's the best piece of writing advice you've ever received?

Never stop learning.

Madeline has actively learned about writing for more than 20 years and plans to continue learning about the craft.

No one can know everything, and there will always be new rhetorical devices and new ways writing can improve.

Whether it's conferences, online workshops, craft books, or studying amazing literature and breaking down what works so well, there's always room to improve the process.

47. What's one piece of advice you'd give to someone who dreams of becoming a published author but is still waiting for the “right time” to begin?

Don't wait for the right time, because there probably isn't one.

Madeline started writing while working full-time and raising two young daughters.

She had almost no free time, so she learned to use whatever time she could find.

You don't need perfect circumstances to begin.

You just need to begin and you need to have that book written.

⚡ QUICK-FIRE BOOKISH ROUND

48. Hardcover or paperback?

Hardcover.

49. Physical books or ebooks?

Physical books.

50. Library book or bookstore purchase?

Bookstore purchase.

51. Annotate everything or keep the pages pristine?

Research: annotate. Reading: pristine.

52. Historical fiction or historical romance?

Historical fiction.

53. Dual timeline or single timeline?

Single timeline. Although A Time of Witches certainly made her appreciate what a dual timeline can do!

54. Haunted manor or mysterious castle?

Both, please! 😂

55. Witch trials or royal intrigue?

Witch trials.

56. Research first or story first?

Research first. Always.

57. One enormous historical epic or an entire historical fiction series?

Historical epic.

58. Read late into the night or wake up early to read?

Late into the night. Maybe around 9 PM. 😂

59. Bookmark or dog-ear?

Bookmark or hardcover jacket flap.

60. Favorite reading snack?

Coffee. ☕📚

61. If you could live inside one fictional book world for a week, which one would you choose?

Harry Potter. ⚡

❤️ ONE LAST QUESTION

62. What is the one thing you most hope readers take away from A Time of Witches: a feeling, a question, a piece of history, or something they continue thinking about after turning the final page?

The importance of self-love.

Madeline says women are often incredibly hard on themselves.

It's what can nudge us to make ourselves small, keep from speaking up, or feel like we're not worthy of the things in our lives.

The more self-love we have, the more we recognize that our voices have value and so do we.

Being kind and encouraging to yourself is one of the best gifts you can give yourself. ❤️

63. And finally, what's one thing you hope readers will be curious about after finishing A Time of Witches, whether that's more of Lilith and Sybil's story, the history behind the novel, or the next book waiting on your writing desk?

Madeline would love for readers to want to know more about the real history behind the witch trials.

So many people who were accused have been reduced to names in records or forgotten entirely and their stories deserve to be remembered.

And, of course, she hopes readers are curious about what she's writing next!

📖 Coming Fall 2027: The Forgotten Pages

Madeline's next novel, The Forgotten Pages, takes readers to Victorian Yorkshire in 1888.

It's part Gothic, part whimsical, and features:

📚 Magical books
🕯️ Forgotten women
🤍 Friendship
🏡 Found family
✨ A little adult fairy-tale feeling

And honestly, we're already adding it to our TBR.

👉 Add The Forgotten Pages to your Goodreads Want to Read list:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243264788

💕 THANK YOU, MADELINE!

A huge thank-you to Madeline Martin for opening up about A Time of Witches, her research process, her writing journey, the history behind the story, her favorite books, and the lessons she's learned throughout more than two decades as a writer.

We loved getting this behind-the-pages look at the making of A Time of Witches and getting to know the author behind the story.

And now we have approximately 47 new books to add to our TBRs, because apparently authors should never be allowed to share their favorite historical fiction recommendations with a room full of book people. 😂📚

📚 KEEP UP WITH MADELINE MARTIN

🌐 Website & Newsletter: https://madelinemartin.com/
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madelinemmartin/
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MadelineMartinAuthor
🐦 Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/MadelineMMartin
📌 Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/MadelineMartin9/_saved/
📚 BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/madeline-martin
🛒 Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Madeline-Martin/e/B00R8OGFN2
⭐ Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12062937.Madeline_Martin

#BookClubConversations #MadelineMartin #ATimeOfWitches #HistoricalFiction #HistoricalFictionBooks #BookishCommunity #BookClub #ReadersOfInstagram #BookLovers #ThePageLadiesBookClub

What if a nightmare wasn’t a nightmare at all but a memory?

For our latest Book Club Conversation, we’re stepping into the atmospheric, magical, and haunting world of A Time of Witches with bestselling author Madeline Martin!

Blending historical fiction, supernatural mystery, a dual timeline, witch trials, family secrets, and the echoes of the past, A Time of Witches moves between modern-day Savannah and 1645 Suffolk, where two women separated by centuries find their stories mysteriously intertwined.

And according to Madeline, if she had to describe the novel in just three words?

✨ Atmospheric. Magical. Hopeful.

🔮 Where the Story Began

The first spark for A Time of Witches came more than 25 years ago, when Madeline was in high school and had a recurring nightmare about being burned alive at the stake as a witch.

That nightmare sparked a question: What if it wasn't a dream? What if it was a memory?

Could it have been a past life? An ancestor? That question became the seed for Lilith and Sybil's story.

As Madeline researched English witch trials, she discovered Matthew Hopkins, the self-proclaimed Witchfinder General, and the horrifying wave of accusations that swept through East Anglia during the 1640s.

Then she discovered Mary Lakeland, who was burned at the stake in 1645 rather than hanged like most people convicted of witchcraft in England.

Considering the nightmare that inspired the novel, Madeline says that discovery gave her chills and she knew she'd found the right time and place for Sybil's story.

🌿 A Little Magic in Historical Fiction

Lilith's story introduces mysterious elements alongside the historical fiction, including plants responding to her touch and animals appearing in her path.

For Madeline, incorporating this much magic into a historical novel was completely new and a lot of fun.

The supernatural elements gave her a way to explore intuition, inherited knowledge, and the things women pass from one generation to another.

And she wanted the magic to feel organic and familiar.

If you've ever felt peaceful beneath the moonlight, grounded by nature, empowered by strong women, or noticed that good things seem to happen when you believe in yourself…

Well, according to Madeline, there might just be a little witch in you. 😉

🕯️ Lilith & Sybil

Without giving away spoilers, Madeline promises that the connection between Lilith and Sybil is much deeper and much more complicated than Lilith initially realizes.

And we're absolutely going to leave it there because we're not about to spoil the magic!

Sybil's story is especially fascinating because she's an educated, wealthy widow whose independence makes her threatening to the people around her.

Madeline wanted Sybil to feel authentically like a woman living in 1645 while still giving her intelligence, opinions, desires, and ultimately, the courage to use her voice.

Because during this period, women had very little control over their own lives and stepping outside society's expectations could be incredibly dangerous.

⏳ When the Past Echoes Into the Present

A Time of Witches is Madeline's first dual-timeline novel featuring a contemporary storyline, and she loved exploring the way the past can echo into the present.

But there was an important challenge: neither timeline could simply exist to explain the other.

Lilith and Sybil each needed their own story. But those stories also needed each other.

And honestly? That makes us even more curious about how their stories ultimately connect.

📜 The History Behind the Horror

One of the most fascinating and horrifying things Madeline discovered during her research involved how Matthew Hopkins and those working alongside him extracted confessions.

Although torture was technically illegal in England, methods including sleep deprivation, forced walking, isolation, and relentless questioning could continue until someone was completely exhausted.

Madeline wanted to show readers what victims of these accusations actually endured and help answer a question people sometimes ask: Why would they confess if they weren't witches?

The answer is far more disturbing than the question suggests.

🧙‍♀️ Why Witch Accusations Were So Dangerous

Madeline wanted to capture just how frighteningly easy it could be to become a target in 1645 Suffolk.

An accusation could begin with fear, superstition, a grudge or simply being different.

Behind the names preserved in historical trial records were real people whose lives, families, and futures could be destroyed by suspicion.

And that's one of the things we love most about historical fiction: it can take names from the pages of history and remind us that there was a whole person behind each one.

📖 What Comes Next?

Madeline hopes readers finish A Time of Witches curious about the real history behind the witch trials and the people whose stories have been forgotten or reduced to names in historical records.

And, naturally, she hopes we're curious about what she's writing next!

Her upcoming novel, The Forgotten Pages, arrives in Fall 2027 and takes readers to Victorian Yorkshire in 1888.

Think:

📚 Magical books
🕯️ Forgotten women
🖤 Gothic atmosphere
✨ Whimsy
🤝 Friendship & found family
🧚 A little adult fairy-tale feeling

Needless to say… we're intrigued.

You can add The Forgotten Pages to your Goodreads Want to Read list and follow Madeline for updates about her upcoming work.

💬 Our Book Club Conversation

This is only a peek at our conversation with Madeline Martin. We talked about the inspiration behind A Time of Witches, historical research, witch trials, magic, Lilith and Sybil, writing dual timelines, the realities of accusations in 1645 Suffolk, and what 

📖 Want the rest of the conversation?

Join The First Editions! A space for readers who want the full interview, all the extra bookish goodness and the complete bookish experience.

Because here at The Page Ladies Book Club, we're not just reading the book.

We're talking about it, dissecting it, obsessing over it, and probably adding five more books to our TBR while we're at it. 💕📚

Come join The First Editions and pull up a chair. Your next bookish conversation is waiting.

📚 About A Time of Witches

A Time of Witches blends historical fiction and supernatural mystery across two timelines, following Lilith in modern-day Savannah and Sybil in 1645 Suffolk as their lives become connected across centuries.

If you love historical fiction, witch trials, dual timelines, magical realism, women's history, atmospheric mysteries, and stories that connect the past to the present, this is one to add to your TBR.

🔗 Find Madeline Martin

🌐 Website & Newsletter: https://madelinemartin.com/
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madelinemmartin/
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MadelineMartinAuthor
🐦 Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/MadelineMMartin
📌 Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/MadelineMartin9/_saved/
📚 BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/madeline-martin
🛒 Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Madeline-Martin/e/B00R8OGFN2
⭐ Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12062937.Madeline_Martin

📖 Add The Forgotten Pages to your Goodreads Want to Read:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243264788

#BookClubConversations #MadelineMartin #ATimeOfWitches #HistoricalFiction #BookishCommunity

This next one made me a bit squeamish. I found it horrifying, macabre, and incredibly dark. Tender is the Flesh is a dystopian horror novel that left me a bit sick in the stomach. Definitely one I had to put down for a break, but it was too good not to pick back up again.

Chapter 17

Icarus untangled knots fused by the passage of time and neglect. It was a hearty stack of papers and took both hands to stop them all from tumbling to the floor, but he managed and set them down between himself and Maren. Neither of them spoke for a heartbeat, both of them taking in the yellowed pages that would more or less explain to them a great deal about what was happening. Icarus looked up, Maren met his eyes. 

“We can still walk away,” she said. “We have no obligation to any of this. We don’t have to do it.”

He smiled weakly and shook his head, “I think we do, Mare. Too much has happened that can’t be coincidence. The bánánach, Eilonwy, the Inquisitor. If we try to walk away now, I’ve a feeling something will drag us back in.”

“Listen to you, sounding like a zealous congregant now that you’ve no collar to preach with,” she mused. In passive agreement, she reached towards the stack for a bound leather book with an overworn spine. 

Icarus grunted, “Yes, I am known for my belief that the Pale God finds me special.”

“Arguably your best trait some days,” she opened the book and began to read. 

Icarus stared at the dense Pale Doctrine swollen with notes and tabs and secrets and lies. She had left this for him to read, a sacred text between father and son that contained things not hers to read—not first, anyway. He couldn’t decide if he was grateful when he forced his hand to move, to pick up the volume that contained everything he both wanted to know and recoiled from. 

He opened the cover and began to read. 

**

It was a book of horrors Icarus had to put down several times as he read. His mouth was dry reading through note after note, unfolding scraps shoved in between pages with trembling hands, letting his silence grow tighter and tighter. He made it through two books of the Doctrine before setting it aside. 

He took a deep, shaking breath and rubbed a hand along his brow, “I have to take a break. I can’t… Mare, what the fuck.”

He instinctively reached for his flask before remembering he was in plainclothes with a grimace. Standing, he beelined for the lopsided nightstand that served as a liquor cabinet and liberated a bottle of something that still looked in good sorts. The cork popped cheerfully and he took a long drink of burning amber, letting its calm settle into his bones. 

Her face was equally pale, “It’s a book about the Veil. He shouldn’t have been able to take it from the library, it’s supposed to be in their restricted section.”

“Can’t be worse than reading about passages to help your congregation feel the true horror of the Stygian Lord,” he took a more measured sip and leaned back. The lack of chastisement for his gamble on a bottle of fifteen year old liquor worried him more than the book’s contents. 

“Listen to this,” she leaned forward and traced the passage with a long finger. “...and when the Great Fracture cleaved one into three, the Veil was stitched together from the chords of the Earth’s song and hung between the world of fae and man. Likewise, the Stygian Lord sealed his demons beneath the world and inked the Gate of Blood from His own hand.”

“Go on,” Icarus’s head was spinning from more than just the well-aged whiskey. He knew the Great Fracture, when the realms of fae, man, and demons entered their current state of spiritual warfare. Both predated on man, attacking from two fronts, but sealed implied protection, not forming a great demonic offensive. 

“The Veil will not suffer man, thus man suffers in its place. The Gate of Blood remains closed to all but the Pale God His brother,” Maren looked up and tried to sort out her next words carefully. “This doesn’t make any sense. This isn’t what…”

This isn’t what the Church has taught us. Icarus already knew that as well as she did. Their lives, their tutelage in the Church, had always been about the war of fae and demon against man clawing to usurp the Pale God by obliterating His congregants. What Daedalus had been reading seemed to preach the opposite. 

“What if…” Icarus paused, not so fresh out of the Church he had unspooled all of his lifelong beliefs. “What if we aren’t doing the Pale God’s work? What if we’re…”

“What if we are the demons?” She finished for him and let it hang suspended and terrible and probably true. 

He looked out the window into the fading grey-black early evening and let himself take a final drink before replacing the cork. If he didn’t he’d be facedown before midnight and Pale Lord knew what had taken up residence in these rugs. He sighed, “Go home. You’ve done enough today and nearly sacrificed a lung to do it. I’ll keep going for a bit.”

“Icarus-”

He held up a hand, “Maren, you’ve done enough. Go home and rest. I’ve got another hour or so in me, I’ll meet you in the morning. Whatever’s in these books isn’t going to get worse if you don’t read it right now.” He swallowed hard, “Besides, I’m nearing capacity for all the disgust I can swallow. And I’ve swallowed a lot of disgust in my days.”

She let herself weigh his argument before snapping the book closed and setting it on the table. In a graceful motion, she was on her feet and pulling on her coat, pausing only to pat his arm, “One hour. No more. Then go rest. You weren’t yourself this morning and it makes me worry about that head wound.”

He shrugged, “Not much in there to rattle around in the first place, I wouldn’t worry.”

She shot him a reprimanding look and turned, leaving him standing in the dusty old sitting room with only the low-burning fire for company. He sighed, rubbing a hand along the back of his head and feeling for the scabbed-over gash in question. It was significantly smaller than he expected for something causing him so many problems. 

Icarus paced the room and examined the scant paintings of suffering Saints—Lazriel, Brida, Kiernan—who had endured excruciating deaths during the Great Fracture and the period of instability that followed. How much of it had been real? How much of it was a twisted and manipulated fantasy of the Church in an effort to gain traction?

Without the Church, Icarus mused, what was there before?

He hadn’t thought much about the Church’s history, there hadn’t felt like a need. The Great Fracture occurred and split the three realms, then man was defending itself from two sides as fae and demons tried to infect their world and overpower the Pale God. It was such a clean story, such a neat tale of how the Church came to be that conveniently also forged a viable crusade for the people. After all, it was hard to deny they were being attacked when someone watched their family and friends’ bodies fight off one of the invaders in question. 

He frowned, unable to shake one thing that bothered him. He sat back down and leafed through Maren’s book until he found the same passage again. He propped it open and went to Daedalus’s Pale Doctrine, leafing through until he found the Book of Admonitions.

Admonitions had always been a ghastly telling of what was coming, the great white flame of the Pale God descending onto the Earth to burn out the damned and bring the righteous into His loving embrace. 

“Whatever that means,” he grumbled to himself. 

It was a book full of grisly stories of suffering—how the fae would be torn to pieces and their grey skeletons turned to char and ash, how the demons would be crucified and torn apart by great heavenly beasts. He hated that book, but most frustrating of all was how it had come to exist. Saint Paolo took a brutal fall and struck his head on a rock, then a few days later started having visions and decided they were from the Pale God. Visions of what was to come, he had proclaimed. There was no cause to believe it other than the word of a madman with a head injury. 

Icarus was beginning to learn a lot more about the precarity of anything said by a man with a head injury. He leafed through the Doctrine until he found 13:4 to 27:12 and stared. Daedalus had poured over these. There were a dozen scraps of paper tucked into the pages, circles and lines and illegible notes so dense he couldn’t read the words anymore. 

One scrap landed in his lap, then another. He picked up the first and unfolded it. 

The Veil will not permit MAN. Inquire and attest. 

Another scrawl at the bottom, likely penned later. 

The Veil permits demon.

Icarus stared at the underlined word, a sick feeling settling into his gut. He wanted more whiskey in his blood for this, but he couldn’t bring himself to look away. He lifted the second note and unfolded it. Eyes wide, he forced himself to read. 

They give their lives for this holy cause. 

A temporary change of state. 

Something in the blood.

It tricks the crossing, it is a way through.

He swallowed. The room dilated. His chest constricted around his thundering heart. Cold ringed his wrist and ran its icy fingers along his arm. It all took shape into a single, grim picture. 

The Church wasn’t just allowing people to endure possession to drive up Mass attendance and take in more coin. Somewhere in its ranks was a subsect of brothers and sisters who were doing something so much worse—they were bleeding out these victims of demonic occupation and using their blood to cross the Veil unharmed. 

The Church was killing people. 

Icarus was on his feet, knuckles white around the damnable notes. He wasn’t thinking, he couldn’t. His head throbbed again, a buzzing built to a roar in his ears. He crossed the sitting room so fast he hardly remembered it and grabbed his coat, shoving one arm into