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The Cabot Girls of Coventry Island
There have always been Cabot girls on Coventry Island.
Located off the Washington coast, the tiny island is a source of incredible magic. Women in the Cabot family are entrusted with protecting it from being abused by the outside world. Twins Reese and May, along with their older sister Winnie, are the current custodians and use their connection with the island to the betterment of its inhabitants. Winnie owns a bakery where she imbues her creations with positive energy. Reese and May have a thrift shop where repurposed items are blessed and passed on to the owners they were always meant to have.
The sisters have a close connection, still living together in the same house where they grew up. But once their impenetrable bond was nearly shattered by a woman named Jessica Vaughn. She very nearly succeeded but, in the end, the sisters were able to overcome her manipulations and exiled her from the island once and for all. Or so they thought.
Jessica has come back, determined to stay, and she has big plans for the island, plans that run contrary to the quaint and quiet life the Cabots have vowed to protect. This time she has an ally who could turn the tide. The tight-knit sisters will discover their family has been harboring certain unforgivable secrets.
At a time when their island needs them the most, the Cabots may find their relationship has been fatally fractured.
Located off the Washington coast, the tiny island is a source of incredible magic. Women in the Cabot family are entrusted with protecting it from being abused by the outside world. Twins Reese and May, along with their older sister Winnie, are the current custodians and use their connection with the island to the betterment of its inhabitants. Winnie owns a bakery where she imbues her creations with positive energy. Reese and May have a thrift shop where repurposed items are blessed and passed on to the owners they were always meant to have.
The sisters have a close connection, still living together in the same house where they grew up. But once their impenetrable bond was nearly shattered by a woman named Jessica Vaughn. She very nearly succeeded but, in the end, the sisters were able to overcome her manipulations and exiled her from the island once and for all. Or so they thought.
Jessica has come back, determined to stay, and she has big plans for the island, plans that run contrary to the quaint and quiet life the Cabots have vowed to protect. This time she has an ally who could turn the tide. The tight-knit sisters will discover their family has been harboring certain unforgivable secrets.
At a time when their island needs them the most, the Cabots may find their relationship has been fatally fractured.
- GenresAsexual
167 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 1, 2017
About the author
Geonn Cannon
114 books232 followersGeonn Cannon is a male author who grew up in Oklahoma, thousands of miles from the nearest coastline, who found his calling in stories about women who live on an island in the Pacific Northwest. In 2010, Geonn became the first male author to win the prestigious Golden Crown Literary Society Award for his novel "Gemini." In 2015, he won it again for "Dogs of War." He has written two official tie-in novels for Stargate SG-1, and his Riley Parra novels have been turned into an Emmy-nominated webseries by Tello Films. His first name is pronounced just like "John."
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 26, 2017
'Supposed Crimes Publishers ARC provided in exchange for a fair and honest review'
4.5 stars! Honestly i was under the influence of 'Nothing But Thieves' new music the whole times while reading this incredibly,wicked,well crafted story. Family bonding in witchcraft: roots,bloodline & history plus a well developed,defined cast of characters,good dialogue and a backstory that let's readers know the hows' and whys' the sisters and their 'friendenemy' got to where they at. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this book is its vivid portrayals of actual witch spells and lessons written so thoroughly by this brilliantly author. Overall its a very enjoyable,thoughtful,informative and compelling book that is certainly worth myself and everyone else's time...highly recommend
4.5 stars! Honestly i was under the influence of 'Nothing But Thieves' new music the whole times while reading this incredibly,wicked,well crafted story. Family bonding in witchcraft: roots,bloodline & history plus a well developed,defined cast of characters,good dialogue and a backstory that let's readers know the hows' and whys' the sisters and their 'friendenemy' got to where they at. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this book is its vivid portrayals of actual witch spells and lessons written so thoroughly by this brilliantly author. Overall its a very enjoyable,thoughtful,informative and compelling book that is certainly worth myself and everyone else's time...highly recommend
June 3, 2019
4.25 - Magic & intrigue cannot overcome the bond of sisterhood
Geonn Cannon has a way with words and a knack for writing multiple genres. I wasn’t sure what to expect with The Cabot Girls of Coventry Island but found myself pleasantly surprised at the end. The book was well written with an easy style that allowed the story to flow. The characters had depth, and changed and developed as events unfolded which served to bring them to life.
There was a bit of a slowdown near the beginning middle portion but things really pick up again in the last quarter as new information comes forward that is completely unexpected.
While the novel had magic, it wasn't "about" magic. It was about an island, the sisters tasked to protect it, and how both can move forward and be prosperous, despite the influences of the outside world.
You don’t see many tales or authors that tackle such a diverse range of characters (Ace, bi, and lesbian) but Cannon meets the task admirably, as usual. Overall, this was a great addition to Geonn Cannon's body of work and a nice little supernatural “light”read.
This ARC was given to me in exchange for an honest review.
Geonn Cannon has a way with words and a knack for writing multiple genres. I wasn’t sure what to expect with The Cabot Girls of Coventry Island but found myself pleasantly surprised at the end. The book was well written with an easy style that allowed the story to flow. The characters had depth, and changed and developed as events unfolded which served to bring them to life.
There was a bit of a slowdown near the beginning middle portion but things really pick up again in the last quarter as new information comes forward that is completely unexpected.
While the novel had magic, it wasn't "about" magic. It was about an island, the sisters tasked to protect it, and how both can move forward and be prosperous, despite the influences of the outside world.
You don’t see many tales or authors that tackle such a diverse range of characters (Ace, bi, and lesbian) but Cannon meets the task admirably, as usual. Overall, this was a great addition to Geonn Cannon's body of work and a nice little supernatural “light”read.
This ARC was given to me in exchange for an honest review.
March 28, 2018
This book was provided for free by Love Bytes in exchange for an honest review.
This review was first posted to Love Bytes: LGBTQ Book Reviews. It has been slightly edited here for content.
Geonn Cannon is steadily making his way up my must-read lesfic list. He’s so good at writing dynamic, flawed female characters while still telling an awesome story with a smooth plot.
This setting, this isolated tourist town of Coventry Island, feels instantly both welcoming and foreboding. In the first chapter, we see the three sisters use their inherited magical powers to banish a woman from the island, and then we get right into their everyday lives and routines as if anything stranger was just a dream. It’s easy to forget how powerful they are, since they deal with such mundane problems as well.
This book is a wholly unique read in which the several romances take a backseat to the family drama in an enjoyable and natural way. The ex-girlfriend tangle among May, Reese, and Jessica works towards a larger conflict involving stewardship of the island, and Reese’s eventual romance with mainland shelter owner Sarah provides a nice touch of cozy, contemporary romance to a slightly Gothic tale.
My favorite character is definitely May. She has such a good character arc that elevates her from mousy perpetual virgin to strong witch-goddess extraordinaire, and her very unconventional encounter with “Nish” is intensely strange, erotic, and sensual. You’ll just have to read it to see what I mean. Though I have a soft spot for May, all the sisters get you right to the core. Winnie’s burdens become your burdens, Reese’s injustice becomes your injustice. You can tell Cannon loves these women and put a lot of care into crafting them.
If I wanted to be fussy, I could poke a few little holes in the plot. “Carrying on the family line” is such a huge theme in the book, and since the Cabot girls have little chance of reproducing naturally (May is a lesbian, Reese is bisexual and favors women, and Winnie is asexual), their grandmothers start putting some pressure on them. But their grandmothers are a lesbian couple themselves. So the fact that they’re worried about the sisters carrying on the line seems odd. They obviously carried on the line in some way, so I wish we got a better reason for that particular conflict. And the Jessica conflict seemed to reach such a fever-pitch climax and then fizzle into something less spectacular.
But the fact that I’m nitpicking these plot points shows that I got really, really involved in this story and setting. It’s easy to get lost in this book, which is always an adventure.
I will give a mild content warning—if incest is a major no-no, some parts might tread a little too close to strange waters. The sisters have some…let’s just say, boundary issues. I recently discovered that an early online prototype version of this story did contain outright incest between May and Reese, and I’m very glad Cannon steered away from that direction. I don’t mind taboos in romance and erotica, but I just don’t think that would’ve served the (already awesome) story in any way.
This review was first posted to Love Bytes: LGBTQ Book Reviews. It has been slightly edited here for content.
Geonn Cannon is steadily making his way up my must-read lesfic list. He’s so good at writing dynamic, flawed female characters while still telling an awesome story with a smooth plot.
This setting, this isolated tourist town of Coventry Island, feels instantly both welcoming and foreboding. In the first chapter, we see the three sisters use their inherited magical powers to banish a woman from the island, and then we get right into their everyday lives and routines as if anything stranger was just a dream. It’s easy to forget how powerful they are, since they deal with such mundane problems as well.
This book is a wholly unique read in which the several romances take a backseat to the family drama in an enjoyable and natural way. The ex-girlfriend tangle among May, Reese, and Jessica works towards a larger conflict involving stewardship of the island, and Reese’s eventual romance with mainland shelter owner Sarah provides a nice touch of cozy, contemporary romance to a slightly Gothic tale.
My favorite character is definitely May. She has such a good character arc that elevates her from mousy perpetual virgin to strong witch-goddess extraordinaire, and her very unconventional encounter with “Nish” is intensely strange, erotic, and sensual. You’ll just have to read it to see what I mean. Though I have a soft spot for May, all the sisters get you right to the core. Winnie’s burdens become your burdens, Reese’s injustice becomes your injustice. You can tell Cannon loves these women and put a lot of care into crafting them.
If I wanted to be fussy, I could poke a few little holes in the plot. “Carrying on the family line” is such a huge theme in the book, and since the Cabot girls have little chance of reproducing naturally (May is a lesbian, Reese is bisexual and favors women, and Winnie is asexual), their grandmothers start putting some pressure on them. But their grandmothers are a lesbian couple themselves. So the fact that they’re worried about the sisters carrying on the line seems odd. They obviously carried on the line in some way, so I wish we got a better reason for that particular conflict. And the Jessica conflict seemed to reach such a fever-pitch climax and then fizzle into something less spectacular.
But the fact that I’m nitpicking these plot points shows that I got really, really involved in this story and setting. It’s easy to get lost in this book, which is always an adventure.
I will give a mild content warning—if incest is a major no-no, some parts might tread a little too close to strange waters. The sisters have some…let’s just say, boundary issues. I recently discovered that an early online prototype version of this story did contain outright incest between May and Reese, and I’m very glad Cannon steered away from that direction. I don’t mind taboos in romance and erotica, but I just don’t think that would’ve served the (already awesome) story in any way.
September 29, 2017
The Cabot Girls of Coventry Island is an enjoyable tale of a family woven together and rooted like the branches of a tree. The Cabot Girls, the most recent generation of a family who can trace their saga back to the literal founding of the island on which they live, reside, work and play together on their remote home, nostalgically avoiding many of the trappings of modern life. The village bears resemblance to Nantucket and other getaways which have refused to let the modern world take over fully with chain restaurants and cookie-cutter apartment blocks. It sounds rustic and nostalgic, though it may also strike some readers as distressing, considering choppy internet and the inability to buy basic supplies without conforming to a limited ferry schedule.
The potential modernization of this idyllic locale leads to one of the major conflicts of the novel and asks the reader to question whether modern amenities that city-dwellers take for granted, are better off left out of certain places. The island has always had its own magic, becoming a secondary character in its own right. The Cabot Girls can manipulate that magic to smooth over anguish and trouble for residents and tourists alike. Winnie, the oldest sister, bakes contentment into her bakery’s products. Her younger twin sisters, Reece and May, run a vintage shop and sell peace of mind along with piece-goods. They balk at the description witches when it comes from outsiders but admit to themselves that is what they are. There are elements of pagan worship woven cleanly into the story, but they are adamently not Wiccan and Cannon makes clear the difference quite early on.
This is a family tightly controlled by a model of behaviour dating back through generations, but when the bindings are too tight, everyone suffers. All three of the Cabot Girls are placed somewhere on the LGBT-et cetera spectrum and the strain this places on their family line nearly unravels the whole clan. The girls may be very close, but each of them exhibit distinct personalities and needs, and when those needs aren’t being met, all hell breaks loose. The youngest girl, May, plays her role as peacekeeper between her stronger-willed twin and the eldest sibling, but she emerges as the most magical amongst them, and also develops the most fully as a character. Although the siblings interact with other people in the village, they are really the only characters given much in the way of personalities and the story is tied almost exclusively to them.
Although the apparent major conflicts of the book revolve around both a current and a former lover of one of the sisters’, we eventually discover that these outsiders are only the surface of the problem that originates further back than they know. What looks, at first, like basic relationship drama, that becomes almost moot when the wedge driven between the girls reveals far more than expected. The surprising twists towards the end change the way you look at many of the characters and provide more to consider than the earlier segment of the book might suggest.
The conclusion of the story was satisfying and productive. Things change, but that’s life. And there is room to further explore either the current generation of Cabot Girls, or predecessors in almost any period over a couple of centuries.
I was given this ARC free by Supposed Crimes in exchange for an honest review.
The potential modernization of this idyllic locale leads to one of the major conflicts of the novel and asks the reader to question whether modern amenities that city-dwellers take for granted, are better off left out of certain places. The island has always had its own magic, becoming a secondary character in its own right. The Cabot Girls can manipulate that magic to smooth over anguish and trouble for residents and tourists alike. Winnie, the oldest sister, bakes contentment into her bakery’s products. Her younger twin sisters, Reece and May, run a vintage shop and sell peace of mind along with piece-goods. They balk at the description witches when it comes from outsiders but admit to themselves that is what they are. There are elements of pagan worship woven cleanly into the story, but they are adamently not Wiccan and Cannon makes clear the difference quite early on.
This is a family tightly controlled by a model of behaviour dating back through generations, but when the bindings are too tight, everyone suffers. All three of the Cabot Girls are placed somewhere on the LGBT-et cetera spectrum and the strain this places on their family line nearly unravels the whole clan. The girls may be very close, but each of them exhibit distinct personalities and needs, and when those needs aren’t being met, all hell breaks loose. The youngest girl, May, plays her role as peacekeeper between her stronger-willed twin and the eldest sibling, but she emerges as the most magical amongst them, and also develops the most fully as a character. Although the siblings interact with other people in the village, they are really the only characters given much in the way of personalities and the story is tied almost exclusively to them.
Although the apparent major conflicts of the book revolve around both a current and a former lover of one of the sisters’, we eventually discover that these outsiders are only the surface of the problem that originates further back than they know. What looks, at first, like basic relationship drama, that becomes almost moot when the wedge driven between the girls reveals far more than expected. The surprising twists towards the end change the way you look at many of the characters and provide more to consider than the earlier segment of the book might suggest.
The conclusion of the story was satisfying and productive. Things change, but that’s life. And there is room to further explore either the current generation of Cabot Girls, or predecessors in almost any period over a couple of centuries.
I was given this ARC free by Supposed Crimes in exchange for an honest review.
April 16, 2018
Friend of the author, but I did really enjoy this book. It started out slow, with a lot of not!Squire's Isle description and introduction to our witches, but at the halfway point the bombs started dropping (metaphorically - DRAMA BOMBS) and it got great real fast.
Geonn has a way of writing about sisterhood that I love. His sisters are always energetic, vivacious, and full of harmony. This and Gemini are standouts for me.
I also loved how the witchcraft was handled. Handwavy but subtle, and almost always, full of well-wishes for the world.
Geonn has a way of writing about sisterhood that I love. His sisters are always energetic, vivacious, and full of harmony. This and Gemini are standouts for me.
I also loved how the witchcraft was handled. Handwavy but subtle, and almost always, full of well-wishes for the world.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews