For this week's Can't Wait Wednesday hosted by Tressa at the book blog, Wishful Endings, I'm featuring, The First Witch of Boston by Andrea Catalano. This is an author I've never heard of so I wanted to mention her here and promote the book.
It is a novel based on the true story of Margaret Jones, the first woman to be found guilty of witchcraft in 17th Century Massachusetts. While I have not always been super interested in this subject, this is a person I'd never heard of and a story I don't know about so that makes it more likely I'll read it. The author uses diary entries and court records throughout the novel which I love for historical accuracy.
I hope you've found something to read that you can't wait for! Happy reading ya'll!
Historical Fiction
September 1, 2025
Book description courtesy of Goodreads
A gripping and intimate novel based on the true story of Margaret Jones, the first woman to be found guilty of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Massachusetts.
Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1646. Thomas and Margaret Jones arrive from England to build a life in the New World. Though of differing temperaments, cautious Thomas and fiery Margaret, a healer, are bound by a love that has lasted decades. With a child on the way, their new beginning promises only blessings.
But in this austere Puritan community, comely faces hide malicious intent. Wrong moves or words are met with suspicion, and Margaret’s bold and unguarded nature draws scorn. Soon, Margaret is mistrusted as more cunning woman than kind caregiver. And when personal tragedies, religious hysteria, and wariness of the unknown turn most against her, even the devotion Margaret and her husband share is at risk.
Inspired by actual diary entries and court records, The First Witch of Boston is at once the riveting story of a woman unjustly accused and a love story set amid the political and social turmoil of both Old and New England. Harrowing, and with a deep understanding of the human heart, history is brilliantly imagined.
Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1646. Thomas and Margaret Jones arrive from England to build a life in the New World. Though of differing temperaments, cautious Thomas and fiery Margaret, a healer, are bound by a love that has lasted decades. With a child on the way, their new beginning promises only blessings.
But in this austere Puritan community, comely faces hide malicious intent. Wrong moves or words are met with suspicion, and Margaret’s bold and unguarded nature draws scorn. Soon, Margaret is mistrusted as more cunning woman than kind caregiver. And when personal tragedies, religious hysteria, and wariness of the unknown turn most against her, even the devotion Margaret and her husband share is at risk.
Inspired by actual diary entries and court records, The First Witch of Boston is at once the riveting story of a woman unjustly accused and a love story set amid the political and social turmoil of both Old and New England. Harrowing, and with a deep understanding of the human heart, history is brilliantly imagined.
