Book Extract: Abracadabra by Evanne Hardin Gray

Published October 31, 2025 | By Laura

I’m very excited to be welcoming Evanne Hardin Gray to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for Abracadabra.

In the spirit of Practical Magic and First Frost, a modern-day magic folk tale weaves a fantasy of love, secrets, spellbooks, and family bonds into evocative prose ….

It’s common knowledge in Duran Hill that some women in the Kinley family have certain gifts … and certain curses … running through their bloodlines. But for three sisters in all but name — Rachel, Juliette, and their cousin Sylvia — the ties that bind them close as ivy throughout their childhood are pulled apart in adolescence when both the gift and curse of that power is revealed between them.

Since that fateful incident, sensible Juliette has tailored a perfect and perfectly-ordinary life which unravels after she marries — and loses — the love of her life. Sylvia, drawn to the dark side, sets up a shop that caters to all the mystical powers the latter generations of the Kinley family shunned. And Rachel, the wild child, in whom its magic seems to create a charmed life, is a carefree wanderer who finds herself suddenly drawn home again.

Her arrival will stir old rivalries and test forgotten bonds in the brief span of a few weeks. But when an old friend in desperate trouble seeks her out, she will impulsively unleash the dangerous secret behind their power: one which has lain forgotten in the Kinley house for two generations.

From the Siren’s song of a dead man’s violin to a jar full of harmless-looking buttons, nothing under the shadow of the family’s roof is what it seems — nothing in their bloodline is safe from the dangerous past.

For Juliette, it brings a test of whether love that has withered can bloom again. For Sylvia, a question of whether a dangerous mistake can only be endured until it destroys you. And for Rachel, the choice is the price between the future of the souls she loves most in life and a powerful force that both makes her the enigma she is — and makes to destroy her like embers caught in a firewind.

Against the backdrop of Southern charm, Scottish superstitions, and bewitching romance, ABRACADABRA casts a spell which cannot be undone, from the ache of lost love to the familial links between souls which go as deep as blood and bone.

Evanne Hardin Gray has shared an extract with us today. We hope you enjoy.

*****beginning of extract*****

Thank you so much for this chance to share an extract from my novel Abracdabra with all the readers at Novel Kicks. It’s a spooky new read perfect for fans of Practical Magic. In the following scene, sisters Rachel and Juliette find themselves reluctantly consulting a medium over a haunting in their old family home.

They end up in the parlor, which Rachel thought of as “the purple room” as a child, a name inspired by the heavy wine-colored drapes, and the various maroon and plum shades of velvet covering the furniture. It is the nearest seating area to the formal dining room, which Rachel was glad is not the scene of this seance.

Blanche sits down on one sofa, her oversized handbag taking up a cushion of its own. Juliette perches on the arm of the second sofa, next to Rachel. Only Angela looks less nervous now, although her posture seems tense.

“I like your gazing ball,” Blanche comments, nodding towards the globe in the middle of the octagon table. “Very old, I believe.”

“It’s antique,” says Juliette. “It’s for the lawn, you know. But it’s so old…I didn’t want to leave it outside.”

“Oh, not at all,” Blanche assures her. “I have one as a centerpiece at home as well. Useless, but attractive, nonetheless.” She smiles at them, as awkward silence falls.

“This is a lovely room also,” she says. “Let me see. There have been fourteen parties here. Eight Christmases. Four marriages, five birthday parties, three funerals, two christenings. And once …there was almost a death. But not quite.” With this last line, her eyes land on Juliette, whose face changes subtly. “But it is still a lovely room, nonetheless. And an excellent choice for what we shall be doing.”

To Rachel, the room feels full of ghosts at this moment, as if shadow generations of their family’s branches — Taggerts, Wallaces, and Kinleys — are gathered here in spirit, in mourning clothes and wedding dresses, with party cakes and baby prams.

“I should tell you straightaway that doing a seance here will be difficult,” Blanche continues. “There’s more than one spirit in the house, and I don’t sense an inclination to communicate — but that can change, if someone calls for them.”

“What do you mean by that?” Angela asks.

“We ask for them by name,” says Blanche. “We call them out among the entities in the house. If they are present, I will sense them.” She glances at each of the three women. “Who would like to go first?”

*****end of extract*****

About Evanne Hardin Gray –

Evanne Hardin Gray has spent most of her adulthood (and part of her childhood) writing novels, short stories, and screenplays. She has family roots in both New England and the South, which is where she currently writes (sometimes as a ‘ghost’), gardens, and collects books and ideas for them.