Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite

Snakeroot & Cohosh by Cathy Schieffelin begins when Eva Hoskins leaves her husband, Luther, after years of escalating violence in mid-century Kentucky, disappearing into the hills near Creech. In Helton, she assumes a new identity and gets government work guiding researchers through Appalachian forests, drawing on her knowledge of medicinal plants learned from her mother. As her independence grows through botanical illustrations and an expanding apothecary business, Luther tracks her down and wants to repair the marriage. He finds employment outside the coal mines and tries to confront the legacy of brutality passed down by his father. Their renewed contact unfolds against economic uncertainty, family revelations, and the demands of new parenthood. When an accident and a looming threat from Luther’s past disrupt their fragile stability, Eva must decide whether the future she builds can include the man she once fled from.

Cathy Schieffelin’s Snakeroot & Cohosh takes rural Kentucky and spins it into a character as real and textured as Eva herself. Appalachia is dressed with frost, wood smoke, and medicinal roots drying on the rafters, with the rhythm of evening fiddle sessions pulling readers into a working landscape of both commerce and kinship. Schieffelin shows us what strength looks like in a woman who has been drained emotionally with a sobering physical history written into her body. She's not alone. Addie, a young mother also bearing visible bruises, is taken with her children under Eva's wing. I love the botanical elements and how the author molds nature into healing. Appalachia provides shelter and healing, but also secrets across the generations. Snakeroot & Cohosh is not an easy read because it hits the heart really deeply, but there is beauty in that pain and in Schieffelin's prose, making this a story worthy of every second spent in its pages. Very highly recommended.