The Carrefour Curse

Written by Dianne K. Salerni

Narrated by Sandy Rustin

Twelve-year-old Garnet doesn’t know her family. Her mother has done her best to keep it that way, living far from the rest of the magical Carrefour clan and their legendary mansion known as Crossroad House.

But when Garnet finally gets summoned to the estate, it isn’t quite what she hoped for. Her relatives are strange and quarrelsome, each room in Crossroad House is more dilapidated than the last, and she can’t keep straight which dusty hallways and cobwebbed corners are forbidden.

And then she learns a terrifying secret: the dying Carrefour patriarch fights to retain his life by stealing power from the others. Every household accident that isn’t an accident, every unexpected illness and unexplained disappearance grants him a little more time.

While the Carrefours squabble over who will inherit his role when (if) he dies, Garnet encounters evidence of an even deeper curse. Was she brought to Crossroad House as part of the curse … or is she meant to break it?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9781705096437

Dianne K. Salerni

Dianne K. Salerni attended the University of Delaware, where she earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education, and then went on to earn a master's in language arts education at the University of Pennsylvania. She was an elementary school teacher for over twenty years and has also written several books, including We Hear the Dead and The Caged Graves. The Inquisitor's Mark is the second book in the Eighth Day series. Although Dianne knows there's not really such a thing as a secret Eighth Day, discovering one would explain all the food that disappears in her house. Until then, she'll continue to blame her husband, Bob, her two teenage daughters, Gabrielle and Gina, and her dog, Sorcia. Dianne lives in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

Reviews for The Carrefour Curse

[muddyboy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is bursting with fantasy themes for teens. There is magic based in the powers of precious and seiprecious stones, time travel, an old house with powers and a family that seems to function without batting an eye. Garnet and her mom go to the homestead and think that the old family patriarh stays alive by sapping the vitality of other family members even leading to death occasionally. A good starter book for young fantasy fans.

[bibliovermis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a really spooky, exciting good time! It has an awful lot of probable murder for a middle grade book, but it's such a thrilling, magic, ghostly adventure that I cannot complain. I have never seen the T.V. show Dark Shadows, myself, but my mother was a huge fan, and when the author mentioned being inspired by her own avid childhood viewing of that show it was so obvious, I recognized the influence just from my mom talking about it. Similar in tone to the Lockwood & Co. books, tons of fun.