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Oh man, Once Upon a Book Club did another excellent job! Deep in Providence by Riss M. Nielsen was never going to hit my radar and I am so glad that it did! The really cool gifts that they sent with it made it that much more special. (I’ll have a review for this specific box on the 15th!)

Deep in Providence starts off with a hard heart punch. A quartet of girls; Miliani, Inez, Natalie, and Jasmine, from the middle tier of high school popularity hierarchy loses one of their friends. The quartet is now a trio. I myself belonged to such a group of friends. The idea of losing any of them was as bad as losing a limb. These girls individually have so much going on in their lives and grieving a friend is a tipping point.

Together the remaining three girls start to practice elemental magic. The end goal is to try to anchor their lost friend to this world. The first rule of magic is that everything has a cost.

I really enjoyed this book. Each girl had so much to bear and my heart truly went out to them. I think it also helps that I strongly believe this book was written with a late 90s/early 00s setting. The references to wall phones, maps, and Maury of all things! were like little gifts.

In the end Deep in Providence was a beautiful, heart-wrenching story of grief and what it does to us. I thoroughly enjoyed watching each character grow into herself.