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HUMMINGBIRD MOONRISE

By Sherri L. Dodd

Paranormal Thriller / Fantasy / Magical Realism / Witch-Lit

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

Pages: 304

Publication Date: October 9, 2025

SYNOPSIS

The past two years have taken their toll on Arista Kelly. Once an eternal optimist, now she has faced the darkness and must recalibrate what true happiness means for her. Meanwhile, Shane, her ex-boyfriend, is pulling all the right moves to help keep her sane from her heightening paranoia. But it doesn't help that Iris, her Great Aunt Bethie's friend, has disappeared.

Still, one additional trial remains. While searching for Iris, Bethie and Arista stumble upon a grand revelation in the eccentric woman's home. With the discovery, they realize their run of chaos and loss of kin may have roots in a curse that dates back to the 1940s-the time when their family patriarch first built Arista's cottage in the redwoods and crafted his insightful Ouija table.

This pursuit will not follow their accustomed recipe of adrenalized action, but the high stakes remain. Will the mysterious slow burn of unfolding events finally level Arista's entire world or be fully extinguished, once and for all?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sherri L. Dodd was raised in southeast Texas. Walking barefoot most days and catching crawdads as they swam the creek beds, she had a love for all things free and natural. Her childhood ran rampant with talk of ghosts, demons, and backcountry folklore. This inspired her first story for sale, about a poisonous flower that shot toxins onto children as they smelled it. Her classmate bought it for all the change in his pocket. Shortly thereafter, her mother packed the two of them up and headed to the central coast of California. Since that time, she has worked corporate, married, raised two sons, and now writes full-time creating atmospheric paranormal fiction. Her debut novel – Murder Under Redwood Moon – shot straight to #1 on Amazon, holding firm as a Best Seller in the Occult Supernatural genre.

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REVIEW

Hummingbird Moonrise closes out the Murder, Tea & Crystals Trilogy with a blend of supernatural tension, emotional growth, and the grounded domestic moments that have always anchored this series. What stood out most to me in this final installment was how clearly the characters have evolved in ways that feel earned after everything they’ve been through.

Arista’s arc, especially, is handled with a careful touch. She’s grieving, protective, stretched thin, and occasionally overwhelmed, yet the book doesn’t rush her or offer easy fixes. Her inner strength shows up in quiet decisions as often as in big moments, and by the end, we see a woman reclaiming control over her life.

Iris remains one of the trilogy’s most compelling and complicated figures. She’s unpredictable and flawed, but also strangely vulnerable, and her sections bring a darkly comic edge that keeps the story from becoming too heavy. When she wakes in a blood-soaked room and simply mutters, “A ghastly predicament I seem to be in,” it captures the blend of horror and dry humor that makes her character work.

Mateo’s storyline adds another layer of emotional strain. His chapters aren’t flashy, but they carry a steady dread as he tries to deal with the repercussions of taking the cursed tablet. His concern for Alicia and Matty grounds the supernatural elements in real family stakes, making the haunting feel more immediate.

The author pairs unsettling supernatural moments with very ordinary scenes—tea in the kitchen, kids doing homework, neighbors’ leaves blowing across the porch. The mix creates an atmosphere where the uncanny feels like an intrusion into everyday life rather than something separate from it.

As the story threads come together, the book weaves generational secrets, past harm, and the moral murkiness surrounding Fergus and Iris. It doesn’t treat magic as a simple solution or a gimmick, but rather as something that complicates and, occasionally, heals.

By the final chapter, the sense of closure feels quiet but meaningful. Arista settling back into the rhythms of her family life is understated, but it signals that the ordeal has shifted something in her for good.

Hummingbird Moonrise is a measured, thoughtful conclusion to the trilogy—still magical, still tense in the right places, but grounded in the emotional realities of its characters. Readers who’ve followed the story this far will likely appreciate how the book balances the supernatural with the personal and gives its characters space to grow into themselves.

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