Daph's Reads 📚✨ | Junie

Junie

Author: Erin Crosby Eckstine

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A young girl must face a life-altering decision after awakening her sister’s ghost, navigating truths about love, friendship, and power as the Civil War looms.

“An enrapturing tale of survival . . . Eckstine has poured a ton of heart into her characters.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“The richly textured prose quickly pulled me into [Junie’s] treacherous yet magical world.” —Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake

Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie.

When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act—one that rouses Minnie’s spirit from the grave, tethered to this world unless Junie can free her. She enlists the aid of Caleb, the guests’ coachman, and their friendship soon becomes something more. Yet as long-held truths begin to crumble, she realizes Bellereine is harboring dark and horrifying secrets that can no longer be ignored.

With time ticking down, Junie begins to push against the harsh current that has controlled her entire life. As she grapples with an increasingly unfamiliar world in which she has little control, she is forced to ask herself: When we choose love and liberation, what must we leave behind?

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Recipe: Apple Tea Muffin/Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

  1. 1/4 cup softened coconut oil
  2. 1/4 cup softened butter
  3. 1 apple of choice chopped (I used Fuji)
  4. 3 tbsp honey
  5. 1 tsp cinnamon
  6. 1 tsp vanilla
  7. 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  8. 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  9. 3 eggs
  10. 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp coconut flour
  11. 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  12. 1/2 teaspoon salt
  13. 3 tbsp Caramel Cabin tea from Chapters Tea & Co. (or black tea of choice that has notes of apple, caramel, or spice)
  14. 1/2 cup hot water
  15. 1/2 cup milk

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and set ingredients out to allow them to warm to room temperature.
  2. Steep the hot water, milk, and tea for 10-20 minutes in a bowl or cup.
  3. Cream the butter and honey together until light and creamy.
  4. Add the eggs and mix until combined.
  5. Whisk together salt, flour, baking powder, and spices in a separate bowl.
  6. Mix the tea mixture and dry ingredients into the wet ingredients at low speed until incorporated.
  7. Fold in chopped apple and pecans.
  8. Pour the batter into greased tins.
  9. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean (25-35 mins for Bundt and 18-25 mins for muffins).
  10. Cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
  11. Enjoy!

Thank you to @ballantinebooks for the free copy of Junie, @littlebrownyoungreaders for the free copy of The Tear Collector, and @drinkchapters for the free Caramel Cabin tea blend!