Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue

A beautifully dark YA set in Appalachia tinged with magic, mystery, murder, and romance.

For fans of House of Hollow and Wilder Girls!

As Caball Hollow slowly recovers after a tumultuous summer, the James family must also come to terms with their own newly revealed secrets.
18-year-old Rowan James has spent her whole life harboring unpleasant truths--that’s what happens when you can smell people’s lies--and building walls around herself to block them out. Like her younger sister, Linden, who can taste the feelings of others, Rowan has long resented her gift, which has taught her that everyone lies and no one is who they seem to be. So when her old nemesis, Hadrian Fitch, the biggest liar of them all, shows up on her front porch--bloodied, broken, and asking for help only she can give--her first instinct is distrust. But something new is stalking the Forest that surrounds Caball Hollow.
Now things are disappearing. At first, it’s small stuff--like letters, photos, and keys. But then, Rowan notices people around her are losing their memories. And when the body of a neighbor is found in the middle of town, Rowan knows there’s a link between this death and all the events disturbing the Hollow. Can she find what--or who--the link is before it takes another life?

Kate Pearsall is a creative thinker, an award-winning copywriter, and a storyteller. She has a degree in business and public relations and has written for magazines and newspapers. Bittersweet in the Hollow and Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue were inspired in part by a childhood listening to her mom’s stories about growing up in the Appalachian Mountains and visiting family in West Virginia.