This is a haunting novel about mother-daughter love.

11-year-old Shelby Jane is sad to be living with her mother, Mirage, in the Bayou of Louisiana. Her father has to work out of the country, and her grandmother is sick so now she is forced to live with the mother that abandoned her a year earlier. What is Shelby to do?

At school she meets a few kids, but most of them are mean. At home she can't talk to her mother because she feels so much anger towards her. Plus, her mother is a traiteur which means healer in French. Unfortunately, many people in the area think of her mother Mirage as a swamp or witch doctor so Shelby is embarrassed by her mother's healing spells. Soon however, she becomes intrigued by the blue bottle tree that her mother has in her backyard. Shelby starts to find mysterious notes in them and eventually meets a good friend named Gwen.

As time passes, Shelby realizes there is more to the blue bottle tree and Gwen than she realized. Can Shelby help her mother's heart heal even as her own heart is scarred?

Circle of Secrets is an extremely well-written and intriguing novel. I highly recommend it! ( )