Rite of Awakening
(2025)(The first book in the Rites of Passage Southern Gothic Trilogy series)
A novel by Lorna Tedder
(Previously published as Midlife Illusions.)Starting over was supposed to bring freedom—not a witch war.
Lauren Hartford has spent most of her life surviving in roles that required self-erasure—dutiful wife, obedient priestess, quiet believer. But after two decades in an emotionally abusive marriage, she’s finally ready to reclaim her life. Her Third Degree Elevation in the Dragon Hart Grand Coven should mark a new beginning—one filled with magic, truth, and possibility.
Instead, it exposes everything she’s tried not to see.
As her magical gifts sharpen, Lauren begins to notice unsettling patterns in the relationships around her—including the manipulations of the coven leader she once trusted. And when a rival chaos witch targets her with magical sabotage, Lauren is forced into a battle she never asked for—one that threatens her daughters, her growing sense of self, and the fragile freedom she'''s only just begun to claim.
To move forward, she’ll have to burn down the illusions she’s lived inside for years—and find the voice she gave up long ago.
Rite of Awakening is a fierce, spiritually resonant story of unraveling identity, reclaiming intuition, and walking away from systems that demand silence. For anyone who’s spent years surviving by staying small, Lauren’s journey is both catharsis and call to rise.
Rite of Awakening is the first standalone-but-linked novel in the Rites of Passage Southern Gothic Trilogy, where midlife magic, trauma recovery, and ancestral truth collide in stories of spiritual power and second chances.
Genre: Mystery
Lauren Hartford has spent most of her life surviving in roles that required self-erasure—dutiful wife, obedient priestess, quiet believer. But after two decades in an emotionally abusive marriage, she’s finally ready to reclaim her life. Her Third Degree Elevation in the Dragon Hart Grand Coven should mark a new beginning—one filled with magic, truth, and possibility.
Instead, it exposes everything she’s tried not to see.
As her magical gifts sharpen, Lauren begins to notice unsettling patterns in the relationships around her—including the manipulations of the coven leader she once trusted. And when a rival chaos witch targets her with magical sabotage, Lauren is forced into a battle she never asked for—one that threatens her daughters, her growing sense of self, and the fragile freedom she'''s only just begun to claim.
To move forward, she’ll have to burn down the illusions she’s lived inside for years—and find the voice she gave up long ago.
Rite of Awakening is a fierce, spiritually resonant story of unraveling identity, reclaiming intuition, and walking away from systems that demand silence. For anyone who’s spent years surviving by staying small, Lauren’s journey is both catharsis and call to rise.
Rite of Awakening is the first standalone-but-linked novel in the Rites of Passage Southern Gothic Trilogy, where midlife magic, trauma recovery, and ancestral truth collide in stories of spiritual power and second chances.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Lorna Tedder's Rite of Awakening