Tangled Roots: The Cover, The Story, and Your First Look
- Candace Nicole
- Mar 27
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 29
Today is a day I’ve been waiting for.
If you’ve been following along, you know that two weeks ago I told you something new was coming. Something darker. Something I’ve been pouring myself into for months. Today, I’m finally ready to show you what it is.
I’m revealing the cover, sharing the story behind the book, giving you a first look at Chapter One, and opening pre-orders. All right here. All right now.
Let’s get into it.
The Cover
This is Tangled Roots.
The first time I saw this cover, I just stared at it. It felt like looking at the book I’d been carrying in my head for over a year and finally seeing it become real. Everything about it captures the tone of this story: the darkness, the weight, the beauty hiding underneath something dangerous.
I hope it stops you the way it stopped me.
What Tangled Roots Is About
Some secrets don’t stay buried. They grow roots.
Five people. One night. A lake that remembers everything.
Twelve years ago, something happened at Smith Mountain Lake that no one was supposed to survive and no one was supposed to talk about. They scattered. They rebuilt. They told themselves the past was buried deep enough to stay gone.
They were wrong.
Now someone is pulling the threads loose, one by one. And the closer the truth gets to the surface, the more dangerous everyone becomes.
Tangled Roots is a gripping, multi-POV psychological thriller about survival, secrets, and the lies we tell ourselves to keep living. It is Book One of The Root Series.
Your First Look: Chapter One
I’ve been holding onto this for a long time. Today, for the first time, I’m letting you in.
What you’re about to read is the opening of Chapter One. This is where it all begins: a letter, eight words, and a woman whose carefully constructed life is about to collapse. Her name is Bethany, and she’s been keeping a secret for twelve years.
She’s not ready for it to come out. But it’s coming.
— — — — —
TANGLED ROOTS
Book One of The Root Series
by Candace Nicole
Chapter One — Bethany
The letter arrived on Monday morning, tucked between an electric bill and a coupon for teeth whitening. I almost threw it away with the junk mail. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had let it disappear into the recycling bin with all the other detritus of my carefully constructed life.
No return address. My name was typed in plain black letters: Bethany Cole. Not Ms. Cole. Not the owner of Bethany’s Beautiful Hair. Just my name, naked and exposed, like someone had stripped away all the armor I’d spent twelve years building.
I stood in the back office of my salon, surrounded by the familiar scents of peroxide and lavender that usually calmed me. The fluorescent light buzzed overhead with that persistent flicker I’d been meaning to fix for months, casting everything in an unflattering pale glow that made even the youngest clients look tired. Water stains spread across the ceiling tiles like Rorschach tests I didn’t want to interpret. A stack of unpaid invoices sat on my desk, edges curling, accusatory in their silence.
I told myself the envelope was nothing. A survey. A scam. Some politician begging for money. Yet somehow I knew, and my hands shook when I opened it. My fingers, nails were painted a cheerful coral that suddenly seemed obscene against the white paper, and trembled as I unfolded the single sheet inside.
Eight words. That’s all. Eight words typed in a plain serif font:
I know what you saw at the lake.
The letter slipped from my fingers. I watched it drift to the floor in slow motion, swaying left, then right, like a leaf falling in autumn. Like I was watching someone else’s life unravel in that cramped little office where I’d built my empire of hairspray and lies.
Twelve years. Twelve years I’d convinced myself that night didn’t matter. That what I saw, what I didn’t do, was nothing. A footnote in a tragedy that had nothing to do with me. I’d dyed my hair three different colors since then. Changed my wardrobe twice. Lost twenty pounds, gained fifteen back, lost ten again. Became a different person entirely, or so I’d told myself.
But the lake was still there, wasn’t it? Still and dark and patient, waiting for me to come back.
• • •
I picked up the letter and read it three more times. After folding it into a tiny square and shoving it in my back pocket, I looked at my reflection in the small gold mirror on the wall. At thirty-three, I didn’t look bad. Over the years, I had perfected my honey-blonde highlights, warm tones near my face, cooler strands woven through the back. My hazel eyes sat above cheekbones that my mother always said were my best feature, high and sharp, the kind that photograph well. I was five-foot-six, average in every way that matters, with the soft body of a woman who stands on her feet all day but never quite makes it to the gym.
I wore my smile like armor. Practiced it so many times it had become real, the way the corners of my eyes crinkled, the slight tilt of my head, the warmth that reached my voice even when there was nothing but cold inside me. That’s the trick they don’t teach you in beauty school: the real product we’re selling isn’t hair. It’s hope. It’s the illusion that everything is fine, that appearances are all that matter.
I’d built my whole life on appearances.
— — — — —
That’s just the beginning.
Bethany is one of several voices in Tangled Roots. Each chapter pulls you deeper into a web of secrets, lies, and buried trauma that connects people who never expected to face the past again. Every narrator reveals a new layer. Every truth uncovers a darker one. And by the time you reach the final pages, everything you thought you knew will be turned upside down.
I poured everything I had into this book. The characters wouldn’t let me stop. Their stories demanded to be told, and I followed them into places that challenged me, scared me, and made me fall in love with writing all over again.
Pre-Order Your Copy Now
Tangled Roots releases May 15, 2026. If this excerpt gave you chills, the rest of the book will keep you up at night.
Signed Paperback Copy
Want a copy signed by me personally? Order your autographed paperback here: https://cnbookseries.square.site/pre-order
eBook the Kindle edition on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GTG1N4ND
Not ready to order yet?
Add Tangled Roots to your TBR list on Goodreads:
Follow me @cnbookseries on all social media so you don’t miss a thing between now and release day.
The roots run deep. And when you pull them up, you won’t believe what’s underneath.
Until next time,
Love, lies, and everything in between
