Wooing the Witch Queen Series: Queens of Villainy #1 Published by Bramble on 2/18/2025
Genres: Fantasy, Fantasy Romance
Pages: 304
Format: Kindle or ebook
Source: the publisher
Purchase: Amazon | Bookshop | Barnes & Noble | Audible | Chirp
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In a Gaslamp-lit world where hags and ogres lurk in thick pine forests, three magical queens form an uneasy alliance to protect their lands from invasion…and love turns their world upside down.
Queen Saskia is the wicked sorceress everyone fears. After successfully wrestling the throne from her evil uncle, she only wants one thing: to keep her people safe from the empire next door. For that, she needs to spend more time in her laboratory experimenting with her spells. She definitely doesn’t have time to bring order to her chaotic library of magic.
When a mysterious dark wizard arrives at her castle, Saskia hires him as her new librarian on the spot. “Fabian” is sweet and a little nerdy, and his requests seem a little strange – what in the name of Divine Elva is a fountain pen? – but he’s getting the job done. And if he writes her flirtatious poetry and his innocent touch makes her skin singe, well…
Little does Saskia know that the "wizard" she’s falling for is actually an Imperial archduke in disguise, with no magical training whatsoever. On the run, with perilous secrets on his trail and a fast growing yearning for the wicked sorceress, he's in danger from her enemies and her newfound allies, too. When his identity is finally revealed, will their love save or doom each other?
I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.
Review
Wooing the Witch Queen was an absolute delight, from its sweet, sensitive, traumatized cinnamon-roll hero to its introverted, reclusive, but decidedly not evil heroine. Add to that a castle full of found family, an alliance with two other “evil” queens (one a cool and logical ice queen, the other a capricious, unpredictable faerie), an Empire determined to eliminate nonhumans and their magic, and a neighboring kingdom bent on conquest. Throw in a perfect blend of humor, danger, and romance, and I was enchanted.
Having overthrown the wicked uncle who usurped her throne, Saskia is trying to keep her kingdom safe from outside threats while avoiding bothersome interactions with her subjects and her council. What she really wants to do is continue her work on developing spells to ward the borders. To do that, she needs her First Minister (and ex-lover) Mirjana to keep the kingdom running on her behalf. And she really needs a functioning library. . . but hers is in chaos. So Saskia hires a dark wizard to catalog it.
Felix is neither a dark wizard nor a librarian. He’s the Archduke of the neighboring kingdom. . .but only in name. In reality, his late wife’s father holds all the power, and Felix is fleeing for his life. But when he arrives at Queen Saskia’s castle in disguise, only to have the witch-queen mistake him for her newly-hired librarian, “Sinistro,” Felix discovers that in fact, he’s rather good at the job. He’s certainly safer here in Saskia’s castle than back in his own. And he finds his new employer fascinating—and quite, quite entrancing. I loved his quiet courtship of her, and the attraction that sparks between them under the surface.
I also loved the way Ms. Burgis weaves whimsy and humor, and more than a little of herself, into her writing alongside the more serious plotlines. Felix’s love of fountain pens echoes Burgis’s own, and the crow that adopts him reminded me more than a little of Burgis’s very affectionate and possessive cat, who often features in the author’s social media.* On a deeper level, the whole book reflects Ms. Burgis’s beliefs regarding freedom, inclusivity, and acceptance of people for who they are. Saskia’s love for and loyalty to the nonhumans who sheltered and raised her after her uncle’s treasury, despite other humans’ fear of them, speaks volumes.
While some aspects of the book are a tinge darker than most cozy fantasy fans might expect (most notably Felix’s back story), I think Wooing the Witch Queen will appeal to cozy fantasy readers as well as those looking for romantasy or fantasy romance. As for me, I loved it, and I’m already eager for the second book in the Queens of Villainy trilogy, Enchanting the Fae Queen!
Would I buy or recommend this book? Absolutely! I preordered the paperback, and I’m planning to give a copy to at least one person on my gift list this year.
*Full disclosure: I follow Ms. Burgis on social media and support her Patreon, and I have interacted with her in both. I’ve been a fan of her work for over a decade. However, I received an ARC of this book from the publisher, not Ms. Burgis herself, and my review and rating are sincere and entirely my own opinion.
Challenges:COYER 2025: Out to Lunch; NetGalley & Edelweiss Challenge 2025
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- COYER 2025: Out to Lunch
- Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2025
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