Witchy Books for Halloween (or any time)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature/meme now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. The meme was originally the brainchild of The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is a Halloween Freebie.

Witchy Books For Halloween (or anytime)

I love reading about witches — well, specifically good witches. Or at least mostly good. The books below are some of my favorites. I’ve read almost all of them more than once, and some of them multiple times.

Title links, when available, go to my reviews.

A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, and The Book of Life (All Saints Trilogy; Deborah Harkness) Witches, vampires, and daemons; intrigue, romance, and danger; alchemy and a missing medieval manuscript – Harkness’s trilogy is contemporary fantasy-romance for adults. The series opener takes place in September and October, and culminates in something of a cliffhanger on Halloween.

Dark Witch, Shadow Spell, and Blood Magick (Cousins O’Brien trilogy; Nora Roberts) Three cousins, all witches by birth and descendants of the Dark Witch of Mayo, are fated to fight an ancient evil in this contemporary fantasy-romance trilogy set in Ireland. The deep friendships forged between the three cousins and their three lovers is one of the best things about the trilogies, but I also love the individual couple’s relationships, the magic, and the juxtaposition of early medieval and contemporary Ireland, as the story of the trio’s ancestors is interwoven with their own.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches (Sangu Mandanna) Mika Moon has been raised by a series of nannies and a very distant and powerful witch. Taught to keep her magic hidden and avoid spending time near other witches, lest their existence become known, Mika lives a lonely life, her only real outlet the joyful, magical videos she records for TikTok. Her followers would never seriously believe she’s a witch, right? Until one day, a grumpy librarian does, and hires her to teach his three foster children, all budding witches. Soon, Mika finds herself entwined within a loving, diverse, found family… and questioning the rules that shape her life. One of my favorite witchy books, this novel has joined my list of comfort reads.

A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping (Sangu Mandanna) A lovely, warm hug of a book! Cozy, heartwarming, and enchanting (but never saccharine or twee), A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping centers around found family, love, acceptance, healing, and the strength of rebuilding yourself after disaster. Sera and her inn build a loving, supportive community out of a collection of misfits: a disparate group of individuals who for varying reasons don’t fit into or weren’t accepted by their own families or communities. The quirky magic of the inn is indeed captivating, but it’s nothing to the magic of the diverse, caring people in it—particularly Sera Swan, whose courage and fierce love stayed with me long after I had closed the book.

Wooing the Witch Queen (Stephanie Burgis). An absolutely delightful fantasy romance, 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), a somewhat sinister 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 utterly enchanted. (First in a fantasy romance trilogy; the second book is due out in early 2026.)

Dance Upon the Air, Heaven and Earth, Face the Fire (Three Sisters Island trilogy; Nora Roberts.) The basic premise of this magic-infused romance trilogy is similar to that of the Cousins O’Dwyer trilogy. Long ago, three witches—sisters by choice, if not by family—conjured Three Sisters Island out of the ocean off New England’s coast, to be a safe refuge. But their circle was broken, and all three failed or betrayed their oaths in some way. Now three new witches must come together to defeat the same evil force that felled their ancestors: Nell, untrained, afraid, and on the run; Ripley, a brash and competent policewoman who resolutely turned her back on her magic; and Mia, a powerful witch with a broken heart. Each must face her darkest fears and find the courage to accept not only herself, but love, or Three Sisters Island will crumble into the sea from which it came. (mini-review taken from a 2020 post)

The Ex Hex, The Kiss Curse, and The Wedding Witch (Erin Sterling, aka Rachel Hawkins). In the series opener, Vivienne Jones hexed her Welsh (ex)boyfriend when he broke her heart… but she didn’t think her little spell would have much effect. A decade later, Rhys is back in Graves Glen, Georgia, and it’s clear that teenage Vivi’s hex was a lot more powerful than she thought. Now the two of them have to work together to undo the hex before it dooms the whole town… if only they can keep their hands off each other. Humor and great chemistry, along with a cozy-mystery vibe, make this witchy romance a lot of fun. The second books pairs Rhys’s brother and Vivi’s cousin; the third, set in Wales, pairs the eldest brother and a nonmagical American whose profession is searching out magical artifacts. (first and third books reviewed)

A Little Too Familiar (Lish McBride) Cozy contemporary fantasy-romance centered around a werewolf and an animal mage (essentially a witch who matches people with their familiars), with themes of found family, healing, and a whole lot of caring and protecting. The main couple’s remarkably diverse roommates and friends are good and kind and fiercely supportive of each other, and there’s a refreshing lack of toxic masculinity. The romantic relationship between hero and heroine faces several obstacles, starting with the hero’s past trauma, but they deal with those obstacles in healthy, caring, respectful ways. It’s an absolute delight, and definitely rereadable.

Lammas Night (Katherine Kurtz) Drawing heavily on the tradition of Wicca and the wartime letters of Wiccan Dion Fortune, and set during World War II, Kurtz’s novel recounts a (mostly fictional) attempt on the part of England’s witches to prevent Hitler’s planned invasion of Britain. Threaded through with themes of reincarnation, self-sacrifice, selfless love of country, and pagan values of balance and connection to the land, Lammas Night is an unforgettable alt-historical fantasy. (mini-review adapted from a 2020 post)

The Wishing Thread (Lisa Van Allen) Magical realism about three sisters reputed to knit spells. Set in Tarrytown, NY, near where the Headless Horseman is supposed to roam, The Wishing Thread isn’t simply, a book about knitting or about magic.  It’s about the ways people are knit together: as family, as lovers, as community.  It’s about the past and the present, traditions and beliefs, hope and despair all inextricably woven together to create the fabric of our stories, both individual and collective.  And it’s about our choices, and what we make of them.

What are your favorite witchy books or series?

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