💖 7 Magical Series for Romantic Witches
Hello, and welcome to Pleasure Reading. I'm your host, Amelia Hruby. And this is a podcast about the pleasure of reading, where I share curated reading lists, author rankings, chats with my bookish friends, and more. If you too take pleasure in reading, I hope that you will subscribe and share the show with a friend. Cheers to your next best book.
Amelia Hruby:Hello and welcome to Pleasure Reading. I'm Amelia Hruby, your fellow reader, book enthusiast and host of this new podcast. Thank you so much for tuning into the show. I hope that however you found this, you become a fan, you subscribe, maybe you leave us a rating and review. I am forever grateful for the time that you spend listening and sharing these episodes.
Amelia Hruby:Today on the show, I will be sharing 7 magical series for romantic witches. And I have to say, I read a lot of witchy romance, especially when the season turns to fall, when we get into September, October. This is one of my favorite and most pleasurable types of reading, and I particularly love when it's a series. So I've read a lot of witchy romantic standalone books, but this episode is specifically about series that blend romance and magic. So I'm gonna share 4 series that I have read on this theme and then I'm gonna give you 3 witchy romance series that are in my TBR.
Amelia Hruby:So let's go ahead and dive right in. The first series that I want to recommend for my romantic witches out there is The Witches of Thistlegrove series by Lana Harper or Lana Harper, who knows? The Witches of Thistlegrove series includes the titles Payback's a Witch, From Bad to Cursed, Back in a Spell, In Charms Way, and the most recently released Rise and Divine. And this series is set in the magical town of Thistle Grove, where there are founding families who all have different types of magic. We have the Harlow family who are owners of the magical bookstore, Tomes and Omens.
Amelia Hruby:We have the Avrama family who are owners of this occult mega store and specialize in demon and spirit summoning. We have the Thorn family who are skilled in healing plant and animal magic. They own this lovely orchard. And then we have the Blackmoor family, which is the town's wealthiest family and the producers of the strongest magic users. Each book of the series kind of has a different main character who is a member of one of these families, and we follow their journey with their magic and particularly with relationships.
Amelia Hruby:These are all romances of some kind or another with a heavily magical backdrop. So the first book, Payback's a Witch, is primarily about Emmy Harlow, who is a not so powerful witch from the bookish Harlow family. She is involved in a romance with Talia Avramov, one of those demon and spirit summoning witches. And this book is set against the backdrop of the spell casting tournament that happens every so often. There's a lot of action.
Amelia Hruby:I really love this book. The blurb calls it The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Meets The L Word. It is a queer romance, and I was into it. This is what started the series, and it definitely got me hooked to read all of the other ones as they came out. I'm gonna do a quick breeze through the other books in the series and who they feature and some of the very brief highlights.
Amelia Hruby:The second book is called From Bad TO Cursed. This is an opposites attract romance with Isadora Abrahamov and Rowan Thorne, and the backdrop for this one is the Beltane Festival and, like, all of these problems with the magic around the festival that they have to explore and resolve together. The 3rd book in the series is called Back in a Spell. I would say this is an enemies to lovers romance. It features an Eve Blackmore who dates Morty Gutierrez, who is one of our first love interests who is not a part of these 4 founding families.
Amelia Hruby:I really loved this one. I was super into Morty's character. They're this non binary bartender, definitely someone who, like, peaks some of my most attractive qualities, and I really appreciated that this brought back more of the queer romance from the first book into the series. The 4th book in the series is called In Charms Way. The main character here is Delilah Harlow.
Amelia Hruby:She is Emmy Harlow from the first book's cousin, and she runs the family bookshop, Tomes and Omens. But due to some magical mishaps that happened in one of the previous books, Delilah's memory has basically been wiped, and she is really struggling. She doesn't feel like herself, she can't remember things about who she is. So she endeavors to heal herself. She is kind of our librarian witch after all.
Amelia Hruby:She is, like, finding what it's gonna take to heal her. But in doing so, she ends up attracting the wrong kind of attention and eventually bringing around this monster hunter, Catriona Quinn, and a romance unfolds from there. And then the 5th book in the series is called rise and divine. This is a romance with Dasha Avramov and Ivy Thorne. I love the books that feature the Avramovs because they are necromancers, and apparently, Dasha is a devil eater.
Amelia Hruby:This book just came out this year when I'm recording this in 2024, and I bought it, but I have not read it yet. So I'm super excited for the 5th book in the Witches of Thistlegrove series by Lana Harper. And I haven't been able to figure out if it's the 5th and final book or if we're gonna get a 6th book. But one of my favorite things about this series is you can really read these as stand alones. Like, there is overlap in the setting and some of the characters, but I've been reading this as it's come out, kind of like 1 per year, and it has not bothered me for the pause between books, which to me is, like, actually the test of a standalone.
Amelia Hruby:If I feel annoyed because there's a cliffhanger or the plot really needs to keep moving, then I don't consider it a standalone. But I think these really work. You can read 1 or another, although I do like them best in order, I would say. So looking at this series as a whole, I would give the Witches of Thistlegrove a 5 out of 5 for general witchiness. I think there's a lot of magic in these books.
Amelia Hruby:There's both like different types of magic, different magical settings within this town, all the magical families. So I think that is, like, a lot of general witchiness, 5 out of 5 there. I would also give it a 5 out of 5 in magical romance. I feel like these books have such interesting characters. I love how queer the stories are, and I love that they're, like, these different romance tropes.
Amelia Hruby:We get enemies to lovers. We get second chance romance. We get opposites attract. Like, we get some really cool different tropes in across the books. I would give it maybe a 2 or a 3 for spiciness.
Amelia Hruby:It is so hard to make a spicy scale because some people are out here being like, everything should be closed door romance, nothing should happen on the page, only let them hold hands. And other people are out here like, If you do not give me an inch by inch on how that penetration happened, then it wasn't spicy enough for me. So I'm just like, I don't know. I don't know how to rate spiciness, but for me, I thought there was, like, a healthy dose of spiciness across these series. I really enjoyed it, so I'm gonna go with 3 out of 5 for the spice.
Amelia Hruby:And then I personally thought this series had, like, a 2 out of 5 for spooky vibes. I would say none of the series in this episode are very spooky. Like, the point of these being magical series for romantic witches is they're not scary. Like, there are other series that I think do much scarier things, and I love that. Those will be in future episodes.
Amelia Hruby:So these have some spooky bits. I mean, we have a necromancer. We have, I guess, a devil eater in the 5th book. So I would say, like, if that's totally a no go for you, you have been warned. But I think that the spookiness in the series is really, like, not very suspenseful.
Amelia Hruby:It's not written like a thriller. It's definitely written like a romance. So highly recommend The Witches of Thistlegrove. Grab all 5 of these books and enjoy them. I wish I could read them again for the first time, gonna be honest.
Amelia Hruby:Okay. The second series I wanna talk about in this episode is the witch lore series by Hazel Beck. This series includes the titles Small Town Big Magic, Big Little Spells, and most recently, Truly, Madly, Magically. The Witchler series is set in Saint Cyprian, Missouri. This is a small Midwestern town that sits at the confluence of this big river and many magical ley lines.
Amelia Hruby:And there are all sorts of witches that live in this town. The witches in this town, and I think, like, in the world, are ruled by this ruling coven called the Joy Wood. And we learned pretty early in the first book that the Joy Wood wiped the memory of our main character, Emerson Wilde. So I guess, like, at the end of witch high school, everyone has to go through a sort of, like, trial or test of some kind, proving that they are, like, in control of their magic to some degree. And if you fail, your memory is wiped and you have to live as, like, a mere mortal human, not a witch.
Amelia Hruby:So something happened during Emerson's test and the joywood wiped her memory, even though like, literally everyone around her is like, she's a powerful witch, how could that have happened? And so when we enter the first book, Emerson is living in Saint Cyprian. She's running a bookstore. She is, like, all over the chamber of commerce, actually. Like, being a small business owner is totally a thing in this book.
Amelia Hruby:And she's hanging out with all of her friends who are all witches, but can't tell Emerson that they are or that she is one. So unraveling all of that is a lot of the plot of the first book. Again, that's called Small Town Big Magic. In that book, we learn a lot about Emerson, how she lost her magic, how she, light spoiler here, regains it again. I don't think that's too surprising.
Amelia Hruby:This series has many books, so that was probably gonna happen. And then we actually learn how Saint Cyprian is under threat, and we have to handle that. And along the way, Emerson falls in love with local healer, aunt Hottie, Jacob North, and we have a nice little sort of second chance romance. I guess the second chance is because of, like, some forgetting that has happened along the way. So I don't know.
Amelia Hruby:The second book in the series is called Big Little Spells, and that one focuses on Emerson's sister, Rebecca, who was sort of exiled from Saint Cyprian when Emerson lost her magic. But we'll go through this whole process of returning and having a romance with a broody immortal that I was super into. And then in the 3rd book, which is called Truly, Madly, Magically, Emerson's friend and half witch, Elowyn Good, and friend and river guardian, Xander something, they have their own romance in the 3rd book. And I just finished the 3rd book, like, days before recording this and really enjoyed it. With this series, I would say it took me a bit to get into the first book.
Amelia Hruby:I thought the writing style was, like, pretty twee for me. It was, like, very, like, it's fall. I'm excited. But once I got into it, I really enjoyed the books, And I think I realized that part of that was because of Emerson's mind wipe, memory wipe, essentially. And so the series kind of toned that down over time.
Amelia Hruby:So I loved all 3 of these books. I cannot wait for the 4th one, which this is your heads up that this series is not completed. So if you only read completed series, I would say this is a no go for you. I see people say that these are standalones, but I feel like the first book ended on a huge cliffhanger. And maybe by the time we get to the end of the 3rd book, you could say you could read the first three, I think you'd feel pretty satisfied, but there's still huge parts of the plot coming.
Amelia Hruby:So I don't know. I would not go for this if you don't read unfinished series. I would wait until we get the next book, which I think is gonna be the final book, but don't quote me on that. So, so far in this series, to get to my romantic witchy ratings, I would say this series gets a 4 out of 5 for general witchiness. Once again, we've got different types of magic.
Amelia Hruby:We do have some founding families. We've got ruling covens. You know, we've got a lot of witchy stuff going on here. We've got leylines. We've got magical rivers.
Amelia Hruby:Yeah. Maybe it should get 5 out of 5 for general witchiness, honestly. Lots of good witch stuff here. I would give it a 4 out of 5 for magical romance. I think that the romances are lovely and nice, but they don't feel like the central focus of the book.
Amelia Hruby:There's definitely more plot that's trying to happen here. So 4 out of 5 for me. I think there's a 1 out of 5 for spiciness. We have some fade to black stuff that goes on. We have a little more detail by the time we get to the 3rd book on some spicy scenes, but I just felt like it's pretty tame overall.
Amelia Hruby:I don't know if it's like have your kid read it tame, but if you're an adult reader, totally tame to me. And then I would say we get, like, a 2 out of 5 for spooky here. There is definitely some black magic that happens, definitely some people in danger. But, again, I didn't really find it creepy or suspenseful. For me, that would, like, pull it out of this episode and this category of magical series for romantic witches.
Amelia Hruby:Okay. 2 more series to tell you all about. The third one I wanna talk about is the x hex series by Erin Sterling. If you didn't know, Erin Sterling is a pen name of Rachel Hawkins, who is a popular thriller writer. She writes these magical romances as Erin Sterling.
Amelia Hruby:This series currently includes 3 books. The first one is called the x hex, the second one is called the kiss curse, and the third one is called the wedding witch. That one will be coming out just days after this episode releases, so it will be here very soon. If you're listening live or if you're listening back, it's already out for you. Love that.
Amelia Hruby:So the x hex series takes place in Graves Glen, Georgia, which, like, we love, a southern romance. I'm here for it. This is yet another town sitting along many magical ley lines from which many witches draw their power. In the first book of the series, The Ex Hacks, we meet Vivian Jones, who has cast a curse on this man who broke her heart as a teenager, and she didn't expect the curse to work. She was very much, like drinking alcohol, casting a curse with a Bath and Body Works candle sort of vibe.
Amelia Hruby:Like, it was very haphazard spell casting. But unfortunately for her, it worked. And so she actually cast this curse and it becomes a big problem for her when that ex, whose name is Rhys Penhallow, of course, comes back to town for some unfinished business. So everything unfolds from there, and I thought it was a really enjoyable witchy romance. The second book of the series is called The Kiss Curse.
Amelia Hruby:This one features Gwen Jones, cousin of Vivienne from the first book. And Gwen lives in Graves Glen and runs a witch shop called Something Wicked. Business is going great for her until Wells Penhallow, brother of Rees from the first book, opens a rival witch shop across the street from Gwen's shop. So we are getting a great enemies to lovers set up here, and then we have some magical obstacles for Gwen and Wells to face together. Again, I really enjoyed it.
Amelia Hruby:And the 3rd book in the series is called The Wedding Witch. Again, that one is out on October 8, 2024. So I have not read this one yet, but what I do know about it is it's set in Wales, which is where the Penhallow's are from, at Yule time. So we're moving locations and we're moving seasons, and I'm very excited for this book, which I guess is gonna be kinda like Christmas witchy, which is very fun to me at least. So, so far in this series, I would give it like a 3 out of 5 for general witchiness.
Amelia Hruby:I think that this one, to me, felt a little more situated, like, in the real world. Obviously of the series that I've talked about here, they all take place in these, like, imaginary towns that are situated within the United States, I guess, at this point. But I think that the magic here feels just a little more mundane to me at times, which is great. I love that too. Moving on to magical romance, I would give this, like, a 4 out of 5 for magical romance.
Amelia Hruby:These are nice stories. I really particularly liked Gwen and Wells' romance, but maybe there's something just about the whole thing stemming from a curse that knocks off a romance point for me or something like that. I think we have a 3 out of 5 for spiciness here, definitely some sexy scenes in these books, and I would say 1 out of 5 for spooky. I can't remember anything really spooky, like, legitimately spooky happening in these books, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong or you disagree. And, finally, the 4th series that I have read and want to talk about in this episode on magical series for romantic witches kind of has the worst name for the series, but some of my favorite books.
Amelia Hruby:So it's called the supernatural single series by April Asher, which is, like, not typically something that I would read, but the titles in this series I have loved. So the first book is not the witch you wed. The second book is not your ex's hexes, And the third is Not Your Crush's Cauldron. So I think that these titles are, like, they're, like, very fun to me. And I really enjoyed the 2 of the 3 books in the series that I've read.
Amelia Hruby:So this series is set in a sort of magical New York City where we have this urban fantasy world of witches and werewolves and demons and guardian angels. Like, we have a whole magical world also in New York City. In the first book, Not the Witch You Wed, we've got a fake dating situation between magicless witch, Violet Maxwell, and alpha wolf shifter, Lincoln Thorne. So apparently, Lincoln broke Violet's heart sometime back in high school, and now she mostly avoids him. But their community has alerted them to this arcane supernatural law that says that because of their position in society, they each have to find a mate.
Amelia Hruby:So to solve this problem they have of having to find a mate, they pretend to date each other. And if you have ever read a romance book, you know that fake dating goes all sorts of ways. So that's the plot of the first book in the series. The second book in the series, Not Your Exes Hexes, follows Violet's sister, Rose Maxwell. Rose has been training her entire life to lead the supernatural court of this society to become, I believe, the prima is what they call it.
Amelia Hruby:But she has recently decided to step down from that role. Like, she's not going for it anymore, and now she has to figure out what she wants to do with her life. So in that process, she falls for Damian Adams, who is a half demon veterinarian, of course. But, unfortunately, Damien is hexed by his ex, which is now a theme here, and falling for Rose is a problem for him. So that is the plot of the second book.
Amelia Hruby:Rose sort of becomes a demon hunter along the way, which also complicates things. It's a really fun time. At least, I thought it was a really fun time. And then the 3rd book in this series is called not your precious cauldron. And once again, I have not read the most recent book that is out here.
Amelia Hruby:It just came out this year in 2024. And this one follows the 3rd Maxwell sister, Olive. Olive is this, like, long time rule follower. She's, like, known for being a little buttoned up, but she has decided to get out of her comfort zone to make a few wild decisions. And somehow this ends up getting her, quote, unquote, stuck with a guardian angel who is also a very sexy guardian angel.
Amelia Hruby:I don't know. I don't come up with these plots, but I really look forward to learning how it all plays out when my library hold finally comes in on not your crush's cauldron. So that is the supernatural singles series. I would say that this series is similar to The Witches of Thistlegrove and that the books overlap, but I think you can read each one as a standalone. And according to a Goodreads q and a that I read with the author, this series is complete with 3 books.
Amelia Hruby:So I think that this is a go if you are an only completed series reader. And looking at my romantically witchy rankings, I would say this one gets 3 out of 5 for general witchiness. Not because it's not witchy but just because the world has many more magical creatures in it. So it would get like a 5 out of 5 for broader magicalness if I was doing that in this very haphazard ranking system. It gets a 4 out of 5 for magical romance.
Amelia Hruby:I did love the romances here. I thought they were a lot of fun. We're gonna do a 4 out of 5 for spiciness as well. There are some scenes in these books that definitely bring the heat. And in my mind, it's a one out of 5 for spooky again.
Amelia Hruby:Just like most of these other series, I think these books are all way more romance than they are scary. I would literally not describe any of them as even remotely scary at all. Maybe there are a few tiny spooky moments among them, but we're staying low on the spooky scale in this episode. Now to wrap us up, I wanted to do, like, a quick set on 3 other witchy romance series that are on my TBR. I will start with the most recently published one, which is the Glimmer Falls series by Sarah Holly.
Amelia Hruby:I have the first book of this on my Kindle literally right now, so I'll probably be reading it very soon. This series includes the books, A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon, A Demon's Guide to Wooing a Witch, and A Werewolf's Guide to Seducing a Vampire. So I think here we are more in the realm of like the supernatural singles vibe of witches and other magical beings. And I really look forward to reading the first book, which is on my Kindle literally right now so I can start it right after I finish recording this episode. Gotta get out of here.
Amelia Hruby:So that's the first series on my witchy romance TBR. The second series on my witchy romance TBR is the All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness. This starts with A Discovery of Witches, which is a very well known book. I have watched the television show version of this series, and I really loved it. So now I need to go back and read the books.
Amelia Hruby:And honestly, if I hadn't known that it was books when I started watching it, I would have read the books first, but I didn't somehow. I don't know, don't ask me. So now I have to do this in the backwards order I normally prefer. But very briefly, the All Souls trilogy is set in this world of witches, vampires, and demons. We have this forbidden love at the heart of it between Diana and Matthew, a witch and a vampire.
Amelia Hruby:There's a lot of magical books and unlocking of secrets that happens. And if the show is anything like the book, then I know that I will love it. And, finally, the 3rd witchy romance series on my TBR is the one that I definitely should have read by now, but I have not gotten around to, and I did see the movie first. I'm so sorry. It is the practical magic series by Alice Hoffman.
Amelia Hruby:This series includes the books magic lessons, the rules of magic, practical magic, and the book of magic. I think the first two are more like novellas, and then practical magic and the book of magic are the novels in the series. And this one, of course, follows the Owens sisters who have been blamed for everything that goes wrong in the town that they live in in Massachusetts, and they want an escape, they want some romance, and they both get it in their own ways. So this, of course, was made into the iconic movie starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. And I'm sure I will read the books one day, but those characters will always be played by those people in my brain.
Amelia Hruby:So sometimes that could really impact how a book lands for you, and I think that's why I have not actually picked this one up yet. And that's it. We did it. 7 magical series for romantic wishes. To recap very, very quickly, the series that I talked about and highly recommended today were the Witches of Thistlegrove series by Lana Harper, which starts with the book Payback's a Witch, the Witchlore series by Hazel Beck, which starts with the book Small Town Big Magic, the X Hex series by Aaron Sterling, which starts with the book The X Hex, and the supernatural single series by April Asher, which starts with the book Not the Witch You Wed.
Amelia Hruby:So those series are all like favorites of mine. I love returning to them. I have even, I think, reread some of the books in the Witches of Thistlegrove series, so highly recommend. And then I also spoke very briefly to 3 witchy romance series on my TBR, the glimmer falls series by Sarah Holly, which starts with a witch's guide to fake dating a demon, the all souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness, which starts with a discovery of witches, and the practical magic series by Alice Hoffman, the most popular book of which, and that is probably Practical Magic itself. Thank you again for joining me in this episode of Pleasure Reading.
Amelia Hruby:I hope this was pleasurable for all of my romantic witches out there. If you love magical books, especially during this time of year, these are all great picks, easy reads, fun to enjoy, and they are all linked in the show notes so you can head there to learn more about the books, pick your faves, order some today. I do use bookshop links. So if you make a purchase through the links in the show notes, I will receive a small affiliate payout. And that's just a little thank you from you to me for the book rec.
Amelia Hruby:I really, really appreciate you taking the time to listen to this episode, and I think that's all I have for you today. So for now, I will say that it has been a pleasure reading with you. Here's to your next best book.