Continuing spooky season with witches in fiction!
Dark Witch by Nora Roberts - With indifferent parents, Iona Sheehan grew up craving devotion and acceptance. From her maternal grandmother, she learned where to find both: a land of lush forests, dazzling lakes, and centuries-old legends.
Ireland. County Mayo, to be exact. Where her ancestors' blood and magic have flowed through generations--and where her destiny awaits.
Iona arrives in Ireland with nothing but her Nan's directions, an unfailingly optimistic attitude, and an innate talent with horses. Not far from the luxurious castle where she is spending a week, she finds her cousins, Branna and Connor O'Dwyer. And since family is family, they invite her into their home and their lives. When Iona lands a job at the local stables, she meets the owner, Boyle McGrath. Cowboy, pirate, wild tribal horsemen, he's three of her biggest fantasy weaknesses all in one big, bold package.
Iona realizes that here she can make a home for herself--and live her life as she wants, even if that means falling head over heels for Boyle. But nothing is as it seems. An ancient evil has wound its way around Iona's family tree and must be defeated. Family and friends will fight with each other and for each other to keep the promise of hope--and love--alive...
Book 1 of 3 in the Cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness - Deborah Harkness's sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches, has brought her into the spotlight and galvanized fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and a descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782, deep in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont.
Harkness has created a universe to rival those of Anne Rice, Diana Gabaldon, and Elizabeth Kostova, and she adds a scholar's depth to this riveting tale of magic and suspense. The story continues in book two, Shadow of Night, and concludes with The Book of Life.
A Familiar Tail by Delia James - Unlucky-in-love artist Annabelle Britton decides that a visit to the seaside town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is the perfect way to get over her problems. But when she stumbles upon a smoky grey cat named Alastair, and follows him into a charming cottage, Annabelle finds herself in a whole spell book full of trouble. Suddenly saddled with a witch's wand and a furry familiar, Annabelle soon meets a friendly group of women who use their spells, charms and potions to keep the people of Portsmouth safe. But they can't prevent every wicked deed in town.
Book 1 of 3 in the Witch's Cat Mysteries
A Fever of the Blood by Oscar de Muriel - New Year's Day,1889. In Edinburgh's lunatic asylum, a patient escapes as a nurse lays dying. Leading the manhunt are legendary local Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray and Londoner-in-exile Inspector Ian Frey. Before the murder, the suspect was heard in whispered conversation with a fellow patient -- a girl who had been mute for years. What made her suddenly break her silence? And why won't she talk again? Could the rumours about black magic be more than superstition? McGray and Frey track a devious psychopath far beyond their jurisdiction, through the worst blizzard in living memory, into the shadow of Pendle Hill -- home of the Lancashire witches where unimaginable danger awaits.
In the Air Tonight by Lori Handeland - With her blue-black hair and dark eyes, Raye Larsen has never fit in with the Scandinavian community of New Bergin, Wisconsin. Being adopted is part of the reason she feels like an outsider, but what really sets Raye apart is her ability to see dead people. Everywhere. She's learned to keep her visions to herself... until she stumbles onto the ghost of a murder victim who needs Raye's help. Enter Bobby Doucet, a distractingly handsome homicide detective who has been tracking a killer all the way from New Orleans. Could this be the break in his case he's been looking for all along? Meanwhile, the deeper Raye gets involved with the case-and with Bobby-the closer she comes to unlocking the mystery of her own origins. What she discovers about herself could destroy everything she knows... and everyone she loves. Is finding the truth worth the risk?
Book 1 of 3 in the Sisters of the Craft series
It Takes a Witch by Heather Blake - Darcy Merriweather has just discovered that she hails from a long line of Wishcrafters - witches with the power to cast spells by making a wish. She's come to Enchanted village to learn her trade, but ultimately finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation... This marks the beginning of a magical and fun new series that comes from an established, Agatha Award-winning author of cosy mysteries writing under a pseudonym. Fans of Victoria Laurie, Madelyn Alt and Juliet Blackwell will find this a engaging and light-hearted read.
Book 1 of 9 in the Wishcraft Mysteries
The Mist-Torn Witches by Barb Hendee - In a small village in the nation of Droevinka, orphaned sisters Céline and Amelie Fawe scrape out a living selling herbal medicines in their apothecary shop. Céline earns additional money by posing as a seer and pretending to read people's futures.
But they exist in a land of great noble houses, all vying for power, and when the sisters refuse the orders of a warlord prince, they must flee and are forced to depend on the warlord prince's brother, Anton, for a temporary haven.
A series of bizarre deaths of pretty young girls is plaguing the village surrounding Prince Anton's castle. He offers Céline and Amelie permanent protection if they can use their "skills" to find the killer.
With little choice, the sisters enter a world unknown to them - of fine gowns and banquets and advances from powerful men. Their survival depends on catching a murderer who appears to walk through walls and vanish without a trace - and the danger grows with each passing night.
Book 1 of 4 in the Mist-Torn Witches series
Secondhand Spirits by Juliet Blackwell - Lily Ivory feels that she can finally fit in somewhere and conceal her "witchiness" in San Francisco. It's there that she opens her vintage clothing shop, outfitting customers both spiritually and stylistically.
Just when things seem normal, a client is murdered and children start disappearing from the Bay Area. Lily has a good idea that some bad phantoms are behind it. Can she keep her identity secret, or will her witchy ways be forced out of the closet as she attempts to stop the phantom?
Book 1 of 10 in the Witchcraft Mysteries
Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen - Trolls are said to love gold. They are said to live underground and hate humans, perhaps even eat them. They are said to be evil. When Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and sold to the trolls, she finds out that there is truth in the rumors, but there is also so much more to trolls than she could have imagined. Cécile has only one thing on her mind after she is brought to Trollus, the city she hadn't even known existed under Forsaken Mountain: escape. But the trolls are inhumanly strong. And fast. She will have to bide her time, wait for the perfect opportunity. But something strange happens while she's waiting--she begins to fall in love with the handsome, thoughtful troll prince that she has been bonded and married to. She begins to make friends. And she begins to see that she may be the only hope for the half-bloods--part troll/part human creatures who are slaves to the full-blooded trolls. There is a rebellion brewing. And her prince, Tristan, the future king, is its secret leader.
Book 1 of 3 in the Malediction Trilogy
Witchmark by C. L. Polk - In an original world reminiscent of Edwardian England in the shadow of a World War, cabals of noble families use their unique magical gifts to control the fates of nations, while one young man seeks only to live a life of his own. Magic marked Miles Singer for suffering the day he was born, doomed either to be enslaved to his family's interest or to be committed to a witches' asylum. He went to war to escape his destiny and came home a different man, but he couldn't leave his past behind. The war between Aeland and Laneer leaves men changed, strangers to their friends and family, but even after faking his own death and reinventing himself as a doctor at a cash-strapped veterans' hospital, Miles can't hide what he truly is. When a fatally poisoned patient exposes Miles' healing gift and his witchmark, he must put his anonymity and freedom at risk to investigate his patient's murder. To find the truth he'll need to rely on the family he despises, and on the kindness of the most gorgeous man he's ever seen.
Book 1 of 2 in the Kingston Cycle series
