strange and random happenstance

The Witches of Cambridge by Alice Hoffman
Published by: Scribner
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Ava has grown up cloistered and unaware of who she is. Her first night away from home all of her mother's warnings come back to her: "Lock the door, call out if there is a stranger, stay away from girls who go out at midnight, beware those who wish to take you to the world underground, where there are no rules and no way to return to all that you've known." But what she learns that first night at Radcliffe is that everything she's ever known is a lie and the girl standing above her bed asking her to leap out a window at midnight is her other half. Ava and Lauren are opposites in every way, light and dark, the flower and the hazel branch. Even fire and ice to match their coloration. Ava didn't even know witches existed. She knew she was different, growing up in Maine in the 1940s she wasn't allowed to socialize with other children and occasionally had to be tethered in the family orchard so she wouldn't take to the skies, but a witch!?! That's the stuff of fairy tales. Until she meets Lauren. Lauren is from a tony Cambridge family of witches that trace their ancestry back to the 1600s. In other words, Lauren knows that witches exist because she's one of them. And she knows that Ava is a witch because why else would she be assigned as her roommate for the one night they have to stay in the dorms. Because witches don't live in dorms, they live in a special house run by the Lilith Society that began not long after the first witch of Cambridge came to settle in the marshlands in 1693. So while technically they are Radcliffe students, they are something else as well, not by choice, or by reason, but by legacy. And after they find their invitations and sneak out the window an act of salvation binds them together forever. An act that will save them time and time again as they battle with their own legacies. Because Ava doesn't know why or how she's in Cambridge but she starts to find letters hidden in books written by the First Witch. She starts to realize their is way more to her past than her mother has ever told her. And then she falls in love with the wrong person, Jamie Mather. He comes from a long line of dangerous men. Lauren's grandmother has always said that the Mathers did something that could never be forgiven. And here's Ava giving him her heart. Which is why Lauren has hardened hers. Ever since the death of her parents she has gravitated towards the dark. The Crooked Path calls to her. Which brings danger to Lilith House. McCarthyism is gripping the nation and when one of their number disappears before the graduation ceremony at the end of their first year they know they are being targeted. Can two friends overcome their differences to right the wrongs around them or will they selfishly care only for themselves?

I had an internal struggle as to whether I'd pick up this book right now because after reading all of her Practical Magic series I was kind of burned out on Alice Hoffman. There's only so far you can get on vibes alone. Sure, there's a comfort factor, but sometimes that just isn't enough. But then two things lured me in, McCarthyism and dark academia. Two things that actually have next to nothing to do with this book and seem to be just a veneer of time and place. As Tim Curry memorably says in Clue; "Communism was just a red herring." The "specter" of McCarthyism affects none of our characters in any way and seems to be more a "teachable moment" like the lack of contraception. Over and over again we hear about witch hunts and the danger from hunters but Lauren's brother is in far more danger from the Lavender Scare than she and Ava ever were from hunters. As for the aura of fear hanging over Lilith House? That was because Lauren was going down the left-handed path and her professor/lover killing her housemates. The fact that the police weren't able to figure out what happened to their fellow housemates still baffles me. All three women were connected to him and yet the police just couldn't figure it out. Probably because they were too busy trying to get laid by Lauren's brother. Yet this all pales in comparison to the real problem of this book, she is now outright plagiarizing herself. There is a similarity to all of Alice Hoffman's books which is comforting. But which, as I mentioned before, is sometimes not enough. Here though the similarities attained a new level. She is lifting her own material to make a new book. Cutting and pasting the legacy of the Owens family to begin a new witchy series. I wouldn't make this accusation without proof, so let me lay it on you. The Witches of Cambridge is two entwined stories. The first is ostensibly about a trio of witches, two "sisters" and their gay brother. The second is about the First Witch of Cambridge. The problem is, I've read these two stories before. The first is The Rules of Magic about Franny, Jet, and Vincent Owens and their growing up starting in the late fifties. In fact Franny was supposed to attend Radcliffe so this reads almost as an alternative timeline. The second is Magic Lessons, a long slog of a read about Maria Owens and her life, but more importantly the curse she laid on her family. I hated reading Magic Lessons so much that reading a simulacrum of her story with the First Witch of Cambridge gave me PTSD. There are just constant reminders that this is just a Frankensteinian creation; insane asylums, secrets, homosexual persecution, unexpected pregnancies, banished loves, exile, wolf dogs, failing the Bechdel test, I could just keep listing them, but unless you've read all these books I don't think you'll believe me. I mean, what are the chances there are two different characters in two different books that were from the same area of Cornwall!?! Or that apparently every man involved in the Salem Witch Trials was in love with a witch? Or at least his descendant was. The déjà vu was just too strong for me with this book. Perhaps it will bring you comfort, for me it brought hives.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alice Hoffman, Cambridge, Clue, Dark Academia, Déjà Vu, Lilith House, Magic Lessons, McCarthyism, Plagiarism, Radcliffe College, Season of the Witch, The Crooked Path, The Rules of Magic, The Witches of Cambridge, Tim Curry

The Witches of Cambridge by Alice Hoffman
Published by: Scribner
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The brand-new series from the bestselling author of Practical Magic, following two brilliant young women in 1950s Cambridge, Massachusetts, as they become immersed in a mysterious secret group of witches at Radcliffe known as the Lilith Society.

Once upon a time, women were drowned in the river and the only witnesses were the crows in the trees. The Puritans blamed Eve for the sins of the world. That was when we began to meet in the name of Lilith, Adam's first wife - banished for refusing to do as she was told.

We Fly Together...

By the 1950s, Cambridge, Massachusetts feels far removed from the legendary witch trials that marked its early days as a colony. Ava, a bright young woman from a small town in Maine, arrives for her first year at Radcliffe College. There, she meets Lauren, her opposite in every way - the wild and brazen daughter of a wealthy and well-established Cambridge family. But the two have more in common than they think. Both are recruited by the Lilith Society, a secret organization of witches at Radcliffe dating back to colonial times. As they learn more about their legacy, Ava and Lauren form a close bond that is put to the test as they learn to navigate their new power, friendship, and love.

While Radcliffe seems like a safe haven, the shadow of McCarthyism looms large, an ever-present threat to the flourishing creative and intellectual life in Cambridge. And as girls from the Lilith Society begin to go missing, Ava and Lauren realize the witch trials of the past may not be as deeply buried as they once believed."

If you need something to tide you over until Practical Magic 2 later this week.

Darling by Mercedes M. Yardley
Published by: Ruadan Books
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 592 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"This Southern Gothic cautionary tale captures the small-town suspense of Ashley Winstead's Midnight is the Darkest Hour and the frightening homecoming of T. Kingfisher's A House with Good Bones in a domestic thriller where magic surrealism meets haunted house, proving that some pasts are best left behind you.

Darling has its demons.

Cherry LaRouche escaped the claws of Darling, Louisiana at sixteen. When she returns after her mother's death, Cherry and her children are forced into a nightmare where evil spreads like infection and the house itself demands her bones.

While Cherry tries to separate fact from fantasy, the locals discover the bodies of several murdered children. When Cherry's own daughter goes missing, she's forced to face everything she had fled from and confront the true monsters of Darling.

From Mercedes M. Yardley, three-time Bram Stoker Award winner for Little Dead Red, Love is a Crematorium, and "Fracture," comes a stunning revised edition of Darling. This Southern Gothic tour de force is the first novel in the interconnected world of The Hunger Garden, where demons and delights both await you."

Magic surrealism meets haunted house!?! Sign me up. 

She's a Doll by Barbara Truelove
Published by: Bindery Books
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Lucy isn't a normal girl. Ghost. Victim. Killer. She's a doll on a mission - to find the man who killed her and return the favor.

Lucy McQuinn has been murdered, but she's not about to go quietly.

If she doesn't get to keep breathing, then neither does Kyle, her killer. Possessing the body of an antique doll, she sets out on a quest for revenge. But it's hard when you're eighteen inches tall and made of porcelain.

For help, she turns to Nicola, a human and fellow outsider with her own reasons to hate Kyle. But in their small idyllic town, no one wants to hear the truth, especially not about such a promising young man. If they can't expose his crimes, Lucy will have to roll up her lacy little sleeves and teach him a lesson the old-fashioned way - as slowly and painfully as possible.

From LA Times bestselling author Barbara Truelove, She's a Doll is a ghoulish and gleeful tribute to the unstoppable power of female rage and a love letter to the friends who have our back - in this life and the next."

Here's to female rage and vengeance!

Wildwood by Ashley Woo
Published by: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A chilling debut gothic mystery in the vein of Jason Rekulak and Stacy Willingham about a house with dark secrets beneath its floorboards.

It seems like divine intervention when newly pregnant and freshly unemployed Elinor unexpectedly inherits Wildwood, her family's estate. She convinces her husband to move to the sprawling wilderness of rural Vermont to make a home and raise their baby.

Estranged from her extended family since childhood, Wildwood is a mystery to Elinor - she's an outsider to the townsfolk and to the prominent Brook family who control the town and its history. Knowing little of the house or its past, save for snapshots of childhood memories, she becomes entranced by an eerie nineteenth-century mural in the primary bedroom she calls "the Forest of the Dead."

But instead of growing more settled in her new home, Elinor feels increasingly isolated and uneasy. She begins to have dreams that feel like memories, phantasmagorical visions of something terrible that happened long ago. Haunted by the mystery of why her family fell apart, she's determined to uncover the secrets of her ancestry buried deep in the past and even deeper in the woods...secrets kept by powerful forces within the house and within the town.

Obsessed with finding the truth, Elinor knows she must answer when "the Forest of the Dead" calls her. Someone wants her to know they were there first, and someone else is trying to get in. As the nightmares creep into her waking hours, Elinor embarks on a journey that takes her back and forth in time, to the dark recesses of memories, to the streets of modern Salem, and to the haunted corners of this otherworldy house.

The Forest of the Dead is calling. Can you hear the whispers?"

Creepy murals in bedrooms are always just the beginning of the nightmare.

Little Red Death by Alexandra Benedict
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this eerie crime thriller from USA Today bestselling author Alexandra Benedict, one woman is tasked with investigating a series of disturbing deaths that resemble classic fairytales, only to find out that the killings have much more to do with the facts of her own past than with fiction...

This is once upon a time, like you've never read it before.

For twenty-five years, DI Lyla Rondell has lived with one unsolved case: her best friend's disappearance. The only clue - a poisoned apple - earned it the nickname "Snow White." It's haunted her ever since.

Now, when a woman is taken in a crime that has striking similarities to the story of Cinderella, Lyla is charged with investigating. And as more murders take place, each one based on a different classic fairytale, Lyla is determined to finally uncover the truth.

But these deaths are far from the stuff of bedtime stories. And worse, it becomes increasingly clear that these killings, and the messages left within them, are addressed directly to Lyla.

As the murders get more gruesome, Lyla becomes entangled in a web of crime and storytelling that goes far deeper than she ever could have imagined. Because someone out there is pulling her strings, and to turn the final page on the killings, Lyla will have to take a little creative license of her own."

You think Alexandra Benedict made you paranoid about Christmas? Wait until you see what she does with Fairy Tales!

All Hallows Eve edited by Ellen Datlow
Published by: Titan Books
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A chilling horror anthology of 19 original short stories from a world-class line-up of the masters of horror, delving into the histories and traditions of the spookiest season of the year. Presented by Hugo Award winning editor and horror legend Ellen Datlow, and featuring stories by Josh Malerman, Stephen Graham Jones, Garth Nix as well as many more.

Halloween, Samhain, Día de los Muertos - festivals across the world where we can commune with those we have lost, when spirits can cross over, and when the boundary between the living and the dead is far, far too thin.

A young boy encounters a woman with an ancient and terrifying link to the holiday, a group of college students attend a Halloween party to die for, and a troubled girl exploits a local urban legend to try and turn her life around.

From America to New Zealand via the rural Romanian wilderness, this anthology explores our worldwide obsession with the spookiest season of the year, when the veil is lifted and the spirits come alive. Featuring 19 original stories from bestselling and award-winning masters of the genre, and from Hugo, World Fantasy, Locus, Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson award-winning editor and horror legend Ellen Datlow, this anthology invites you to carve a pumpkin, light the lanterns and welcome in trick or treaters from across the world.

With stories by:
Josh Malerman
Lee Murray
Rich Larson
Clay McLeod Chapman
Livia Llewellyn
Michael Marshall Smith
Stephen Graham Jones
Linda D. Addison
Christopher Golden
Alma Katsu
Brian Evenson
Siobhan Carroll
Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ
Theresa DeLucci
Garth Nix
Jeffrey Ford
Richard Kadrey
Nathan Ballingrud
John Langan"

It has Christopher Golden, so I'm in.

The Alchemist of All Hallows Eve by Gigi Pandian
Published by: Gargoyle Girl Productions
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 292 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An eternally young alchemist. A gargoyle who fancies himself Poirot. A Murder House for sale the week before Halloween.

Zoe Faust has run from her past for centuries. She didn't plan on settling down. She didn't plan on falling for a mortal man. She certainly didn't plan on the gargoyle.

Now Zoe, her fiancé, and her French chef gargoyle best friend Dorian have found an enchanting home with a hidden cottage for Dorian. It's perfect for their little family. Except for one thing. Forty years ago, the night before Halloween, a woman was murdered in their dream house. Or was she?

When an enigmatic stranger arrives and insists that a mythological Irish witch holds the secret to the unsolved crime, Halloween turns deadly once more. Refusing to let Zoe lose the home she's waited centuries for, Dorian the gargoyle sets out to crack the case.

Can an alchemist, a gargoyle, and a teashop-owning detective solve two Halloween murders before an innocent man takes the fall and their perfect home slips away?

The Alchemist of All Hallows Eve is the whimsical tenth book in USA Today bestselling author Gigi Pandian's Anthony Award-winning Accidental Alchemist mystery series. If you love cozy fantasy, Agatha Christie-style whodunits, and found family, you'll adore this charming Halloween mystery, complete with Irish fortune-telling recipes.

Buy The Alchemist of All Hallows Eve to brew up a bewitching Halloween today!"

I mean, I'm all here for a gargoyle for fancies himself Poirot. In fact, would it be weird that that might be my ideal man?

The Unusuals by Gail Carson Levine
Published by: Quill Tree Books
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Newbery Honor-winning author Gail Carson Levine shares a story of family, prejudice, faith, and unlikely friendship in medieval England, for every child who is more perceptive than they seem, and braver than they know.

Chera, Lummie, and Joan are unusual in medieval Winchester, England. Two girls and a boy, and two Jews and a Christian are not supposed to be friends. Most days, after their studies with Rabbi Baruch, they enjoy scaring themselves in the greatly feared nearby forest, home to ne'er-do-wells and sprites, where they make another unusual friend, a starving outlaw.

But the trio's fun is shattered when Chera's grandmother, a wealthy widow, and Joan's mother, her maid, are murdered. Jurors name a suspect, who flees the city, and he may not have killed them anyway. Almost anyone could have, so just investigating isn't enough. What's more, the Unusuals are sure Lummie's grandmother will be the next to die.

They concoct a perilous plan, which needs allies to succeed, but everyone else thinks their idea is dizzy - crazy. With lives in the balance, this trio of friends must band together against the odds and call on their unusual bonds to help seek justice."

When you don't have access to Brother Cadfael you have to find other means. 

The Raven by Susan McCauley
Published by: Celtic Sea, LLC
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Kindle, 183 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"As illness tightens its grip, something darker begins to stir.

England, 1665. As plague ravages London and fear spreads north to York, Martin Blake, a humble cobbler, struggles to protect his family through a bitter, death-shadowed winter. When the parish rector, his wife's domineering uncle, forces orphaned children from London into their already meager home, Martin's fragile world begins to unravel.

Grief, illness, and the weight of buried sins close in. Ravens gather. Martin's reason begins to slip. Whispers spread - of misused alms, of spirits that roam at night, of faith twisted into something monstrous. As snow blankets the land and the dead lie unburied, Martin must confront a chilling truth: is he haunted by guilt, or by something far more sinister?

A gothic tale of illness, obsession, and the perilous border between loyalty and madness."

Oh, he's haunted by something far more sinister. I can feel it.

We Turn Gruesome at Night by Eric LaRocca
Published by: Titan Books
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The nightmarish second installment of a new trilogy of provocative, disruptive and brutally poetic queer horror set in a small New England town.

From the Bram Stoker Award® finalist and Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, an intense, claustrophobic literary horror that is perfect for fans of Agustina Bazterrica, Mariana Enriquez and Paul Tremblay.

Ten years after the devastating massacre that occurred on Christmas morning in 2003 and the community of Burnt Sparrow, NH struggles to move forward. Meanwhile, Rupert Cromwell and Gladys Esherwood find themselves trapped in End House and suffering unbearable monotony day in and day out. When a town courier named Pierce arrives at End House and introduces Rupert to a secret organization known as The Perdido Society, Rupert discovers a deeply intricate and intensely sinister web of secrets spreading through the town. It isn't long before more blood is spilled, shameful transgressions are revealed, and temptations are finally satisfied.

Captivating and profoundly unnerving, this is the story of two lost souls who are sent on an odyssey into the depths of depravity only for them to discover that it's quite easy to turn monstrous, to become the thing you once despised. Lyrical, nihilistic and brutally poetic, this is shocking, unflinching, must-read horror from an author at the top of his game."

Turning to brutality is easier than staying on the path of humanity. 

Christmas Mysteries at the Mysterious Bookshop edited by Otto Penzler
Published by: The Mysterious Press
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 408 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Eighteen puzzling Christmas tales set in New York City's beloved mystery bookstore.

In 1993, The Mysterious Bookshop - the oldest mystery specialty bookstore in the world - began an annual tradition by inviting bestselling author Donald E. Westlake to write an original short story set in the bookshop during the holiday season. Each year since then, The Mysterious Bookshop commissions a new short story from a leading author to give out as a holiday gift for its customers.

The prompt for the story requires three elements: that it be set at Christmastime, that it involve a crime of some kind, or the suspicion of one, and that it be set at least partially in the bookstore. Beyond these guidelines, authors had free rein to take the story in whatever direction they chose. This volume collects the first eighteen stories commissioned by the bookshop from 1993 to 2010.

Included are tales by Megan Abbott, Rupert Holmes, Mary Higgins Clark, Andrew Klavan, and Ed McBain, plus an updated introduction by Mysterious Bookshop proprietor Otto Penzler. Some of the stories are humorous, others thrilling, and still others are tales of pure detection. But all are guaranteed to put you in the holiday spirit.

Originally published as Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop."

Last year I was so excited to get their newest story. Now to catch up on the past ones!

In the Midnight Hour by Darcy Burke
Published by: Oliver-Heber Books
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 314 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the Midnight Hour.

An inquisitive bachelor. A mysterious widow. A dangerous partnership in Regency London. Idle heir to an earldom, Viscount Northwood drifts through life with little purpose - until a shocking murder shatters the calm of his quiet London square. His prime suspect? The beautiful but enigmatic widow across the way. Determined to uncover her secrets, North calls upon the investigative tricks he's learned from his Bow Street Runner twin. Except anonymous broadsheets are circulating, exposing every lurid detail of the crime and bringing a crowd of intrusive onlookers into the square, complicating North's investigation. When he discovers the author of the scandalous publication is none other than the suspicious widow and that she is also apparently trying to solve the murder, they reluctantly join forces. Their uneasy alliance is soon tested when the killer sets his sights on them. Can they trust each other in the face of danger, or will the murderer claim two more victims?"

A second son choosing the career of a copper!?! Now I'd read about that too.

Three Fold Death by Victoria Dowd
Published by: Datura Books
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Charlotte Blood is about to discover the dark side of obsession in this gripping mystery. Perfect for fans of Lucy Foley.

A team of archaeologists claim to have found the tomb of the original warrior Queen of the Britons - Boudica. It's the story of the century and investigative journalist Charlotte Blood wants nothing more than to get the inside scoop.

But Charlotte is not the only one hunting for the truth. Other journalists are also eager to find out if this is, in fact, the legendary queen's final resting place.

Instead of a find of great historical significance, they discover something far more disturbing and horrifying waiting inside the two-thousand-year-old tomb.

Charlotte is faced with unravelling the mystery of the Threefold Death, a unique sacrificial killing involving murder by drowning, stabbing and hanging.

As she grows closer to discovering the killer, perhaps the question she should be asking is whether she will be the third victim...

Filled with history, mystery, and a daring main character, Threefold Death will appeal to both history buffs and crime aficionados."

You know, the Rasputin approach to death.

The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon
Published by: Doubleday
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 528 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A sweeping historical adventure inspired by the life of Grace O'Malley, the legendary Irish folk heroine who risked everything to defend her people. Venture onto the high seas with the thrilling latest from the New York Times bestselling author of The Frozen River and I Was Anastasia.

Grace O'Malley was born to be a sea captain. But despite her natural skill on the water, Grace learns early that her dreams of a life at the helm are not compatible with the expectations of her noble family. As the only daughter of a powerful chieftain, her role is to secure a strong alliance and bear children. But when she's sent to foster with a nearby clan, Grace falls for a clever and open-minded second son - a man she cannot have.

Married off against her will to a brutal warrior, Grace performs her duty, all the while gathering followers loyal to her, and consolidating her husband's power, only to be ousted from his lands. But this betrayal offers Grace the opportunity to return to sea, finally leading clan O'Malley's mighty fleet. Just as she finds true independence, Queen Elizabeth's incursions into Ireland grow bolder and Grace must fight to defend her land, her ships, and the people she loves most against the cruel and power-hungry English deputies, who will stop at nothing to check her influence.

Keenly observed and fiercely written, Ariel Lawhon's new action-packed novel channels the untamed beauty and harsh realities of sixteenth-century Ireland, as seen through the eyes of an unforgettable heroine who rightly became "the Pirate Queen of Ireland.""

I might be a tad Grace O'Malley obsessed because one of my friends is her descendant. 

The Enigmatic Madam Ingram by Meihan Boey
Published by: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 512 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Miss Cassidy returns to nineteenth-century Singapore to help solve another dazzling supernatural mystery in this follow-up to the award-winning novel that The Guardian called a "classic-in-waiting."

When Letty Ingram arrives in Singapore in 1906, she is an enigma even unto herself. To the residents of the small Scottish village where she lives, she is a wealthy, half-Malay recluse who emerges from her home only for walks with her great beast of a hound. To Letty, she is a woman trying to lift a curse that causes her to lose consciousness and wake up in strange places - sometimes, with blood on her hands - and no memory of what occurred.

Letty has traveled across the world in hopes that the renowned medium Madam Kay can help her break the curse, but Letty is a mystery of tangled magics the likes of which Madam Kay and the rest of her supernaturally gifted family have never seen. Fortunately, the Kays know an expert with even more insight into otherworldly matters than they do: the formidable Miss Leda Cassidy.

But even Miss Cassidy finds Letty to be a puzzle, one that pulls a fog over her memories as well. As she dives deeper into Letty's past and finds it unexpectedly intertwined with her own, Miss Cassidy begins to realize that if she's going to free Letty from her curse, she's going to have to take on an ancient foe: the terrifying jungle spirit known as the Bungadarah."

Always here for ANY book with a medium, renowned or just nowned.  

The Mystic and the Missing Girl by Vikki VanSickler
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Small town secrets, a reluctant psychic, and a cold case that could expose them all.

Drew Benson can read tarot cards and get impressions from objects - she just never expected to use her gifts to investigate an infamous cold case.

Drew Benson has a secret. She gets visions, something she hasn't tapped into since she was a teenager, when her late aunt, a TV psychic known as Hannah Mystic, became the scapegoat in the unsolved disappearance of a local teenager. Twenty years later, Drew is happy to ignore her gift, focusing instead on keeping the metaphysical shop she inherited from Hannah afloat, wrangling her sole, astrology-obsessed employee, and dodging local rake Foster Banks in her picturesque lakeside hometown.

But when Drew's arch-nemesis from high school, now a big city reporter, decides to investigate the cold case from all those years ago, it's Drew's ability that could finally make a break in the decades old mystery. With bills piling up, a disapproving mother laying on the guilt, and a local vandal who wants Drew and her witchy store gone, Drew has a lot to lose. But what she stands to gain - finding out what happened to the missing teen, clearing her aunt's name, and a second chance at belonging - could change everything.

In The Mystic and the Missing Girl, Vikki VanSickle seamlessly draws readers into an utterly charming world in this unputdownable, small town mystery."

I mean, what does she have to lose really!?! Maybe her life...

We Already Dug the Grave by Emma C. Wells
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the USA Today bestselling author of This Girl's a Killer, comes a southern gothic thriller with the bite of Sharp Objects and a dash of Practical Magic, following two estranged sisters who will do anything to protect each other - even murder. Again.

Milly can't divine the future anymore, and maybe that's a good thing. Lately, her life has been bleak enough, she doesn't need the now-silent tea leaves to tell her. Meanwhile, her estranged younger sister thrives miles away in a shiny new life with a shiny new marriage. Milly doesn't blame Francis for wanting nothing to do with her. Not after what happened in that Tennessee meadow a decade before.

But when Francis shows up on Milly's doorstep with a black eye and a plea for help - Milly can't say no. Especially when the tea leaves are finally crystal clear: if the sisters don't kill Francis's husband, he'll kill her.

And if they're going to plot a murder, the sisters have no choice but to return to the one place they'd left behind. A place where another body - and a multitude of secrets - were buried. Because this isn't the first time the sisters have needed to dispose of a bad man. In fact, they might be pretty good at it."

Personally I'm all for getting ride of the bad men.

A Beautiful Lie by Tanya Grant
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this juicy psychological thriller, home organizer Emily is invited to vacation at her beautiful and wealthy new client's summer home - but once inside, Emily doesn't want to leave.

Every one of my home organizing clients is a fabulous liar.

They tell themselves they need to keep clutter in their lives for rainy days or just-in-cases. They hold onto things too tightly. Most people don't know how to cut to the heart of what's important and purge everything that's not.

That's where I come in. I can look into my client's lives and see exactly what's weighing them down, and I get rid of it for them.

It sounds easy, but I'll let you in on a secret: I have trouble letting go of things, too.

When Cap slides into my life with her neon signs and velvet hair bows and magnetic energy, I know I can't just let her walk away. Because one of the first rules of home organizing is that like belongs with like. And Cap and me? We're destined to be together.

She may not know it yet, but that's okay. I'd be lying if I didn't say the challenge is part of the thrill. And luckily for Cap, I'm not afraid of a little hard work."

A true thriller.

Pictures of You by Josh Malerman
Published by: Del Rey
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A woman becomes the unknowing subject of an artist's dangerous work in this intense Hitchcockian thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Incidents Around the House.

After a magical night out on the town with her boyfriend Jack, Emily wakes alone in a huge bed in a beautiful, well-lit room. But the pink ceiling, the mauve walls, and the deep, dark corners are nothing like the hotel she and Jack rented.

More worrisome yet: Emily has no memory of this place from the night before.

Where is she?

A woman's voice directs her to remain in bed.

Just so...

And beyond the end of the bed, a picture frame upon an easel - a frame with no canvas, no painting, no art.

Only...there is the silhouette of a person Emily does not recognize. A person emanating demand, danger, evil. And the way the woman talks...and the things she says...She's acting as if Emily herself is the painting. The still life. The art.

Emily is as scared as she is confused. But it's immediately clear Jack's life is on the line with her own. And if she attempts to escape the bed and the wood frame of this nightmare masterwork, neither will survive the experience.

Emily is fierce, independent, brilliant, but to get out of this, she'll have to think like an artist herself.

The clock is ticking.

For Emily.

For Jack.

For being forever trapped.

Josh Malerman's unforgettable and terrifying Incidents Around the House became an instant classic of horror - and now Malerman has done it again. Pictures of You is a tale of thrilling terror that will chill you until the last page - and have you thinking of the heroine's search for love and the meaning of art long after."

Here for the art. No matter how depraved. 

Murder on the Upper East Side by Gigi Waldorf
Published by: Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Scandal never graduates in this glossy thriller set in the world of New York's ultra-elite, perfect for fans of Gossip Girl and Holly Jackson.

Gossip on the Upper East Side isn't just vicious...it's deadly. -XOXO

2016: Hannah Miller has begun her senior year at the Prescott Academy of New York alongside the rich and famous of the Upper East Side. Or, at least, their children.

Amid the trust funds and penthouse parties, there's one rule for survival: staying out of the way of Queen Bees Madison DuPont and Elle Harrington.

Being a scholarship student makes Hannah feel invisible. But no one escapes the watchful eye of notorious gossip account called the Upper Edge.

2026: The academy's alumni have gathered for a glittering charity gala. Only Madison DuPont could host an event this grand.

But what starts as a champagne-fueled party soon descends into chaos when Madison is found dead moments after her speech. It doesn't take long for fingers to point at Hannah - everyone saw her talking to Madison only moments before the murder. She shouldn't even be at the gala. She's not really one of them.

The truth is that everyone had a reason to want Madison dead. From Madison's best friend to her former devotees to the targets of her bullying, it seems like the whole student body had a complicated history with the Queen Bee of Park Avenue. To clear her name, Hannah must unearth the secrets that this crowd would kill to keep buried."

Gossip Girl goes murderous. Which is only the natural progression of things.

First Chance by Kasey Lansdale
Published by: Blackstone Publishing
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"First Chance is a suspenseful thriller that readers won't be able to put down - perfect for fans of Sue Grafton and Michael Connelly.

Chance Kirby isn't new to detective work, but starting over in Hopeful, Texas, is a big step. Determined to leave behind her father and stepmother's shadow and carve out a future of her own, she opens a small PI agency, expecting missing heirlooms and marital disputes. But when the cold case of a murdered teenage girl is dropped on her doorstep, Chance finds herself in the middle of an investigation with no leads.

With her adopted sister Tia, her loyal dog Sissy, and the town's newly arrived police chief Isabella Lopez at her side, Chance soon begins to suspect this murder may be only one piece of a much bigger, and more disturbing, pattern.

To stop a predator who, it seems, has managed to evade authorities for decades, Chance must stay one step ahead...or risk becoming the next target."

The hero who rides into town to save it.

The Dating Game by Ally Zetterberg
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this clever and surprising thriller about the perils of modern dating and the female rage it sometimes inspires, a board game designer starts playing by her own rules, and losers won't be tolerated.

The friendship game. The dating game. The end game. For board game designer Tilda Smith they're all necessary steps on the path to finding happiness. And by structuring her life according to a set of rules, just like in the games that she loves to create at her job, Tilda can finally win.

The only problem? The other players don't know they're playing by Tilda's rules. She's fair. Very fair, in fact. But then one night her date pushes her too far and she gets just a bit carried away. Any player who disappoints must face consequences, right? But as Tilda finds herself transporting a body in a laundry bag, she has to question how to make the punishment fit the crime.

And now someone is watching Tilda and playing a game of their own. Will they turn the tables on her, or can she figure out a way to best them? The game is never really over until she says it is.

Game on."

Daddy's Home!

Receipts from the Bookshop by Katie Clapham
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"One summer not long ago, bookseller Katie Clapham began chronicling life at the small independent bookstore she runs with her mother in the English seaside town of Lytham St Annes. Her cozy bookshop diaries detail the romance and frustration of running your own bookstore - from the loyal customers to the feisty passers-by, and the deliveries filled with tempting new stock to the never-ending aftermath of cardboard boxes. Katie faithfully records the change of seasons from sad January to exhausting December, punctuated with visits from inquisitive dogs, adorable children, and people just looking for a good place to get an omelette around here.

Tender, funny, and thoughtful, Receipts from the Bookshop is a love letter to everything we hold dear: small towns, family, book chat, hot cups of tea, and just the right snack at 11 AM....

-A valentine for book lovers everywhere.
-Cozy armchair travel for anyone who loves England.
-Reminds readers why bookstores are our happy place.
-The perfect story of a small family business built on love and commitment.
-A warm, funny look at community in a small seaside town."

Bookstores are my happy place. Though I've never asked where I can get a good omelette nearby...

Level Up For Love by Lenora Woods
Published by: Dell
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Sparks fly as two former college rivals are forced together for a new D and D campaign - clashing both in and out of the game - in this fusion of contemporary second-chance romance and fantasy from the author of Roll for Romance.

In college, Reagan Riley and Wesley Locke were constantly at each other's throats, competing to be the best in their video game design program - until Wesley ghosts her after their unexpected hookup, severing their ties for good.

Six years later, Reagan has set aside her game design dreams, opting instead to stay close to her family in Connecticut and channel her creative energy into D and D. When her longstanding group falls apart, she and her sister join their local game store's new advanced campaign - only to find the demanding Dungeon Master at the helm is none other than Wesley. In the game, he is Vadrien, a merciless, power-hungry vampire lord, and Reagan is Sindra, the sword-wielding lady knight who will stop at nothing to cut him down.

When a game design opportunity opens up in the real world, Reagan and Wesley find themselves doubly pitted against each other. But as their buried spark reignites and Reagan starts to question why Wesley left all those years ago, can they find a way to play nice - and are they playing for more than just to win?"

If they were in school together it would take a lot to ghost her...

With All My Haunted Heart by Isabel Sterling
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A witch hired to ethically haunt a small-town B and B instead finds herself spellbound by her non-magical client in this cozy and enchanting sapphic romance.

Steadily losing clients to the new DIY-magic shop on the other side of town, Pippa Ainsley is getting desperate. Instead of paying the witch to correct their magical maladies, local mundanes have been taking their chances with the cheaper - and unpredictable - crystals and herbal blends. So when Pippa's best friend hires her to inspect his newly acquired bed-and-breakfast for ghosts, she doesn't think twice about it.

That is, until she learns that his unfairly attractive co-owner, Elle Thompson, doesn't want Pippa to rid their business of spirits. She wants Pippa to give them an edge over the competition by haunting their B and B.

It's the perfect challenge for Pippa's experimental magic, but just because she could figure it out, doesn't mean it's a smart or safe idea. But Elle is persistent, and the financial boost could save her own business if Pippa succeeds. Soon, Pippa finds herself testing the limits of her magic...and her ability to stop the growing attraction she feels toward Elle, a woman with a painful secret of her own."

Just invite the cast of Ghosts over!

Meet Cute Magic by Morgan Elizabeth
Published by: Union Square and Co.
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A cozy cute enemies-to-lovers witchy fantasy for readers of Sydney J. Shields' The Honey Witch and Sarah Beth Durst's The Spellshop.

She's a witch who can't fall in love without getting her heart broken. He holds a grudge like no other.

Bookstore owner Rosie Mayfield wants a love of her own, but it's not meant to be - because of her family's curse. To break it, she conjures a ghost who will break her curse, but for a cost - she has to brew a potion to help him transition to the other side. The problem? There's only one person who hates Rosie in all of Heartwood Hollow, and she needs his help to complete the required task.

Jack Haggerty, the ghost's grandson, has lamented about Rosie for years - she's a disaster and she's forbidden from visiting his gaming shop. He doesn't believe in ghosts, so he's stunned when his beloved grandfather makes an appearance. While he loves his family and will do anything to help his grandpa, he fights against the chemistry brewing between him and Rosie until he can't anymore. But he doesn't know how to tell her he no longer wants to go through with the plan, and she won't admit that she's falling for him because they're doomed from the start."

Doomed or destined?

Disenchanted by Lucy Jane Wood
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A reluctant witch must confront the magic she's always denied after accidentally triggering a curse in this delightfully cozy fantasy from the author of Rewitched and Uncharmed.

Sage Hemlock has no interest in embracing her witchy side. Magic has betrayed her before, bringing nothing but heartache, and she will not let something so foolish happen again.

Instead, Sage has thrown herself into her work and studies, running the local museum and largely preferring the company of her library and her cat to other humans. Her one goal is to fly under the coven's radar so that she can finally shed her blasted powers forever.

But when a strange historical book accidentally sets off a curse, Sage's quiet small-town life is suddenly overrun and magic is running rife. A beanstalk grows in her garden, and her friend and coworker Casimir starts to look an awful lot like a handsome prince. Fairy tales are coming true....

Now, with the threat of the coven on her tail, Sage must confront the magic she's always denied to solve the mysteries of the book and save everyone she's come to love from being lost to a fairy tale forever. The question is, can she finally learn to be her own happily ever after?"

Never deny who you are, it's dangerous.

Twig's Traveling Tomes by Gryffin Murphy
Published by: Bindery Books
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 280 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A love letter to all things bookish, Twig's Traveling Tomes is a cozy romantasy perfect for fans of Howl's Moving Castle, The Spellshop, and The League of Gentlewomen Witches.

A plot is brewing between the adventure and romance aisles.

When visiting Twig's Traveling Tomes, customers will get the exact book they need, even if it isn't the one they want. As for the proprietor and renowned Book Witch, Louella Twig lives her life sequestered with her stories, just as she likes it.

When devilishly handsome rogue Everett Sharp stumbles in looking to remove some handcuffs - closely followed by Louella's former tutor, whose prized grimoire has been stolen - her literary sanctuary is fully upended. Only Louella's magic can locate the grimoire, and teaming up with Everett is her best chance at retrieving it...but how can she trust that the man behind the wolfish grin isn't interested in stealing the book for himself?

With a host of friends old and new, Louella sets off on an adventure she never thought she'd take - and starts to realize that, just like her books, what matters most has always been what's under the surface."

Never judge a book by it's cover! Though this book does have a mighty adorable one.

Morfran, Dark Lord Reformed by S.B. West
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Abandoning his days of beheading to live out an undercover retirement as a goat farmer, Morfran finds himself accidentally leading a rebellion against the kingdom's Dark Lord, who, inconveniently, is him.

Morfran the Beheader is done being the Dark Lord™ of the kingdom of Ruthven. He's tired of managing minions, and his wife, Queen Ravana, has officially exceeded his personal comfort level of evil. Yet when he books it for the hills with the hopes to live out his days disguised as a goat farmer, his aspirations are tragically cut short when Morfran's former soldiers catch up with plans to behead him.

Morfran's only chance at safety is to seek refuge within a tiny forest dwelling where no one recognizes him. But he quickly learns the village is the base for a brewing rebellion against his rule. And after he reluctantly saves said village from an attack, he's voted the one to lead the charge. Against himself.

Morfran helps the rebels while planning to desert them at the soonest moment. But as he fights by their side, he discovers that they're actually quite pleasant - especially the lovely assassin who has been out for his blood for a decade. Too bad Ravana has sent Morfran's best men to nip the revolt in the bud, and too bad his unlikely allies would burn him alive if they learned he's no hero, but actually their Dark Lord™ in disguise. Because even Morfran knows that only a hero would stand up to Ravana and fight for friends, and he's certainly no hero.

Right?"

A lot of evil villains lately have been retiring to raise goats. Is it the satanic angle?

The Dark Lord's Guide to Honeymooning (and Other Acts of Tyranny) by Tiffany Hunt
Published by: Scarlett Press
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 688 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Kazimir and Arabella embark on a honeymoon where the only thing more dangerous than their enemies are their growing feelings for each other in this deliciously wicked and riotously funny second book in the Guides to Villainy and Love romantasy series that's Assistant to the Villain meets Dreadful.

Step Four: Take her on a honeymoon.
Step Five: Learn to co-villain effectively.
Step Six: Try not to get possessed by ancient evil.

Now bound by marriage and the formidable power of the Heirloom, Dark Lord Kazimir Blackrose and his Dark Lady Arabella are the realm's most feared and chaotic power couple. And after years of scheming, Kazimir is poised to conquer Solandris. But when the Alchemist calls in a debt, Kaz is forced to postpone his reign of terror or face consequences even he can't escape.

Arabella declares it the perfect opportunity for the honeymoon she was never promised. But their villainous getaway soon devolves into mayhem involving mass kidnappings, uncomfortable truths about Kazimir's demonic past, and a talented pastry chef with heroic blood who won't stop baking scones.

As if that weren't enough, Kazimir's mind is also filling with whispers not his own, while Arabella secretly tries to recover her stolen memories. But the greatest threat may be those three dangerous little words that could shatter their carefully constructed walls…and unleash an evil that destroys them all.

This sexy and side-splittingly funny fantasy romance is perfect for readers who love: villains who stay deliciously wicked (but are catastrophically in love); a powerful heroine carving out her place in the world; touch them and die; plotting world domination; sizzling spice and wickedly amusing banter; dark humor; found family of villains; and a honeymoon phase with assassination attempts."

I mean, unlimited scones? What's not to love?

Wickhills by Premee Mohamed
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the dangerous magical city of Wickhills, a streetwise secret agent is tasked with protecting a foreign defector from his pursuers...even at the threat of war.

Looking after a defecting scientist should have been Vycol Ferec's easiest mission. But now he's on the run from the intelligence agency he works for, dodging a handler who might have gone rogue and relying on a secret patchwork of illicit resources and dodgy contacts. Turns out his defector might be carrying an apocalypse-level magical weapon - and protecting it requires Ferec and his team to go underground, literally. Down here, the rules are very different...and the tense peace between every city in the world will shatter unless Ferec can drag their darkest secrets into the light."

I will read anything Premee Mohamed writes. 

A Snake Among Swans by Hannah Kaner
Published by: Harper Voyager
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The #1 internationally bestselling author of Godkiller begins a bold new fantasy trilogy - a dark, atmospheric tale of warring kingdoms, wild magic, female rage, and the choice between love and power in a world ruled by conquest.

"Death is come to take you home, death of blood and thorn and bone..."

Tilde has always heard the whispers of the kithwood, the voices of her ancestors speaking through the mysterious forest of her homeland. But now both the kithwood and her kingdom are in danger, for Tilde is the only surviving heir of a conquered land. To stop the bloodshed, she must marry the aging Swan King, Liran, and bear him a son.

But the king's court is dangerous. Liran's older sons will do whatever it takes to remove Tilde. And her presence stirs conflict in the heart of Liran's daughter, the princess Elise, who has only ever known loyalty to her family.

Yet none of them know that Tilde is a snake in their midst, with allies on her side and dark, forbidden power of her own. She wants her kingdom back, and she will sacrifice everything to claim it. For the queen to rise, the swans must fall."

I mean, why name your character after a literal character on the keyboard?

Kick-Ass Compendium by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. 
Published by: Image Comics
Publication Date: September 8th, 2026
Format: Paperback, 720 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The New York Times bestseller and worldwide phenomenon is back in an all-new compendium! Relive what happens when Dave Lizewski asks himself, "How come nobody's ever become a superhero before?" and makes his teenage superhero daydreams an ass-kicking reality.

Dave Lizewski is an ordinary New York City teenager obsessed with superheroes. But one day, he takes the plunge, dons a costume, and begins prowling the streets of his city to protect the innocent. He soon realizes, however, that the danger is far more real than what he reads about in comics...

This is the complete collection of all four volumes of the original series, Kick-Ass: The Dave Lizewski Years, by Mark Millar (Civil War, Kingsman) and John Romita Jr. (Spider-Man, Captain America).

Collects Kick Ass, Vol. 1 #1-8, Kick Ass, Vol. 2 #1-5, Kick Ass, Vol. 3 #1-6, and Kick Ass, Vol. 4 #1-8."

COMPLETE! COLLECTION!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alexandra Benedict, Alice Hoffman, Ariel Lawhon, Ellen Datlow, Gail Carson Levine, Gigi Pandian, Gigi Waldorf, Gryffin Murphy, Hannah Kaner, Josh Malerman, Kick-Ass, Lucy Jane Wood, Premee Mohamed, S.B. West, Tiffany Hunt

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Published by: Viking Adult
Publication Date: February 8th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 592 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Creatures are dying out. The power of the witches is waning and they are having less children. The vampires are unable to sire successfully. As for the daemons, they are becoming more and more erratic, that which once made them brilliant is now driving them mad. They have one hope. Rumors of a book that holds all the answers to their origins and their decline. Each species has a different theory as to what is contained within its pages. Witches believe it is the first grimoire. And it is a witch who finds the book after all hope had been lost of ever finding the missing manuscript. Diana Bishop is a witch. The last descendant of Bridget Bishop who was hanged at Salem. When magic killed Diana's parents when she was seven she decided then and there that magic would have no place in her life. She has created a great academic career for herself, she is the foremost authority on alchemy and its symbology. Which is what she is studying at the Bodleian. She has taken a year-long sabbatical from Yale to conduct research in Oxford. One day she calls a book from the stacks, Ashmole 782. This book isn't what it seems, it reeks of magic and is a palimpsest. She refuses to interact with the magical so treats it as any other book. She takes her notes and as soon as she's done with it she sends it back to the stacks. But the wheels have been put in motion. The creatures know the book has been found. They start to gather at the library. Watching her intently. Hoping she will recall what was thought lost. And they are willing to do anything to get it back. Witches, vampires, and daemons aren't supposed to interact. They have a Congregation that enforces these laws. Too many of them in one place draws the attentions of the humans. And what's happening at the Bodleian is drawing their attention. Enter Matthew Clairmont. Matthew is tall, dark, and brooding, everything you'd expect a vampire to be. He takes a keen interest in Diana, not just because of the book, but because something draws her to him. Soon the two of them are inseparable. Falling for each other but denying that it is happening. But Diana, not the book, might be the answer to everything he has ever searched for. He is a scientist and has been studying creature DNA in an attempt to solve their decline. He doesn't hold with the Congregation and their segregation of the creatures. Diana proves to be an outlier. Her power isn't waning, it's unlimited. Her DNA shows traits long since forgotten. She must be protected at all costs. When Oxford becomes too dangerous for Diana Matthew spirits her away to his family estate in France, where Diana will have to face Matthew's mother and her disapproval. But Diana's problems are more than the average woman facing a potential in-law, the Congregation has heard they are consorting. Matthew and Diana are breaking their laws and the Congregation won't take this lying down. Soon nowhere is safe. Not even Diana's family home in upstate New York. They need time. Time to find out the true reason that Diana and Matthew prove such a danger, and time for Diana to embrace her heritage.

When I first read this book I couldn't help but be bemused that this is nothing more than literary Twilight. And, just like Twilight, the fanbase is fanatical. So I have rarely in the past called out the book for its absurd family dynamics, its angst, and its heroine, who is almost too dumb to live. Diana does next to nothing to protect herself while Matthew is carrying her around like a spider monkey. I mean, if you can't see the humor in that, or the parallels, I don't know what to say. To fans of the book, I get it. To detractors of the book, I also get it. But sometimes you just need an absurd book full of love and angst and a large found family that while not quite filling the Buffy sized hole that will always exist in my heart is an acceptable simulacrum with its cozy vibes on the edge of the apocalypse. Because I love my messy vampires. If The Vampire Lestat has taught me anything this year its that I need more of that level of chaos in my life and A Discovery of Witches brings a cozy version of that with ghost-filled houses and the golden spires of Oxford. While there are wonderful discussions on science and evolution and literature and language this isn't what the book is about. It's about complete and utter escapism and you have to take the book on its own terms in order to enjoy it. So knowing what it was, not the touted book in the front of Barnes and Noble for the entirety of February in 2011, but adult Twilight, I gave myself over to it. And I loved it. I unabashedly loved it. I can finally face my friends who adore this series without a guilty conscious. I was always holding back my opinions because there were scenes that I just couldn't deal with. Congregation defiant yoga classes with vampires, witches, and daemons? Seriously!?! I just couldn't get around how absurd this is. And yet this was something they in particular just adored. Maybe it's just my hatred of yoga and not this yoga in particular that is the crux of the problem. So yes, while I would have probably loved this book more had it proceeded as it had began, minus the yoga, with Diana living the dream; researching at Oxford, spending all her spare time in the Bodleian, having anxiety attacks, OK, that's not cool, but I can relate. But this book started almost with a different Diana coupled with Oxford. So what was lost was a lot. What was gained, well, I've come to love that in it's own special way. And now I do rate it higher than Twilight. Though I should note that only the first book in that series had anything slightly going for it and I have never been a Twihard. An All Souls Fan? Now that I can get behind.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Discovery of Witches, All Souls Trilogy, Ashmole 782, Buffy, Creatures, Daemons, Deborah Harkness, Diana Bishop, Matthew Clairmont, Oxford, Science, Season of the Witch, Spider Monkey, The Vampire Lestat, Twilight, Vampires, Yoga

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: October 6th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
Rating: ★
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"Fate is what you make of it, Hannah had told her. You can make the best of it, or you can let it make the best of you." In 1664 in Essex County, England, Hannah Owens found a baby guarded by a crow in a frozen field. She took the girl in and named her Maria. The crow, obviously the young babe's familiar, was named Cadin. They spent ten years together in the woods, Hannah teaching Maria the Nameless Art. Though for Hannah witchery was a choice, for Maria it was not. She was born to it. They tended to the locals and Hannah would never turn away a woman in need. On the day Maria's mother returned begging for help, Hannah didn't turn her away. It would be her death. Rebecca was a selfish creature, working a dangerous spell, Love Potion #10, to entrap her husband. Now Rebecca wishes to rid herself of her husband and run off with Maria's father. The spell is so strong she is unable to work the magic herself to quench her husband's fire. While Hannah helps release her, the love of Thomas Lockland turns to rage. He hunts his wife down. Maria escapes with her life, Hannah does not. Maria turns to her mother, now relieved of her husband due to injuries sustained in the attack. Rebecca shows her powerful and dangerous spells before she flees with Maria's father. A father who pays for Maria to leave England by selling her to the Jansen family in Curaçao. The island off the coast of Venezuela is unlike anything she ever imagined. She is dutiful in her work and develops a reputation for helping the women of the island. Too bad she can't help herself. When she is fifteen John Hathorne comes to the island to do business with Mr. Jansen. He is her fate. She saw it in a mirror years earlier. For five days they live in a world of their own making. On the sixth day, the thirty-seven year old man is gone. When she realizes she is with child she starts to make plans to seek him out. He lives in the other Essex County, the one across the sea from where she was born. She will travel there when she is able. On March 20th, 1680, Maria gives birth to Faith and in August they book passage aboard a pirate ship bound for Rhode Island. She was only able to convince the captain, Abraham Dias, by promising to save his son, Samuel, who is dying of breakbone fever. The two forge a strong connection, but she views it as her destiny to reunite with John Hathorne. But Essex County is a big place and she's in Boston for months before she hears of him in Salem. She, Faith, and a belligerent Cadin, head off in search of this man. A woman like Maria isn't welcome in Salem. She thinks for herself and wears red boots. She doesn't know the customs or the costume appropriate for women. Yet a shocked John strings her along. He has more secrets that she knows and they will be her downfall and the rise of a curse. One that will lead any man who ever loves an Owens to be broken in body and soul. One that could destroy the happiness of future generations unless they are able to break it. Unless they make the best of fate.

That this book actually has good characters and good ideas gave me hope. That this book then squandered all that is an affront and a grievance to all those who bothered to finish it. Magic Lessons is drawn out almost beyond human endurance. The constant repetition made this feel like a first draft. Because either this book should have been tighter or split in two. The stories of Maria and her daughter Faith feel diminished by sharing the same pages. Especially once Faith turns to the left. I can't put my finger on where exactly this book went wrong, but just like Faith, it became rotten. I didn't want to pick it up again once I put it down. I just wanted to be done with it. And yet, I am a completest and therefore I trudged through this word salad to inform you about the one thing you're wondering about this book, do we learn the details of the Owens Curse? Yes. We do. Though it's far more human and stupid than you can imagine involving the follies of youth combined with rage. The fact that Maria doesn't think about her actions in the moment and even when she does assumes that in three hundred years someone is bound to figure it out, made me strongly dislike her in the end. These are her descendants, she builds a home for them, and figures that they can just stumble through the horrible legacy she left them in a moment of blind rage? Sure. Nice one Maria. But then again you were seduced and impregnated by the thirty-seven year old man when you were a fifteen-year-old servant. You don't have the best judgement. And Alice Hoffman just had to make Maria's backstory with John Hathorne that much creepier. She didn't lose the love of her life, she lost a letch who momentarily let his desires take control. But then again he also married a fourteen-year-old in real life. And given the average age of marriage back then was nineteen, that's just sick and creepy. Yet that's not the worst age-related crime in this book. Alice Hoffman has this tendency to have children that are overly precocious. I actually call this "The Charles Wallace Problem," named after the five-year-old younger brother of Meg Murry in A Wrinkle in Time. The last time I read that book I was spending the summer with my friend who has three children. At the time one of them was five. So I know full well how five-year-old children behave. And Charles Wallace is not it. Alice Hoffman extends this to all her characters when they are children. Maria can remember being left in a field right after her birth, Faith remembers full pages of her mother's grimoire that she glimpsed as a child, and this even goes back to the first book in this series when Sally was four and handling the Aunts over the phone and organizing plane tickets after her parents deaths. This isn't normal! I know that this book has magic, but this is beyond magic, it's just illogical. And yet that wasn't what broke me. Before we've only ever known that the house on Magnolia Street was in Massachusetts. This makes it very clear that it is in Salem. AKA Witch City. And yet the Owens are viewed as odd outcasts and Sally and Gillian are bullied as children for their weirdness? I understand the bullying, I don't understand the outcast status for being witches. They are literally in the city known for it. I just can't.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Wrinkle in Time, Alice Hoffman, Charles Wallace, Curse, Essex County, Faith Owens, Familiars, Fate, John Hathorne, Magic Lessons, Maria Owens, Massachusetts, Meg Murry, Pedophile, Pirates, Salem, Season of the Witch, Witch City

I have always loved witches. Aside from a terrifying incident in second grade when my teacher read Roald Dahl's The Witches to us and then dressed as a witch for Halloween, thus convincing me that she, and the other primary teachers, were the witches from said book. AKA bad witches. Otherwise I was raised by a plethora of good witches, Mildred Hubble, Samantha Stephens, Louise Miller, Sabrina Spellman, Willow Rosenberg, and the Halliwell sisters. This primed me for the arrival of the Owens sisters in 1998. No one can deny the cultural impact of Practical Magic. Who amongst us hasn't daydreamed about living in the Owens house? And who amongst us hasn't dreamed of a sequel? After all, over twenty years after she wrote Practical Magic Alice Hoffman came out with a prequel, The Rules of Magic. Followed by two more books in the series in the following years. She knew we needed more Owenses in our lives and finally we are getting more Owenses on the big screen. That's right people. If you've been living under a rock and don't know it, we're finally getting Practical Magic 2, based on the four book in Alice Hoffman's series. There will be midnight margaritas aplenty on September 10th. I couldn't let this milestone go unacknowledged and therefore a threw together my own little party, lots of Owenses and lots of other witches, Mayfairs, Bishops, Goodwins, fictional heroines descended from Salem. And no, not the cat. So here's to the Season of the Witch! Cue the Donovan song! It's a time for spooky reading, and a time for old favorites, and new, because it just so happens Alice Hoffman is dropping a witchy new book two days before the movie, Elizabeth Kostova is returning to Dracula, and Lauren Willig has finally fully embraced the Gothic with What Happens at Nightfall! So many reasons to celebrate! I hope you'll join me in celebrating, the season of the witch.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alice Hoffman, Donovan, Elizabeth Kostova, Gillian Owens, Halloween, Lauren Willig, Mildred Hubble, Practical Magic, Practical Magic 2, Sabrina Spellman, Salem, Sally Owens, Season of the Witch, The Rules of Magic, The Witches