With Pumpkin Spice season right around the corner, it’s time to get your spooky season TBR tuned up. Publishers have been rolling out witchy and magical titles all year long, so I’ve got a mix of out now and coming soon books to fill up your TBR. Enjoy!
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Stripped of her magical memories after she failed a power test, Emerson’s been living life as St. Cyprian’s bookstore proprietor and the town’s youngest president of the Chamber of Commerce. But when she’s attacked by supernatural creatures and fights back with what can only be described as magic, she discovers her little town is actually a haven for witches. With evil lurking, it’s critical Emerson learns to harness her magic without distraction. Never mind her attraction to a cranky-but-gorgeous local farmer. It’s gonna be up to Emerson and her friends to save St. Cyprian.
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Romance ghostwriter Florence Day goes through her own breakup and decides she doesn’t believe in love. Then she’s told she won’t be getting an extension on her current deadline and it looks like her career is finito, too. Bad news comes in threes, and Florence learns that her father has died and she heads home to the Southern town she left behind a decade ago. And it seems nothing has changed, until she meets a ghost with unfinished business at the town funeral parlor. A ghost who has her “second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories,” says the blurb.
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ENEMIES TO LOVERS and opposites attract in this spooky rom-com between members of two rival families, that Avramovs and the Thorns. Issa Avramov and Rowan Thorn team up when one of his family members gets attacked by dark magic leading up to the Beltane festival. She’s a wild child, he’s strictly by-the book and as these two investigate, they actually uncover an attraction that flies in the face of their families’ complicated history.
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SECOND IN A SERIES: The first rule of The League is to never mention the League. Just kidding, they don’t ever mention witchcraft. As its future leader, Charlotte Pettifer must secure and protect a long lost, but recently discovered amulet. But nothing is ever simple and with everyone trying to get their hands on the amulet, Charlotte must team up with pirate Alex O’Riley. The only question is, will the amulet be the only thing he steals, or will he take Charlotte’s heart, too?
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REVIEW: Approach The Ex Hex like a Hallmark/Lifetime/Netflix holiday movie with more sizzle. Don’t expect much explanation about how the magic works or is governed. That’s not what we’re here for.
After a summer fling that ended badly, 19-year-old Vivi does what anyone would do: drown her sorrows in a warm bath, a little vodka, and a harmless little hex on that Rhys Penhallow. But when Rhys returns to town nine years later for a Founders’ Day Samhain event, they find out that hex wasn’t so harmless.
It’s witchy sexy second chance fun, with a cast rounded out by Vivi’s mom, her bestie and an aunt who run the local witchy tchotchke shop.
The one thing that bugged me was Rhys’ British/ Welsh accent and -isms seemed to come and go (and when you read a lot of Brit chick lit, it stands out).
I was invested and entertained enough to come back for books around Rhys’ brothers Wells and Bowen. Wells and Vivi’s bestie get their book, The Kiss Curse, on September 20. More on that below.
For fans of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix).
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BI/SAPPHIC REP: Emmy left her home town years ago to escape her family and make her own way in the world, but as a result, her magic isn’t as strong as it once was. But thanks to her guilt-tripping parents, she’s pulled back to Thistle Grove for a spellcasting tournament. She runs into Talia Avramov, who’s intent on getting revenge on her two-timing ex, Gareth Blackmoore.
But most concerning of all: Why can’t she stop thinking about the terrifyingly competent, devastatingly gorgeous, wickedly charming Talia Avramov?
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SERIES STARTER: Though the cover doesn’t scream Spooky Season, Dylan Newton’s How Sweet It is is set in the fall with Halloween and horror connections. It’s a fun, fluffy opposites attract rom-com with small town vibes.
Drake is a horror writer, Kate is the event planner who signs on for his next book launch. Their initial contact is more meet disaster than meet cute. I should mention that while this is a rom-com, when Kate and Drake spend the night together around the 80% mark, it’s steamier than some readers might expect. Which made me this think this one would be ideal for fans of Alice Clayton, especially her Hudson Valley series.
CW: death of a parent in early-ish childhood, mention of a family member’s suicide and domestic abuse, a character loses a leg to an IED while serving in the Marines.
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SECOND IN A SERIES: Opposites attract between a witch and a witch hunter. Clementine is logical, analytical and Type A. She doesn’t fall head-over-heels in love Then Gavin Rhys comes to town. He’s out to prove he’s nothing like his traitorous grandfather, but can’t help be distracted by Clementine. Can this unlikely couple find love?
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FAKE RELATIONSHIP between a magic-less witch and an alpha wolf shifter in NYC. When arcane laws force the two to find mates, a fake relationship is their own solution to buy some time. And while Lincoln, the wolf shifter, broke her heart years ago, old feelings re-emerge, until it’s clear things are no longer fake. But old secrets and looming threats could ruin their chances at an HEA. Do these two have what it takes to beat the supernatural forces working against them?
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FOUND FAMILY: Mika has always hidden her magic, kept her head down, and avoided other witches, lest their magic mix and give them away. So she’s surprised when someone contacts her, asking her to travel to Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. She’s immediately entangled in the lives of her three students and “the handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House” who would do anything to protect the children.
As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn’t the only danger in the world, and when peril comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for.
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COMING SOON TO A SHELF NEAR YOU
RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 6, 2022
Christina Lauren called it “Sally Thorne meets Tim Burton” and there’s no better way to describe Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match. This charmingly off-kilter gothic rom-com finds Angelika Frankenstein taking matters romantic into her own hands. Her brother Victor, a scientist, has largely been useless in finding her an appropriate suitor. So Angelika decides to reanimate a dead man, but finds her would-be beau Will is initially more interested in finding out who he was than starting a new life with Angelika. It sends the pair off on a quest to uncover Will’s identity, with Angelika hoping romance will follow. It’s a reimagining Thorne herself calls Frankenstein fanfic, perfect for spooky season.
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RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 13, 2022
Liz Parker serves up a a little mystery, a little romance, in her debut, In the Shadow Garden. Set in Yarrow, Kentucky, we meet two magical families, the Haywoods and the Bonners. The Haywood witches are empaths whose shadow garden absorbs pain and turns it into things like, “strawberries that taste like chocolate, ” or “cherry tomatoes imbued with the flavors of basil and oregano.” The Bonners own a local distillery whose bourbon can disappear your worst memory. But 20 years ago, that all went wrong, the town didn’t lose just a memory, they lost an entire summer and someone disappeared. And now it’s time for the Haywoods and Bonners to reckon with what happened that summer, exposing more about the town than they could have imagined.
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RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 20, 2002
RIVAL SHOP OWNERS: The follow-on to The Ex Hex, The Kiss Curse follows Gwyn, proprietor of Graves Glen’s successful witchcraft shop, Something Wicked. She’s formed a new coven and started mentoring some of the younger witches in town. But as Halloween approaches, Wells Penhallow is back in the town his family founded. He opens his own shop right across from Gwyn’s. Despite their professional competition, the two must team up when a new coven lands in Graves Glen. It’s not clear what they want or why Gwyn’s magic is fading.
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RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 27, 2022
BLACK ROMANCE: Lucinda Caraway loves her little seaside town, her job teaching high school history, reading tea leaves and tending to her conjure garden, but she’s also stuck in a rut. There has to be more to life, right? Lucy’s wish comes true thanks to a spell that suddenly has her saying yes to things she never would have before. Including an old crush who needs help unjinxing his house. And as soon as it’s done, he’s out of there. But until the hex is broken, she and Alex are stuck together. Will Lucy’s next spell be the one that convinces him to stay?
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RELEASE DATE: October 4, 2022
Paranormal romance with Plus Size Rep: When Life Gives You Vampires catches up with Lily Baines just after she’s been accidentally turned by Vamp Tristan. And since it’s against vampire law, well, the two of them have no choice but to join forces. And Lily isn’t just dealing with a work-rival-turned slayer and a mother who does nothing to help reverse LIly’s own internalized sizeism. She needs to learn to love herself and her body that will never age, never die, and never change.
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