Best Books About Witches That Are Simply Magic
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If you are looking for the best books about witches, you have come to the right place.
If you craved stories like Harry Potter to make you feel all sorts of magical growing up, you’ll love these stories that are full of family secrets, bad luck, and childhood friends.
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
I have to start with one of my absolute favorite series, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness! This was a series I could not stop talking about and it’s perfect if you are looking for a modern witchcraft story with a lot of magical realism.
In the Discover of Witches, Diana Bishop, a scholar, inadvertently summons a bewitched manuscript during her research. Despite her family’s history of powerful witches, she chooses to return the book and avoid involvement.
Now, she is thrust back into a world she wants nothing to do with and a centuries-old vampire seems just a bit too curious. Plus, every supernatural creature seems to have descended on Oxford’s Bodleian Libary with the hope of Diana breaking its spell.
Make sure you check out my full book review on A Discovery of Witches so you can see all of my thoughts after reading the series. This series also includes Shadow of Night and The Book of Life as well!
Best of all, there is also a TV show! If you have Shudder or Sundance, you can watch it there as of the writing of this post. If not, here’s a link to the season one on Amazon.
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
If you haven’t read Akata Witch yet, you will adore Nnedi Okorafor’s writing. This is also a great book for young readers if you’re looking to stay in the YA and teen genre.
In Akata Witch, we follow Sunny Nwazue, a young girl who was originally raised in New York City but has now moved to Nigeria with her family. Sunny is albino, making it difficult for her to go outside and bond with people her own age.
Sunny finds out she’s a free agent, one of the few people with magical powers and she has a lot to learn if she wants to be able to harness it. Despite still learning about her magic, she is tasked with her friends to find a career criminal who is using magic for their own means.
The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith
If you like the vibe of historical fiction, you’re going to enjoy The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith!
Château Renard has always used their vine witches to make sure that their wine is the best of the best. This all fell apart when Elena Boureanu was cursed and lost to the family for years. When she broke the curse, her life seems to have dramatically shifted and her vineyard is now in the hands of a man named Jean-Paul Martel. Unfortunately, he favors science over all else and isn’t willing to let a little magic in.
If this series sounds like something you’re interested in, you can read my full review as well as the whole series order.
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
I feel like it’s illegal not to include Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic. If you’ve already loved the movie featuring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, you’re going to enjoy reading the book that started it all!
Everything that had ever happened in this small town, the Owens family seems to be blamed for. Both of the Owen sisters, Gillian and Sally want out of these accusations of witchcraft, but it seems that no matter what they do they keep getting brought back.
This series also includes The Rules of Magic, Magic Lessons (prequel), and The Book of Magic.
The Black Witch by Laurie Forest
The Black Witch by Laurie Forest has been on my list for longer than I would like to admit. I actually originally saw it at my local library and as I am always a sucker for a good witch book, it’s been hanging out on my TBR since.
Even though Elloren Gardner descends from a powerful witch, she seems to have no power, and in a society that values that above all else, she doesn’t seem to have much hope.
With little else to do, she decides to attend Verpax University to finally achieve her dream of being an apothecary. But things don’t seem to be going well for her there either and she needs to learn to trust the very people she’s been told to fear.
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
I don’t know why, but we never get to see a main character that’s a necromancer. But that’s all going to change with Rin Chupeco’s The Bone Witch.
Our main character, Tea, finds out she’s a necromancer after she accidentally raises her brother Fox from the dead. She and her brother are then taken to another land for training and to learn how to wield elemental magic. All the while, dark forces seem to be looming on the horizon.
The Scarlet Witch by Kim Richardson
Paranormal hotel? Handsome and grumpy owner? Kim Richardson’s The Scarlet Witch really does have it all!
After fifteen years of marriage, you wouldn’t expect to come home and find your husband in bed with another woman. So, when the opportunity to work at a paranormal hotel in Manhattan with a hot, grumpy, and tattooed owner comes knocking, you take it.
There are all sorts of rumors about this hotel, and a dark spell may just mean its closure.
The Witching Hour by Anne Rice
If you missed it, I recently discussed Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice over on the Barely Bookish podcast, so it’s really only fitting that I mention this series as well!
In the first book, Rowan Mayfair knows she has a bit of magic, but has no idea about the dynasty of witches she comes from. That is until she pulls Michael Curry from the water and brings him back to life.
Now, they are exploring her past and his new gift his brief stint of death caused. We get to see modern-day New Orleans and San Francisco while also seeing a variety of settings from the past.
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
If you love cozy witchy books, then The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna is going to be the book for you.
Mika Moon has to hide her magic and stay far away from any of her fellow witches so that she doesn’t draw any attention to herself. She knows the rules and follows them closely, except that she likes to make videos “pretending” to be a witch online.
Then, she gets invited to Nowhere House after someone sees her video and asks her to help raise three young witches and teach them how to control their magic. While this seems to be the perfect place to settle in, the handsome but prickly librarian, Jamie fears Mika may be a threat. Then, danger comes knocking at their door and Mika needs to decide if her loyalty lies with her new friends and family or not.
These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling
If you can’t get enough of Salem as a setting, you’re going to adore this gorgeous book by Isabel Sterling!
Hannah’s an elemental witch, and even though she lives in Salem, Massachusetts, her abilities are something she’s got to keep hidden from the Regs, or else she could lose it. Hannah spends all her time either working at the Fly by Night Cauldron or avoiding Veronica who is both a fellow witch and also her ex-girlfriend.
At the end of the school bonfire, a blood ritual takes place and Hannah knows it’s the work of a blood witch, even when the coven isn’t nearly as convinced. Hannah is left with one option, working with Veronica to get to the bottom of it. Let’s see if these young witches can get to the bottom of it and why their coven doesn’t believe them,
The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling
I mean… we’re both looking at this cover, right? Doesn’t immediately make you go “Alright, you’re coming home with me”? Plus, I promise The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling sounds even better so you don’t have to feel guilty over this cover purchase.
When you’re a young witch, why wouldn’t you deal with your heartbreak with just a little hex? Well, Vivienne Jones is sure that the scented candle she had laying around probably didn’t do much to Rhys Penhallow, that is until nine years later he comes back to town and things seem to not be going too well.
Now, they have to work out a way to stop this break-up hex before the town falls into disaster and hope they can put their feelings aside for the moment.
Payback’s A Witch by Lana Harper
If you want a sapphic rom-com that’s going to pull at your heartstrings, look no further than Payback’s A Witch!
Emmy Harlow is not a very powerful witch, but that may be because she hasn’t come to her magical hometown of Thistle Grove in years. Instead, she’s been forging her own way as an independent woman in Chicago.
With a whole lot of parental guilt, Emmy is pulled back to her hometown for a spellcasting tournament. While there, Talia Avramov and her best friend, Liden Thornm are out to get revenge on Gareth Blackmoore who is the heir to a powerful magical family but more importantly, he’s a dirtbag and a cheater. They want to know if Emmy is in on their plan of revenge, but Emmy’s a little more concerned as to why she can’t stop thinking about Talia Avramov.
This series has four books all taking place in the same town but from different witch’s points a view. So if you enjoy book one, you’re sure to enjoy the rest of the series!
The Modern Girl’s Guide to Magic by Linsey Hall
One thing about me is I love a good rom-com. This is absolutely one of my guilty pleasures and when you mix that with romantasy, you’re sure to get one of my favorite book genres. So, how was I to say no when I saw this book?
Aria’s magic is a mess that seems to never stop blowing up in her face. Somehow, she finds herself breaking all of her own rules to save her family’s magic potion shop as she enters a competition to win the biggest magical fortune in England. On top of that, she’s trying to ignore Callan Hawthorne, a sexy billionaire, and mage that she’s hated for years.
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
This is the book that inspired the Wicked musical!
This book is a full reimagining of Oz and will cause you to challenge your conception of good and evil. It’s darker and definitely an adult fantasy, but you’re going to love this witch story about a character we’ve all been told to hate.
The Witches by Roald Dahl
If you’re looking for a kid’s friendly classic, this is the perfect book for young-age readers.
In this book, Grandma loves to tell the story all about real witches to her grandson. Imagine his surprise when he comes face-to-face with the Grand High Witch herself.
The Witch’s Daughter by Paula Brackston
Who doesn’t love a classic story of witch hunters and the cunning woman that survives? This book about witches is really your classic story that you’ll adore.
Elizabeth Anne (Bess) Hawksmith is 384. When she was young, a witch hunter hung her mother and to escape the same fate, she ran to Gideon Masters, a warlock, who taught her how to awaken her inner witch and her magical powers.
Now in the present day, after being secluded most of her life she finds herself befriending Tegan, a teenage girl, that she shows how to become a Hedge Witch. All the while, Gideon is hunting her across time to reclaim her soul.
I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé
This book is one that I think the summary does all the talking.
Tituba was a West Indian slave that was accused of witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trial. In 1692 she was arrested and forgotten about until two years later when there was an amnesty for witches. In this book, Maryse Condé creates a fictional life for her to tell her story.
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
Witchcraft had to start up again somewhere, and what better place than the background of such a historical event as the suffragette movement?
There used to be witches, but not anymore, and in 1893, a woman needs to find her power at the ballot box. When the estranged Eastwood sisters – James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna – join the suffragettes in New Salem, they begin to realize they can turn this into the new witch’s movement.
