Ever since I first watched Practical Magic (far too young), I wanted to be a witch, or at the very least consume all possible witchy media. And when I first got back into reading, I was delighted to see so many books about witches of all sorts: old, young, falling in love, saving the world, and more.
Today, I must have read hundreds of these lovely witchy books, and I’m here to point you to the best ones. I hope you find something to love!
Editor’s Note: This list is constantly updated with new titles as new books come out (or I finally get to more books), so check back often to find new reads to love. If you have a favorite that isn’t on this list, let me know in the comments below and I’ll put it on my TBR!
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Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
Since this is my very first witchy book (or, well, movie), the one that started it all, I have to begin with Practical Magic. This is a story about the Owens women, who have been cursed to lose the men they fall in love with. Two Owens girls, Sally and Gillian, move in with their quirky aunts and get raised in a magical environment because their aunts are witches! The town hates them, but most of them visit in secret for spells and hexes. As the girls grow up, each one deals with their upbringing differently. Sally tries to be as normal as she can, and Gillian runs away. But what happens when they fall in love and it goes very badly? This book is mainly about sisterhood, but there’s a sprinkle of romance, and of course, there’s a lot of witchiness. A perfect autumn read!
The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields
I did not expect to love this book as much as I did, and yet here I am, proven wrong. So, this is a story about Marigold, who really isn’t interested in the suitors trying to woo her, and so it works out perfectly for her when her grandmother takes her to a remote island and asks her to be a Honey Witch. Of course, Marigold accepts, despite the caveat that no one can fall in love with her. But later, when Lottie shows up on her doorstep skeptical of magic’s existence, Marigold can’t wait to prove her wrong… and she also may like Lottie more than she intended. This is a very sweet, very cottagecore witchy book, with a lovely, tender romance story.
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
I know this author has another book set in the same world, but this one is my favorite and I feel like it’s witchier. The story follows Sera who lost all of her magic as a teenager when she revived her aunt. Now she has just enough magic to fix leaky roofs, a barely functioning inn full of quirky guests, and a talking fox with an agenda. And then Luke, a magical historian, shows up with his younger sister in need of place to stay, and Sera sees her chance to maybe get everything she lost back and find love in the process. I really loved this book and how soft it was. To me it felt like a warm sweater on a windy autumn afternoon, and I highly recommend it!
Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu
This is a graphic novel about a young, hard of hearing witch who sells spells by day and solves magical cases by night. One such night she gets a report of a white wolf in the forest, but when she gets there, it’s just her childhood werewolf friend who is in need of help. But as they journey through the world of spells, rituals, and demons, these two discover that their feelings for each other are changing. This is a story mainly about self-discovery and finding your place, but the romance is so sweet and the witchiness is on point. If you enjoy romantic grapic novels, this one is for you!
Payback’s a Witch by Lana Harper
This book is like John Tucker Must Die but sapphic and witchy, which is a combo that really works well. Our heroine returns to her small town, which she has been avoiding because of her ex, only to find that her childhood best friend has been secretly dating him, and another, very charming woman as well. The two of them have made a pact of revenge on this ex, and the only question is, will our heroine join? But as the revenge unfolds, she finds herself more drawn to this mysterious new woman, and caring less and less about getting even.
A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley
This book is set in a world where all sorts of magical creatures live together in harmony (well, sort of), and our main girl is the daughter of a powerful witch clan. Her mother wants her to marry well, but she accidentally summons a demon who’s sinfully handsome, and then she proceeds to fake date him to get her mother off her back. But things are not so easy and of course, feelings stir the more time she spends with her charming demon. This series overall is so good, and I especially loved part three (in which a werewolf falls for a vampire) which I reviewed here.
The Witches of Moonshyne Manor
If you want a witchy book with older protagonists, or a mix of Hocus Pocus with Golden Girls, this is your book! In this one, you follow a coven of modern-day, 80-year old witches who are about to get kicked out of their home due to unpaid mortgage bills. To prevent losing their beloved home, these witches rely on one angry TikToker, a deal with the devil, and one sister who they haven’t seen in 30 years. Will they succeed, even as things go from bad to worse? This book is so funny and charming, plus very unexpectedly spicy and romance forward. Enjoy!
Slewfoot by Brom
To be perfectly honest, I was not the biggest fan of this book, but people love it and who am I to say otherwise. It’s a bit darker than the books I’ve mentioned so far, but perfect for a darker, moodier read. The heroine here arrives from Britain to a very puritanical society in America, and marries a man who dies quickly of mysterious circumstances. But then a spirit shows itself to her, and the villagers start dying, and our heroine, a misfit, is in danger of being claimed a witch.
The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer
If you love books about books, this one is your perfect match. Here, we follow the story of Rainy, who is the titular book witch and whose job is to defend works of fiction, and the main rule of this job is that you cannot befriend, let alone fall in love with fictional character. But Rainy is, unfortunately, in love with Duke of Chicago, a detective who stars in her favorite mystery series, and if she’s ever caught with him again, she’ll get kicked out of her coven. And then her grandfather disappears and a priceless book is stolen and she has to ask Duke of Chicago for help in solving this mystery.
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
Going back to the darker, scarier side of witches for a bit, this one follows Tea who accidentally ressurects her brother and finds that she has a unique gift for necromancy. Because of this, she is hated by her community and shunned, but then an older Bone Witch takes her and her brother in and away to another land where Tea can study and become a powerful Asha. Of course, there’s danger closing in, and she must make some difficult choices. Fair warning, this is a slow, languid book, so don’t expect fast paced action or anything like that. If you do like slower books, this is a great choice!
Weyward by Emilia Hart
Weyward is a sprawling, epic story of three women across three different time periods (modern day, world war II and witch trials) in which we get to see each of them fight the systems in place meant to keep them down. Our modern day heroine escapes her abusive partner and moves to her aunt’s old cottage (which may hold some big secrets). Our witch trials heroine is on, well, trial for a murder she didn’t commit, and our World War II heroine just wants an opportunity to learn as much as her brother, and she longs for a mother who left her with a W pendant. I usually struggle with stories set in different timelines, but this one was really good and I highly recommend it! Check the content warnings before you read, though.
Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
If you know anything about me, then you know I love Alix E. Harrow and everything she writes. This is her take on witches, and I loved it so much! Okay, so the story follows three sisters as they each deal with their powers and abuse they got from their father in different ways. The eldest wants to be respectable, the middle just wants to hide, and the youngest wants to burn the world down. Instead, what happens is that fate brings them all back together after years apart, and they start a sort of feminist revolution.
The Witch Collector by Charissa Weaks
This is a very romantasy take on witches, meaning that it’s set in a secondary world, there’s a king to kill and a broody man to fall in love with. I wasn’t the biggest fan, but if this sounds like your thing, go for it, it’s well written and very readable. Okay, so in this one Raina is a witch in a world where the Witch Collector comes to take one of them every blood moon to the immortal Frost King and the girls are never seen again. Raina wants revenge because they took her sister, but it turns out she needs to help the Witch Collector or the empire (and more importantly her sister) will fall into the enemy hands.
The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland
The Invocations follows Zara, who wants her dead sister back, and Jude, a girl who sold her soul to a demon and now wants it back. They’re looking for Emer, who’s a witch and who could help them. But Emer has her own issues because there’s a serial killer hunting down her customers. So they strike a bargain: Emer will help them if they help her. Unfortunately, Emer knows there’s no way she can raise the dead or save souls from demons. This is very atmospheric and intriguing, and I hope you enjoy it!
Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid
Marlinchen and her sisters are the last witches in a city turning towards industry, and they’re kept isolated from their xenophobic, horrible father while they sell their services to anyone who needs them. But at night, they escape into the city to enjoy its marvels, and especially the ballet theatre where Marlinchen falls in love with a ballet dancer. Unfortunately, the more they run, the more likely her father’s vengeance, and there’s a monster lurking in the city that threatens to destroy them all. Keep in mind that this is darker, and involves some body horror, so check the trigger warnings before going into it. It seems like a YA kind of witchy story but it really isn’t.
Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown
Three generations of Montrose women have lived relatively isolated lives in their bungalow in California, together with their secret spells and tinctures. But when the youngest of them, Nicki, brings home a boy, they reveal that there’s a curse on their family: the men they love die. And now this boy is here and forcing them to rethink the rules of the curse, as well as their pasts. I really liked this one, and found it warm, full of family love, and of course secrets these women keep from each other (despite their closeness).
The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin
The witches control the weather, but the atmosphere is volatile now and the only one who can help is Clara, an Everwitch with powers of every season. She goes on a journey of accepting her powers and working to calm the weather, even as she knows that the cost of her power is losing the ones she loves. And then she falls in love with the witch training her and she has to make the ultimate choice between saving the world or the one she loves.
The Sea Witch by Sarah Henning
If your tastes for witchy stories lean more sea and ocean themed, try this book. In this one, our heroine’s friend has died and she has been shunned by her small town. But then a girl strongly resembling her friend shows up at the shoreline, and our heroine is convinced her friend is back thanks to her magic. However, the friend cannot stand on two legs for too long, and they have to work together to save her and get their happy ending.
The Lighthouse Witches by C. J. Cooke
This is another book told in different timelines, and I’ll try to explain it the best I can without spoiling anything. So, there’s this island off the coast of Scotland, and a lighthouse on it. In one timeline, we have the witch trials slaughtering women as they tend to do. In another timeline, we have a woman moving to the lighthouse with her three daughters despite the fact that the lighthouse was built on top of the caves that held the witches (and may be cursed). Then twenty years later, you have the only remaining daughter of that small family going back to the island to figure out what happened to her mom and sisters after one of her sisters reappears, but has not aged a day. Intrigued? I was, and this turned out splendidly for me. Great book!
The House With Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson
This is more of a children’s book, but I found it charming and enjoyable, so give it a try if you like Baba Yaga stories, despite its age rating. Now, this story is about Marinka who desperately wants a friend. She’s the grandaughter of a Yaga, the ferrywoman to the dead, and training to be a Yaga herself, which means her only friend is the house with chicken legs. So, when Marinka sees an opportunity to make a human connection, she takes it, only it has horrible consequences that she has to fix herself. I really loved reading this one with my daughter too!
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
If you like witches, but also pirates and wild sea adventures, this is the perfect book for you. A street urchin named Flora becomes Florian so she can board a ship and escape her life on the streets. There she meets a princess reluctantly travelling to get married and together they make a plan to escape and rescue a mermaid. It’s really fun, really heartwarming, and I highly recommend it!
One For My Enemy by Olivie Blake
Even though I wasn’t a fan of One For My Enemy, I do appreciate this book may be for someone out there. It’s a Romeo and Juliette retelling, where New York’s magical underground is run by two families of witches. There’s a new drug on the market, and these two families are battling it out as old romances and new keep them closely intertwined.
The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling
This is a bit daker and more gothic, but really fun to read, and kind of romantic too. Jane is a practical woman and she decides that the best way she can continue her studies unimpeded is to marry for convenience. She picks a reclusive, handsome doctor to do it and his only request is that she never visits his crumbling manor outside of town. But guess what, she does, and immediately she realizes that something is very wrong both with the manor and her new husband, but only by night.
The Deep by Rivers Solomon
This is not especially witchy, but you’ll like it if you like darker mermaid stories, history and perhaps shorter novels as well. In this story, the water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slavers live happy, idyllic lives, their history forgotten. Only one of them is tasked with remembering, and that’s Yetu. The memories are destroying her, the burden of the history heavy, so she escapes to the surface. But on the surface, she faces the world her people left behind and sees the uncertain future. Yetu’s people will have to remember if they want to survive.
The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
Beatriz’s father has died in the overthrow of Mexican government and she lost everything. So, she decides to marry the mysterious Don Rodolfo Solórzano, who may be handsome, but whose first wife died in mysterious circumstances. Beatriz is not to be deterred. She wants a home and safety back, so she marries him and goes to his Hacienda San Isidro where she feels watched and strange dreams plague her, her sister in law refuses to go into the house at night and cooks burn incense and mark the doorway with strange symbols. No one will help her except the young priest, Padre Andrés, who relies on his witch powers to fight the malevolent spirits of the house.
Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart
Witches Steeped in Gold follows two witches: Iraya, who’s spent her whole life in a prison cell and plans revenge fervently; and Jazmyne, the daughter of the queen who’s expected to die to make her mother more powerful. Even though they’re enemies, these two enter an allance to take down their common enemy, but it’s not an easy path and power can be intoxicating.
The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
Two centuries ago, three sisters were charged as witches and drowned in the waters surrounding the small town called Sparrow. Now, every year, the sisters return and in revenge possess the bodies of three girls, luring boys to the shore where they drown them. Penny has accepted the fate of this town, but then an unassuming boy arrives and Penny knows she’ll have to save him. You’ll get perspectives from both the sisters and Penny, and there’s also a bit of romance that burns slowly and doesn’t get in the way of the story.
The Black Witch by Laurie Forest
The Black Witch follows Elloren Gardner, the granddaughter of the legendary Black Witch. Despite her famous lineage, Elloren has no magical abilities and longs for a quiet life as an apothecary. But when she leaves home to attend a magical university, she begins to question everything she’s been taught about the world, forming unexpected friendships and uncovering dangerous secrets. There’s a bit of romance, but a lot of this is about prejudice and unlearing things you’ve been raised with. Elloren can be a bit annoying, but she gets better the more time she spends with people.
The Ravens by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige
The Ravens is a dark academia fantasy that follows two very different college students drawn into a secret sorority of witches. Scarlett Winter has spent her life preparing to lead the powerful Ravens, while freshman Vivi Devereaux discovers she has magical abilities only after receiving a coveted invitation to join the sisterhood. As dangerous secrets, rivalries, and dark magic threaten the coven, the two must work together to uncover the truth before their world falls apart.
Circe by Madeline Miller
Circe reimagines the life of the infamous witch from Greek mythology. Banished to the isolated island of Aiaia after discovering her powerful gift for witchcraft, Circe hones her magic while crossing paths with legendary figures such as Odysseus, Daedalus, and Medea and she must choose between the world of immortals and her own humanity.
