Ready, Set, Go: Best Witch Romance!

Cue the menacing cackles and the ominous music! It’s time for the most evil recommendation feature we have: READY, SET, GO!

Here are the rules:

We pick a specific sub-genre, trope, or type of romance, and we have to make ONE recommendation for that type.

ONE.

ONLY ONE.

And no more than two sentences as to why.

Yes, just one.  Which one book do you pick to fill that rec? You ready?

What is the best witch romance you’d recommend? 

Any genre, but just one rec.

Ready, set, GO!

Lara: Only one?

OH MY! Then I’m going to go with the first one that sprung to mind: The Winter Witch by Paula Brackston. Eerie, beautiful setting + strong women = happy Lara

Sarah:  I reserve Sarah Addison Allen recs for Amanda.

Amanda: LOL. Surprisingly my mind did not go to Addison Allen!

Sarah: Well, then you are released from this reservation!

Amanda:  Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night by Kresley Cole (3rd book in IAD). This one was my favorite of the series until book 14.

Werewolf hero & witch heroine, enemies to lovers, lots of brooding – chef’s kiss.

Sarah: I’m debating re-reading that one, in fact!

Amanda: I don’t have many scenes in books that stick with me, but their first “meeting” in a tunnel is one I always remember.

Carrie: Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman – a very different animal from the movie and more focused on sisterhood than romance, but so good, and there is some great romance in it.

Aarya: Can I pick a romantic graphic novel?

Amanda: I don’t see why not.

Aarya: Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu. I read it last month for my summer bingo and it’s ADORABLE. Non-binary werewolf, Chinese-American witches, friends-to-lovers, and spooky/witchy feels in the autumn. It ends happily re: the romantic arc.

Carrie: OMG I love Mooncakes

Shana:  Does it have to be a paranormal? Because if not I’m going to say Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon. Witchcraft isn’t the focus on the book at all, though, just sweet cinnamon roll lovin.

Aarya:  Dani Brown also has a witch heroine in a contemporary! I think they count

Maya: I was totes gonna recommend that one!!

Elyse: The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox

It’s a spookier read but has a very strong romance subplot

Maya: Dani in Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert is a modern witchy witch!!!! (know that I had many more exclamation marks at the end of that sentence.)

Shana: I second all your exclamation points.

Catherine: Oh, drat, Maya, I was reading down the list gleefully rubbing my hands because Dani Brown wasn’t taken! Now I will have to think of something else…

So I have a Laura Florand book for every occasion, and The Chocolate Kiss has La Maison des Sorcières (The Witches’ House), which the heroine and her aunts own, and there is a lot of magical hot chocolate and tea and the aunts, at least, consider themselves to be witches. Though all the food in this book has slightly magical effects.

Aarya: That Florand is one of my favorite books ever.

Catherine: I am so sad that chocolate shop doesn’t exist…

Elyse: There is also the Granny Weatherwax series by the late Terry Pratchett and while not a romance is delightful.

Ellen: Ooh ooh ooh might be hard for me to pick one let me have a good think about it.

Okay so having self imposed the limitation that the word witch has to be used explicitly and it can’t be sorcerers or mages or wizards or enchanters with Witchy Vibes…I still want to pick a bunch but I am going with Spell of Desire by Tomu Ohmi.

It’s a josei manga by the same mangaka who did Midnight Secretary but there’s more of an emphasis on magical lore AND it somehow packs even more bonkers plot twists into fewer volumes.

Susan: I was going to recommend Mooncakes as well, it’s fantastic!

I’m currently flicking through my Goodreads going “Has witches but not a romance… Has witches and is a romance, but the witches are secondary characters… I wonder if magical girls count as witches?” so I may be Some Time.

If we ARE counting magical girls, then Kaiju’s Mahou Josei Chimaka is pretty great!

Chimaka was doing the proper magical girl thing: reincarnated lover, magic talking pet, final confrontation with the big bad… Which she lost. And now she’s grown up to be a cranky geologist whose best friend/coworker has decided to help her find magic again before the big bad comes back! It’s a friends-to-lovers f/f graphic novel and it’s very sweet!

OK, your turn! What about you? Give us your one (ONE) recommendation for the Best Witch Romance. 

Ready, Set, Go!