Top 5 Wednesday: Books featuring witches
It’s time for a new Top 5 Wednesday. In case you didn’t know, Top 5 Wednesday is a Goodreads group run by Sam at Thoughts on Tomes that gives a topic every week for your Top 5 lists, be it on your blog, youtube, instagram, tumblr, etc. This week’s topic is your favorite books featuring witches.
This topic was a little challenging for me to narrow down. When I first started thinking about it, I could only think of two books/series that had witches in them. But as I went digging through my goodreads shelf, I realized that it’s a genre I frequent. I did try to narrow it down to some series that I haven’t seen get a ton of attention, barring one. In no particular order, we have:
5. All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness – Each of the books in this series are a chunker and it tends to be fairly divisive, but I’m solidly in camp I-thought-it-was-fantastic. Part urban fantasy, part historical fiction, some time travel, and a healthy dose of Romance made it great for me. Diana Bishop comes from a long family of witches, but she wants nothing to do with anything magical herself. While researching for her newest academic presentation she accidentally calls up a lost alchemical manuscript, setting off a chain of events that ropes her back in to using magic and digging up family secrets. Sure, there’s some cheese factor and a healthy suspension of reality required for some things, but it was good enough that I read through all 3 books in about a week. And at 500+ pages each, that is no small feat.
4. Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova – This was probably my favorite book I read last year and I am eagerly awaiting the rest of the series. Seriously, we need a pub date announcement now or I may explode of anticipation. I digress. Labyrinth lost is the story of Alex. Alex is a bruja, and probably the most powerful bruja in generations, but she just wants to be normal. At her Deathday celebration to accept her full powers, Alex tries to cast a spell to rid herself of her powers, only the spell backfires. Her whole family vanishes and she goes on a journey to Los Lagos to find and rescue them. The book is unapologetically Latinx, and there’s some fantastic bi rep. It’s not just about accepting who you are, but also about how family can both help and hinder that quest.
3. The Witches of Echo Park by Amber Benson – I originally picked this book up because I am a huge Buffy fan and I really liked another book series that Amber Benson was narrating. When I searched to see what else she had narrated this popped up and I couldn’t resist. Urban Fantasy with witches set in a city I’m really familiar with? There was no way I was passing that up. It turned out to be way better than I was expecting. I haven’t read the rest of the series, but they are on my TBR. Our main character is Lyse, a witch living a fairly mundane life in Georgia, who comes back home to Echo Park, California upon learning her great-aunt Eleanora is deathly ill. Once she’s back home, Lyse discovers a whole world of secrets her great-aunt was keeping from her. Danger, secrets, and a coven full of interesting characters makes this a great read if you’re a fan of witchy books or just UF in general.
2. The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher – What list of witches (and wizards!) isn’t complete without The Dresden Files. Part detective story, loads of funny sidekicks, and a somewhat bumbling, incredibly snarky wizard put this right up there with my favorite series ever. With 14 books in the series there’s plenty to catch up on as well. In case you aren’t familiar with it, Harry Dresden is a private detective/wizard for hire in Chicagoland. Pay him enough and he’ll investigate whatever you want, while also occasionally working with the Chicago P.D. and breaking pretty much any tech devices he comes across.
1. The Line by JD Horn – One thing people should know about me is that I’m a sucker for Southern Gothic style books. This series is no exception. Mercy is the non-magical half of a set of twins in a powerful magical family. When things in the family go haywire and the Taylor family matriarch dies, Mercy finds out exactly how important her family is to Savannah and just how many secrets her family members have been keeping. If you like your witch stories with a little southern flair, this is definitely a series to check out.
Well, there’s this week’s top 5. What are some of your favorite books about/featuring witches?