Spooky season may be upon us, but some days call for a book that won’t make you afraid to sleep with the lights off. From witchy rom-coms to ghostly love stories, these books capture the season without bringing the horror. We’ve rounded up some must-reads that brim with Halloween spirit but lean into the cozier aspects of the season.
The Late-Night Witches by Auralee Wallace
With three wild kids, an equally wild sister, and an absent husband, Cassie Beckett is gripping to whatever slivers of normalcy she can. But when vampires arrive on her home of Prince Edward Island and a family legacy of fighting vampires is revealed, Cassie is thrown into a generational struggle for her safety and happiness. Surounded by family and friends, Cassie must embrace her identity as a witch and finish the mission passed down from her ancestors.
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Uncharmed by Lucy Jane Wood
Annie is a perfect witch who wants nothing more than to make everyone around her happy. When the coven tasks her with teaching a headstrong teen witch, Maeve, to control her powers, Annie sees it as just another chance to please others. But the derelict cabin the coven assigned isn’t what she expected, and the handsome, aloof warlock landlord is not pleased with his unexpected guests. But as this trio forms an unlikely bond, Annie gradually realizes that her people-pleasing tendencies may have actually done more harm than good.
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Road Trip with a Vampire by Jenna Levine
Zelda switched out life as a witch surrounded by supernatural beings for a fresh start in California a long time ago. But when a vampire with amnesia named Peter shows up at her home with a letter from an old friend pleading for help, she reluctantly agrees to step back into the world she’d left behind. Then Peter receives an unsettling message from his past that’s intertwined with Zelda’s past, and the two decide to take a cross-country road trip for answers. But is the answer to what they’re looking for within each other after all?
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Higher Magic by Courtney Floyd
After flunking the Magic program’s first qualifying exam, graduate student Dorothe Bartleby must ace the second attempt, or be expelled. Dorothe uses Digimancy, a blend between computers and magic, to revise her dissertation, but it instead creates a talking skull named Anne that narrates Dorothe’s inner thoughts. Desperate to fix her dissertation and deal with Anne, she recruits James, a handsome mage candidate, to fix this whole mess, but Anne quickly leads them to a shocking truth: magic students who seek disability accommodations are vanishing. Dorothe must trust herself to uncover the truth about these disappearances or risk losing both the missing students and her future as a mage.
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The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong
All Certainty wants is to be useful to those that matter to her, like her brother and the Guild of Mages that took her in as a novice. So when she receives a straightforward mission of transporting minor artifacts to the sleepy, dull village of Shpelling, Certainty accepts—even if it means working with the brilliant but aloof Mage Aurelia. As the two slowly transform Shpelling from an unremarkable village to a peaceful haven, they must also contend with the attraction blooming between them.
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Remain by Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan
Recently discharged from a psychiatric facility and grappling with his sister’s death, architect Tate Donovan moves to Cape Cod in hopes of a fresh start. He’s still rattled by his sister’s deathbed confession that she can see spirits, reluctant to believe something not grounded in reality. As he settles into life at Cape Cod and falls in love with a beautiful woman named Wren, his definitions of life and love change. But Wren’s darker tendencies threaten to end their nascent connection, and Tate must uncover her past before time runs out.
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Blind Date with a Werewolf by Patricia Briggs
This novel in stories chronicles five blind dates for Asil, a deadly and reclusive werewolf. These dates were anonymously organized and are sure to bring chaos and, if Asil is lucky, a bit of romance. Readers will be hooked on Asil’s journey for love in a world of dating apps and virtual connections.
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A Curious Kind of Magic by Mara Rutherford
Everyone knows the “magical” goods in Willow’s father’s shoppe are fake. So when Brianna arrives from far away and turns every item in the shoppe to the real thing, Willow begs her to stay, but Bri wants nothing to do with the shoppe. As it turns out, Bri is cursed to turn everything she touches into magic, and she will do anything to get her hands on the grimoire that can break the curse. Willow hatches a bargain that would allow both of them to get what they want, but when she’s forced into a deadly quest for a rare magical object, she realizes that the real magic has been close to her all along.
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The Moorwitch by Jessica Khoury
Years ago, Weaver Rose Pryor made a deal with the cunning fae Lachlan to escape her abusive home. She’s made a life for herself teaching young Weavers, but her magic wanes with every spell she weaves. Then Lachlan returns to collect his debts, sending Rose on an arduous journey to find the ancient gateway to the fae realm nestled in the Scottish moors. But when this mission pits her against Conrad, a lonely young laird who hires her as a governess for his younger sister, Rose is torn between her magic and her heart.
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The Lady on Esplanade by Karen White
Nola’s eager to start a murder-house-flipping business with contractor and part-time nemesis Beau Ryan, who’s still reckoning with the return of his missing sister and a near-death encounter with his mother’s ghost. Nola’s first project, a shotgun house on Esplanade Avenue, saw a murder and a family’s disappearance, but it’ll be the perfect home for her first heartbreak, Cooper Ravenel. But Cooper’s brought his own ghosts to New Orleans, and then the ghost of Beau’s mother reappears, and Nola must convince Beau to help ward off spectral danger before this project turns deadly.
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