Showing results for "Witches" in Women's Fiction

Norway, 1662. A dangerous time to be a woman, when even dancing can lead to accusations of witchcraft. When Zigri, desperate and grieving after the loss of her husband and son, embarks on an affair with the local merchant, it's not long before she is sent to the fortress at Vardø, to be tried and condemned as a witch. Zigri's daughter Ingeborg sets off into the wilderness to try to bring her mother back home.

Brittany, 1821. After Grand-mere Ursule gives her life to save her family, their magic seems to die with her. Even so, the Orchires fight to keep the old ways alive, practising half-remembered spells and arcane rites in hopes of a revival. And when their youngest daughter comes of age, magic flows anew. The lineage continues, though new generations struggle not only to master their power, but also to keep it hidden. But when World War II looms on the horizon, magic is needed more urgently than ever - not for simple potions or visions, but to change the entire course of history.

My name is Tamara Bentley, "Bent" to my friends, and I'm not supposed to exist. I was born of the forbidden union between a witch and a werewolf, and they've been trying their damnedest to hide my existence ever since. But now my secret is out, and my uncle, the leader of the wolf pack, is pissed beyond belief. In his eyes, I'm something that should've never been born. He wants me dead and doesn't care who he has to sacrifice to get the job done.

The Cambridge University witches have been meeting for as long as the university has been around. They meet mainly to discuss books, though they do so on the roofs of the colleges. Only those invited can join; this includes Kat (a great spell caster and professor) and Cosima, Kat's sister, café owner and witch. However, when Cosima begins casting spells to attract a mate, everything starts to go wrong - she sets off a chain of events that turns each witch's world upside down....

Lux has lost everything when Else finds her, alone in the woods. Her family, her lover, her home—all burned. The world is suspicious of women like her, neither maiden nor mother. But Lux is cunning; she knows how to exploit people's expectations, how to blend into the background. And she knows a lot about poisons. Else has not found Lux by accident. She needs her help to seek revenge against the man who wronged her, and together they pursue him north. But on their hunt they will uncover dark secrets that entangle them with dangerous adversaries.

Buying into the dream that education is the road out of poverty, a teen mom takes a chance on bettering herself, gets on welfare rolls, and talks her way into college. But once she's there, phallocratic narratives permeate every subject, and creative writing professors depend heavily on Freytag's pyramid to analyze life. So Ariel turns to a rich subcultural canon of resistance and failure, populated by writers like Audre Lorde, Tillie Olsen, and Kathy Acker. Wryly riffing on feminist literary tropes, We Were Witches documents the survival of a demonized single mother.

As the Black Plague lays waste to Italy, Ginevra di Gasparo is summoned back to Florence after nearly a decade of lonely exile. Ginevra has a gift: using the ancient practices of alchemy she learned as a young girl, she can heal the sick. But when word traveled of her unusual craft, she was condemned as a witch and banished. Now, the same men who expelled Ginevra are begging for her return.

I was sure that once I got married my crazy life would calm down so I could get some well-deserved romantic interludes with my new husband. It didn't. And when a stranger shows up in our town, everything falls apart. Aside from knowing he's loaded, no one seems to have any information about him. But I do know one thing. He’s bad news. And he’s hiding something.

Alys Stevens is running out of familiar road. Approaching the same age as her mother’s death and muddling through a messy divorce, the 40-something home renovator has lost the control she so deeply craves. So when her siblings show up demanding a girls' night full of fun, the three brew up an ancient family cocktail...and accidentally unleash powerful magic.

Lilly is facing the fact that her husband is a philandering bastard, and she needs to move on now her children have flown the nest. Losing her job has not helped her dire financial straits, and her almost ex-husband wants to sell her ancient family home against her wishes. As she grapples with rude estate agents, stray dogs and hot flushes, a new problem emerges – she’s becoming a witch.

Hot flashes and serial killers and spirit guides, oh my! For Sarah Jane Prentice, 49-year-old police detective and witch, this has been the year from Hell. She's lost her husband of 25 years, but after a few months, everyone in her life is ready for her to move on and stop grieving. She's also been saddled with a horrific murder case she hasn't been able to solve. On top of everything else, every spell she casts these days seems to go wrong, and her quirky spirit guide is no help at all. Not good news for a witch who uses her magic to catch criminals.

1703. The wild east coast of Scotland. Returning to her home town of Pittenweem, fishwife and widow Sorcha McIntyre knows she faces both censure and mistrust. After all, this is a country where myth and legend are woven into the fabric of the everyday, a time when those who defy custom like Sorcha are called to account. It is dangerous to be a clever woman who 'doesn't know her place' in Pittenweem - a town rife with superstition. So, when a young local falls victim to witchcraft, the Reverend Cowper and the townsfolk know who to blame.

Chelsea Iversen's THE WITCHES AT THE END OF THE WORLD is a speculative novel set in 17th-century Norway about two sisters who find themselves at odds when one incites a dangerous curse against the village where their mother once lived; but you can't take back dark magic once it's been released, and they know, like their mother before them, that someone will have to burn—they are witches, after all.

Alys, Maeve, and Siobhan Silver are rocking their midlife changes. Alys has started a school for mystical education and ls living it up with her werewolf lover. Maeve is studying to become a supernatural midwife and planning a move. Siobhan has been successfully running a magic artifact rental business and acclimating to motherhood. Invited to be the guests of honor at a supernatural banquet, the sisters accept, unaware of a lurking threat that wants them out of commission.

When it rains, it pours...and sometimes love finds you even when you can’t find yourself. Fate has given me a second chance at the happiness I once knew in the odd Southern town of Grimm Cove. But only if I can come to terms with some rather eye-opening revelations. Supernaturals are a real thing. I'm a witch. My high school sweetheart, who happens to be the Chief of Police in Grimm Cove, is my fated mate and a wolf-shifter. Ghosts exist and can be very nosy and meddlesome. Someone is murdering witches left and right.

My name's Tamara Bentley and lately everything I touch turns to crap. My best friend is missing, I was forced to kill my favorite aunt...oh, and my parents have been kidnapped by the queen of the fairies. It's enough to give a person a complex. There's no time to drown my sorrows, though. I've got two warring factions to contend with. Neither the witches nor the werewolves like me, much less respect me, but somehow I need to rally them to my cause if I'm to have any chance of rescuing my parents.

Ranka is tired of death. All she wants now is to be left alone, living out her days in Witchik's wild North with the coven that raised her, attempting to forget the horrors of her past. But when she is named Bloodwinn, the next treaty bride to the human kingdom of Isodal, her coven sends her south with a single directive: kill him. Easy enough, for a blood-witch whose magic compels her to kill. Except the prince is gentle, kind and terrified of her. He doesn't want to marry Ranka; he doesn't want to be king at all.

When a mysterious toy soldier arrives on her doorstep and announces it's here to test Archie's loyalty, witch Astra Arden can't help but laugh. After all, it's not every day that a plastic soldier shows up claiming to be sent by the goddess Athena. As they work to unravel the clues surrounding the toy soldier's arrival, ominous forces gather and Astra races against time to uncover the truth—and they realize that this might not be as funny as they thought.

Becoming a widow on my fortieth birthday was not what I had planned. Even worse? It's forced me and my teenage daughter back to Whispering Willows and the life of magic I left behind. I tell myself it'll be a short trip to sell my mother's shop of wishes. Until I kind of, sort of bind myself to the shop. With bills piling up fast, I gotta do something I swore I never would: open shop and start granting wishes, just until I can figure out how to undo this pesky binding spell.

Alys, Maeve, and Siobhan Silver made a promise they have no idea how to keep. Despite their best efforts and understanding of the craft, they are unable to revive a woman trapped by a fae curse. And with the magic council in ruins and the elders in hiding, there’s no one to ask.