Witchy Reads

October 5, 2020

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Darling readers, we’ve been very open for a while now that in October will be reading and posting about witches! When we dove in on October 1, we shared Alice Hoffman’s words about why we adore witches, and we’re excited to share some witches we adore with you for the rest of the month! Now, witches are a widely written about group of (mostly) women, so there are SO. VERY. MANY titles we wanted to share, but alas, only so many hours in the day (days in a week, weeks in a month, blah blah). Instead of digging deeper as to the whys of this month, we wanted to get you a solid list of #witchyreads to select from if the titles we’re reading aren’t for you or if, like us, you want…more. (Always.)

Here’s a list of titles that didn’t make the cut to be one of this month’s featured books, and you can make a game of it. Did we chop it? Could we not get it on loan? Did we laugh or roll our eyes before we removed it from the list? Was there some other reason? (The order isn’t a hint, it’s pretty random actually.)

*At least one of us recommends this title. As always, we advocate reading series in order, even if only one title of a series appears on this list.

We do want to dig in a bit on one listed title, Shelby Mahurin’s Serpent & Dove. We didn’t pick that title, because we discussed it with our friends in our September Virtual Book Club! A heartfelt thanks to each person who joined us! We adore you all the most!

Ashley Here: Let’s talk about Serpent & Dove! I want to start with stating that I was READY to begin reading Blood & Honey immediately upon finishing up Virtual Book Club. But, Nikki didn’t have it in her holds yet so we waited. And now we get to bring you the second book in the trilogy (squeals in excitement!) later this month during our Witchy Reads! Louise called Lou, a witch in hiding from her coven, finds herself in a scandalous predicament with Reid, a Chasseur – or witch hunter. He and his foster father, the Archbishop, think she’s a thief running from the law, not a witch, and in order to protect her from the constabulary and save Reid’s reputation within the Chasseurs the Archbishop requires them to marry. We discussed all the intricacies of plot as to why that would be required, I wasn’t particularly happy with the reasons, but I suppose if you’re on the run and in hiding from your family of witches, the best place to hide would be with the men who are trained to hunt and kill them. I conceded to the need for the marriage to occur even though I didn’t like it. It’s the whole reason we have a book, so I’m thankful for it anyway. We discussed how irreverent and spontaneous Lou brings the joie de vivre to Reid’s life that he had been missing but so unknowingly craved. Read into that as you will, but it’s true regardless of my meaning. VBC loves when authors treat consent as the serious topic that it is and make it a point of the plot. In addition to our hero and heroine’s rocky first weeks of marriage, there is magic and intrigue afoot during the holiday season in a capital city filled with royals and brothels and theatre roofs, oh my! For fear of spoiling more I shall leave you with a hint as to my favorite part in the book: Big Titty Liddy. Enjoy! (Mostly so that we can bring you all thems spoilers about this book when we discuss Blood & Honey later this month, mkay?)

Nikki’s turn: My 2019 favorite, Serpent & Dove was a re-read for me, and I was SO READY! I knew from the moment I finished this title almost a year ago that I wanted a reread. What better time to do so than when the follow up is quickly coming to a Kindle near you?! [Ahem: and with your buddy and your book club!] I noticed several more details on my reread, like you do, but I also couldn’t remember what I had read before and what was my theory as the story moved along (I told you all I have memory issues with books). Here’s one thing though, there’s lots of subtle foreshadowing and I love it! I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Lou lives in the attic of a theatre, and not just because she needed clothes and costumes, but because she’s usually playing one part or another, just as she has her whole life. If we’re not trusting “unaccompanied women” because they might be a witch, why do we trust a theatre company called “Ye Olde Sisters”? Lou says it best on this topic: “I don’t know what these idiots had expected.” Also, no one should be surprised that I want all the backstories. Ok, maybe not all of them because I really don’t care about Reid and Célie, but I do care about Madame LaBelle and her backstory, and I want more of Coco’s history, and what in the world happened to Bas? Maybe it’s my love of the name (thank you Reign), but I want to know why he is the way he is and what happens next for him. I feel like we’ll get more from Madame LaBelle and Coco, especially her aunt, but probably not more Bas. I’ll live, but I still want it. I also want more Beau, and bonus points if he … performs again. I’m definitely here for pub songs, more so if it’s a member of the royal family signing them! As with Ashley, I’m SO excited to talk Blood & Honey with you later this month, but in usual form I’m scared of it, because this is a trilogy. The things we do in the name of books and stories dear readers, it’s a labor of love!

But wait, there’s more!

While it’s not exactly witchy, it’s spooky and new and looks SO FUN! What better for a book club to read in October than The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix? If you have an answer, leave it in the comments or slide into our DMs and we’ll consider it for later, but for this month, the marketing copy had me at Steel Magnolias meets Dracula. (See also never say never re Nikki doesn’t do horror. Subject to revision after October’s book club.) If this might be the book you need this fall, please join us Friday, October 30th at 7:30 p.m. CST for Virtual Book Club, and don’t forget to register here!

If you’re not into #witchyreads as emphatically as we are, then perhaps you need some other ideas for building your October reading list. Kendra Adachi, The Lazy Genius, has a great podcast episode on fall reading (and it’s only 23 minutes). Take her questions seriously, but not her comments on when to read romance novels. (She says they’re a summer thing for her. Ashley and I say they’re a weekend thing for us. You do you, readers.)

And now, for the books we will be bringing you this month: