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Cozy Contemporary Fantasies: With All My Haunted Heart and The Vampire Knitting Club

8 Sep
Cover of With All My Haunted Heart by Isabel Sterling Image of two young women kissing at night in front of a Victorian Style House in which all the lights are lit. Quote from Stephanie Burgis, USA Today Bestselling Author of Enchanting the Fae Queen says "A gorgeous queer romance full of both literal and metaphorical ghosts and magic."

With All My Haunted Heart
by Isabel Sterling
Paranormal Sapphic romance fans will be enamored With All My Haunted Heart by Isabel Sterling. Pippa’s magic business has been suffering due to a new competitor opening in town, when she is asked by an owner of a B&B to help haunt her new business in order to have a marketing gimmick to encourage guests to stay there. Usually Pippa only banishes ghosts, rather than make them appear, but her need for cash and her feelings towards Elle have her using her magic in potentially dangerous new ways. I enjoyed the relationship dynamic between the couple, but also how the novel handled issues of friendship and family estrangement. The romance is the focus of the story, but there is also strong world building with a society were only a small portion of the population are witches and many have chosen to only use their powers for healing in order not to upset the larger nonmagical populace, which felt like an analogy for some larger societal issues in our own world. With All My Haunted Heart is categorized as adult fiction, but if you also enjoy YA literature as well, you can check out Sterling’s teen witch series, These Witches Don’t Burn.

The Vampire Knitting Club
by Nancy Warren
The Vampire Knitting Club by Nancy Warren will appeal to both those who enjoy cozy mysteries as well as contemporary paranormal romance fans. Lucy is getting over a breakup with a cheating ex-boyfriend when she travels to Oxford, England to visit her grandmother, who owns a knitting shop. When she arrives she learns that her grandmother has passed away and though she is told it was due to natural causes, Lucy is suspicious. The audiobook narrated by Sarah Zimmerman kept me entertained on my work commute, although I felt the narrator’s tone was a bit snarkier then the character seemed intended by the author. The book is the first in a continuing series with 15 books and a novella length prequel about one of Lucy’s love interest as well as a Christmas novella, and a spinoff series starring one of Lucy’s friends. If you prefer your romances closed door and sweet rather than spicy as well as mysteries and fantasies without gore than this would be a great pick. Warren also has written the The Great Witches Baking Show series for those who enjoy foodie fiction.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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Magical Reads: The Hocus Pocus Handbook and Cards on the Table

2 Sep
Cover of Cards on the Table: A Witchy Mystery by Lana Harper and Jilly Gagnon. Features an illustration of a manor house behind iron gates with two women at the gate entry. The edge of the cover resembles the line work one would often find around a tarot card.

The Hocus Pocus Handbook
by Ann Aguirre
I’ve enjoyed some of Ann Aguirre’s previous contemporary fantasy novels set in the modern world including Witch Please and The Only Purple House in Town. The Hocus Pocus Handbook, however, although it focus on Thea, a changeling who was snatched from a world similar to our own as a baby, is set in the realm of the world of fairies. It was amusing to see Thea talk about things in our modern world that she read about in fiction, the way in which we often see the reverse where people speak of the fantasy creatures and magic in fantasy tales. The story alternates perspectives between Thea and her love interest Kerboros who have been tasked with hunting down a fairy from another fairy court, who Thea was forced into an arranged marriage with. Each of Thea’s chapter starts with an excerpt from the spellbook aka The Hocus Pocus Handbook, that was given to her by a hobgoblin who had acted as an adoptive father, and object descriptions of the artwork that Kerboros created for his chapters, which is an interesting way to include their backstories. Fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses should check this one out.

Cards on the Table
by Lana Harper and Jilly Gagnon
Cards on the Table is a gothic novel by Lana Harper and Jilly Gagnon about two sisters who find themselves lured to the isolated estate of a wealthy occultist. The sister’s are descendants of one of the women who was executed during the Salem witch trials; Cassie believes they have inherited psychic powers, but her older sister Tori thinks they are just skilled at doing cold readings like their con-artist mom. I was a fan of Harper’s Witches of Thistle Grove series and enjoyed this novel as well, though it has a much darker and spookier tone. It kept me guessing whether the sister’s had real powers and when a death and a theft occur, who might be the responsible culprit. Gagnon is the author of several mysteries and romances including her debut #famous. I enjoyed this story a lot so hope we see more collaborations between the two authors in the future.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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