Brothers of the Vine
Forever Evermore
Women of W.A.R.
Wicked: Part One hits screens this week, and I don’t know about your but I am THRILLED. It’s a witchy musical movie, starring Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and Brigerton’s Jonathan Bailey (swoooon), with gorgeous technicolour aesthetics, banger songs and a plot with friendship, magic, romance, mystery and drama!
If you can’t get the songs from Wicked out of your head we recommend these reads!
*me bestowing book recs on you*
No One Mourns The Wicked
The wickedest witch there ever was
The enemy of all of us here in Oz
Is dead!
Sometimes the hero of the story is also the villain, like Scarlett in the Lady of Darkness series by Melissa K. Roehrich.
A ruthless assassin. A chance at vengeance. A deadly secret…
The slow-burn epic fantasy romance sensation that has gripped readers on Booktok!
Owned by a ruthless assassin lord, Scarlett Monrhoe and her two sisters are the most feared trio on the continent. They are wild and unpredictable, until a tragic night finds Scarlett locked away in a noble’s household until she’s ready to fall into line.
Finally, Scarlett is presented with a job. If she completes the assignment, her payment will be something she has coveted for ten years: revenge against the Fire Fae Prince who brutally killed her mother ten years ago.
But when children begin disappearing from her home, all her plans are put on hold as she races to save them. With the help of old friends, a jilted lover, and a mysterious newcomer who claims the magic of the Fae is possible in the mortal lands, Scarlett delves into the darkest corners of the world. Forgotten secrets will come to light, and she’ll discover that the darkness extends far beyond her own kingdom.
The Wizard and I
When I meet the Wizard
Once I prove my worth
And then I meet the Wizard
What I’ve waited for since, since birth
For a read where the undervalued heroine finds her inner power (but maybe not in the ways she expected to)? Check out A Fire In The Sky by Sophie Jordan.
Dragons are extinct. Witches are outcast. Magic is dying. But human lust for power is immortal.
Dragon fire no longer blisters the skies over Penterra, but inside the lavish palace, life is still perilous – especially for Tamsyn. Raised in the glittering court alongside the princesses, it’s her duty to be punished for their misdeeds. Treated as part of the royal family but also as the lowliest servant, Tamsyn fits nowhere. So when she is tasked with the ultimate sacrifice of pretending to be one of the true royal princesses and marry Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, son to the great dragon slayer, Tamsyn accepts her fate even if it means tricking the deadly warrior.
The wedding night begins with unexpected passion, but ends in near violence when her trickery is exposed. Rather than start a war, Fell accepts Tamsyn as his bride … but Tamsyn isn’t what she seems. She harbours dark secrets, secrets buried so deep even she doesn’t know they exist.
For Tamsyn is more than the false wife of a man who now sees her as his enemy. And when those secrets emerge, they will ignite a flame bright enough to burn the entire kingdom to the bone.
Magic is not dead … it is only sleeping. And it will take one ordinary girl with an extraordinary destiny to awaken it.
What Is This Feeling
There’s a strange exhilaration
In such total detestation
It’s so pure and so strong!
For a book that blends complex feelings about friendship with a touch of enemies -to-lovers romance (and is a fun pop-y read) check out The 7-0 Split by Karmen Lee.
For fans of Ashley Herring Blake’s Delilah Green Doesn’t Care and Chencia C. Higgins’ D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding comes an utterly charming and queerly irresistible romantic comedy…where all’s fair in love and bowling.
This is how love rolls…
For teacher Ava Williams, some subjects are not up for debate. Like history — specifically, the one she has with Grace Jones, bowling pro and local celeb. Who is now, for no identifiable reason, teaching at the same small-town Georgia high school as Ava. Once upon a time, they were thick as thieves, best friends, rivals who pushed each other, and total bowling nerds. Then they shared a kiss, sweet and confusing…and after that, they split and nothing was ever the same.
Ava is pretty sure she has every reason to hate Grace. Especially when the school’s soggy potato of a principal announces — finally — that the students can have the bowling team Ava has been pushing for, for years…only to hand it to Grace.
Now they’re expected to be partners and lead their new bowling team to victory in six months. And with that, their rivalry is back. Fierce, ultracompetitive…and with an undeniable attraction that pushes, pulls and crashes together. It’s history. It’s chemistry. And it’s just a matter of time before it explodes…one way or the other.
Something Bad
Something bad is happening in Oz
‘Something Bad’ gives vibes of the beginning of a fantasy saga – where a heroine realises that the world she thought was perfect and fair, is actually not the utopia she had been told it was. The Black Witch saga by Laurie Forest PERFECTLY captures this internal struggle. Get started now – the final book in this series comes out in January 2025!
Some echo of her dark power courses through my veins…waiting to be released.As Night slays Day, and Day slays Night, so also shall another Black Witch rise…her powers vast beyond imagining.
A Great Winged One will soon arise and cast his fearsome shadow upon the land. And just as Night slays Day, and Day slays Night, so also shall another Black Witch rise to meet him, her powers vast beyond imagining.
So foretells the greatest prophecy of the Gardnerian mages. Carnissa Gardner, the last prophesied Black Witch, drove back the enemy forces and saved her people during the Realm War. Now a new evil is on the horizon, and her granddaughter, Elloren, is believed to be Carnissa’s heir – but while she is the absolute image of her famous grandmother, Elloren is utterly devoid of power in a society that prizes magical ability above nearly all else.
When she is granted the opportunity to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an apothecary, Elloren is eager to join her brothers at the prestigious Verpax University and finally embrace a destiny of her own, free from the shadow of her grandmother’s legacy. But she soon realises that the university, which admits all manner of people – including the fire–wielding Icarals, the sworn enemies of all Gardnerians – is an even more treacherous place for the granddaughter of the Black Witch.
Dancing Through Life
Life’s more painless
For the brainless
Why think too hard?
When it’s so soothing
Want a read that’s an easy binge read? I recommend the Magnolia Falls series by Laura Pavlov; they’re short, sexy, and easy-to-read romcoms!
She’s the one girl I can’t have, and the only one I want …
A notorious ladies’ man falls first – and falls hard – for his best friend’s sister. Welcome to Magnolia Falls, perfect for fans of Elsie Silver, Lucy Score and B.K. Borison!
***
Saylor Woodson is my best friend’s little sister, and she’s completely off limits.
We have a history, a connection – one that no one else knows about. I’ve kept my distance for years, it was easy when she was away at school. But now she’s home, and she’s everywhere I turn. And the way that I want her is unexplainable.
So, I do everything in my power to keep my distance, because her brother is my best friend. My family. But the pull is too strong. I want to claim her and keep her and make her mine.
Once we cross that line in the sand, I’m drowning in this girl and can’t find my way up for air. Guilt hangs over me like a dark cloud, but I can’t seem to walk away, no matter how hard I try.
And now that I’ve had a taste of forever, I’m willing to risk everything to keep it.
Popular
Elphie, now that we’re friends, I’ve decided to make you my new project.
For a bright, pink, girlie rom-com (perfectly matched to the rom-com make over vibes of ‘Popular’) read Next To You by Hannah Bonam-Young. As a bonus it also includes a makeover (although this one is of a bus).
‘Warm, sexy, and vulnerable. Hannah Bonam-Young needs to be on your romance radar.’ — Hannah Grace, No.1 New York Times bestselling author of Icebreaker
Two friends battle feelings for each other as they work together to renovate a school bus into a home in this charming romance novel from Hannah Bonam-Young, the viral TikTok author of Next of Kin and Out on a Limb.
Lane is in the middle of an identity crisis. Her friends are all partnered up, her career is leading nowhere, and she’s just not happy. So, after a night out celebrating her birthday, she makes one hell of an impulse purchase: a giant yellow forty-eight passenger school bus that she intends to make a home.
With little-to-no renovation experience, but a large sum of inheritance money, Lane enlists the help of her friend Matt – mechanic by trade, handyman by practice, and hottie by nature.While their mutual attraction is undeniable, Matt’s a total family guy with ‘settle down with me’ tattooed across his forehead, whereas Lane is entirely commitment averse.
Matt and Lane have silently agreed that friendship is the only thing that can ever exist between them. So when Matt offers to help her with the bus, and in the bedroom, Lane’s sure it can never work… can it?
I’m Not That Girl
He could be that boy
But I’m not that girl
For a book with all the pining and angst of this song read The Witch Is Back by Sophie Morgan – where witch Emmaline is reunited with her ex-fiance (who left her at the altar).
Love is a hex of a thing.
There’s nothing wrong with being a wallflower. Not to Emmaline Bluewater, anyway. Emma may have been born into witch society, but her days of trying to fit in where she doesn’t belong are over — they ended seven years ago, when the man she’d hoped to marry left town without a word. She’s much happier now, living a delightfully mundane human life in Chicago and running her bar, Toil and Trouble.
Until Bastian Truenote walks through the door and announces that he wants her back.
Bastian had his reasons for leaving — even if he can’t tell Emma what they are. Now, to win Emma’s heart, he’s got to face down an adorably goofy dog familiar, a best friend who’s all too eager to hit him with a carefully aimed hex, and a woman who’s far from the meek witch he remembers.
Magical contracts aren’t easily broken, but as far as Emma’s concerned, not even a marriage of convenience will have her falling under Bastian’s spell again…
One Short Day
One short day
To have a lifetime of fun
For a read that’s all about exploring the magic of a place, the wonder and excitement that can come from finally visiting that one city/town/place you have romanticised your entire life I recommend A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston, a book where the heroine finds herself inside the pages of her favourite romance series!
Have you ever found yourself lost in a good book … literally?
Eileen Merriweather loves a good love story. The fictional kind, anyway. After all, imaginary men don’t break your heart.
That’s why she’s so excited for her annual book club retreat – instead, when her car breaks down en route, Eileen finds herself in Eloraton. A town where every meet is cute, the rain always comes in the afternoon, and the bookshop is always curated with impeccable taste.
It feels too good to be true … because Eloraton is the setting of her favourite romance series. And Eileen is sure she must be here to bring the town its storybook ending.
But there’s one character she can’t place. The grumpy bookshop owner with mint-green eyes, and an irritatingly sexy mouth. He does not want Eileen to finish this story, but how else can she find her happily-ever-after?
The next magical rom-com from the New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Year Slip and The Dead Romantics!
Defying Gravity
Tell them how I am defying gravity
I’m flying high, defying gravity
Love stories where the heroine discovers her own inner strength in a moment of defiance? Read The Games Gods Play by Abigail Owen!
The No 1 New York Times bestseller, a dazzling romantasy epic from award-winning author Abigail Owen. A Court of Thorns and Roses meets Percy Jackson in an alternate contemporary world where the gods of mythology never died.
The gods love to play with us mere mortals. And every hundred years, we let them…
I have never been favored by the gods. Far from it, thanks to Zeus.
Living as a cursed office clerk for the Order of Thieves, I just keep my head down and hope the capricious beings who rule from Olympus won’t notice me. Not an easy feat, given San Francisco is Zeus’s patron city, but I make do. I survive. Until the night I tangle with a different god.
The worst god. Hades.
For the first time ever, the ruthless, mercurial King of the Underworld has entered the Crucible-the deadly contest the gods hold to determine a new ruler to sit on the throne of Olympus. But instead of fighting their own battles, the gods name mortals to compete in their stead.
So why in the Underworld did Hades choose me-a sarcastic nobody with a curse on her shoulders-as his champion? And why does my heart trip every time he says I’m his?
I don’t know if I’m a pawn, bait, or something else entirely to this dangerously tempting god. How can I, when he has more secrets than stars in the sky?
Because Hades is playing by his own rules…and Death will win at any cost.