Bewitching books for fall
By M. CLARE HAEFNER | Covers courtesy of the publishers
Fall is a great time to pick up bewitching tales and fantasy tomes.
There’s something magical in the air as the weather cools and seasons change, and these books are great options to add to your autumn reading list.
The First Witch of Boston: A Novel by Andrea Catalano (Lake Union Publishing, September 2025)
Inspired by actual diary entries and court records, The First Witch of Boston is historical fiction at its best. Catalano gives new life to Margaret Jones’ tragic tale in Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1640s.
Each chapter in the first part of the book begins with a quote from Jones’ diary, while the narrative is from the perspective of her husband, Thomas.
The second part of the book begins with entries from Margaret’s trial penned by the men deciding her fate, while Margaret narrates her time spent in jail.
Fascinated by the story of the Salem witch trials as a teen, especially after a visit to the town that included a stop in the meeting house where those trials were held in 1692, this was the first time I’d heard of Margaret Jones. She was indeed the first woman hanged as a witch in Boston in 1648, though another accused a few years before was exiled from Massachusetts Bay Colony instead.
Like many accused of witchcraft in Puritan New England, Margaret Jones is a victim of her time, executed for “the sin of being a woman” who knew how natural remedies could heal and who wasn’t afraid to speak her thoughts.
“History, and human nature, repeats patterns without fail,” Catalano writes in her author’s note at the book’s end. ”I am compelled to shine a light on the persecution of women who might have been overt, bold and confident in an increasingly overly conservative political climate.”
While the fate of Thomas Jones is unknown, Catalano gives him and Margaret a voice in a haunting story that still resonates today.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett (Del Ray, January 2023), Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands (Del Ray, January 2024) and Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales (Del Ray, February 2025)
Heather Fawcett’s trilogy is a fantastical tale imagining life in an alternate version of the 1910s. Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is a renowned dryadologist, studying the Folk far and wide as she pens books on Faerie, with help from her trusty dog Shadow, fellow professor Wendell Bambleby and a colorful collection of other characters, human and faerie.
I first heard about the series in 2023, though I decided to wait until it was complete to begin reading so I could enjoy it in its entirety. Indeed, it made the perfect escape from reality for a couple of weeks as I was lost in Fawcett’s imaginative faerie tales that are the perfect blend of mystery and magic. Whether you read them all together or one at a time, you definitely want to pick up the series in order so you don’t spoil the surprising story as it unfolds.
If darker magic is more to your liking, consider Carissa Broadbent’s Crowns of Nyaxia romantasy series, set in an intoxicating world of humans, vampires and vengeful gods.
With four installments so far — The Serpent and the Wings of Night, The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King, The Songbird and the Heart of Stone and The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk — at least two more are planned. The Lion and the Deathless Dark is set for release in August 2026 to begin another duology in the captivating series.
