After several columns of doom and gloom, I came here today with a radical proposition: what if Witches were allowed to have a little fun? So we can celebrate all things Pagan—including the kind of literature that dares to let a Witch just… be happy. Those books were and remain necessary reading, but a little joy deserves to find its way in as well. So, no burnings, no tragic endings, no “magic as curse.” Just spellbooks, glittering ballrooms, and a heroine who gets to have her cake and eat it too—preferably enchanted cake.
Because honestly, don’t we deserve a little joy? A little magic that doesn’t demand a sacrifice for us to earn a happy ending?
The Herbwitch’s Apprentice by Ireen Chau [Mung Bean Press]
This month’s pick: The Herbwitch’s Apprentice, book one of Witches of Olderea by Ireen Chau. Think Jane Austen crashing a Barbie movie, if Barbie could accidentally hex a prince. If that description does speak to your teenage side (or doesn’t, and no judgment), there’s plenty here for the grown-ups too: picture Bridgerton, but with Witchcraft woven into the ballrooms, gossip, and romantic intrigue, alongside a surprisingly thoughtful portrayal of the Craft. Personally, it was exactly the sort of book I needed to pull me out of a serious reading slump. I hope it brings that same lightness, joy, and reading magic to you, too.
It is worth pausing on why a book like this matters to us at all, because the Witch has had a rough time on the page. For centuries, the stories told about women who worked with herbs, tended the sick, or simply lived outside the expected order followed the same grim script: suspicion, exposure, punishment. Those stories grew out of real trials and real deaths, and fiction inherited their shape, so even the Witches we love most, on screen and in print, tend to pay for their power somewhere along the way — with a lost love, a banishment, a curse handed down, a village that never forgives them. How often do we get to watch a Witch discover her power, use it, find her people, and simply get to live a happy life?
Those narratives have their place, and many of them tell the truth about our history, but what happens when we read nothing but stories in which magic always comes with a price? Usually with the doom + gloom combo? At some point, doesn’t the pattern itself become its own kind of curse? A reader can come away believing that being a Witch means eventually losing something for the privilege, and I think there is something quietly radical about a story that refuses to make that bargain.
That is a heavy inheritance for a teenager who has just bought their first tarot deck, or for an adult who came to the Craft later in life and still flinches a little when the word “Witch” comes out of their own mouth. Which is why a light book that lets Witches win—and remain Witches while doing so — deserves a place on our shelves right alongside the serious scholarship.
Our heroine, Amarante Flora, starts out doing what half of us did before we found our path: running from her own magic. She’s 16, she’s a debutante, and she zaps a literal prince in the middle of high society’s season (relatable, honestly). Nonetheless, the deeper she gets into her power, the more she realizes that Witchcraft, the monster she was raised to fear, turns out to mean investigation, potion brewing, glittering receptions, and eventually saving the very Witches she was taught to distrust. Turns out, the thing she was taught to fear is also the thing that helps her figure out who she is.
In the kingdom of Olderea, dabbling in Witchcraft is a sure road to the guillotine, so Amarante’s discovery comes with real stakes. She was already a reluctant debutante, nudged into the Season by her stepmother and surrounded by girls who treat gossip as a competitive sport, so finding out she is half-Witch should be the final disaster. Instead, it gives her one thing the ballrooms never did: a purpose. When the queen falls mysteriously ill, Amarante joins Prince Ash in a quest for answers that leads straight into the palace, where the real danger has been hiding all along, far from the Witch Village and its supposedly infamous residents.
Olderea’s magic comes in two kinds, “charmwitchery” and “herbwitchery,” and the book’s title tells us which art Amarante ends up apprenticed to. Her gift is sensing what an ingredient or an enchanted object holds, the kind of talent that any green or kitchen Witch will recognize from her own shelves of jars and dried bundles. Her mentor is prickly and demanding, and Amarante’s stubborn effort to both understand and respect her makes for one of the most honest portraits of learning the Craft in recent fantasy. Anyone who has studied under a, let’s say, difficult teacher, in a coven or out of a pile of secondhanded books, will know the dynamic in their bones.
Practitioners will also appreciate that magic in Olderea has limits. The Witches here are far from all-powerful, and some problems no potion can fix. That keeps the story close to how magic works for many of us, as one tool amongst many, asking for skill, patience, and the help of others. I devoured this one over the course of a few days, but once I hit the halfway point, I ended up staying up all night to finish it. Consider yourself warned. The romance is funny and warm, and Chau writes lines like “stuck to him like caramel on a toddler’s tooth,” which tells you everything about the humor here. Amarante also has a petty streak that makes her a joy to follow, and any book in which a mean girl ends up with fertilized soil in her tea knows exactly what its readers want. The found family is generous, and by the end, being a Witch becomes a whole identity to celebrate. Could we ask for more? That might be greedy, yet we do have more and more joy in this little gem of a book.
With Mabon just behind us, I was led to remember that there is something fitting about the way Olderea’s kindness shows up in the story. Humans trade at the Witch Market, and some of them carry fresh produce to Witch Village and ask nothing in return. In this book, the harvest crosses the line people drew between Witches and everyone else, and the gratitude we offer at this time of year finds a small, lovely echo in those baskets.
Here is where the light read carries more weight than it lets on. A happy ending for a Witch is a small act of repair. Every story in which the Witch keeps her magic, her friends, and her place in the community answers the old script with a new one, and for Pagan readers, especially those raising children in the Craft, that answer matters. Children learn what is possible from the stories we give them, and a girl who grows up reading about Witches who thrive has one less fear to carry into adulthood.
This is a book that sits somewhere between middle grade and young adult, making it an easy one to share across generations. The romance stays sweet, with a couple of chaste kisses, so it works beautifully as a shared read between Pagan parents and their teens. Adults who grew up without a single happy Witch on their shelves may even find the book they needed at 15 and one they might treasure even more right now. The illustrated edition, with drawings by Chau herself, makes a lovely gift for a young Witch in the family—whether young in heart, soul, or biological age.
A gentle heads-up for younger and more sensitive readers: the story does go to darker places at times, including a stretch of forced servitude with some physical cruelty and a painful revelation about Amarante’s family.
And if Olderea gets under your skin, there is more brewing. The series continues with The Herbwitch Princess and The Charmwitch Seamstress, plus a novella with the irresistible title Bennett Turns Into a Cat.
No tragic endings here, no Witch hunts claiming another victim. Just romance, humor, found family, good old Witchcraft, and a heroine who gets to keep her magic and her happily ever after. If you need a cozy reminder that being a Witch doesn’t have to end badly, this little gem has got you covered.
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