10 Magical Witchy Historical Fantasy Books

10 Magical Witchy Historical Fantasy Books

Step into a world where history and witchcraft intertwine in these 10 spellbinding historical fantasy books filled with mystery and magic.

If you love stories that blend the elegance of the past with the shimmer of magic, you’re in for a treat. Historical fantasy offers the best of both worlds: rich settings, sweeping emotions, and a touch of the supernatural. Add a witch or two, and you have the perfect recipe for enchantment.

In this list, we’re exploring 10 magical witchy historical fantasy books that transport you through time, where powerful women brew potions in candlelit rooms, ancient secrets stir in the shadows, and destiny weaves itself through centuries. Whether you enjoy gothic charm, slow-burn magic, or lush historical detail, these books promise to bewitch your imagination.

10 Enchanting Historical Fantasy Witch Books

1
The Book of Witching by C. J. Cooke

The Book of Witching

by C. J. CookeGoodReads Nominee for Favorite Horror 2024
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GoodReads:3.76
My Score:N/A
Spice:N/A

Book Summary

Clem gets a call that is every mother’s worst nightmare. Her nineteen-year-old daughter, Erin, is unconscious in the hospital after a hiking trip with her friends on the remote Orkney Islands that met a horrifying end, leaving her boyfriend dead and her best friend missing. When Erin wakes, she doesn’t recognize her mother. And she doesn’t answer to her name, but insists she is someone named Nyx.

Clem travels to the site of her daughter’s accident, determined to find out what happened to her. The answer may lie in a dark secret in the history of the Orkneys: a woman wrongly accused of witchcraft and murder four centuries ago. Clem begins to wonder if Erin’s strange behavior is a symptom of a broken mind or the effects of an ancient curse.

2
A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers

A Witch in Time

by Constance Sayers
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GoodReads:4.05
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Book Summary

A young woman in Belle Epoque France is cursed to relive a doomed love affair through many lifetimes, as both troubled muse and frustrated artist.

In 1895, sixteen-year-old Juliet LaCompte has a passionate, doomed romance with the married Parisian painter Auguste Marchant. When her mother — a witch — botches a curse on Marchant, she unwittingly binds Juliet to the artist through time, damning her to re-live her affair and die tragically young lifetime after lifetime as the star-crossed lovers reincarnate through history.

Luke Varner, the worldly demon tasked with maintaining this badly crafted curse, has been helplessly in love with his charge, in all her reincarnations, since 19th-century France. He’s in love with Nora, a silver screen starlet in 1930s Hollywood. He’s in love with Sandra, a struggling musician in 1970s Los Angeles. And he’s in love with Helen, a magazine exec in present-day DC who has the power to “suggest” others do her bidding.

In this life, Helen starts to recall the curse and her tragic previous lives. But this time, she might have the power to break the cycle…

A Witch in Time is perfect for fans of A Secret History of WitchesOutlander, and The Time Traveler’s Wife.

3
A Secret History of Witches by Louisa Morgan

A Secret History of Witches

by Louisa Morgan
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GoodReads:3.84
My Score:N/A
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Book Summary

An ancient and dangerous power is being handed down from mother to daughter through some of the most consequential historic events of the last two centuries.

After Grandmére Ursule gives her life to save her tribe, her magic seems to die with her. Even so, her family keeps the Old Faith, practicing the spells and rites that have been handed down from mother to daughter for generations. Until one day, Ursule’s young granddaughter steps into the circle, and magic flows anew.

From early 19th-century Brittany to London during the Second World War, five generations of witches fight the battles of their time, deciding how far they are willing to go to protect their family, their heritage, and ultimately, all of our futures.

4
The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox

The Witch of Willow Hall

by Hester Fox
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GoodReads:3.72
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Book Summary

Two centuries after the Salem witch trials, there’s still one witch left in Massachusetts. But she doesn’t even know it.

Take this as a warning: if you are not able or willing to control yourself, it will not only be you who suffers the consequences but those around you, as well.

New Oldbury, 1821

In the wake of a scandal, the Montrose family and their three daughters—Catherine, Lydia, and Emeline—flee Boston for their new country home, Willow Hall. The estate seems sleepy and idyllic. But a subtle menace creeps into the atmosphere, remnants of a dark history that call to Lydia, and to the youngest, Emeline.

All three daughters will be irrevocably changed by what follows, but none more than Lydia, who must draw on a power she never knew she possessed if she wants to protect those she loves. For Willow Hall’s secrets will rise, in the end…

5
The Winter Witch by Paula Brackston

The Winter Witch

by Paula Brackston
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Series:#1 in The Shadow Chronicles Series
GoodReads:3.73
My Score:N/A
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Book Summary

Fledgling witch Morgana must defend her love, her home, and her life in this enthralling tale perfect for fans of Discovery of Witches.

In her small early nineteenth-century Welsh town, there is no one quite like Morgana, who has not spoken since she was a young girl. Her silence is a mystery, as well as her magic. Concerned for her safety, her mother is anxious to see her married, and Cai Jenkins, a widower from the far hills, seems the best choice.

After her wedding, Morgana is heartbroken at leaving her mother, and wary of this man, whom she does not know, and who will take her away to begin a new life. But she soon falls in love with Cai’s farm and the wild mountains that surround it. Cai works to understand the beautiful, half-tamed creature he has chosen for a bride, and slowly, he begins to win Morgana’s affections. It’s not long, however, before her strangeness begins to be remarked upon in her new village. A dark force is at work there—a person who will stop at nothing to turn the townspeople against Morgana. Forced to defend her home, her man, and herself, Morgana must learn to harness her power, or she will lose everything.

6
The Witch Haven by Sasha Peyton Smith

The Witch Haven

by Sasha Peyton Smith
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Series:#1 in The Witch Haven Series
GoodReads:3.62
My Score:N/A
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Book Summary

In 1911 New York City, seventeen-year-old Frances Hallowell spends her days as a seamstress, mourning the mysterious death of her brother months prior. Everything changes when she’s attacked and a man ends up dead at her feet—her scissors in his neck, and she can’t explain how they got there.

Before she can be condemned as a murderess, two cape-wearing nurses arrive to inform her she is deathly ill and ordered to report to Haxahaven Sanitarium. But Frances finds Haxahaven isn’t a sanitarium at all: it’s a school for witches. Within Haxahaven’s glittering walls, Frances finds the sisterhood she craves, but the headmistress warns Frances that magic is dangerous. Frances has no interest in the small, safe magic of her school, and is instead enchanted by Finn, a boy with magic himself who appears in her dreams and tells her he can teach her all she’s been craving to learn, lessons that may bring her closer to discovering what truly happened to her brother.

Frances’s newfound power attracts the attention of the leader of an ancient order who yearns for magical control of Manhattan. And who will stop at nothing to have Frances by his side. Frances must ultimately choose what matters more, justice for her murdered brother and her growing feelings for Finn, or the safety of her city and fellow witches. What price would she pay for power, and what if the truth is more terrible than she ever imagined?

7
The Forgotten Witch by Jessica Dodge

The Forgotten Witch

by Jessica Dodge
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GoodReads:4.11
My Score:N/A
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Book Summary

Helen Kent never dares to step outside her comfort zone. She lives a lonely, mundane life in the city, grinding through her uninspiring marketing job. That is, until a spontaneous online purchase brings her to the little bay town of Oban, Scotland, where a 500-year-old cottage full of secrets and stories awaits her.

After Helen unearths the local legend of a 16th-century witch, she discovers a set of mysterious journals in the cottage’s library. Thrust into a world of magic she doesn’t understand, she soon realizes there are both light and dark forces at work beyond her control.

With the help of a dashing Scottish neighbor and his wise grandfather, Helen discovers the link that connects her to the mysterious events unfolding at the cottage. But when the past collides with the present, she must face her fears and fight for what she believes in—that is, if she hopes to unravel the mystery of Fernbeg cottage before darkness descends, again.

8
The Highland Witch by Susan Fletcher

The Highland Witch

by Susan Fletcher
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GoodReads:4.31
My Score:N/A
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Book Summary

In 1692, brilliant, captivating Corrag—accused witch, orphaned herbalist, and unforgettable heroine—is imprisoned for her supposed involvement in a massacre in the Scottish highlands. Suspected of witchcraft and murder and awaiting her death, she tells her story to Charles Leslie, an Irish propagandist who seeks information to condemn the Protestant King William, rumored to be involved in the massacre. Hers is a story of passion, courage, love, and the magic of the natural world. By telling it, she transforms both their lives.

9
The Stone Witch of Florence by Anna Rasche

The Stone Witch of Florence

by Anna Rasche
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GoodReads:3.63
My Score:N/A
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Book Summary

A woman’s secret. A deadly Plague. Unleash the hidden magic…

1348. As the Black Plague ravages Italy, Ginevra di Gasparo is summoned to Florence after nearly a decade of lonely exile. Ginevra has a gift—harnessing the hidden powers of gemstones, she can heal the sick. But when word spread of her unusual abilities, she was condemned as a witch and banished. Now the same men who expelled Ginevra are begging for her return.

Ginevra obliges, assuming the city’s leaders are finally ready to accept her unorthodox cures amid a pandemic. But upon arrival, she is tasked with a much different she must use her collection of jewels to track down a ruthless thief who is ransacking Florence’s churches for priceless relics—the city’s only hope for protection. If she succeeds, she’ll be a recognized physician and never accused of witchcraft again.

But as her investigation progresses, Ginevra discovers she’s merely a pawn in a much larger scheme than the one she’s been hired to solve. And the dangerous men behind this conspiracy won’t think twice about killing a stone witch to get what they want…

10

Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery

by Brom
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GoodReads:4.23
My Score:N/A
Spice:N/A

Book Summary

A spirited young Englishwoman, Abitha, arrives at a Puritan colony betrothed to a stranger – only to become quickly widowed when her husband dies under mysterious circumstances. All alone in this pious and patriarchal society, Abitha fights for what little freedom she can grasp onto, while trying to stay true to herself and her past.

Enter Slewfoot, a powerful spirit of antiquity newly woken … and trying to find his own role in the world. Healer or destroyer? Protector or predator? But as the shadows walk and villagers start dying, a new rumor is whispered: Witch.

Both Abitha and Slewfoot must swiftly decide who they are, and what they must do to survive in a world intent on hanging any who meddle in the dark arts.

Final Thoughts

Witchy historical fantasy books invite us to see history through a spellbound lens, where magic whispers in the wind and women’s power is reclaimed across generations. As you dive into these enchanting stories, prepare to lose yourself in worlds both familiar and fantastical.

Happy Witchy Reading!

Kelly Matsudaira
About Kelly

Books have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, and today, I read more than 150 each year. Through Bookmarks ‘n Blankets, I love sharing my reading journey, favorite book lists, and reading tips to help you make the most of your own reading life.

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