Witchy romance at it’s finest is a thing of beauty. Some books get it right.
However, doing this requires romantic thinking and, I believe, a bit of a scientific mind. Whenever you’re world-building, you need a level of logic and you have to make sure it all makes sense. To me, the easiest way to make it all work: ground it in reality.
Let’s start with the books and series think get it right!
OUTLANDER takes us through time – This beloved series has captured so many of us, and I think it’s in part due to the magic. Most of it is simply the time travel through the stones. Everything else in the series runs almost normally around this one factor. Once you buy that Claire, and a few others, can travel through the stones. It’s all perfectly normal and the pages turn into books.
A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES gives us a rich supernatural world – This trilogy goes a little further! This series includes not only magic, but also vampires, time travel and more. But where Harkness grounds us is history. She knows the history. So with the truth blended seamlessly in, buy-in is all but inevitable. Her knowledge makes this set a fan favorite.
UNHOLY ISLAND makes the setting part of the magic – You might not have read these yet, but you should. Painter nails it! Like Harkness she ads in a whole host of possibilities, but her magic is relatively simple. She also leads us through the story, not quite believing at first. Wasn’t that building in a different place yesterday? She nails it by making the island a living, breathing character in the story.
In science fiction this is known as ‘the one big lie’ and it applies here in romance and women’s fiction as well! There are definitely science fiction books that make up everything–just think about what you know from Star Trek and tri-lithium and mycellium transport. They only keep it partially adjacent to real science, playing fast and loose with what they need for the story they want to tell. I think these three romance/women’s fiction series do so well because they don’t do that. These are closer to reality. They each play with the ‘one big lie.’ Your advisor is a vampire. You can pass through the stones. The island gives you powers. We don’t have to keep buying more and more to stay in the story. Because of that, we can have a romance swirled with magic!
That’s where I come in. The Magic in the new WITCHES OF BELLE HOLLOW series doesn’t go too far. It doesn’t have other supernatural creatures. And it treats magic like science. It has to be logical. We can’t just suddenly whip up a spell that wasn’t possible two books ago. And, I’ll promise you I did the research! This picture is from my own library. I read these, I took them in and blended them. I look things up as I go. When Hazel buys obsidian and Delanie’s eyes go wide, that’s something anyone practicing might notice.
I absolutely delight in getting emails and messages from readers who say “I practice, and I rarely see books that actually get it right.” I worked hard for this. Look close at that picture. Those books are worn. I’ve opened and closed them a thousand times. They’ve lived on my bookshelf for years. And each time a new Witches of Belle Hollow Book comes out, you’ll know, I’m turning these pages, checking my spells and making sure my witches are casting more than just a love spell on you!
