Though I'm not personally interested in magic or the occult, I enjoyed this exploration of magical practice through a Victorian lens. Very well done!

The book features well over two hundred chapters and is divided into sections that include Victorian Symbols, Celebrating the Wheel of the Year, Cooking Magic, Magic throughout the House, Personal Care for the Body and Spirit, Romance, and Lullaby. The author also provides an appendix that compares “then” to “now”, an appendix of modern enchantments, and a glossary of magical terms. This is the kind of book best purchased in print so that readers can flip through the chapters according to their interests and desires.

I loved how this book explores old-fashioned customs and how they influenced modern new age practices. It definitely improved my appreciation of magical realism literature by explaining the origins and meanings of some common elements. The book has a captivating section on how fans were used as a form of communication and expression by Victorian ladies. This was really enticing to read through. There is so much information and a vast variety of different works. Super interesting! It’s worth a look!

*Thank you NetGalley and Crossed Crow Books for sending me this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.*

This Victorian grimoire is everything I wanted it to be and more. Would be a beautiful addition to any occult collection.

A beautiful book for every witch's collection. It goes into so much detail and is very informative. I absolutely love it and will be adding it to my collection.

ARC from Netgalley

I really enjoyed this Grimoire from Patricia Telesco. The book is well written and full of information ranging from the common lore of households items to honouring the wheel of the year with herbalism, spells, divinations and rituals that are all presented in a positive manner. Definitely a book to add to my magical bookshelf .

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the free book in exchange for a review!

I love reading this book because it had many witch practices from the Victorian era and I liked how it differentiated from some of the other witch books I read. I liked how the book showed different types of practices and spells, how the Victorians would have used the Spells, and where they got their ingredients. The book was clearly split up into different chapters so readers could easily find what chapters they wanted to read and any spells they wanted to learn about or do!

Combining a history of Victorian objects with modern wicca practices a Victorian Grimoire is an interesting lens to use for spiritual practice. I wish there was more information on how the objects were used in spiritual practices in the Victorian era.

I was so excited to read a victorian grimoire, but I didn't expect it to hold 1890's ideals. love charms, love spells, love anything are manipulative and akin to drugging someone in my books and should be left in the past. big miss from the author. I do not think I would pick up or recommend anything by the author after this

A very informative book that thoroughly explains the history of magic during the Victorian era. I learned a lot of new things from this book that I haven't heard of from other books I've read regarding magic.

"A Victorian Grimoire" by Patricia Telesco is a collection of spells, and chants That felt like they were more for longer practicing Witch rather than a beginner. I found the book to be Dense and packed full of information, so I had to put it down several times because I started to lose interest and kind of overwhelmed with all the information. The idea of this book was lovely but definitely not for me.

This was a fun and informative read. I would recommend this to anyone interested in the Victorian era and/or magic, or a practicing Wiccan. The author was clear and concise with their reasoning. I learned quite a bit about the indirect and direct influences of the mysticism of the time and how it permeated so many aspects of Victorian society. I look forward to rereading this book in the future as it will be great reference material.

"A Victorian Grimoire" is exactly what it purports itself to be: a collection of Victorian-inspired spells, chants, and inspiration for the aspiring kitchen witch or the seasoned practitioner of the arts. Although I don't considered myself a follower of these practices, this was a fun book to read for anyone who's interested in letting a little bit of Victorian-infused romance and magic in into their life.

On a side note, I found it very interesting that adding gloves and umbrellas into the spell or enchantment is a thing.

My thanks to Netgalley, Llewellyn Publications, and the author for opportunity to read this book for a review.

When I got this book I wasn't sure what to expected, but I did not expect it to be such a complete book, perfect for anybody who wants to know more about magic and it's history

I was really intrigued by the sound of this book. The chance to see what a grimoire from the Victoria era might have looked like, and learning more about everyday magic from that era was something I couldn’t resist. I still have fond memories of the books my mom gave me about the Victorian language of flowers, and they had such a wonderful scent to them. I wonder where those books are …

This isn’t the kind of book that I’d recommend you read cover to cover, yet when reviewing a book, that’s exactly what I do. It was a tough job, and took me a ridiculously long time. Part of that was my fault, but I’m going to insist on sharing the blame with the book itself. It’s exceptionally dense. I was expecting a lighter read, and was surprised to see how much information is packed into this book.

I was surprised to see how much of the material was focused on America, since I automatically associate the Victorian era with England, and didn’t even realize that there was a Victorian era in America. I love when I learn new things from books, and when they motivate me to look things up independently to learn more after getting curious. The author also encourages readers to find ways to incorporate magic into their lives in so many tiny ways, and lists many ways that readers can do exactly this. And she inserts plenty of her own real-life experiences, which I love seeing in a book like this. I always like when I get a feel for how the author finds ways to make their everyday life magical.

If you’re a beginning practitioner, or someone just starting in the craft, this isn’t the book for you. While each of the rituals or spells seems simple, they are deceptively so. They each involve a number of items for preparation, setting up the circle, doing the ritual, and closing it out. There are some factual inaccuracies in there, and it honestly felt as though the book wasn’t edited beforehand. I was shocked to see the author suggest that readers put garlic powder in their dog’s food, or feed their dogs fresh garlic, since that’s toxic to dogs. The book needs to be thoroughly edited. I also got a little uncomfortable about the mixing and matching of deities in the earlier spells, since it felt too culturally appropriative for my liking. It played out a bit later, when “Cabala” [sic] was discussed as playing a role in magic and tarot, yet the Jewish roots of Kabbalah, a closed practice that requires intensive and devoted levels of study, was completely erased from the discussion, only the Christian references to it were mentioned.

Overall, this was a hit or miss book for me. It kind of fell right in the middle, with many of the spells being very involved, involving a lot of items and complex steps that wouldn’t necessarily be reasonable to follow. I did enjoy seeing more about the language of flowers and how the people of those times also assigned certain meanings to various classes of items around them, but this isn’t going to be one of the first books I turn to in a pinch.

I couldn't finish. The author's style is so full of verbal flourishes that the reading becomes dense and overwhelming.

Research and reference dense, “A Victorian Grimoire,” compiled by Becca Fleming provides a short history of the Victorian-era of the mid-1800s to about the turn of the century when England’s Queen Victoria reigned, the US Civil War divided a country and the industrial revolution began mechanizing and streamlining commercial production, along with brief snippets of common social interests of the era, herbal remedies, crafting projects, and some ritual practices—although, personally, I am skeptical about the later being attributable to the Victorians.

Granted, it is a known fact that spiritualism, mediums, theosophy, seances, mesmerism, Egyptology, mystic orders, secret societies and all things esoteric were in fashion with high society in Victorian circles. Famous individuals like Author Arthur Conan Doyle, Illusionist Harry Houdini, Occultist Aleister Crowley, Theosophist Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, among others were all known attendees or leaders of some of these types of organizations.

However, were everyday housewives practicing witchcraft? Casting spells? Were they members of covens? Possibly a few, but I personally don’t think there were many. The memory of the burning days of the recent centuries had to have been branded into the memory of most commoners very clearly.

Although this “grimoire” offers an extensive bibliography at the end, it is not footnoted for specific attributes, which would make those sections clearer and less ambiguous. Poor people still had a lot to lose in the 1800s. Any reader of Charles Dickens understands the daily horrors faced by those scrimping to get by. The rich could shrug-off their eccentrics.

Furthermore, this volume is completely black and white and text dense. The few illustrations included are line drawings. I just found this book lacking in many ways. It appears to be one person’s collection of many collected tidbits of information.

Although, just a student of history with a fascination for esoterica, rather than a practitioner of any white or dark arts, this just doesn’t read like a grimoire in any true sense of the word—although it does include some esoteric recipes/receipts.

JoyReaderGirl1 graciously thanks NetGalley, Author Becca Fleming, and Publisher Crossed Bow Books for this advanced reader’s copy (ARC) for review.

I have to admit the cover of this one captured me.

The text itself is well written, though basically Wicca dressed up in fanciful Victorian imagery and some charms that have survived since then. It also leans heavily towards the upper classes of the time, a far cry from Dickens.

The nod to Victoriana does add charm to the book and the author is obviously experienced in her path. A lot of the spells are very useful and I think anyone studying Wicca/Witchcraft would find value in them.

A very lovely presentation.

The history of the Victorian era is strange, romantic, often times equal parts romantic and horrific, and A Victorian Grimoire does a great job of capturing that. I like the historical elements and magical meanings of everyday objects from a bygone time.

This isn't my usual type of read but I was intrigued by the front cover and the synopsis, which suggested (to me anyway) that it was a study of how the Victorians would use Magic in their day-to-day lives.

While the book does achieve this in parts, it seems more of a traditional grimoire, with spells, rituals and helpful tips for those practising modern Wicca/Witchcraft.

I'll be honest, and admit that the reason why I can't rate this book higher than 3 stars is because I have no real interest in modern Wicca/Witchcraft (like I said above, I came into this hoping for a more history-based book, rather than spirituality) and struggled to finish reading it.
But, you can feel the author's passion for her subject matter and, as I flicked through some of the later pages I was struggling to sit down and read, I couldn't help but notice that there are some good ideas to help with mindfulness.