This is a perfect spooky season book. Enjoyed the story and the characters. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read the arc.

A Dark and Secret Magic is the most perfect Halloween read ever! It is full of witches, pumpkins, halloween, black cats, and all the vibes. There is also a romance between Hecate and Matthew which was super cute. There is also a bit of a mystery and which fits well in this cosy read. I would definitely recommend this for the upcoming Halloween season!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for a review!

This cover and synopsis drew me in immediately. It seemed so cozy and idyllic with a twist of witch magic and fun. This story was cozy in every way. Warm and comfortable and sweet. But also, slow and meandering for much of the time. I think anyone who loves cozy stories and doesn't need all that much movement from their fantasy plots will have no problem with this. It has just enough fantastical elements, a villain, and a simple romance to keep the cozy reader afloat. I, as someone who is slowly realizing am not that person, had a bit of a tougher time as I wanted more on every front. A tad more world building, a little more relationship push and pull, and a plot that had more of an even arc rather than a slow beginning and middle with a packed and rushed ending. It just couldn't hold my attention. I would still recommend this to book clubs and friends as I know many people who would love a book like this.

This is the perfect autumn read. It's sweet and cosy, and I loved the tidbits of folklore in it. I have a weakness for books with folklore in them, okay? Combined with the mystery, it made for a light and magical read perfect for Halloween season.

"A Dark and Secret Magic is a celebration of the Halloween season and a love letter to anyone who drinks pumpkin spice in August and carries the spirit of a witch inside their heart all year long. "

I love the halloween season and was so excited for the opportunity to read and review this. Love the message behind it and will recommend it to others in the future.

In a Nutshell: An adult fantasy-romance about a witch who doesn’t know her true power. Lightly inspired by the myth of Persephone and Hades. Good enough ‘magic’, but plenty of ‘secrets’ and not enough ‘dark’. Too much of romance, not enough of fantasy. Gets a bit repetitive, though the ending works for the plot. This is an outlier review.

Plot Preview:
Thirty-one-year old Hecate Goodwin, ‘Kate’ to her close ones, is a hedge witch who, after her mother’s death a few months ago, lives with only her black cat for company in a secluded cottage. She enjoys the solitude sometimes, but her craving for human company makes her spend more time at an apothecary she co-owns.
When her elder sister Miranda asks her to host the annual Halloween gathering for their coven, Kate’s sheltered life turns into chaos. As the date also happens to be Kate’s birthday, she needs to ensure that the gathering lives up to the times when her mother hosted it. To add to the stress, Matthew Cypher, a ‘hexan’ from a rival coven that practices forbidden magic, turns up after many years, asking for sanctuary. As the hedge witch, Kate cannot refuse him this request. To top it all, Kate discovers an old book infused with blood magic in her mother’s room. To whom can Kate go for help? Whom can she trust?
The story comes to us in Kate’s first-person perspective.

Bookish Yays:
🎃 Learnt a lot about hedgewitch magic. Most fantasy books I’ve read with hedgewitches show them in a cosy way, so this take was different and more fun.
🎃 The magical set-up was wonderful, with different witches holding various types of power and different covens having varying power structures. The magic itself was also interesting.
🎃 To those who enjoy Halloween, this book will deliver plenty of pumpkin-spice feels.
🎃 Merlin the black cat – wanted so much more of him!
🎃 This book is said to have “echoes of the classic Hades and Persephone” story, and it does. It isn’t a typical retelling where the relationship between the two is sanitised and romanticised. Rather, the foundation of that connection is used to build the darker aspects of this plot. Though I wanted more of this, I did like the innovative take.

Bookish Mixed Bags:
👻 As a fantasy-romance, the book promised a strong fantastical base. However, most of the scenes seem to be focussed on the romance and the fantasy feels quite diluted in comparison. I picked this up for the fantasy, so this was a bit disappointing.
👻 Great description in the food-related scenes and plenty of recipes at the end. (This might be a Yay to some, but I am not fond of extended descriptions of relatively unimportant points. Why should only food get such extensive picturesque imagery in this plot?)
👻 The world-building is quite vague. The setting seems to be our contemporary time, with the coven members referencing many ideas from our world such as blood cancer and influencers and selfies. However, the world itself feels very hazy, with only the woods that Kate loves to wander in described in an atmospheric way.
👻 Kate’s sisters Miranda and Celeste, Ginny the book witch, and Ginny’s mother Rebecca who co-owns the apothecary with Kate, are all characters with tremendous potential. But they don’t get much page space and there’s no depth to any of their arcs. I would especially have loved to see more of them, especially in terms of how their magic is so different from Kate’s.

Bookish Nays:
👹 The title uses the word ‘dark’, but most of the book feels light and cosy. Then, it suddenly takes a plunge into the dark zone, which is over before the blink of an eye. Anyone who knows fantasy knows that a book cannot strive to be dark and cosy at the same time; they are distinct genres with distinct feels.
👹 Even when there were dark magic scenes, the writing somehow didn’t grip me into full concentration. Everything seemed surface-level, with neither emotions nor characters being explored in depth except to the extent required. At times, it felt like the book was trying too hard to deliver the feels.
👹 Hecate’s character rarely acts her age. I could have put this down to her sheltered upbringing, but the turnaround in her behaviour seems to be equally abrupt, making the earlier naivete questionable. Plus, there is no spark to her personality at all.
👹 Considering that the writing is in first person, we should have got to know and connect with Hecate better. But her thoughts delve on the same 2-3 thoughts throughout the book: “Can I trust XYZ?”, “I don’t trust XYZ”, and ‘I am not good at this.’ Rarely does her mind go into other topics. She left me bored.
👹 Partially thanks to the above, and partially because the entire book has the same kinds of scenes (Hecate uncertain, Matthew reassuring her that she’s fabulous, her sisters looking at them questioningly, and tons of secrets by everyone involved), the plot feels repetitive. There’s no escaping the triad of lies, doubts, and secrets until the final few pages.
👹 On that note, there are way too many secrets in the book. Every single character except for Hecate holds multiple secrets. Needless to say, the secrets always come with their permanent plot partner: miscommunication. This combo was annoying.
👹 The romance seems to begin with the enemies-to-lovers theme but the turnaround in feelings is so immediate that it feels like insta-attraction. Again, two tropes that don’t work in harmony with each other.
👹 The plot development is terribly slack. Hardly anything happens in the initial quarter, and later, what happens is just the slow-ish revelation of secrets and more secrets, until the rushed-up climax.
👹 The climax was terribly disappointing to me. After all that build-up, I can’t believe the settlement was so quick and smooth.

All in all, while this debut work did have some *magical* moments, the over-reliance on secrets and the repetitive conflicts made me zone out of the narrative time and again. With such a title, I expected something genuinely and consistently darker. I enjoy cosy fantasies, but this books feels like a mishmash of dark and cosy while doing justice to neither.

It’s not all bad. I am relieved that the dreaded ‘kitchen sink’ so common in debuts isn’t present in this. It’s just that the book doesn’t deliver what the title and the cover promise. For an adult fantasy, the plot is too tame and the characters too bland.

Maybe this would work better with the YA-NA crowd. (Every ‘censorable’ scene except for kissing is closed door, so it just might.) Do note that I am an outlier in my opinion, so please read other reviews before you take a call.

2 stars.

My thanks to Alcove Press for providing the DRC of “A Dark and Secret Magic” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work out better.

I'm a huge fan of books about witches and magic, and A Dark and Secret Magic by Wallis Kinney completely blew me away -- it’s easily one of the best I’ve read in a long time! The story follows Hecate, a hedge witch, who discovers a tangled web of family secrets after her mother's death. Teaming up with a former rival, Matthew, Hecate works to uncover the mysteries surrounding her past and her true powers. It's a dark and atmospheric tale full of twists -- while still maintaining a cozy vibe -- and has a surprising amount of emotional depth that kept me hooked from the very first chapter. If you love witchy mysteries, this book is an absolute gem!

Aaaaaah pure joy! Perfect for autumn! Read read read this one if you want autumnal books in your life!

Lovely, atmospheric book. Witches, spells, love, a bit of drama, and all things Halloween and Autumn. Perfect for the cozy autumn afternoons.

In this Hades and Persephone-inspired retelling, we’re introduced to Hecate “Kate” Goodwin, a hedge witch navigating the lingering grief of her mother’s death. Just as Kate starts to feel ready to embrace her new responsibilities, Matthew Cypher—a brooding, dark, and handsome figure from her past—re-enters her life. But Matt isn’t the only one from Kate’s past who is interested in her fate. This enchanting story is perfect for readers who enjoy a love story steeped in magic and lore, complete with endearing characters who also happen to have a talent for baking.

*Thank you to Wallis Kinney, Alcove Press and Netgalley for the copy. I am freely leaving my honest review.

(2.5 stars) There was nothing inherently wrong with A Dark and Secret Magic, it just wasn’t really my preferred style of “cozy fantasy.” I do put some of the blame on myself for choosing to read this witchy book now, when it was clearly made for spooky season. The writing was okay and the story got better as time when on, but the dialogue was pretty cheesy. Plus there were certain scenes that I couldn’t believe were in the book, like a full grown woman pelting children with candy bars… what???

It just wasn’t my thing, but it also wasn’t completely terrible. The romance had a couple of sweet moments and some of the magic was interesting. There’s a large group of readers this book will really appeal to, but I don’t think I fall in that category.

A great Halloween read! It has amazing fall and spooky vibes while capturing the atmosphere of a cozy town in the same vein as Stars Hollow. Very entertaining story with witches, prophecies, mysteries, and Hades and Persephone dynamics! While I did enjoy reading the story, I was craving more interaction with Hecate and her sisters and thought the family dynamic fell a little short for me. The romance was also sweet but a little simple for my taste, but ultimately I enjoyed this book and would recommend it for lovers of autumn books that are perfect for Halloweentime!

A perfect Halloween read for anyone looking for a cozy, mysterious fantasy story. The characters are fun and the vibes are absolutely perfect for the spooky time of year.

Was this the perfect spooky\ cozy read DURING Halloween? YES YES YES!!! It gave all the spooky\ fall vibes, add in some witchcraft, fall festivals and a beautiful man who is supposed to be the enemy, and you've got a great book!

4 stars! Thank you NetGalley for the arc!

4.25 stars

I absolutely ate this one up! Cozy, witchy, fall vibes with a dash of family drama is my jam and I loved this one so much. I was truthfully more interested in the family drama and witchy vibes than the romance but all in all I highly recommend this one.

A big thank you to NetGalley, Alcove Press, and Wallis Kinney for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

I picked this one up to read in preparation for spooky season, and it wasn't horrible, but I've read other cozy novels that were far better than this one.

A very typical story of there being a witch who, *gasp*, realizes that the powers she has are not actually really what she thought and there is a darker plot at hand. Hecate and Matthew were fine, but I didn't particularly care about their relationship, nor the rest of the story/plot.

I gave it 3 stars because it was very average, but there wasn't really anything wrong with it either. It was just... there. The cover was cute though, so I do appreciate that (even though I listened to the audiobook version of it).

Not bad, but not a top recommendation from me!

This book was wonderful and very enjoyable. It had amazing fall vibes and was very emotional and magical all at the same time. I would definitely recommend this book, particularly around Halloween.

4.25 ⭐️ for me!! I loved this! A witchy book with some family secrets and a dash of romance? Yes pls 🥹

A Dark and Secret Magic was so cozy but had some dramatic elements that kept me so engaged! I would highly recommend getting ot this one before it gets super wintery, although I think it would be a fun read all year ☺️

Thank you alcovepress & netgalley for my copy of this!

Dark and secret magic was an atmospherically autumn read. The novel follows Hecate, or Kate to her friends, a Hedge witch who thrives in her small cottage with her cat. Different to the other witches in her coven, Kate is trying to cope in her seclusion and life after her mother passed away.
When Matthew, a man from her past, turns up seeking refuge – an indisputable request is thrown with this man in her home. Coping with her upcoming birthday and impending ceremony with Matthew turning up and finding dark magic which is related to her mother, Kate is left frazzled trying to manage all these new obstacles in her life.
Matthew and Kate were enjoyable to read. The mood, the chemistry and the plot was entertaining. I didn’t feel completely captured by the story but it was perfect for the time of year and Kate’s entire life was autumn encompassed.
I’d definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a fun and romantic witchy read with an underlying mystery woven throughout. Thanks for the eARC!

I really enjoyed this book. It was the perfect mixture of suspense and mystery, mixed with a beautiful romance. I loved the very witchy elements in the books, as well watching a once hidden and shy witch recognize her true power. This story had heart, it had power, and it pulled at your heartstrings. Absolutely perfect for Halloween!