3.5 stars

Love me a good witchy coming-of-age, coming-to-power novel!

I really liked this Persephone and Hades inspired story, especially how thorough and thoughtful the magic system was set up and portrayed. Witches with different specialties and powers were well represented and their interactions with one another flowed effortlessly. There were lots of secrets and plenty of conflicts to keep me on my toes throughout. This is a perfect read for fall, cozy, Halloween vibes, and I'll likely pick it up to read again this fall.

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Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this title. These thoughts are my own and this review is voluntary.

I really liked the story line of this book. I think this book had me by the first few pages. Very much worth the read.

In *A Dark and Secret Magic*, the author presents a warm, enchanting tale that weaves together elements of witchcraft, family secrets, and personal growth against the backdrop of the Halloween season. The story follows Hecate “Kate” Goodwin, a hedge witch who has chosen a solitary life filled with foraging and tincture-making. The vivid imagery and rich descriptions of the Ipswich forest create an immersive setting that draws readers into Kate’s world from the very beginning.

Kate's character is relatable and well-developed, embodying the struggles of someone who values independence yet faces the pressures of family and community obligations. The arrival of her sister Miranda and the anticipation of the coven’s annual Halloween gathering introduce an intriguing conflict. The story shines as Kate grapples with her feelings about her past, particularly when her old flame, Matthew, unexpectedly reenters her life. The tension between them adds an exciting dynamic, especially given Matthew’s complex history and secrets of his own.

As the plot unfolds, the discovery of her mother’s old tome adds layers of mystery and suspense, propelling the narrative forward. The author skillfully explores themes of trust, legacy, and the duality of familial love—distinguishing between idealization and reality. Kate’s journey of self-discovery is both poignant and relatable, especially as she navigates her evolving relationships and the truths about her mother’s past.

While the pacing is generally strong, there are moments where the narrative feels somewhat slow, particularly during the buildup to the Halloween gathering. Additionally, some readers might wish for further exploration of the dynamics within Kate's coven, which could deepen the story's emotional resonance.

Overall, *A Dark and Secret Magic* is a captivating tale that celebrates the spirit of witchcraft and the significance of both love and self-acceptance. It’s perfect for readers who enjoy stories infused with magic and heart, reminiscent of classics like *Practical Magic*. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a charming, atmospheric read that combines the coziness of autumn with the thrill of uncovering life's mysteries.

Ultimately it’s just fine. Flowery writing, decent characters, okay romance. It’s fine.

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ok I will admit that it took me a little bit to get into this story. It is very magical and atmospheric right from the start and I have to be in the right mood for something like that. I admittedly usually read alot of thrillers so this is a change from my normal killing and slashing. However, once I was 5 chapters in I was hooked. The beautiful descriptions and the overall Fall vibe you get from this story is unmatched. I don't know how to describe the feeling I got when reading this but I felt like I was in Fall. Like it was just Fall everywhere. If you are a fan of the Halloween/Fall/Cozy vibes this book is for you.

This book is equivalent to when the first leaf falls that signals the start of Autumn. 🍂 There is magic in this story, and I honestly think I will read this at the beginning of every future October. I loved the magic system, the way the herbwitch would tend to her garden, the setting of the manor, and was chilled by TKB… 👀 This book deserves all 5 orange golden stars, and it is so evident that Wallis Kinney was meant to write autumnal fairytales for us.

Thanks to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the ARC.

This took me so long to read, because I was contemplating dnfing this at the halfway mark. So much of the beginning is establishing Kate's normal state of life. Yes, it is important, but much of that was detailing every single minute of her daily routine. Even when Matt the mystery man shows up, it's still going through her normal day-to-day. After the halfway mark, it thankfully picks up, but it wasn't enough to make up for a very tedious start.

two questions
1. why did this book make me cry in a way that physically hurt??
2. why was there no epilogue?!?!?!?! like six months later!!????!?!! I need more.

This book is a full-on homage to Halloween, and if you love everything about the holiday—the treats, the tricks, the parties, the fun—then you absolutely need to read it. The characters are wonderful, and the setting is just so charming and delightful. Honestly, there isn’t a single thing I would change.

I’ve had a really rough couple of months—my husband passed away suddenly—and this book gave me a much-needed escape from my heartache and grief. It was a comforting distraction, a little slice of magic when I needed it most. I highly recommend it. It’s just lovely and genuinely good.

This was wonderful! I loved the writing style, the characters, the world-building…everything about it was top-notch. I will definitely be recommending this book!

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
🌶️🌶️

Extremely cute autumn vibes and would pair perfectly with a cozy blanket and a delicious coffee (iced for me!)

I thought this was a cute book, albeit a little long for me. Hecate "Kate" was a fun character, but I wish she would've stuck up for herself a little more. She had amazing powers and could have done so much more with them had she grown a little more confidence in herself earlier on in the book. The self-deprecation grew to be a bit much for me.

The only other major issue for me was that Matthew supposedly saw Kate one time 10 years prior when they were younger and somehow fell in love with her and then also stayed in love with her that entire time??? It seemed a little far-fetched and weird to me rather than romantic.

Outside of my issues with the characters, I loved the description of the witches and their town. It felt so cozy and gorgeous filled with pumpkins, magic, and delicious foods. The author's detail on the meals made me so hungry! I really enjoyed that part.

I really enjoyed this one, I think it’s perfect to read during September-October, due to the Halloween vibes. It’s not by any means scary, rather, a cozy type of spooky story. Expect to see everything you relate to Halloween in this story: pumpkins, magic, witches, black cats, and whimsy. The romance was really cute as well; there’s some mystery involved in the story too. Overall, a very cozy read, perfect for autumn!

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!