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A Dark and Secret Magic
A warm, spellbinding tale about a witch and the secrets her coven has been keeping from her, with echoes of the classic Hades and Persephone story, in the tradition of Practical Magic and Witch of Wild Things.
Hecate Goodwin, Kate to her friends, has curated the perfect life as a hedge witch, living in a secluded cottage with only a black cat for company. She spends her days foraging herbs from the Ipswich forest, gardening, and creating tinctures to sell at the apothecary she owns. Most evenings pass without her speaking to another human being, an arrangement she quite prefers.
Kate’s solitude is thrown into disarray when her older sister, Miranda, reaches out and asks her to host their coven’s annual Halloween gathering. The day marks the beginning of the new year for witches and is also Kate’s birthday. The pressure from her coven to make the evening memorable mounts as the event draws near. To complicate things further, a handsome man from Kate’s past turns up at her cottage, asking for sanctuary. It is Kate’s duty as a hedge witch to honor this request, much to her dismay. Matthew Cypher is no ordinary lost soul–he’s a practitioner of forbidden magic who’s tricked Kate once before, and her guard is up.
As she juggles Matthew’s arrival and the preparations for Halloween, Kate comes across an old tome shrouded in dark magic. She is horrified when she realizes the blood-red inscription is written in familiar handwriting: her recently deceased mother’s. Afraid to even touch the dark magic her mother secretly studied, Kate can turn only to Matthew for help. Her idealized memory of her mother begins to distort, and as she and Matthew grow closer, Kate has to reevaluate whom she can really trust.
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.
A Dark and Secret Magic
A Dark and Secret Magic
Cozy Pairings
Witches Brew is an earthy and softly floral fragrance that opens with warm clove and gentle spice, creating an immediate sense of familiarity. At its heart, delicate violet brings a subtle sweetness that lifts and softens the richness of dark patchouli. The base is deep and grounding, with smoky, woodsy notes that linger in the air, balanced by a soft warmth. Smooth and atmospheric, this scent feels both comforting and a little unexpected, blending warmth, earth, and soft florals into something subtly captivating.
Why we chose this: Kate Goodwin is a hedge witch who prefers her cottage, her black cat, and her herbs to most human company, and her sister has just asked her to host the coven's Halloween gathering, which is also Kate's birthday, which is also when a man from her past arrived asking for sanctuary and an old tome full of dark magic turned up with her mother's handwriting inside it. Witches Brew carries the earthy, ancient warmth of a story that is, as the author says, a love letter to anyone who carries the spirit of a witch inside their heart all year long. Light this candle as Kate's carefully curated solitude begins to unravel in the most interesting ways, and let the grounding warmth of patchouli and violet fill the room like a cottage on Halloween night where the boundary between the ordinary and the magical has never felt thinner.