Magic for Crosswise Witches

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Synopsis

An exiled witch returns home to face the dark secrets she left behind in this thrilling novel for fans of Practical Magic and The Mayfair Witches.

Bound by blood and betrayal to the dark, unforgiving waters of the lake two centuries earlier, the Crosswise Witch can save or destroy. Each year, the Thorngood women feed their ancestress’s spirit in a fragile bargain for protection. And they’re not the only ones—desperate strangers leave offerings to the Witch in the night and walk away forever changed.

Truly Thorngood was raised to inherit her family’s magic and the land they’ve kept for generations. But one fateful night, violence shattered everything. After a deadly confrontation with Justice Deacon Clay, the most powerful and corrupt man in her small town of Dubiety, young Truly flees to New Orleans and swears off magic, leaving the Justice missing in her wake.

When her mother vanishes thirteen years later to the day—and the Justice’s son begins connecting the disappearances—Truly is forced to return home, where not only is the first love she left behind waiting, but so is the Clay family’s hunger for vengeance. As the lake starts giving up its secrets and the spirits demand their due, Truly must reckon with the witch she was meant to become and finally claim her power.

Magic for Crosswise Witches is a haunting Southern Gothic about legacy, love, and the dangerous bargains we make to survive.

Synopsis source: The StoryGraph

Review

Genre(s): Paranormal Fiction, Fantasy
HB&W Rating: 4 stars
View on StoryGraph, Goodreads
Buy on Barnes & Noble, Amazon
Pub Date: March 16, 2027

This story definitely delivers on the Practical Magic and The Mayfair Witches vibes promised in the teaser. The atmosphere, magic, and action were everything I’ve come to expect from an Ava Morgan novel. I loved the sultry southern gothic feel of it all overlaid by the mystical spirit realm and its non-corporeal residents. I really enjoyed the philosophy behind it all and how it was explained.

While this is paranormal fiction with fantastical elements of magic and witches, it is also a love letter to the natural world around us. Morgan goes to great lengths to describe the flora and fauna, but goes on to propose that everything has a spirit and everything is connected. The way she defines “power” as subjective but ultimately based on experience is definitely food for thought. If there is one theme throughout, it’s that we are all connected, many are one and one is many.

However, as much as I enjoyed the setting and the theme, my feelings on the characters were complicated. I love that the center of this story is a family of women with uncanny abilities, feared and ostracized but also a fundamental thread in the community quilt. I wish we’d gotten a bit more of the individual family members. I felt like Rhetta, Mae, and Vera were all kind of peripheral and flat. They didn’t get much page time and I didn’t feel like I really got to know them well.

I also felt like Beau and the whole romance factor fell a little flat. I’m not really sure it added anything to the story or character development. The angst it created was so brief, it felt a little like an afterthought. It makes sense that she’d have to face the man whose heart she broke, and it makes sense that he would be angry and untrusting, but everything felt like either too much or not enough—flesh it out more or just leave it out entirely.

I don’t understand the initial bargain made with the Crosswise Witch and why it required Truly to leave town and never return, especially finding out what we do later. It really bothered me throughout the book and felt misaligned with the portrayal of the family as tight-knit and protective, nurturing their magical ways—to leave Truly on her own so young felt counter to all of that. Additionally, some of the misogyny was a little too on the nose. That’s not to say that misogyny can’t be blatant, but the Jolly Justice struck me as someone more cunning than that. But these are minor issues and aside from them, the rest of the plot kept me eagerly flipping pages.

While I didn’t enjoy this one as much as The Bane Witch or The Witches of Bone Hill, I do think it’s worth a read, particularly if you like dark, atmospheric reads full of feminine rage.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Griffin and NetGalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Until next time,

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