The Age of Witches

I’m a huge fan of Louisa Morgan’s books, and found The Age of Witches is another winner, with a wonderfully immersive story. I fell into this book as easily as diving under a cozy blanket, and I absolutely loved being back in one of her stories.

Harriet Bishop, descended from a long line of witches, uses magic to help women in need -- not only ordinary women, but also those with powers of their own. She must intervene when a distant cousin wields dangerous magic to change the lives of two unsuspecting young people... one of whom might just be a witch herself.

Frances Allington has used her wiles and witchcraft to claw her way out of poverty and into a spectacular marriage with one of New York's wealthiest new tycoons. She is determined to secure the Allingtons' position amongst the city's elite Four Hundred families by any means necessary -- including a scheme to make a glorious aristocratic match for her headstrong and reluctant step-daughter, Annis, using the same strange power with which she ensnared Annis's father.

To save Annis from this dark magic, Harriet reveals to her Frances' misuse of their shared birthright and kindles in Annis her own nascent powers. Together, Harriet and Annis must resist her stepmother's agenda, lest she -- and the dashing young lord she suspects she could come to love -- lose their freedom, and possibly their lives. 

The Age of Witches has a lighter tone. This was a nice change of pace for me as I had just read two very dark books.I found the strongest elements in this story to be the relationships between the women, which doesn’t surprise me because that is one of Morgan’s specialties. This is also a much more linear story than some of her other books, so readers who don’t like time jumps should definitely consider this.

Morgan dips back into the past to give some history about the Bishop family and how siblings Mary and Christian split the family line into two types of witchcraft. Mary’s descendants practiced herb lore and healing, focusing on the positive aspects of the craft, while Christian’s family started using a form of witchcraft called the maleficia in order to manipulate people into doing their bidding. Harriet is saddened by the fact that her cousin Frances continues to use the maleficia , especially when her beloved grand-niece gets caught up in Frances' evil schemes. Even though this wasn’t a multi-generational story per se, I did love that the author showed us how these branches of witchcraft evolved over the years. She also touches on how witches have been feared and persecuted through time, and even Harriet, an herbalist who uses her powers for good, is lonely because everyone is scared of her.

As much as I loved the witchcraft in the story, the characters and their relationships steal the show. I loved Annis and her fiery passion for horses and her complete lack of interest in getting married. Her relationship with James was actually pretty funny at times. Even though it’s obvious they’re perfect for each other—they both love horses and want to breed them—James just can’t get past the fact that Annis is interested in something so unseemly. And she rides “cross saddle” instead of side saddle, which is a sure sign that a woman is wanton (give me a break, but this is how they really thought during this time period).

Frances is the perfect evil stepmother who wants nothing more than to improve her lowly status by having her daughter marry a wealthy man with a title, and she does some horrific things to Annis and James. But, I was surprised to find myself feeling sorry for her later in the story. Annis turns out to be much more compassionate than I expected her to be (way more compassionate than I would have ben), even though Frances was rarely kind to her. 

But my favorite thing about this book was the relationship between Harriet and Annis. Morgan excels in writing mother/daughter–niece/aunt–grandmother/granddaughter relationships, those relationships where an older woman mentors a younger girl. I loved the scenes where Harriet is teaching Annis about her own abilities as a witch and how this shared secret helped form an unbreakable bond between them. 

Overall, this is a perfect book to curl up with and loose yourself amongst the pages. If you haven’t read Louisa Morgan’s books, and you love historical stories with strong female characters and a touch of witchcraft, you really are missing out.