Feel the Love! Coquitlam Pride — Saturday July 4, 12 – 5 pm @Evergreen
This Saturday, July 4th, find me at Coquitlam Pride!
Outside Evergreen Cultural Centre between 12 – 5pm
New Witchy Fiction from the Mistress of Complications
From the masterfully crafted opening line to the cheeky last comment, The Never Witch will keep you spellbound. McLean has a talent for creating unique supernatural worlds, so real they could actually exist in contemporary Vancouver. In this, the first of the Thorne Witch series, we’re introduced to a sophisticated world order of witches and warlocks who intermingle with humans. That in itself may not seem new—we’ve certainly met them before—but McLean’s world-building is complex, intelligent, nuanced, and, naturally, political. Oh, and yes, there’s a romantic subplot involving a witch and a warlock that slips this series into the new rage realm of romantasy.
McLean is the Mistress of Complications. These two distinct races of beings— witches and warlocks—are not limited by gender, but there are separations, regulations, and some intriguing intermingling. Both witches and warlocks are born with magic in their DNA. The power of young witches is kept bound until their thirteenth birthday, when a ceremony is held to unbind their elemental earth magic. Every two years thereafter another element is unbound—air, water, then fire.
The problem for our hero, Adeline Thorne, is that her unbinding never worked, and after four attempts she was left barren—without her magic or her coven or her pride. She’s come to accept her fate and lives a quiet life in Dunbar painting portraits, until a violent event sweeps her back into the corrupt world of witches and warlocks. At the same time, it’s discovered that the grid, “the warp and weft that fuelled the magic of witchkind” is being targeted by a warlock. Could it be the same warlock who, having been convicted of siphoning magic from others, slams his magic into Adeline for safekeeping, rather than lose it as his penalty? Warlock magic can kill a witch but, having once tasted of its dangerous power, Adeline decides to keep it, even knowing he’ll kill her to get it back.
As with all new worlds, McLean injects a unique vocabulary and specificity into her writing. Warlock magic smells of ozone; while witch magic smells of cloves. There is a Warlock King and a High Priestess of Witches. Lords and Ladies. War mages and nulls—trained assassins immune to all magic but the king’s. Courts, councils, and cuffs—metal jewellery that blows up at attempted removal, taking a hand, or a head, along with it. Runes and rune glyphs—a permanent mark, like a tattoo, etched onto the skin to prevent siphoning of magic. This reviewer loves this immersion into magical language, but suggests a glossary in the next instalment.
McLean’s writing has never been more stylish and powerful—this book raises the bar on craft. Her signature cheekiness contrasts with elegant, sensory descriptions and riveting action sequences. Some sentences are show-stoppers—“Her hostility was a sheet of hardened ice under a fragile façade of politeness.” And there are echoes of Avatar in this beautiful description of the grid: “She’d spent many evenings in her witch’s garden, watching the tiny specks of life break away from trees and spiders and drift up to become a part of the living grid. Brushing her hand across the tops of tall grass sent the specks scattering like sparks from a bonfire before they rose in a twisting vortex” (13).
The Never Witch is whimsical, hard core, intelligent, and enthralling. Fans of The Discovery of Witches will enjoy McLean’s multi-faceted magical universe where a desire for unity and freedom seethes beneath a surface of cultural differences, rules, and prohibitions. And fans of Practical Magic will enjoy this tale of two sisters: Adeline, the elder, who was never a witch but now carries warlock magic, and Sarah, the younger, a binder and spell caster married to a witch.
JP McLean is a bestselling author of urban fantasy and supernatural thrillers. She’s been the recipient of numerous honours for her Dark Dreams series and her six-book Gift Legacy series. Among them are a Global Book Award, CIBA and Page Turner Award, the National Indie Excellence Awards, the UK Wishing Shelf Book Awards, and the Whistler independent Book Awards. McLean lives on Denman Island and is a favourite at Vancouver Island markets and festivals.
As reviewed in the Ottawa Review of Books, October 2025
Urban Fantasy at its Best
I’ve adored Holly Black’s books since her Valiant Series in the early 2000s. This book is similar in language and story—the collision of humans and otherworldy beings in a lavish natural world. There are several cruel princes in this book: Balekin, Dain, and the youngest and most handsome, Cardan. I imagine the title refers to Cardan who despises and terrorizes our protagonist—good fodder for a love match, don’t ya think? That’s where the romantasy comes in. What a kiss.
“But kissing Locke never felt the way that kissing Cardan does, like taking a dare to run over knives, like an adrenaline strike of lightning, like the moment when you’ve swum too far out in the sea and there is no going back, only cold black water closing over your head” (chapter 26).
If you read enough Black you’ll learn how to write, how to sculpt a phrase, twist a plot, put a character in peril and take her to the edge of death before a miracle occurs. Beautifully layered. Lavish. Captivating. And as comfy as a feather bed. I’m ready for #2, The Wicked King.
Oh, and the cover is stunning, as is the map of The Shifting Isles of Elfhame.
I’d like to spend a night in Holly Black’s head. What dreams are these?
Happy Autumn Equinox, Northeners.
Magic & Merriment in Vancouver
This is my first summer vending at Pagan Awareness Day in Vancouver and I’m excited! If you’re curious about Wicca or Druidry or just love all things spiritual and metaphysical, this is the place to be on August 23rd.
I’ll be there with my Hollystone Mysteries and a few print copies of The Man in Black series, as well as LURE, and Writing with your Muse for all you writerly folks searching for new ways to inspire creativity.
With 70+ vendors, tarot readers, energy healers, psychics and mediums, tea leaf readers, astrologers, and even Norse rune readers, I’m sure you’ll find your heart’s desire. What’s on offer? Candles and crystals, jewellery galore, art and decor, Indigenous art, textiles and clothing, witchy and apothecary supplies, incense and herbs, tarot decks, my own witchy fiction, kitchen witchery, beadwork and pottery. There’s ritual space and a stage for entertainers.
Do come out and say hello! Bring the family to this FREE celebration of pagan culture.
Now, back to beading my witchy hat …
blessings and all good wishes,
Wendy/Harper
Read Aloud @ My Local Indie Bookstore
Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
Can you believe it? I found this book sitting on the very end of the free shelf at my local library this morning. I’d checked it out and returned it last week, which means, that I was the last person to read it. How do libraries decide what ends up in the slush pile? I don’t understand. I mean, this series is amazing. Blue’s story is the focus of book three–this book. I actually finished The Raven King, which is book four, and realized I’d forgotten to write anything about this book. So, it’s come back to me. You see how that works? It’s not that I don’t have anything to say about it; in fact, I was so tucked into the characters, I didn’t really realize what was happening plot-wise. Urban fantasy doesn’t really work like that. It’s more about characters and emotions. And these characters are some of the best characters you’ll ever meet. So, what do I remember about Blue Lily, Lily Blue?
-the illicit love between Blue and Gansey. Illicit only because Blue kind of had a hand-holding thing with Adam to begin with and, Gansey and Adam are best friends, and well, there’s a social rule being broken
-her funky home with her psychic mother and aunts
-something tasty evolving between Ronan and Adam
-a ton of angst occurring at Gansey’s political mansion in Washington, DC. This is not the best space for trailer-park-son-of-an-abusive-father Adam. Or maybe it is.
-the elusive Cabeswater . . . What the hell is it, anyway? And when they finally get there, will Gansey find his Immortal Welsh King? And why a Welsh King? Is this the orphaned child of a real mythological legend? Damn. I wish I’d thought of this.
-details of Gansey’s horrific hornet experience. Have you ever been bitten by vicious meat-eating hornets with giant stingers and long, wispy legs? I have. When I was seven or eight, I climbed into my father’s old black pick-up truck. We started rumbling down the road. The hornets had build a nest under the bench seat on my side. Before we hit Dixie and Finch, they flew up my pant legs. I went so ballistic, my father pulled over, dragged me out of the truck, and ripped off my pants. I was horrifically embarrassed—I mean, there I was standing on the side of the road in my white cotton undies in front of my father. Now, I think, how did he have the presence of mind to do that? I mean . . . child-eating hornets? Did he get stung?
-something horrible happening at 300 Fox Way which I will not divulge
-some nasty-pants villains developing, of course.
Do I recommend this series? Yes. In fact, it’s in my Amazon Wishlist. Just sayin’. There may come a day when I pass this hardcover on to a little library somewhere in the world. Oh Maggie, what have you done?
