Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle

Persephone and Penelope Leland are excited to start their first season as eligible women in London. At least Penelope is. Persephone is nervous, and besides, she’d much rather continue her studies in magic with their governess Ally.

The twin girls are witches — as is their governess — and in addition to their book and finishing training, Ally helps them to learn magic and how to use it responsibly. Things go horribly wrong however when Ally comes up missing a few short days before their coming out. When the family receives a cryptic note, the twins know something is not right, but have no idea what to do about their missing governess who they love and miss. Little do they know they are walking into a much bigger plot in which Ally is a central player, and to top it all off, Persephone has an admirer whom she has to try and fend off at the same time.

Bewitching Sea... Read More

Betraying Season by Marissa Doyle

Penelope Leland is off on an adventure of her own. Eager to get away from her newly married, not to mention disgustingly happy twin Persephone, Pen ships off to Ireland with her former governess Ally to continue her studies in magic in the hopes of getting to the same level as her sister.

But things never seem to go according to plan, and Pen soon finds herself more alone than she could have thought possible, Ally is expecting a baby and is dreadfully sick all the time, and though she has her magic classes with Ally’s father-in-law to distract her, the gentlemen who she studies with are not enthusiastic about sharing their knowledge with a woman.

Quite unexpectedly, Lady Keating, a wealthy woman who is influential in Cork’s society has taken a liking to Pen and graciously takes her under wing. She also has a very handsome son, Niall Keating whom Pen finds herself unexpectedly dr... Read More

It Happened at the Ball edited by Sherwood Smith

This collection of thirteen (mostly) fantasy short stories and a novelette or two is tied together by their ballroom settings, whether it be the Almack’s Regency ballroom (where a group of young ladies happens upon an overly potent magical love potion in Marissa Doyle’s “Just Another Quiet Evening at Almack’s”) or a Civil War-era ball in Galveston, Texas (P.G. Nagle’s “A Waltz for May”). There are also some other themes that surface and resurface: masks and hidden identities, romance, and ― as editor and author Sherwood Smith freely admits in her foreword ― escapist wish-fulfillment. Here be faeries, vampires, thieves, pirates and lots of other intriguing ... Read More