I love Emma, Anne of Green Gables, Little Women
I'm looking for something like these books – with well developed characters but also…
Magic
And bonus points if at least one of the main characters is 40+ and the book speaks to the power that comes with this time of life
TIA
by Cultural-Pickle-6711
9 Comments
The Bewitching by Silvia More a Garcia is amazing but not exactly this vibe.. its more like dark academia
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow is also good..
Obviously “Practical Magic” by Alice Hoffman, but I’m not 100% sure it’s what you want.
I loved “The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane” but not sure it fits either. Dual stories, more wise woman/hearth witch.
Rachel Harrison’s “Cackle” had its moment recently. I liked the spider. That’s about all I can say about that.
Cozy witchy mysteries seemed to be popular a few years ago. I think Juliet Blackwell wrote a series, but characters were probably younger. Start with her on Amazon and maybe you’ll fall down a related rabbit hole.
Following, because I know there have to be more.
Lolly Willowes is a book set in the early 1900s about an older woman that wants to finally gain independence and so moves into her own house and makes a deal with the devil to gain witchcraft! I think that would fit what you’re looking for.
You must read Lolly Willowes or the Jolly Hunstman (one book with two titles) by Sylvia Townsend Warner!! It has a period piece feel like Anne of Green Gables or Emma with a lot of reflection on the power of aging as a woman and a delightful sprinkling of magic. Literally made for this request.
More high fantasy, Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold is all about a woman in her 40s discovering her powers and has wonderfully vivid characters — it’s a sequel to Curse of Chalion technically but you can read it on its own.
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Keeper’s Six by Kate Elliott
Chronicles of Gam Gam series by Adam Holcombe
Tanyth Fairport series by Nathan Lowell
Nettle and Bone and also A Sorceress Comes to Call by T Kingfisher
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
You’re looking for Esme Weatherwax.
The Change – Not The typical kind of witch but all MWC are menopausal
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches – witch MWC and older witches around her
Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association – MC isn’t a witch but surrounded
There a new book that has reviewed that sounds like it hits this stop (I haven’t read it).
This from the summary in The New Yorker
The Witch
*by Marie NDiaye, translated from the French by Jordan Stump (Vintage)*
Fiction
“The Witch,” shortlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize, is narrated by a woman, Lucie, who has decided to initiate her twelve-year-old twin daughters into what she calls “the mysterious powers.” These powers, as she describes them, appear both burdensome and nearly useless: contextless glimpses of the past and the future, minor divinatory visions accompanied by copious tears of blood. The girls acquiesce to long sessions of secret study in the basement, “away from their father’s eye.” Eleven months later, the transfer of knowledge is complete, and the girls emerge, equipped with their new powers, just as their family falls apart. NDiaye’s deliciously corrupted scenes of home and hearth produce fear and wild laughter at once. There is no hint of condescension in her writing, which is part of its difficulty—and its power
Not sure if this is what your looking for but The Honey Witch. The mc is a witch ofc and goes to live with her grandmother (another witch) in a magical place (beautiful, not out of this world). The book is a queer romance though so a bit off topic.