Hi all! I am asking after some recommendations for my wife (27F) who is interested in expanding into fantasy more as a primarily sci fi and horror reader. Some of her favorite authors are Stephen King and Koji Suzuki and she loves psychological horror and occult horror and in general has a lot of interest in how witches kind of bridge the gap between horror and fantasy in a lot of media. That being said, she is really really tired by the fact that we spent about an hour and a half looking at every witch book in the library and see it described as a "spicy romance" or "whirlwhind romance" or "haunted romance". Some of the offenders that were recommended on this sub to a previous poster when they asked for witchy, no romance that DO indeed include romance are:
– The Witch's Heart (literally about Angrboda and Loki falling in love)
– The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow (has two separate romance subplots)
– Heartless Hunter by Kristin Cicarreli (literally romantasy)
To be clear she wants a story about witches (male or female, doesn't matter), wizards, sorcerers, etc (the more classically witchy the better) that has NO romance. No subplots or secondary protagonists or antagonists turned romantic interests, none. It can be any age range although adult is better and just needs to include a magic user going on their merry way through life and struggle without the necessity of messy romance plots. She said the one exception she can consider is if a couple is already together and one or both are witches and there is nothing explicitly sexual.
Here are some books she has already tried:
– Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches (too much sex and SA)
– A Discovery of Witches (too much romance between MC and vampire guy)
– All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O'Donoghue (some romance, she liked this but its only tangentially witchy)
Here are some books that caught her interest or that she already grabbed from the library and will be trying:
– A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher
– Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett
– The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know this can be a hard line to walk these days and she usually does appreciate some romance but in the case of this request she really wants a story that really focuses on individual character development without the need for romance. I was kind of shocked when going through my local library how many books got recommended to us by librarians and a google search of "witchy fantasy with no romance" that ended up immediately on the slip cover describing a romance being key to the plot. Thanks in advance y'all!!
by ArxivariusNik