The Hearth Witch’s Guide to Magic & Murder by Kiri Callaghan
Published: October 2025
Summary from Goodreads:
“For all intents and purposes, we are still blissfully separated from the mortals, but there have been…complications.”
When a rise in London’s supernatural crime puts Fey society at risk of discovery, the Winter Council turns to an unlikely solution: Avery Hemlock, the changeling they sentenced to 500 Years of Nightmares. Inherently lacking social grace and missing approximately two centuries of world knowledge, Avery must find a way to acclimate and solve the case or lose her probationary freedom.
After being left at the altar and dropping out of medical school, Saga Trygg attempts to rekindle her faith in life, humanity, and witchcraft. But when her new neighbor, Avery, accidentally reveals the Fey that have been living among humanity all along, Saga realizes magic is far more than prayers, intention, and candles.
Each faced with navigating an unfamiliar world, the two form an unexpected partnership—but shortly into Avery’s investigation, they discover the threat might be closer to Saga than either of them imagined, and Avery will do anything to protect the first friend she’s had in more than two hundred years.
Confession:
This was a good and at times a fun book, but I can’t really say that I enjoyed it that much. The pacing felt incredibly slow to me. It took a lot to get through more than 10-15 pages a day. But I really liked the characters and the mystery was very good. So let’s start with that.
I loved both Saga and Avery. I really enjoyed them both and loved that we were given chapters from both of them. Saga is very smart and a very caring person. She also appears to be a talented baker and tea maker, although we only get a glimpse of that at the start of the story. Avery was a little bit harder to like, but she kind of endears herself eventually. I loved her almost Sherlock like personality. In fact I really like the Holmes-Watson vibe of the whole story. Saga and Avery make a very good investigating team. It was also a very slow and sweet meander to their budding romance, which I assume will continue to grow in the next book.
The murder mystery was well crafted and well done. There were many suspects and most were obvious red herrings, which contributed to the slowness of the story. They had to investigate every single one of them and this often took many pages and took away from the main flow of the story. I did appreciate how well the story wrapped up, and even though I had it pegged by the time we got to the big reveal, I still appreciated the way we got there.
The world building was also pretty good, although I do still have some questions. Many of which will probably be answered in later books. I loved the mixture of the fae in the modern world, trying to live among the mundane. It was fun watching Avery experience the modern world, and there were some funny moments between her and Saga that I would have loved more of. Also, Saga’s lack of understanding the Fae world was a great way for Avery to explain things. There were some info dumpy moments however that could have been done a bit better. I also really enjoyed all of the footnotes. I know they aren’t for everyone, but they were a lot of fun to read and often added some information that would have been hard to work into the story.
So, my main issue with the book was the glacially slow pace of the story. I thought this was just me as I did enjoy much of the story, but I looked at a few three star reviews and they pretty much had the same thing to say. The story could have easily been 100-150 pages less without losing any of the story. The publisher also seemed to be trying to fit as many words on the page as possible with a smaller font and margins, which tired my eyes out quickly. But as far as issues go that really was it for me.
If you like cozy fantasy/mysteries with a great cast of characters, a slow, yet very sweet romance this is a story you might want to give a chance. I would also recommend it to those of you who like a Holmes-Watson dynamic and feel to the story. But do be aware that there is definitely a slowness to the story that I am hoping will be fixed in the next book.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 
I am sorry for the slow pace, but everything else sounds good! I have this one waiting for me and I think I should lower my expectations a bit and wait to be in the mood for something with a lower pace, but I am really curious about this one!
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