In my Book Spotlight piece I will be bringing you an upcoming release and/or cover reveal. These books are ones I am excited about whether they are from a new or an established author. This week we have an upcoming anthology of witchy tales!

Title: Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft

Expected publication: August 28th, 2018

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

A young adult fiction anthology of 15 stories featuring contemporary, historical, and futuristic stories featuring witchy heroines who are diverse in race, class, sexuality, religion, geography, and era.

Are you a good witch or a bad witch?

Glinda the Good Witch. Elphaba the Wicked Witch. Willow. Sabrina. Gemma Doyle. The Mayfair Witches. Ursula the Sea Witch. Morgan le Fey. The three weird sisters from Macbeth.

History tells us women accused of witchcraft were often outsiders: educated, independent, unmarried, unwilling to fall in line with traditional societal expectations.

Bold. Powerful. Rebellious.

A bruja’s traditional love spell has unexpected results. A witch’s healing hands begin to take life instead of giving it when she ignores her attraction to a fellow witch. In a terrifying future, women are captured by a cabal of men crying witchcraft and the one true witch among them must fight to free them all. In a desolate past, three orphaned sisters prophesize for a murderous king. Somewhere in the present, a teen girl just wants to kiss a boy without causing a hurricane.

From good witches to bad witches, to witches who are a bit of both, this is an anthology of diverse witchy tales from a collection of diverse, feminist authors. The collective strength of women working together—magically or mundanely–has long frightened society, to the point that women’s rights are challenged, legislated against, and denied all over the world. Toil & Trouble delves deep into the truly diverse mythology of witchcraft from many cultures and feminist points of view, to create modern and unique tales of witchery that have yet to be explored.

Edited and Stories by

• Tess Sharpe
• Jessica Spotswood
• Brandy Colbert
• Zoraida Córdova
• Andrea Cremer
• Kate Hart
• Emery Lord
• Elizabeth May
• Anna-Marie McLemore
• Tehlor Kay Mejia
• Lindsay Smith
• Nova Ren Suma
• Robin Talley
• Shveta Thakrar
• Brenna Yovanoff

Personally, I don’t usually find myself drawn to anthologies but this one gets my interest. This book sounds like it will be full of stories with a different take on witches. Instead of the cackling old crone chanting “bubble bubble, toil and trouble” my impression is that we will get strong, independent women who have been ostracized from society for their talents. I, for one, am here for that.