Books Like Practical Magic: Witchy Romance for Owens Sisters Fans (2026)
If you’re hunting for books like Practical Magic, you already know the Owens women by heart: two sisters raised by their aunts in a house the whole town whispers about, a family curse that dooms any man who loves them and kitchen magic for every kind of heartbreak. Alice Hoffman’s 1995 novel made witchcraft feel like family business, and the 1998 film, with Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman and those midnight margaritas, turned it into an October ritual.
With Practical Magic 2 reuniting Bullock and Kidman this fall, the Owens house is back on everyone’s mind. This list keeps the curses, the witchy small towns and the women who love anyway, then turns the heat all the way up, with five Fractal Enigma picks rated Inferno, five trad gateways and the full Practical Magic reading order further down.
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Why the Owens Women Still Cast a Spell
Practical Magic is a love story about sisters first. Sally is the careful one who wants nothing more than an ordinary life. Gillian is the wild one who runs from town and keeps running. Their magic is domestic and practical, all charms and remedies, and the same townspeople who whisper about the Owens family by day turn up at the aunts’ back door after dark when love goes wrong.
Then there’s the curse. Loving an Owens woman has always been a risk and the town has never let the family forget it. Every romance in the story has to decide whether love is worth the price. The best books like Practical Magic keep at least two of those ingredients: a curse that makes love dangerous, a witchy small town, family magic passed down the line and a heroine who loves anyway.
Every Fractal Enigma pick below is sapphic, carries our Inferno rating and comes with a guaranteed happy ending, which is more than the Owens women ever got without a fight. For more October reading, our spicy Halloween romance books list sorts witches, vampires and haunted houses by mood.
Family Curses and Love Spells Gone Wrong
The Owens curse turns love into a gamble. These three put a curse, or a spell, right at the heart of the romance. The third is a vampire romance, so if it leaves you hungry for more fangs, our list of books like Twilight for adults picks up where it leaves off.
The Ex-Hex of Hollow House — Maeve Hollow
Twenty years after the woman she loved walked out without a word, contractor Kit Mercer arrives to save a dying mansion in the Massachusetts hills and finds Elowen Vale there, not a day older. Elowen is a witch, and her family’s house keeps every mortal woman a Vale witch loves, and keeps them for good. It’s the Owens curse turned gothic: a sapphic second-chance romance in which breaking the spell means tearing out the heart of the house, hammer in hand. Available at all major retailers.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Second Chance, Supernatural Exes, Witch × Contractor, Haunted House, Gothic, Forced Proximity, Only One Bed, Stolen Memory
Start reading The Ex-Hex of Hollow House →
The Ex-Hex Next Door — Isla Wilde
Eight years ago, Wren Ashford left the witchy small town of Briar Hollow with a broken heart and a spell meant to help her ex, Sloane Blackwood, forget her. Now Wren is back, broke and renting the only cottage she can afford, right next door to Sloane, who happens to be the town’s most powerful hedge witch. Every time they fight the old spell surges, and they have until the Harvest Moon Festival to break it before the whole town finds out. It’s a cozy sapphic second-chance romance with a love spell gone wrong, a town guarded by old witching families and only one bed.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Cursed Exes, Second Chance, Witchy Small Town, Forced Proximity, Grumpy/Sunshine, Only One Bed
Start reading The Ex-Hex Next Door →
A Taste for the Widow — Maeve Hollow
Lady Sabine Vane has starved herself and her clifftop house for longer than Mara Ellison has been alive, because every woman who ever loved her now hangs on the wall in a white gown. Mara is the estate attorney sent to wind the place up, until an 1849 codicil binds her to thirteen nights under its roof and the house ties a red thread around her ring finger. It’s a vampire romance rather than a witchy one, but if the Owens curse is your favorite part, this sapphic gothic love curse will find the soft spot. Available at all major retailers.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Vampire Romance, Gothic, Haunted House, Forced Proximity, Immortal × Mortal Age Gap, Ice Queen, Written Terms, Found Family
Start reading A Taste for the Widow →
Witchy Small Towns and Old Magic
Some days you want the aunts’ kitchen more than the curse: a village that runs on magic, a cottage with opinions and a witch who has outlived the people she loved. For the cozier end of the season, see our cozy fall and spooky-season sapphic roundup and our list of books like The Pumpkin Spice Café.
The Witches of Clitwick — Blair Lennox
Freshly divorced Elise Warren comes to the hidden village of Clitwick to sell an inherited cottage and learns she’s a witch, and the last descendant of the village’s founder. To renew the covenant that keeps Clitwick alive, she has to marry the Head Witch, Morgana Vex, a three-hundred-year-old flirt who hasn’t let anyone stay since the last woman she loved died in her arms. With rituals due by Samhain, a sentient cottage, a talking cat and one bed, this sapphic paranormal romcom is cozy witchcraft with the heat turned all the way up. Free with Kindle Unlimited.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Marriage of Convenience, Forced Proximity, Only One Bed, Grumpy/Sunshine, Late Bloomer, Found Family
Start reading The Witches of Clitwick →
The Witch in the West Wing — Maeve Hollow
Conservator Elspeth Ward takes a job at Ravenscroft College and keeps finding the same name scratched out of the library’s old records. At midnight the bricked-up west wing opens, and behind an iron gate waits Dr. Isolde Thorne, supposedly executed for witchcraft in 1784, who cannot lay a finger on Elsie unless Elsie asks. Book one of The Ravenscroft Archives is a sapphic gothic romance about magic with a price, for readers who love the darker history behind the Owens line. Available at all major retailers.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Immortal Witch × Mortal Skeptic, Gothic, Haunted Library, Dark Academia, Forced Proximity, Ask Me Nicely, Magic with a Price, She Falls First
Start reading The Witch in the West Wing →
Trad Gateways for Practical Magic Fans
If you want more in Alice Hoffman’s key before the heat goes up, these five are natural next reads. Heat varies from book to book, so check the details if that matters to you.
Garden Spells — Sarah Addison Allen
The closest trad match on this list. In Bascom, North Carolina, the Waverley women have always been a little different: Claire cooks with flowers from a garden with magic of its own, and the apple tree out back has strong opinions about who eats its fruit. When her estranged sister Sydney comes home with her young daughter, the two have to make peace with each other and with the family gift. Sisters, small-town gossip and quiet magic make this 2007 novel the pick for readers who loved Sally and Gillian more than the spells.
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches — Sangu Mandanna
Mika Moon is one of the only witches in Britain, and she has spent her life following the rules: hide your magic and never gather with other witches. Then she’s hired to tutor three young witches at a secluded estate called Nowhere House, where a prickly librarian named Jamie and a found family she never planned for make her want to stay. Mandanna’s 2022 novel sits at the coziest end of witchy romance, which makes it the perfect comfort read after an evening with the Owens aunts.
See The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches on Amazon →
The Ex Hex — Erin Sterling
Nine years ago, Vivienne Jones put a hex on the man who broke her heart. Now Rhys Penhallow is back in the witchy college town of Graves Glen, and the curse turns out to be very real and very inconvenient. It’s a romcom spin on the love curse and the first book in Erin Sterling’s Graves Glen series. Loved the premise? The Ex-Hex Next Door and The Ex-Hex of Hollow House give it two sapphic spins with far more heat.
Payback’s a Witch — Lana Harper
Emmy Harlow left Thistle Grove, a town built around old magical families, a long time ago. Called home for a high-stakes magical tournament, she ends up in a revenge pact with Talia Avila against the charming heir who wronged them both, and the revenge plot turns romantic fast. Book one of The Witches of Thistle Grove is sapphic, witchy and as cozy as a pumpkin patch.
See Payback’s a Witch on Amazon →
Kingdom of the Wicked — Kerri Maniscalco
Emilia is a Sicilian witch from a family that keeps its magic quiet and its rules strict, until her twin sister is murdered. Grief drives her toward the forbidden magic her grandmother warned her about and straight into an alliance with Wrath, one of the princes of Hell. It’s darker than anything else on this list, but readers who loved how far the Owens women will go for each other will feel right at home. Our guide to books like Kingdom of the Wicked has ten more witch-and-demon reads, and our list of books like The Coven goes deep on dark witch academia.
See Kingdom of the Wicked on Amazon →
Practical Magic Books in Order
Alice Hoffman’s Owens family series runs to four novels. Publication order is the best way in for first-time readers.
Publication Order
- Practical Magic (1995): sisters Sally and Gillian Owens grow up under the family curse and spend their adult lives trying to outrun it.
- The Rules of Magic (2017): a prequel following Franny, Jet and Vincent Owens, the aunts and their brother, in 1960s New York.
- Magic Lessons (2020): the origin story of Maria Owens in the 1600s, where the curse begins.
- The Book of Magic (2021): the finale, as the Owens women set out to break the curse for good.
Chronological Order
- Magic Lessons
- The Rules of Magic
- Practical Magic
- The Book of Magic
Chronological order makes a lovely reread, but start with Practical Magic if you’re new to the Owens women. The prequels land harder once you know where the family ends up.
FAQ: Books Like Practical Magic
What order should I read the Practical Magic books in?
Start with Practical Magic (1995), then read The Rules of Magic (2017), Magic Lessons (2020) and The Book of Magic (2021) in publication order. On a reread, try chronological order: Magic Lessons, The Rules of Magic, Practical Magic and The Book of Magic.
Is Practical Magic a romance?
Not strictly. It’s a novel about sisters, family and the cost of magic, with love stories woven through it rather than a single romance at its center, and the curse makes every relationship feel dangerous. If you want the witchy atmosphere with the love story front and center, every Fractal Enigma pick above delivers that and guarantees a happy ending.
What should I read after Practical Magic?
Stay with the Owens family through The Rules of Magic, or try Garden Spells for another pair of magical sisters in a small town. If you want books like Practical Magic with real heat, start with The Ex-Hex of Hollow House for a family curse on anyone a witch loves, or The Ex-Hex Next Door for a love spell gone wrong in a witchy small town.
Which witch romances are free with Kindle Unlimited?
The Witches of Clitwick is free with Kindle Unlimited, and you can start a Kindle Unlimited membership here. The Ex-Hex of Hollow House, The Witch in the West Wing and A Taste for the Widow are available at all major retailers, and The Ex-Hex Next Door book page lists its current purchase options. For more borrowable heat, see our roundup of the spiciest books on Kindle Unlimited.
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