Patricia Elzie-Tuttle is a writer, podcaster, librarian, and information fanatic who appreciates potatoes in every single one of their beautiful iterations. Patricia earned a B.A. in Creative Writing and Musical Theatre from the University of Southern California and an MLIS from San Jose State University. Her weekly newsletter, Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice offers self-improvement and mental health advice, essays, and resources that pull from her experience as a queer, Black, & Filipina person existing in the world. She is also doing the same on the Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice Podcast. More of her written work can also be found in Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy edited by Kelly Jensen, and, if you’re feeling spicy, in Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 4 edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. Patricia has been a Book Riot contributor since 2016 and is currently co-host of the All the Books! podcast and one of the weekly writers of the Read This Book newsletter. She lives in Oakland, CA on unceded Ohlone land with her wife and a positively alarming amount of books. Find her on her Instagram, Bluesky, and LinkTree.
Today’s book recommendation is a new release fantasy that is diverse, queer, and laugh-out-loud hilarious. This witchy read is about found family and making your own path in a society that underestimates you. I am fascinated with the magical system in this book and its possibilities (and implications). With a main character in her twenties, the author really captures that time of life where you might not know what you want to do but you definitely know what you don’t want to do.
An Unlikely Coven by AM Kvita
Joan Greenwood hasn’t been home to New York from university in seven years. This is by design, because she’s not super stoked to see her family and she’s pretty sure her they’ve mostly forgotten about her. The Greenwoods are the most powerful witch family in New York City, which is incredibly awkward because Joan is absolutely terrible at magic.
In this book, witches aren’t the only ones with magic. There are also the Moon Creatures, which is an umbrella term for the fae and vampires, the other largest groups of magical beings. Then there are myriad other magical creatures like harpies, dryads, banshees, etc., that are smaller in number and mostly keep to themselves. The witches, though, have most of the political power and they set the rules for everyone. All of this takes place alongside the millions of humans in New York City as well, the humans just don’t know it.
Joan’s best friend is CZ, who is part of the ruling vampire family and of course, the Greenwoods aren’t happy about that either. Being a witch is genetic and you are born into a witch family, or you have a witch parent or maybe a grandparent. Humans don’t suddenly become witches or train or anything like that—except word is going around that there is a human with magic, meaning a witch or moon creature gave them magic. This is, as far as anyone knows, impossible.
So now the magical world is in a frenzy, trying to find this human, who did this, how they did it, and of course, making this a wild power-grab as well. The Greenwoods are at the center of this search because anyone who wields the power to grant magic can challenge their authority.
Meanwhile, CZ has a bit of a problem. Actually, it’s a big problem that is magical-human-shaped, and he’s making it Joan’s problem.
In Reading Color
A weekly newsletter focusing on literature by and about people of color!
This was an incredibly fun read from start to finish!
That’s it for now, book-lovers!
Patricia
English (US) · 