The opening phrase for Meg Shaffer’s latest novel, The Book Witch, “All stories are love stories when you love stories,” proves to be true in so many ways. Full of love, fun, magic, and intrigue, The Book Witch is yet another must-read from Shaffer, who is showing that adventures are limitless and love is endless when you’ve got a good book by your side.
Rainy March is a third-generation book witch, a defender of fictional works, able to hop into and out of novels. Unlike her mother before her, however, Rainy doesn’t always have the approval of Dr. Fanshawe, the strict and disapproving coven leader. Rainy is typically given the easier mysteries to solve, but when her grandfather is unable to take on an assignment in one of the Duke of Chicago’s cozy mysteries, Rainy knows she’s the gal for the job.
Unfortunately, her encounter with the Duke, a character she’s been in love with for years, may prove Dr. Fanshawe right instead of wrong. Although their trysts are found off the page and between the lines of the Duke’s successful detective stories and Rainy’s real life, it all comes crashing down when Dr. Fanshawe discovers their secret romance and makes sure Rainy gets relegated to Gothic romances and loses her magical umbrella — nevermind getting to see the Duke again.
Then, Rainy’s grandfather goes missing, as does the one and only keepsake Rainy’s mother left her before she died — a copy of their favorite Nancy Drew novel. Rainy yearns for her detective and favorite person (fictional or no) to be by her side. And because she is a book witch, she gets what she wants.
When Rainy and Duke, along with Rainy’s familiar Koshka, embark on a hunt for her missing grandfather and Nancy Drew novel, they are swept from one story to the next, from one setting to the next. Burners (antagonists who attack books, erasing their plots and characters because they believe some books are less valuable and worthwhile than others); mad tea parties; visits to Gatsby’s mansion; and other obstacles are rampant, because what’s a good mystery without interference and toiling?
And then, naturally, comes a major plot twist that even the most well-versed reader won’t see coming.
Amidst the magical, whimsical, and entertaining elements of The Book Witch flows a deeper current that grabs hold of the reader: that stories are a vital component of the human experience. “Scientists have proven that reading fiction makes people more empathic, improves their disposition and emotional intelligence,” Rainy says. “People, in other words, need stories. But stories also need people.”
In short, books can and should change lives. As Rainy also says, “Every reader can recall a book that stayed with them for hours or days or even weeks after they’d closed the cover. They think about the book even when they’re not reading it, not realizing that the book is also thinking about them.”
Readers all know the yearning, the intrusive thoughts, the ache for more — the feeling of longing after the book has been finished. Characters have a way of carving their way into our hearts, and plot points drive our thoughts in all directions. Rainy says it best: “It happens to most of us if we’re lucky enough. The fictional characters we love stamp their names on our hearts. They show us how to fight our battles, how to change, how to make it to page three hundred a different person than we were on page one.”
We should all be so lucky to become more informed and to evolve, all in the span of three hundred pages, because a book was just that good.
In a world fraught with destruction and death, abrasiveness and abuse, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds. But books remind us that we’re not alone. They are fun and charming and allow a person to escape, all while giving voice to those who normally wouldn’t be heard and holding up a mirror to many who feel unseen.
It doesn’t have to be Gothic romance or existential philosophy or reverent literary fiction to make an impact on a person or to be worth the read. If a story is written and something or someone resonates with you, then it’s more than worth the read. Just ask Rainy March.
The Book Witch
By Meg Shaffer
Ballantine Books
Published April 7, 2026
Southern Review of Books 