Just So Stories

Simon & Schuster

November 2025

• Publisher: Atria Australia (November 25, 2025)
• ISBN13: 9781761635267
• LIST PRICE: AU$ 34.99 / NZ$ 39.99

It absolutely is not a Christmas themed book but it would make a great gift for a YA/NA reader in your circle because aside from anything else, it’s SO pretty! Look at those sprayed page edges!! But it is also a nice light rom-com read AND there’s plenty of cats!

Thorn Scarhart is a 17th century witch fast approaching 40 and still with no husband – which to her mind is a complete catastrophe. She has been alone for much of her life, both sister and mother dying when she was a mere child. Since then she’s fended for herself in her little cottage in the woods and though there was one romantic interlude in her early 20s, that just didn’t work out and since then, zero … She’s desperate to find herself a man.

But when her new potion propels her into the 21st century, it’s not just her cottage that’s different. What in the world is going on in this crazy time? At least her familiar, Bandit, is with her and so, apparently, are a couple of stray cats she finds loitering outside her cottage door who warn her about the ‘mad warlock’ who does abominable things to cats.

Enter handsome vet, Walls, along with his sister, Meg, who works with the local historical society responsible for preserving and doing guide tours in Thorn’s own cottage. Thorn’s romp in modern times as she takes on the role of ‘resident witch’ in her own home for tourists, and still tries – fruitlessly- to find herself a man are a laugh a minute. Of curse – I mean, course – we all can foretell that the true love will be Walls but Thorn is a little slower on the uptake than the rest of us.

Meanwhile, she blunders her way through dating apps and speed-dating, complete with sleazy guys and dick-pics, while also becoming aware she’s not the only witch in town, nor is her memory of the past accurate. Something is wrong somewhere.

So it’s humour, romance, intrigue, danger, a good hard look at the pitfalls of modern dating and more humour [and shhhhhh! the author Cecilia is actually our own Remy Lai!]. That all makes for a great recipe for some Christmas holiday reading – take it to the beach with you! It gets a 4 🧙🏻‍♀️🔮 🐈‍⬛ 🌙from me for readers late-teens upwards.