Paranormal fantasy: The Late-Night Witches by Auralee Wallace

"You'll fall deeply in love with this enchanting and cozy book, so much so that you’ll want to return to it every fall just to experience it again!"—New York Times bestselling author Breanne Randall

The Late-Night Witches
by Auralee Wallace
August 19, 2025
Genre: contemporary fantasy, paranormal, action fantasy
An enchantingly warm and funny novel about family, love lost and found, discovering who you are, and how difficult it is to slay a vampire from the beloved national bestselling author of the TikTok sensation In the Company of Witches.

Cassie Beckett’s life is anything but magical. With a wild younger sister, three unruly kids, and an absent husband, she’s really not looking forward to the witching month of October. At least the gorgeous, foggy Prince Edward Island is always quiet.

That is, until the vampires arrive.

As the creatures sink their teeth into Cassie’s tenuous grip on normalcy, she’s forced to come face-to-face with long–disregarded family secrets. The legacy gifts her with power, but also a lofty responsibility: rid the island of vampires, or let them win. (Both options suck, in more ways than one.)

Armed with her family, newfound friends, and a baby in a spectacularly garlicky onesie, Cassie must learn what it is to be a witch and how to fight for what she loves before time runs out. Because on Halloween night, the stakes will be higher than ever before...and it’s up to Cassie to finish what the witches that came generations before her started. 

Early Praise for THE LATE-NIGHT WITCHES
“A spellbinding adventure of real heart and humour. The Late-Night Witches is packed with fun nostalgia, a picturesque autumn setting, and loveable characters that I was rooting for from the very first Jack O’Lantern. I loved spending Halloween with the Beckett witches!”
—Lucy Jane Wood, author of Rewitched

Amazon

 

Praise for In the Company of Witches
“Fans of the paranormal will enjoy the series debut of the Warrens, who go way beyond quirky.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“More than just a grown-up riff on Sabrina the Teenage Witch in the form of a charming cozy murder mystery, In the Company of Witches is a surprisingly thoughtful meditation on family, forgiveness, and grief.”
—Criminal Element

“This is the perfect blend of mystery, magic, and mayhem.”
—New York Times bestselling author Sofie Kelly

“A fun and compelling mystery…. A welcome addition to the magical cozy genre.”
—New York Times bestselling author Juliet Blackwell

About the Author
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Auralee Wallace is the author of multiple novels, including the Otter Lake mystery series and the Evenfall Witches B&B Mysteries. She has an undergraduate degree in psychology and a master’s degree in English literature, and she worked in the publishing industry for a number of years before teaching at the college level. When this perpetually sleep-deprived mother of three children and one rescue cat isn’t writing, reading, or playing soccer, she can be found watching BBC mysteries and warring with a family of peregrine falcons for the rights to her backyard. 

Book Review: Sidekick by Auralee Wallace

Sidekick
by Auralee Wallace

Heroes meets Bridget Jones in this brilliant, hilarious debut novel about a girl who just wants to save the world...

Bremy St James, daughter of billionaire Atticus St James, has been cut off from the family fortune and is struggling to survive in a world that no longer holds its breath every time she buys a new outfit. To make matters worse, her twin sister is keeping secrets, loan sharks are circling, and the man of her dreams — a newspaper reporter — is on assignment to bring down everyone with the last name St James.

Things are certainly looking bleak for the down-and-out socialite until a good deed throws her into the path of the city’s top crime-fighter, Dark Ryder. Suddenly, Bremy has a new goal: apprentice to a superhero, and start her own crime-fighting career.

Ryder has no need for a sidekick, but it turns out the city needs Bremy’s help. Atticus St James is planning the crime of the century, and Bremy may be the only one able to get close enough to her father to stop him.

Now all she needs to do is figure out this superhero thing in less than a month, keep her identity secret from the man who could very well be The One, and save the city from total annihilation.

Well, no one ever said being a superhero would be easy

In my research to find out more about Sidekick and if it was slated to be a standalone novel or part of a series, I happened on the author's website. She had a header section that discusses why she writes in stereotypes and suddenly the light finely came on. Sidekick is a light, at times silly tale with characters that are often "stereotypical" in their behaviors. The protagonist, Bremy, is the daughter of a billionaire and for some reason has been cut off and suddenly thrust out into the real world on her own. Her only goals are to pay her rent and be a superhero; barring reaching full superhero status perhaps the assistant to Dark Rider and help take down her corrupt father. It is still unclear why she suddenly left the pampered fold to venture out on her own, which obviously was out of character for her, maybe I missed it somewhere. 

There is plenty of action and lots of villains to be thwarted, as well as a little crushing going on. The story is often hilarious, boarding on the ridiculous, yet something about Bremy and all her bumbling into one disaster after another makes her endearing. I am still not clear if this is meant to be a one-shot wonder or if it is the beginning of a series or trilogy, but I do think that if there was a promise of more to come that would perhaps answer the questions I felt were never really resolved, I would feel more charitable about this tale. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the story and found myself chuckling not just a few times in the reading of the tale, but there just seemed to be a little bit of helter-skelter going on in the telling that kept me from saying this is a really great read. I will keep an eye out for more to come and reserve further judgment until then. I received this book via NetGalley.

3.75 sheep

DeniseZ

About the Author:

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Auralee Wallace is an author of humorous commercial women’s fiction and occasional guest blogger at Penny Dreadful Books and Reviews http://pennydreadfulbooks.me/. She is a member of the RWA, and her debut novel, Sidekick, a superhero urban fantasy, placed as a finalist in the Virginia Fool for Love Contest, The TARA Contest and The Catherine. Sidekick has been picked up by Harlequin’s Escape Publishing and is due for release June 1st, 2014. Auralee has an undergraduate degree in psychology, a Master’s degree in English literature and has worked in the publishing industry for a number of years before teaching at the college level.

Auralee has always been fascinated by the power of stereotypes in terms of race, gender, and disability and how those beliefs colour our understanding of the world and of each other.

When this semi-natural blonde mother of three children and three rescue cats isn’t writing or playing soccer, she can be found watching soap operas with lurid fascination and warring with a family of peregrine falcons for the rights to her backyard.