I'll admit that I picked up this series because I knew I'd need a little help with #Bookrace 2023, given all the shit going on in my life this year, and five urban fantasy novellas seemed pretty good.

The town of Lychford seems like an ordinary English village on the surface, but it is in fact at the crossroads of many worlds. And now a terrible force plans to break the ancient barriers that allow peaceful transit across the realms and create chaos. It's up to three women to stop them: Judith, the elderly actual witch, and Lizzie and Autumn, two former friends who drifted apart when Lizzie became a vicar and Autumn spent a year with the fairies. To save the universe, these three women will have to manipulate the forces of magic to... defeat a local vote about building a new supermarket chain with a triangular logo!


fictional characters depicted etc etc

The mix of magical high-stakes and small town politics works wonderfully. Sovo, the adversary, of course isn't just about discount groceries and ongoing austerity. The corporation is the front for something larger, darker, and far more arcane. The three women and their relationships and traumas are also wonderfully depicted. The magic is, well, it's fine and sufficiently weird. Urban fantasy isn't really my thing, but this does enough new that I'm enjoying it.