It was the plot description of Jenn McKinlay’s Witches of Dubious Origin that inspired me to pick it up (and then realize I’d enjoyed another of her books in 2024, Love at First Book). With a librarian heroine, witches, and magic spells, this one is an entertaining and plot twisting cozy fantasy read.

Zoe Ziakas knows that her family history involves witches, but since her mother left her at boarding school with a promise extracted from her to never practice magic, she’s kept her life very non-magical and enjoys her current career as a librarian in a small town. That all changes when a mysterious book appears addressed to her in her mother’s handwriting, a book she stows away but discovers has magically followed her home. It’s locked and latched with no easy way to open it, and family friend Agatha (who raised Zoe as a teenager when Zoe’s mother never returned) recommends that she seek the advice of librarians in the Museum of Literature in New York City where there is a special collection of ‘Books of Dubious Origin’ (BODO). Zoe soon learns that the book can only be opened with drops of her blood on the lock as it’s a grimoire sealed with a blood oath. Upon opening the book, Zoe discovers page upon page of text that – to her – is unreadable.

Back home, Zoe is puzzling over what to do with the book when she gets a late night visitor, a woman named Eloise Tate who says she is a childhood friend of Zoe’s grandmother.
The woman appears to be in her fifties and Zoe soon learns that Eloise is one of the undead, a woman who died but whom her grandmother had brought back to life. Zoe’s mother (recently deceased) and grandmother were necromancers, witches who could re-animate the dead. Because Zoe is the last one of her ancestral line, Eloise is hoping that Zoe can use the spell in the grimoire to return her to the otherworld. But Eloise also reveals that Zoe’s mother may have been responsible for her, Eloise’s, murder.

With the help of the BODO staff from the New York museum, including a very handsome British librarian named Jasper Griffin, Zoe begins a quest to discover the truth of what happened to her mother and grandmother and to decipher the secrets in the book. Reclaiming her heritage as a witch won’t be easy, and it’s soon clear there are others desperate to get their hands on Zoe’s book. With the aid of her new friends, will Zoe be able to find the answers she seeks before it’s too late?

Ooh, this was such a fun read! I loved the description of the library in New York and their special collection (that includes a book on Norse mythology that is part cat!) and the idea that while knowledge is power, knowledge falling into the wrong hands can be disastrous. Zoe is followed periodically by a mysterious raven who appears to be her protector, but ghost pirates, undead Vikings, ghouls and other assorted supernatural beings make her journey fraught with danger. It’s an action packed story that has some good twists and turns (some predictable, some definitely not!). There is a subtle romance with Jasper that adds a sweet subplot to the story. As a standalone everything gets happily resolved, but I wouldn’t mind seeing this crew in action again. I’d definitely recommend Witches of Dubious Origin to readers looking for their next cozy fantasy adventure.