April Aasheim Books in Order
Browse April Aasheim books in order, from Dark Root to Reed Hollow, with quick summaries, series guides, and simple advice on where to start.
Last updated: July 4, 2026
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Publication Order
23 books
The Universe is a Very Big Place
by April Aasheim
2012
Spring Ryan wants a normal life far from her carnival roots, but vanished boyfriends, a chaotic mother, and one awkward job after another keep getting in the way. It is a warm, offbeat romance about love, timing, and starting over.
The Witches of Dark Root
by April Aasheim
2012
Maggie Maddock never wanted the witchy life waiting for her in Dark Root. When she is called home after years away, she finds an ailing mother, tangled sister drama, and a town that has lost its magick.
The Magick of Dark Root
by April Aasheim
2014
Maggie and her sisters are training to lead the council, but money troubles and Miss Sasha's worsening illness push them into risky magick. Their plan to fix things quickly opens the door to trouble.
A Dark Root Christmas
by April Aasheim
2015
In this holiday prequel, young Merry Maddock makes a Christmas wish that stirs up trouble and wonder in Dark Root. It is a smaller, warmer visit to the town, with family feeling and early hints of its magick.
The Council of Dark Root
by April Aasheim
2015
Before Maggie's time, a different council stood between Dark Root and the dark to come. This companion novella follows the warlock Armand as pleasure, power, and a dangerous new future pull him into the town's deeper fate.
The Curse of Dark Root: Part One
by April Aasheim
2015
A malicious curse puts Maggie and her unborn child in danger, and the only clues lie in crystal globes filled with buried memories. To survive, she must uncover Dark Root's past and her own place in it.
The Good Girl's Guide to Being a Demon
by April Aasheim
2015
Cassie Walker starts losing time, seeing shadows, and growing horns, then returns home to learn what she is becoming. A childhood friend and the annual Demon Run pull her into danger before she can decide what to fear most.
A Dark Root Halloween
by April Aasheim
2016
Long before Maggie's story, the dark witch Larinda sees a troubling future in her crystal ball and heads toward a Samhain party she was not invited to. This short prequel offers a sharp glimpse of early Dark Root tensions.
The Curse of Dark Root: Part Two
by April Aasheim
2016
Dark Root is unraveling, Shane is gone, ghosts are restless, and Maggie's curse is far from over. As hidden history keeps surfacing, the town's haunted past closes in on the present.
The Shadows of Dark Root
by April Aasheim
2017
Maggie's newborn has been taken into the Netherworld, and she has only days to get the child back. The rescue sends Maggie and her allies through dangerous realms where old secrets finally come into the light.
Touch of Light
by April Aasheim
2017
Baylee Scott can read other people's memories with a touch, which is one reason she fled Reed Hollow. When strange lights and missing women drag her into a local mystery, she must work with family, ghosts, and her own uneasy gift.
A Dark Root Samhain
by April Aasheim
2018
As Samhain approaches, young Merry faces one last Dark Root Halloween before life changes around her. This short story leans into family, ritual, and the town's bittersweet seasonal magick.
Inherited Magick
by April Aasheim
2018
Several years after the Netherworld, Dark Root seems peaceful and Maggie is raising two powerful children. But a strange key, ghostly visitors, and trouble in the woods prove the town's quiet season will not last.
Touch of Shadow
by April Aasheim
2018
Psychic Baylee Scott is about to turn thirty when missing objects, rat-like creatures, and the mayor's death throw Reed Hollow into chaos. To solve it, her gifted family must follow the shadows before someone else pays the price.
Gifted Magick
by April Aasheim
2019
During Winter Solstice season, Dark Root is full of missing memories, lurking hellhounds, and a strange newcomer who may connect it all. Maggie turns to old scrolls and the Deciphering Stone for answers.
Alchemy of a Witch: Part One
by April Aasheim
2020
When plague and fear sweep the land, Morgan's mother is arrested for witchcraft and Morgan becomes a fugitive. Armed with a strange book and stone, she escapes into the Great Forest and toward the hidden roots of Dark Root lore.
Alchemy of a Witch: Part Two
by April Aasheim
2020
Morgan survives the forest only to enter a wider world of alchemists, old magick, and dangerous hunters. As she learns whom to trust, her mother's heirlooms begin to reveal how large her role may be.
The Mystery of Ice Pond Road
by April Aasheim
2020
A century ago, three Dark Root children vanished, and the mystery still lingers. This eerie side story heads into old legends, buried grief, and one of the town's coldest secrets.
Abracadabra and Alchemy
by April Aasheim
2021
Long ago, Sasha Shantay hid a secret school for witches when darkness closed in. Now forgotten memories return, and Maggie, Ruth Anne, and Eve start digging into Dark Root's past before vital knowledge is lost.
Alchemy of a Witch: Part Four
by April Aasheim
2021
After witnessing Alistair's hanging, Morgan hides with a hedge witch and agrees to become her apprentice. But Jaffrey now has a powerful ring and dark servants, and he may use a Samhain witch-burning to force Morgan into the open.
Alchemy of a Witch: Part Three
by April Aasheim
2021
Morgan's flight from witch hunters leads her deeper into forbidden knowledge, uneasy alliances, and the cost of power. The third part widens the world while keeping her survival at the center.
Bloodlines and Bindings
by April Aasheim
2022
With demons loose in Dark Root and the Final Trial underway, Maggie and the council scramble to protect the town. Old bloodlines, buried secrets, and a new generation of witches raise the stakes fast.
Constellations and Candles
by April Aasheim
2022
Dark Root's witches push deeper into the Final Trial as prophecy, family ties, and old magick collide. It carries the series' mix of supernatural suspense, sisterly friction, and hidden history.
Where should I start?
If you want the core Dark Root story: The Witches of Dark Root → The Magick of Dark Root → The Curse of Dark Root: Part One → The Curse of Dark Root: Part Two
If you want the sequel series: Inherited Magick → Gifted Magick → The Mystery of Ice Pond Road
If you want the historical prequel: Alchemy of a Witch: Part One → Alchemy of a Witch: Part Two → Alchemy of a Witch: Part Three → Alchemy of a Witch: Part Four
If you want the late Dark Root books: Abracadabra and Alchemy → Bloodlines and Bindings → Constellations and Candles
Author bio
April Aasheim was born in Las Vegas and grew up in a big, restless family as the second oldest of six children. Her childhood moved around the Southwest, especially Nevada and Arizona, with a fortune-telling mother and a stepfather who chased one scheme after another.
It gave her plenty to write about.
She has said those early years included time on the carnival circuit, stretches in unusual places like a ghost town, and the kind of everyday talk about tarot cards, curses, and spirits that most kids only hear in stories. That mix of odd jobs, strange settings, and larger-than-life adults shows up all through her fiction. It is there in her witchy books, of course, but also in the way she writes family chaos with warmth instead of distance.
Aasheim knew early what she wanted. She has said that even in first grade, when teachers asked what she wanted to be, she answered the same way every time, a novelist. Life did not hand her an easy straight line to that goal, though. She worked her way through college, held full-time jobs that included waitressing and teaching preschool, and wrote at night when the rest of the day was done.
For a long time, writing had to fit around everything else.
What changed was not a sudden lucky break, but a steady sharpening of voice. A community writing class in Hillsboro helped her stop trying to sound like other writers and start sounding like herself. She kept taking classes, joined writers' groups, cut back her day job when she could, and kept writing until the work started to match the ambition. Her 2012 debut, The Universe is a Very Big Place, showed the funny, offbeat side of her style with a romantic comedy about a young woman trying to outrun her carnival past and build something normal.
Soon after came The Witches of Dark Root, the novel that really opened up her world. Aasheim has said that book grew out of missing her siblings after moving from Arizona to Portland and thinking about family drama through a paranormal lens. What if four daughters had to come home to deal with their difficult mother, only the mother was a coven leader and the daughters were witches? That idea became the foundation for the wider Dark Root universe, including The Magick of Dark Root, The Shadows of Dark Root, the prequel line that begins with Alchemy of a Witch: Part One, and the later Miss Sasha's School of Magick books.
Readers usually come to Aasheim for more than spells and ghosts. Her stories mix paranormal stakes with sister fights, old wounds, love trouble, family loyalty, and small towns packed with secrets. Even outside Dark Root, in books like Touch of Light, Touch of Shadow, and The Good Girl's Guide to Being a Demon, she returns to the same things: unusual gifts, messy people, and the feeling that the supernatural is never far from ordinary life.
She lives in Oregon, in the Portland area, with her family, and for years readers also knew her cat Boots as part of the household. In recent years she has written for the stage as well as the page, but the thread is the same. She likes women's stories, she likes the paranormal, and she likes characters who feel a little too strange, too stubborn, or too wounded to fit neatly anywhere else.
That may be why her books feel lived in. Even at their witchiest, they are grounded in people first.
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