Tales of a Midlife Witch Books in Order

Tales of a Midlife Witch is paranormal women's fiction with a strong romantic thread, but the series is really about rebuilding a life that has been badly damaged. The heroine at the center, Aran, is not beginning from a position of strength. She is beginning from betrayal, anger, lost time, and the hard work of trying to reclaim herself.

That is what makes the series bite.

Aran wanted a solid magical life, a husband, a child, useful work, and some peace. What she got instead was a demon-hunter ex-husband, prison, a daughter who does not fully trust her, and the kind of supernatural complications that make ordinary midlife stress look easy. The prequel, 40 Ways to Make Me Sigh, lays out that damage. From there, books such as 40 Ways to Say Goodbye, 40 Ways to Lose a Guy, 40 Ways to Tell a Lie, 40 Ways to Catch a Bad Guy, 40 Ways to Alibi, and 40 Ways to Watch Me Die carry the fallout forward.

The series has a lot going on. There are familiars, guardians, demons, witches, magical councils, family secrets, and magical politics that never stay politely in the background. Aran's familiar, Conn, is a major presence, and her tangled ties to her ex, her daughter, and the wider magical world give the books more continuity than a simple case-by-case paranormal series would have.

What keeps it grounded is Aran herself. She is midlife, tired, funny, and not interested in acting grateful for the mess she inherited. McDonald uses that voice well. The books can get adventurous, but they never lose sight of the smaller personal questions underneath all the magic, how do you trust again, how do you parent through damage, how do you stop living in reaction to the person who hurt you, and how do you become the version of yourself you still want to be?

Later books widen the world further. 30 Ways to Fool an Angel even shifts the perspective outward, hinting at how the next generation gets pulled into the same magical inheritance.

If you want Donna McDonald at her most clearly paranormal women's fiction, this is the series to try. It has humor, romance, magical action, and a heroine whose biggest battle is learning that survival is not the same thing as living.