Like most people, I never got to read the edition of Tales from Rugosa Coven that was published in 2013, even though it won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award in 2015. When the rights reverted to author Sarah Avery, her blog said that it had only sold a few hundred copies, including print and ebooks. The book found a new home with publisher Candlemark & Gleam in 2025, and an updated and revised edition is now available for preorders, with the release set for Aug. 1. I have been privileged to read an eARC of this version, and it’s great! This is one of the most grounded-feeling urban fantasies I’ve ever read, with deeply developed characters whose real-life issues marvelously intertwine with the magic in their lives, featuring a strongly positive theme of a supportive, inclusive community.
Tales from Rugosa Coven comprises acknowledgments, an afterword, and three novellas: “Closing Arguments,” “And Ria’s From Virgo,” and “Atlantis Cranks Need Not Apply.” All of them are about members of the Rugosa Coven, a group of modern Witches or Wiccans living in New Jersey, and so the stories share characters, shifting protagonists and perspectives in each. Other characters, including other kinds of Pagans, Christians, and undeclareds, move in and out of the stories.
I really, really relish the richness of religious outlooks here, as diverse people work to respect each other’s beliefs and behaviors, networking to supply each other’s needs — although some antagonists decidedly do not share that frame of mind. I’m not a Pagan myself, but numerous people have commented on how well Avery portrays the community. (Some characters are highly ceremonial, some focus on auras and/or astrology, and some have other skills.) However, I didn’t have any trouble following what was happening, both because I’ve read widely and because Avery, as she says in her “What I Changed and Why” afterword, included more explanations and context for non-Pagans in this updated edition.
The plots of the novellas are really fun. From the publisher’s summary: Each novella tells the story of one of the coven’s members, beginning with the personal-injury lawyer who chose kitchen-witchery over his family’s long lineage of ceremonial magic. He’d like to miss his dead parents, only now that they’re dead they won’t leave him alone… Then there’s the professional fortuneteller, dressed in the height of Goth fashion and covered with silver amulets, who’s hiding an increasingly terrifying problem. And all the while, her covenmates think of her as comic relief. And finally there’s the reluctant Pagan, the coven’s resident skeptic, who will have to eat her words if her coven sister’s new boyfriend really does turn out to be from Atlantis.
I really identified with Bob, the first novella’s protagonist, who is horrified and mystified to discover that his recently deceased parents had developed a severe case of hoarding. Since I know what it’s like to try to pick a path through rooms full of boxes and papers, dealing with someone who claims that everything is important and nothing can be thrown away, reading this felt very authentic but also a little hard (although not as hard as Emma Newman’s Planetfall, which is great but which I had to take several runs at before I could finish it, for similar reasons). However, Bob has a sister and a wonderful set of friends in his coven, who support him in his early struggles with the estate and back him even more strongly when it turns out that there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye. There’s also a moving subplot about someone else in the coven who needs help at the same time. The story takes some wild turns that I wasn’t expecting at all, but because the beginning was so rooted in reality, I didn’t have any problem swallowing the supernatural swerves.
In the second novella, Ria’s private problem is complex. She’s ashamed of it and thinks she ought to be able to beat it by herself, so she’s tried to keep it a secret for years, keeping part of herself hidden while being defiantly herself in other ways. If she can just open up and ask for help from her friends and covenmates, however, she may find that she has the resources to save not just herself, but others. This is really empowering. In addition, this story has a lot of wry, character-based humor, as all of them do.
The main plot of the third novella is perhaps the most fantastical, but to me, what’s most important is the emotional journey that Jane takes, recovering from her own life traumas. She has had a semi-adversarial relationship with a covenmate for a long time, and they’re both trying to overcome bad habits of bickering with each other. (Avery says this is one of the other ways that she’s revised the book, making that relationship a little less fraught and a little more conscientiously generous.) She finds out that other people have been wary of her, too. Communication difficulties are one theme of this story, as the coven tries to deal with someone who initially doesn’t speak English. But it’s also about learning to make little, careful changes in your own behavior, and eventually personality, to improve your life in small ways as well as large, and help others find joy as well.
Rugosa roses, which this fictional coven is named after, are hardy shrubs that grow on beaches, even sand dunes. They smell sweet and grow large rose hips, along with their thorns; their tenacity helps them to hold those dunes together, resisting erosion. The way the Rugosa Coven sticks together, weathering emotional and supernatural storms, makes their name very apt.
Tales from the Rugosa Coven has a new cover along with the updates and revisions. The old cover features a nude, marble-white woman partially covered by strategically placed rose vines, sitting on a rock in the sea, and it’s beautiful. But I also adore the new cover, because it emphasizes the community element that is so important throughout the novel: There are rose vines at the top and bottom, but most of the cover is a midnight blue; while staring at it, the swirls of color resolve into a stylized sketch of a circle of people holding hands — the coven. It’s lovely.
Tales from Rugosa Coven: Updated & Revised Edition is available for preorder through the usual online locations.
Content warnings: Hoarding, alcoholism, domestic abuse, obsessive compulsive disorder, religious discrimination, dismissive bickering, and ant and sea lice infestations.
Disclaimers: A relative of mine is a friend of Sarah Avery; I’ve had a couple of meals and cordial conversations with her IRL. I’ve also had several friendly exchanges with Candlemark & Gleam’s proprietor, Melissa Scott, on social media and in email.
