Cherie Dimaline, the author of such books as EMPIRE OF WILD and THE MARROW THIEVES, is back with VENCO. This inventive, beautifully imagined novel encompasses the beginning of witchcraft through the Salem witch trials and into today’s corporate America.

Lucky St. James’ life has been anything but lucky. Born to a drug-addicted mother and a father who was lost "down an opioid drain hole," Lucky has been raised on the mantra that she belongs to her mother, Arnya, and no one else --- except her father’s mother, Stella. Lucky has lived with Stella since her mother’s untimely death from cancer. In recent years, that has meant eating cereal, listening to high-volume sitcoms, and watching as Stella descends into Alzheimer’s…or something that looks a lot like it.

"Propulsive, fun and effortlessly engaging, VENCO is everything that a modern-day witchy novel should be: unflinching, skewering and undeniably magical."

Lucky has learned that their building has been sold. She must choose between telling Stella and finding subpar housing, or letting her fall into the country’s care, which would be an even more heartless option. While she is figuring out what to do, she finds a mysterious spoon in the depths of their building, one that indicates a history in Salem, Massachusetts, and a dark past. Soon after, she encounters a glamorous woman who has a writing job for her, one that she has coveted for years.

There’s just one catch: While VenCo is a highly connected, deeply resourced community of women powerhouses, it also happens to be a literal coven of witches. They include Meena, a descendent of one of the Salem witches; Wendy, her Indigenous wife; Morticia, a goth; Lettie, a young Creole mother; and Freya, a transwoman from a fundamentalist background. The coven is ready to welcome both Lucky and Stella into the fold, but their family will not survive unless Lucky unearths the seventh witch to complete their circle. No one knows who she is --- she could be anywhere in North America --- and Lucky must find her before the clock winds down.

If the worst should happen, then centuries of witchery, spell-casting and premonitions will fail, leaving both North America and the witchy world at large at the whims of the Benandanti. These men from religious, political and financial walks of life have hunted witchy women since the Spanish Inquisition. Despite the powers and communities the coven holds, the clock is ticking and a long-held enemy is rising: Jay Christos, one of the original Benandanti, now immortal and angry as heck. Jay will do nothing to stop the witches from forming the strongest coven known to man. He has his own immortality to back him up, while the women have only decades of secrecy, secret communications and their own wits.

As Lucky is introduced to VenCo, she must look into her own dark past to determine how magic found her and how she can use it. As she forms a bond with an unlikely cast of women, she will examine not only what it means to be a woman, but what it means to be a woman who looks inside herself and considers every intuition...be it natural, learned or imagined. With the clock ticking and Jay descending upon --- and murdering --- friends of the North American coven even while Lucky learns to identify her kin, the cat-and-mouse game of a lifetime ensues, with all of humanity at stake.

Propulsive, fun and effortlessly engaging, VENCO is everything that a modern-day witchy novel should be: unflinching, skewering and undeniably magical. The witches of Dimaline’s creation are recognizable from modern-day lore, but they wield an understanding of humanity, nature and everything in between that feels undeniably fresh and powerful.

This is the aspirational and inspirational novel that women everywhere should consider a must-read. It’s not just Harry Potter for grown-ups; it’s an empowering call for community, femininity, and the magic that exists in every interaction, brush with identity and feeling of being seen. VENCO will have you appreciating your strengths, championing your female friends, and dreaming of your own coven --- be it colleagues, sisters and cousins, or women in your neighborhood.