Witch Ways
4 primary works • 8 total works 5 total works planned
Book 1
The Way sisters, Anna, Charlie and Emz, were raised in two worlds. Their mother’s realm of reason, measurement and logic, and the world inhabited by their spectacularly unconventional grandmother, Hettie.
While their mother worked, the sisters ran wild at Hettie’s Cob Cottage, discovering forbidden Pike Lake, unknowable Havoc Wood, and what their grandmother referred to only as ‘The Strengths’.
But time passed, the sisters grew up, work and relationships and their mother’s world won them over, and The Strengths lay forgotten…
That is until Hettie passes away suddenly, leaving behind Cob Cottage and a whole lot of questions.
Anna is busy trying very hard not to cry as she caters yet another wedding, Charlie is spending more time at the job she loves than with the boyfriend she’s not quite sure about and Emz is dreaming up new ways to avoid school and the drama that comes with it, but can they deal with strange guests, unexpected danger and some long-forgotten memories?
Book 2
The Witch Ways are back.
“You’re the Ways. The Gamekeepers. You must know.”
But the problem is they don’t. After being thrust into a life of magic, Anna, Charlie, and Emz have lost their way. They don’t know where they’re supposed to be, what they’re supposed to be doing, or who they’re supposed to trust. Right now, they’re just trying to get by.
Struggling to accept their powers, the sisters are doing all they can to lead a normal life, but with the anniversary of Halloween looming everyone is on edge.
When a stranger arrives on their doorstep, they know a different magic is in the air. The Ways realise they must embrace their Strengths if they have any hope of doing the job Hettie left behind.
With dark magic crackling through the town and leaking into the lives of people they love, the Ways must find themselves before they lose everything.
Book 3
Boughs bent, limbs sprang. Havoc Wood had never seemed so alive.
After a toxic Halloween wreaked havoc on the Wood, the Way sisters are left shaken. Thinking they had gained some control over their powers, now they aren’t sure they’re cut out to be the Gamekeepers.
The sisters are scared, insecure, and in no position to handle the Old Magic hovering in every corner of Woodcastle.
Ancient and electric, this new foe is always one step ahead, and The Ways must finally harness their Strengths… or risk losing one of their own.
In this third instalment of The Witch Ways series, bets are hedged, bargains are made, magic is borrowed, and debts must be paid.
Book 4
Helen Slavin’s Crow Heart is the fourth installment in her enchanting Witch Ways series.
‘She thought she had been clever; only now did she realise what payment would come due. Magic took as much as it gave.‘
After yet another tragic autumn, the Way sisters have needed a bit of space. Away from Cob Cottage, away from the Wood, and away from the horrors Havoc can bring.
But when spring brings a touch of light to their gloom, a strange magic appears along with it. As Charlie, Emz, and Anna rebuild their lives and reestablish their roles as Gamekeepers, they are faced with a power far more personal than they ever have before.
In a dangerous game of cat and mouse, the sisters begin to realise just how far Havoc really reaches and how far they must go to protect not just Havoc Wood, but Woodcastle itself.
In the penultimate novel in their saga, the Way sisters learn that the past has more secrets than they imagined. Now they must confront their own deep grief in order to face an old foe intent on dredging everything back up to get what she wants: rule – solitary and solid – over Havoc Wood.
She wondered, sometimes, if the most cruel and dangerous things were those that did not live in Havoc Wood.
Step, if you would, out of Havoc and into the treacherous worlds around it. You might find a market. You might find a kingdom. You might find a place where magic is taboo.
Hettie Way is no stranger to these other places, but when a child, stamped with spells, is stolen from that world and whisked to Woodcastle, she’s not the only trouble that arrives…
The Hedgehog Child, a Witch Ways Whisper, is a prequel to the Witch Ways Series.
When Vanessa Way leaves home in search of adventure and, dare she say it, her destiny, she leaves a lot behind. An unconventional mother who she’s sure is keeping secrets, a wood where time and light don’t quite follow the rules, and a backyard lake dwelling giant fish that the whole town seems hell bent on capturing.
Lachlan Laidlaw is a student of the unexplained and the inconvenient; some call it ghost hunting, most call it nonsense, but Lachlan knows that there is something else there, lurking at the borders of things. He also knows that he belongs Elsewhere, away from his small town and beyond the stuffy halls of academia. Somewhere cold where the snow lies deep white.
They head off in search of something more, both blissfully unaware of what that may be, of each other, and of the darkness their destinies hold.
This novella, The Ice King, is a sneak peek at the offbeat world of the Ways.
In this captivating collection of her Witch Ways Whispers, Helen Slavin deftly weaves tales of the twisted and surreal, the fated and the damned.
In Whyte Harte, you’ll find Hartfield Hall pitted against Cob Cottage and learn how Hettie Way read fate and future in the cold blue waters of Pike Lake. Wade in and see just how deep and tangled the roots of Havoc and Leap Woods really are…
Then travel to the bitter cold of the icy white Arctic in The Ice King. Join Vanessa Way as she tries to escape the secrets and uncertainties of the bewitched woods she calls home only to find she can’t outrun the darkness of her destiny.
Back in Woodcastle, Breaking Bones finds change afoot in Havoc Wood. A marriage is proposed, blessings are given, but this isn’t a story of happily ever afters. Owls hoot, bones break, and there are debts to be paid…
This box set includes the novellas The Ice King and Breaking Bones as well as the brand new (and exclusive to this edition) prequel, Whyte Harte.
PRAISE FOR HELEN SLAVIN
“a born writer… the ultimate needle in a haystack” – Susan Hill, author of The Woman in Black
“a highly original talent” – Beryl Bainbridge
Change is afoot in Havoc Wood. Vanessa moves out of the Way sister’s childhood home, Charlie and Aron never seem to be on the same page anymore, Emz is fully engrossed in her job at Prickles nature reserve, and, in the midst of it all, Calum has gotten the approval from Hettie Way to ask Anna to marry him.
Owls hoot, bones break, and there are debts to be paid in Havoc Wood that may cost the Ways any happily ever afters…
Breaking Bones, the second Witch Ways Whisper, is a prequel to the Witch Ways Series.