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Andrea Catalano

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5 min read

Our age bandAdult
Reader rating
4.3 · 38,271 Amazon ratings
reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
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Our review

The First Witch of Boston

The First Witch of Boston Review: Marriage on Trial (Andrea Catalano)

by Andrea Catalano

Andrea Catalano's The First Witch of Boston dramatises Margaret Jones, executed for witchcraft in Massachusetts in 1648, through her husband Thomas finding her journal. Reviewers praise its courtroom tension and research but split over its explicit love scenes and thin characters.

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Our age band: Adultrape as a major plot element · capital punishment (an execution)

LuvemBooks Verdict

Best for

Readers who want a witch-trial novel built around a long marriage rather than a courtroom puzzle, told with emotional directness and a known ending.

Worth it if

Worth reading if you come for the couple's push and pull and the mechanics of how gossip and evidence convicted a woman, and can accept explicit scenes and a foregone conclusion.

Skip if

Skip it if you want a fast, twisty plot, deep secondary characters or sparing sexual content, since reviewers found the writing average, the characters thin in places, and the sex scenes repetitive or jarring.

Reception is split rather than uniformly warm. The Historical Novel Society's review praised the world-building and called the marriage complex and believable, while the book bloggers behind Toby A. Smith's site and One Reading Nurse each gave more qualified verdicts, citing average writing, little emotional attachment, and a romance and explicit content that overshadowed the history.

Sources: Historical Novel Society, Toby A. Smith, One Reading Nurse
4.3from 38,271 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score

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The First Witch of Boston retells the 1648 trial of Margaret Jones as a marriage story, framed by her husband Thomas reading her journal. It suits readers who want the couple's push and pull more than a puzzle plot; reviewers praise its courtroom tension but split over explicit love scenes, thin secondary characters and a foregone ending.
Is it worth reading?
It delivers best on the mechanics of conviction. Toby A. Smith found the most interesting stretch was how gossip, evidence and humiliating examinations worked, and GoBookMart credited its feel for how gossip, law and gender produced a conviction. The caveat is craft: Smith found the prose heavy on analogies, and some reviewers called the plot shallow. Others found it hard to put down, so the verdict genuinely splits.
Similar books
Reviewers place it among witch-accusation novels that follow a familiar trajectory. Nichole Louise compares it to The Witching Tide by Margaret Meyer and The Manningtree Witches by AK Blakemore, while A Casual Reader pairs it with The Scarlet Letter and Arthur Miller's The Crucible for their themes of morality and societal judgment. None of these is in the LuvemBooks catalogue yet.
Who should read this?
Readers who like witch-trial fiction anchored in a couple and who accept an ending already determined were its happiest audience. Those who came for the marriage rated it highest, while some reviewers who wanted a sharper portrait of Puritan society or a surprising plot were more disappointed.
What age is it for?
It is written for adults, not teens. Reviewers describe explicit sex scenes, a rape that is a major plot element, and executions, so adult readers are the clear audience. One Reading Nurse found the language and sex scenes pulled her out of the period.
What content warnings should I know about?
Nichole Louise attaches a content warning and flags rape as something she felt was not necessary. Readers Enjoy Authors Dreams lists capital punishment, miscarriage, child loss and sexual trauma, saying they are handled with care. One Reading Nurse and others also objected to explicit sex scenes, which some found repetitive and uncomfortably mixed with violence.
Is it more love story or courtroom drama?
Reviewers split on exactly this. Readers Enjoy Authors Dreams praised the courtroom and community tension. GoBookMart noted minor characters are flattened by the book's moral focus.
About Andrea Catalano
Andrea Catalano is a historical novelist originally from the Boston area who now lives in Texas with her husband, two children, and two cats. Inspired by reading Little Women in fourth grade, she majored in History at Suffolk University, graduating Summa Cum Laude, and holds a Master of Philosophy in Historical Studies from the University of Cambridge.
Summarize this book

Summarize this book

Thomas and Margaret "Maggie" Jones, a carpenter and a midwife-herbalist, emigrate from England and settle in Charlestown in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. After Maggie is executed for witchcraft, the novel alternates her entries with his memories of their life together. A rival widow, Hallett, and the couple's baby daughter, Bess, set the accusations moving, according to D.G. Kaye's review.

Follow up

Was Margaret Jones a real person?
Does the ending surprise?

Synthesized from verified book data & published reviews · How we review

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What would you like to know about The First Witch of Boston?

Answers come from our editorial notes on this book. If we haven't covered something, we'll say so.

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Our Review

We review the evidence: published critics, reader verdicts and BookTube reviews, gathered and weighed with AI assistance and edited by LuvemBooks, rather than one reader's first-hand take.

The First Witch of Boston turns the 1648 trial of Margaret Jones into a marriage story and a courtroom drama, and reviewers single out the sustained tension of its accusation scenes. Readers split on whether the book works best as a love story or as a trial novel, and on how much explicit content it carries.

What happens in The First Witch of Boston?

Thomas and Margaret "Maggie" Jones arrive from England in 1646, settling in Charlestown in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Thomas is a carpenter and cautious by temperament; Maggie is a fiery midwife and herbalist whose bluntness unsettles the Puritan community around them.
The frame is a journal. The novel moves between her short entries and his memories of their life from rural Berkshire to London to the colonies, according to the author's own site.
This is a marriage-led historical novel, a love story between a long-wed couple, with the witch accusations as the pressure that tests it. A rival widow, Hallett, and a baby daughter, Bess, set the accusations moving, per D.G. Kaye's review.

Do reviewers find The First Witch of Boston gripping or flat?

The reviews run from enthusiastic to lukewarm, and the split is genuine. Readers Enjoy Authors Dreams singled out the sustained tension of its courtroom and community scenes and described a heart-wrenching, beautifully researched debut.
D.G. Kaye found the story gripping and the couple's love strong and dedicated.
The lukewarm reviews are specific. Toby A. Smith, who gave it three stars on Goodreads, found the writing average and at times heavy-handed, with too many analogies, and never felt much attachment to the characters.
Some reviewers found it hard to put down, with one more chapter turning into several late nights. A Bookclubs.com reader called it compulsively readable and devoured it in a day.
GoBookMart's review credits the book's feel for how gossip, law and gender produced a conviction, but notes that minor characters are flattened by its moral focus and some scenes repeat in tone.

How well researched is The First Witch of Boston?

Research is the point on which the most outlets agree, though they differ on how far it reaches. Toby A. Smith found the book's most interesting stretch was learning how charges were handled: the role of gossip, what the court accepted as evidence, and the humiliating examinations of the accused.
Some reviewers praised the historical notes at the end, which explain the author's sources and where she filled in unknowable details. GoBookMart described the legal procedures of the trial as rendered with disturbing specificity.
A Casual Reader qualified this, saying the book leans toward character development over everyday detail and that its Boston landscape stays somewhat elusive, though the dialogue does immerse. Nichole Louise, a book blogger, found Maggie's outspokenness at times too anachronistic for the period, which she found distracting.
The date differs by source. The publisher gives 1646 for the arrival, while A Casual Reader describes the novel as set in 1647.

What do reviewers say about the romance, heat and heavy content?

This is where opinion divides most sharply. Readers Enjoy Authors Dreams called the romance intense and tender, and a Bookclubs.com reader wrote that the relationship between Maggie and Thomas feels real and lived in.
Others pushed back. One Reading Nurse found the book more romance than historical fiction and objected to language and explicit scenes that pulled her out of the period.
Some reviewers found the sex repetitive from about a third of the way in and disliked its mix with violence.
Nichole Louise noted that the Thomas and Hallett storyline did not sit right with her and that rape is a major plot element, which she felt was not necessary; she attaches a content warning.
Readers Enjoy Authors Dreams lists capital punishment, miscarriage, child loss and sexual trauma, saying they are handled with care.

Is The First Witch of Boston worth reading?

Weighing these reviews, the tension they keep circling is a love story versus a trial story. Readers who come for the marriage, the couple's push and pull, tend to rate it highest.
Those who come for a sharp portrait of Puritan society or a surprising plot, like One Reading Nurse, were more disappointed.
The book points toward readers who like their witch-trial fiction anchored in a couple and told with emotional directness, and who accept a known ending. It points away from readers who dislike explicit or violent scenes, want a fast plot with twists, or expect deep psychological complexity in secondary characters.
For comparison, Nichole Louise places it alongside The Witching Tide by Margaret Meyer and The Manningtree Witches by AK Blakemore, noting it follows the familiar trajectory of witch-accusation stories. A Casual Reader's pairing is The Scarlet Letter and Arthur Miller's The Crucible, for its themes of morality and societal judgment.
The publisher lists a Goodreads Choice Award finalist label for the 2025 historical fiction category, and Kate Quinn praised it as a tender, intimate portrait of a marriage.

Sources & Further Reading

The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.

  1. Cited in this review
  2. 1
    The First Witch of Boston – Andrea Catalano, Author

    andreacatalanoauthor.com

  3. Further reading
  4. 2
    The First Witch of Boston – by Andrea Catalano – independent book review – Historical Fiction (United States, England) – Toby A. Smith – Books & More

    tobyasmith.com

  5. 3
    The First Witch of Boston by Andrea Catalano (Book Review) – OneReadingNurse.com

    onereadingnurse.com

  6. 4
    Review: The First Witch of Boston by Andrea Catalano – Home

    nicholelouise.com

  7. 5
    Book Review of "The First Witch of Boston" by Andrea Catalano ~ Girl About Library

    girlaboutlibrary.com

  8. 6
    The First Witch of Boston by Andrea Catalano Review

    readersenjoyauthorsdreams.com

  9. 7
    The First Witch of Boston: By Andrea Catalano (Book Review) - Gobookmart

    gobookmart.com

  10. 8
    Sunday Book Review – The First Witch of Boston: A Novel by Andrea Catalano #HistoricalFiction

    dgkayewriter.com

  11. 9
    Book Review of The First Witch of Boston: A Novel - A Casual Reader

    acasualreader.com

  12. 10
    The First Witch of Boston: A Novel by Andrea Catalano Reading Guide-Book Club Discussion Questions-Reviews and Ratings from Book Clubs-BookMovement

    bookmovement.com

  13. 11
    The First Witch of Boston: A Novel by Andrea Catalano

    bookclubs.com

  14. 12
    Historical Novel Society

    Historical Novel Society

Age & Reading Level

Our age band

Adult

Our age band groups books for browsing; it isn't an age a review gave.

Browse all adult books

Heat level

Explicit · Readers disagree: one Goodreads review calls it explicit, another reviewer found it not very spicy

From how readers describe it, not our own reading.

Content to know about

rape as a major plot element
capital punishment (an execution)
miscarriage and child loss
explicit, on-page sex scenes

Best for: Adults 18+ — explicit sex scenes and sexual violence

Skip if you want a fast, twisty plot or sparing sexual content, since reviewers found the sex scenes explicit and repetitive.

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Books like The First Witch of Boston

Curated picks for readers who enjoyed The First Witch of Boston, with our reasoning for each match.

If you liked The First Witch of Boston

On Amazon

The Heretic's Daughter

Kathleen Kent

Another Puritan New England witch trial drawn from family history, told by the accused woman's daughter, with the same dread of a pious community turning lethal.

Sarah Carrier watches her mother Martha, a blunt and unbending woman, become one of the first people hanged in the Salem panic of 1692. Kent is a descendant of the real Martha Carrier, so the story carries the same weight of documented lives that anchors The First Witch of Boston. It suits readers who want the witch-trial material but prefer a daughter's-eye view and a slightly more family-centered frame.

On Amazon

Hour of the Witch

Chris Bohjalian

A young wife in 1662 Boston faces witchcraft suspicion while fleeing a cruel marriage, built from a real court case — the closest match in setting and premise.

On Amazon

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Elizabeth George Speare

Puritan Connecticut, 1687: a free-spirited girl accused of witchcraft by her suspicious neighbors — the same conflict in a gentler, younger-skewing classic.

On Amazon

The Mercies

Kiran Millwood Hargrave

The real 1617 Vardø witch trials in Arctic Norway, told through the women left to run a storm-battered fishing village.

Not your thing?

On Amazon

Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch

Rivka Galchen

Same true-crime witch-trial foundation, but told in a wry, prickly, darkly funny voice — the fix if the somber, heavy tone is what put you off.

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