Publication Date: September 22, 2026
For fans of Good Spirits, Hallmark holiday movies, and general witchy shenanigans, this charming holiday romance follows a woman with a curse and the handsome witch she reluctantly enlists to help her break it.
Hayleigh Gray is cursed. For real.
After losing her job, her savings, and her relationship, it’s the discovery of a lump on her beloved horse’s neck that finally sends Hayleigh looking for solutions. And she knows where to start: Elk Ridge, Washington, a seemingly innocuous small town with a cliched winter festival and a whole lot of witches.
There, she crosses paths with Stephan Midwinter, an animal-rescuing artist with a reputation a mile long and a whole lot of magic that Hayleigh wants nothing to do with. Adamant that his coven wasn’t involved in the curse, he offers to help her find the real culprit and break the curse before Christmas Day.
As Hayleigh and Stephan face ancestral secrets, mischievous holiday spirits, and being snowed into the world’s kitschiest holiday train B&B, Hayleigh finds her heart opening to magic, and to Stephan.
But Stephan and his way of life are in direct opposition to everything she’s been taught to want. With the curse amping up and time running out, will Hayleigh embrace a new kind of holiday magic, or will she be trapped in the patterns of Christmas past?
A Curse for Christmas Past by Morgan Lockhart returns us to Elk Ridge in a connected story to her first book, A Spell for Midwinter’s Heart. The story begins four days before Yule, and there’s lots of magic, some of it subtle, along with witches, unseen beings, and curses.
The continuity of the story was unexpected but welcome, and I enjoyed catching up with the many characters. Hayleigh is human, and Stephan is a witch, and we are taken on a romantic journey with some steam as they grow closer.
Hayleigh had a rough year, especially since she thinks she’s living under a curse. Once it’s confirmed, her life really seems to go downhill, especially as she fights against the curse and her parents’ wishes, which go against her own and Stephan’s once he learns of her plans. We learn about her family and her upbringing as her sense of entitlement seems to roll off of her.
The holiday happenings and activities at the festival, and the small businesses in the village, were a nice touch.  The story has vivid descriptions of nature, the town, the people and their magic, the weather, and even the animals, and it has many surprises throughout. The story flows well as we wind through Yule and end at the Epiphany. The ending was different from what I expected, but it still has a happily ever after.
A Curse for Christmas Past is filled with magic and mayhem as Hayleigh finds herself with Stephan’s help, along with some of his other mystical friends and family.
Morgan Lockhart hails from the Pacific Northwest, where she currently lives with her family, including her partner, two children, and a pack of fur babies. Growing up in the woods of Washington State, Morgan has always been telling and consuming stories in all shapes and sizes. She roamed her way to California, where she graduated with highest honors from the creative writing department at UC San Diego. Her path forked into video games then, as she put off her final trimester of college to work on her first video game. A Spell for Midwinter’s Heart is her first novel.
