Magical Potions and Spells – Vol.4: The Cursed Game

Content : Hawthorn and Primrose, two witch sisters, must get along to overcome disasters.

While staying with her grandmother Adelaide during the holidays, Hawthorn discovers an hourglass that seems to be enchanted. Adelaide forbids her from playing with it, but the object is intriguing: it speaks and asks her to find another player. Hawthorn invites Primrose to join her, and at once, the hourglass announces that the game has begun and that it consists of three challenges. It all seems like fun—so why did Adelaide seem so worried?

The fourth instalment of this paperback series, highly acclaimed in 2025, features numerous colour illustrations by Marine Gosselin. Set during holidays filled with games, challenges, and magical training, it explores themes that captivate young readers. Written by acclaimed children’s author Aurore Gomez (The Forest of Yara: Enfantaisie Prize 2024, shortlisted for the Incorruptibles Award 2024–2025), the story follows two young witch sisters with contrasting personalities who must learn to overcome their rivalry.

About the authors:
As a child, Aurore Gomez loved reading, drawing, and writing. She adored nature and building dens, and she dreamed of becoming an archaeologist, just like Indiana Jones. Today, nothing has really changed — except that she is not an archaeologist, but a French teacher at a secondary school. Thanks to her job, she reads a lot of children’s literature, and one day she decided to tell her own stories. Her first novel, L’espoir sous nos semelles, was published in 2018 by Magnard. Since then, she always keeps a notebook by her side to jot down ideas and plan her future books.

Marine Gosselin has been an illustrator for the press and children’s publishing for around ten years. She has worked on several series of children’s novels, including Arno, le valet de Nostradamus for Albin Michel, the covers of Piper McNimbus, and The Secret Society of Extraordinary Witches for Lumen. She has also created picture books using more traditional techniques, such as coloured pencils, for French publishing houses.