A 2026 Finalist for The Eric Hoffer Award
Short listed for The 2026 Chanticleer Ozma Fantasy Fiction Book Award
* “Harry Potter meets Taken in this grown-up, high-tech thriller. Author Janet Roberts cleverly injects magic and romance into the world of cybersecurity. Wired for Magic is a satisfying story that combines old magic and new technology to deliver a message about enduring love.” - Goodreads reviewer
“Reading Wired for Magic is like assembling a high-stakes jigsaw puzzle; as the pieces click into place, you become more and more obsessed with the story.... once I started reading, there was no turning back.”
- Why Not? Because I Said So Book Reviews
Rowan Campbell has spent years perfecting the art of disappearing. Living a nomadic life, using pseudonyms for her work as a photojournalist, and keeping romantic relationships short-lived. Whatever it takes to stay ahead of the powerful man who's been stalking her for years. He lusts after her, but he also wants to control the inherited magic running through her blood. Her matrilineal magic is powerful, but she's untrained and lacks the courage to learn how to wield her powers to protect herself.
Hiding during the pandemic was easy, but as masks are put aside, she returns to the difficulties she’s faced for years. When Rowan's stalker tracks her to a freelance job she loves and attempts to use his money and influence on her employer to get to her, she’s had enough. She decides to head home to Pittsburgh from the U.K., where she’s been riding out the pandemic. Waiting for her there is her brother Griff, a white-hat hacker who doesn’t believe in magic but is ready to use his skills to help his sister fight her stalker. A two-hour ride north will take Rowan to her aunt, the only person alive who can train her to control and use her magical inheritance. She’s had limited, sporadic contact with her late mother’s sister in the years since her mother died when Rowan was only thirteen years old. But first she must travel to Wales to charge her magic at the ancient druid stones her mother once visited. When Rowan meets the goddess Ceridwen and the ghosts of her mother and her ancestors there, she is frightened but sure her power is greater than she imagined and that, once trained, she can take on any predator.
Wired For Magic is perfect for fans of
The Night Raven,
A Discovery of Witches,
A Darker Shade of Magic, or
Rivers of London, where magic runs through bloodlines and heroines are willing to risk everything in a life and death battle, believing their magic will prevail. To quote Rowan:
“Passing self-worth, knowledge, strength, and love from a mother to a daughter has its own special, eternal magic.”Wired For Magic is Janet Roberts' first urban fantasy thriller, blending magical realism, inherited family magic, and an exciting cybersecurity/hacker subplot in a contemporary setting to give the reader one fast, intense read.
Janet Roberts is a former global leader in cybersecurity education. Her books are set wholly or partially in Western PA, where her roots run deep. Her readers know to expect a female character who awakens to the discovery of her own inner strength while facing adversity. Wired For Magic (2026), her first fantasy thriller, combines a strong woman, magical realism, suspense, and elements of cybersecurity. She's also the author of the award winning novel, What Lies We Keep (2024), and The Leaf Queen (2016). A member of Women's Fiction Writers Association and Sisters in Crime, she lives in Pittsburgh and loves travel, wandering through bookstores, reading on her porch swing, and sharing a bottle of wine with friends.
