Head Witch in Charge Summary, Characters and Themes
Head Witch in Charge by Avery Flynn is a fast-paced paranormal romantic adventure set in Witchingdom, where powerful families, political schemes, and unruly magic collide. At its center is Leona Sherwood, the tightly controlled heir to her influential clan, who longs for one night of freedom.
A spontaneous trip to Las Vegas sends her life cascading into danger, desire, and unexpected responsibility when she crosses paths with Erik Svensen, the charming but deeply damaged heir of a rival family. Their impulsive choices unleash old magic, family conflict, and a quest that forces them to confront who they are, what they want, and the future of their world.
Summary
In Head Witch in Charge, Leona Sherwood begins her story in the most undignified of positions: sprawled naked on the bathroom floor with her sister’s rooster familiar perched on her backside. Although she rescues herself from serious injury with a quick spell, the moment is a reminder of something she never admits aloud — she must constantly protect the image of a flawless Sherwood heir, even when her life feels anything but orderly.
Her mother reinforces that pressure when she arrives, conjuring tea and reminding Leona that as the future matriarch she must marry strategically to oppose the manipulative Council. Three approved suitors are presented, each politically convenient but emotionally barren.
Leona masks her dislike and pretends to consider the options during her upcoming girls’ trip to Las Vegas, secretly planning to enjoy a few days with no expectations.
At the same time, Erik Svensen, heir to the Sherwoods’ old rival family, relaxes at a Vegas rooftop pool under a camouflage spell while spying for information. His father intends to strip him of his magic during the impending power-transfer ceremony by claiming the family magic rejected him.
To protect his siblings from the same fate, Erik plans to marry a Sherwood — ideally the heir — before the ceremony. Such a marriage would shield him from his father’s scheme.
Researching Leona’s tastes, he selects a rare biography to read by the pool, correctly guessing she will notice it.
Leona arrives under a glamour, and Erik uses his magic to see through it, recognizing her instantly. Their flirtation leads them to a high-stakes poker game that night, where Erik plays the role of an overeager amateur and wins a huge pot with a straight flush.
He uses the moment to claim a date and invites her to help him spend his winnings. Their chemistry intensifies in the elevator afterward, where, with her consent, Erik brings her to orgasm using magic and touch.
He leaves her at her floor with a promise to meet the next night.
Their second evening begins with cheeseburgers, fries, and strawberry jam by the resort fountain. Sharing stories brings them closer, and when they wander the Strip, they stumble on a wedding chapel offering old-magic handfast ceremonies.
Leona, wanting one reckless moment before returning to duty, proposes they get handfasted, believing the magic will fade by morning. Erik knows that handfasting under the full moon can create a lasting bond, but pressure from his father — who is threatening his siblings — pushes him to agree.
They complete the ceremony under moonlight, then spend the night in bed until Leona wakes alone with a glowing mark around her wrist.
She soon learns Erik lied about his last name and panics, fearing she has been manipulated into a political trap. Breaking the bond requires rare ingredients and cooperation from both spouses, creating a year-long struggle during which Erik repeatedly refuses to help.
Meanwhile the Council’s influence grows, and the Sherwood family faces increasing danger. When Leona’s sister accidentally freezes the entire family during a misfired spell, Leona and her allies steal The Liber Umbrarum — a powerful spellbook — from the Svensens to undo the damage.
A year after Vegas, Erik arrives demanding the book’s return to a secured Svensen facility. Leona distrusts him but joins the trip, planning to force the divorce spell along the way.
The facility can only be reached without magic, so they travel in Bessie, an enchanted Cadillac. Their first night at a sentient inn forces them into a single bed, stirring emotions they both try to suppress.
Each new obstacle draws them closer, even as Leona battles her frustration with Erik’s stubborn secrecy.
Their next stop is a troll-controlled checkpoint requiring the answer to a riddle. When Leona can’t solve it, she negotiates a race instead, adding a condition that if they succeed, Erik must perform the divorce spell.
He wins by teleporting — a loophole in the trolls’ rules — and Leona forces the issue. She hands him the carefully prepared spell, but Erik reminds her that divorcing now would bar her from entering the secured facility with the book.
She realizes too late that he has been orchestrating events to keep her bound to him until the power-transfer ceremony.
Danger escalates when Council enforcers arrive, prompting the trolls to help the pair escape. At their next stop, a sensual satyr inn governed by magic that removes judgment and inhibition, Leona and Erik finally give in to their mutual desire.
Their night together shakes the building with raw power, but morning brings grim reality: Erik’s father is threatening open destruction if Erik fails to secure Sherwood protection. Erik decides privately that he will never perform the divorce spell until he can complete the ceremony, seize Svensen magic, and free his siblings.
A series of trials in pixie territory tests their bond further, forcing them to work together against enchanted creatures, riddles, and impossible challenges. During the final test, they encounter enchanted talking oaks guarding a cursed golden apple.
Erik sacrifices himself by offering to become a tree in exchange for Leona’s safety, the apple, and a binding agreement that guarantees the pixies must honor their promises. Before completing his transformation, he uses the apple to transfer Svensen magic from his father to Leona, stripping the elder Svensen of power.
Leona refuses to accept Erik’s fate. With help from her sister Effie and a reminder from their mother that a true matriarch chooses her own happiness, she bargains with the pixie queen.
Using knowledge of her mother’s poker tells as leverage, she forces the queen to reverse Erik’s transformation. Amid the chaos, Erik emerges human again, and Leona rushes into his arms, calling him her husband.
Together they use Bessie to race to safety, reveal they secretly secured The Liber Umbrarum, and return to the Vegas chapel to handfast again — this time by choice.
Three years later, Leona is Sherwood matriarch and happily married to Erik Sherwood-Svensen. Their combined alliances have destroyed the Council, and Witchingdom thrives.
Their story closes with a peaceful family gathering and a hint of the next adventure, featuring Leona’s sister Effie and her complicated connection to the alpha werewolf Darius.
Characters
Leona Sherwood
Leona Sherwood begins Head Witch in Charge as a woman crushed under the weight of legacy and perfection. As the future matriarch of the most powerful witch family in Witchingdom, she has never been permitted to want things for herself.
Her every breath is measured, curated, controlled—until a chaotic slip in the bathroom reminds the reader that beneath the flawless exterior sits a deeply human, deeply overwhelmed woman who longs for freedom. Leona’s growth centers on reclaiming her agency: she starts as someone performing an identity crafted for her by generations of Sherwood expectations and slowly becomes a woman who demands her own desires, even when they terrify her.
Her initial distrust of Erik is rooted not only in his lies but in her own lifelong conditioning to fear vulnerability. Yet as the story progresses, she becomes bolder, sharper, and more willing to bend rules and twist magic to protect those she loves.
Her ingenuity with loopholes, her ruthless problem-solving, and her fierce loyalty demonstrate that she is far more than a political pawn—she is a strategist capable of outmaneuvering trolls, pixies, and even fate itself. By the epilogue, Leona has grown into a matriarch who pairs power with compassion, authority with self-trust, and duty with personal joy.
Erik Svensen
Erik Svensen is introduced as a charming liar and manipulator, but that surface hides years of trauma shaped by an abusive father and a corrupt magical dynasty. He presents himself as a villain-adjacent rogue because it is the only survival strategy he has ever known.
What makes Erik compelling is the gulf between his outward swagger and his inward self-loathing. He is terrified of becoming like his father, terrified of failing his siblings, and convinced that he is disposable unless he plays roles others demand of him.
His pursuit of Leona begins with strategy—marrying a Sherwood to cut off his father’s control—and slowly transforms into genuine devotion. For all his schemes, Erik is driven by love: for Cy, for Sigrid, and eventually for Leona, whom he sees as his equal in both power and emotional damage.
He sacrifices repeatedly, even preparing to become a literal tree to guarantee her survival. Despite his morally messy choices, Erik’s emotional arc reveals a man clawing his way out of generational cruelty, learning to accept love he never believed he deserved.
By the end, he becomes a partner who leads with respect, tenderness, and unyielding loyalty.
Bea Sherwood
Bea functions as both comic relief and grounding force in Leona’s life. Her rooster familiar, Barkley, reflects her chaotic magic, yet Bea herself is deeply competent and protective.
While she seems whimsical, she is one of the few people Leona can be imperfect around. Bea represents a different model of Sherwood womanhood—one not defined entirely by duty—and in that way she becomes an emotional guidepost for Leona.
Her quick thinking, especially regarding magical mechanics such as handfasts, positions her as someone who understands the family legacy without being imprisoned by it. Though not a central romantic figure, her presence enriches the emotional landscape of the Sherwood sisters and foreshadows her important role in the broader series.
Sherwood Matriarch
The Sherwood matriarch is a commanding figure whose expectations shape Leona’s entire identity. She embodies tradition, political calculation, and ruthless pragmatism.
Yet beneath her spine-straightening discipline lies a mother who, in her own complicated way, loves her daughters fiercely. Her initial insistence on Leona entering a strategic marriage reflects generational fear—fear of the Council’s tightening grip and fear of losing Sherwood influence.
However, her final phone call to Leona shows a profound shift. She acknowledges the toll of legacy and reminds her daughter that a true matriarch must value her own heart as much as her people’s safety.
She is a character defined by sharp edges and hidden softness, whose arc subtly mirrors Leona’s: both women must learn that power without personal truth is hollow.
Cy and Sigrid Svensen
Erik’s siblings are the emotional core of his motivations. Cy, the brilliant but anxious inventor, and Sigrid, the tender-hearted sister their father continually threatens to barter away, represent everything Erik is trying desperately to protect.
Their existence reveals the full cruelty of the Svensen patriarch’s rule. Though they are not constantly on the page, their influence shapes nearly every decision Erik makes.
They also highlight his tenderness—his willingness to sacrifice himself, his future, and even his entire magical inheritance to give them safety. Cy and Sigrid symbolize the possibility of a new Svensen future, one freed from corruption, and their faith in Erik underscores his value as a leader long before he ever recognizes it in himself.
The Svensen Patriarch
As the story’s central antagonist, the Svensen patriarch is a chilling blend of emotional abuse, magical tyranny, and calculated cruelty. He measures worth solely through power and obedience, leaving emotional devastation in his wake.
His manipulation of Erik and his treatment of Cy and Sigrid reveal a man who believes family is a tool rather than a bond. He is the embodiment of generational toxicity, someone who clings to dominance even as it erodes his own lineage.
His desperation to retain the family magic, his willingness to sacrifice children to debt collectors, and his dream of total control over Witchingdom create a stark contrast to Leona’s maternal lineage, which—despite its strictness—values survival and community. His downfall, orchestrated through Erik and Leona’s combined courage, becomes both poetic and necessary.
Tilda Sherwood
Tilda is the wildcard sibling—powerful, unpredictable, and central to major plot events despite often being off-screen. Her accidental freezing of the Sherwood family and her theft of The Liber Umbrarum demonstrate how volatile raw magic can be, especially when mixed with fear and desperation.
Tilda’s mistakes escalate the stakes of the story, forcing Leona into action. While she embodies chaos, she also highlights the theme that even good families can be flawed and that power, especially magical power, must be handled with emotional maturity.
Her actions are catalysts, setting off chains of events that shape the entire narrative.
Effie Sherwood
Effie appears more prominently toward the end and in the sequel teaser. She is wild, impulsive, and unashamedly herself—everything Leona wishes she could be but fears embodying.
Effie’s sudden magical appearances, sharp humor, and immediate entanglement with the werewolf Darius hint at an explosive personality hiding deep insecurities about being overlooked as heir. She adds vibrant energy to the story and sets the stage for the next book, where her own emotional layers will unravel.
Darius
Darius enters the story as a gruff, dangerous alpha with a rigid moral compass. His interactions with Effie reveal intense chemistry wrapped in exasperation, suggesting a future bond built on conflict, desire, and mutual challenge.
His willingness to steal The Liber Umbrarum for his pack positions him as a leader who carries burdens similar to Leona and Erik. Though not central in this book’s primary arc, his presence is pivotal in the climax and adds depth to the expanding world of alliances and supernatural politics.
Silenus (Sil)
Sil, the satyr innkeeper, represents freedom from judgment and the honesty of desire. His inn acts as a crucible where Leona and Erik confront the truth of their longing without the weight of outside expectations.
Sil’s world forces characters to strip down emotional armor, making him an essential figure in their relationship’s turning point. He symbolizes the importance of safe spaces where characters can finally choose what they want rather than what they owe.
Frieda and Walter (The Trolls)
Frieda and Walter provide comedic brilliance paired with genuine danger. Their love of riddles, games, and victory showcases a culture where rules are sacred yet mischievously interpreted.
Through them, the narrative explores problem-solving, bargaining, and the power of cleverness over brute strength. Leona’s interactions with them highlight her strategic mind, while Erik’s reactions reveal his frustration with magical loopholes and his grudging admiration for Leona’s cunning.
The trolls help drive forward both plot and character development while adding delightful unpredictability.
Themes
Power, Legacy, and the Weight of Inherited Responsibility
Leona’s life in Head Witch in Charge is shaped long before she is old enough to understand what she wants. As the Sherwood heir, every breath she takes is monitored, measured, and evaluated for political usefulness.
The expectations placed on her are not simply heavy—they are constricting, defining the very limits of her freedom as a woman and as a witch. Her mother demands flawlessness, her family history demands duty, and Witchingdom’s unforgiving political landscape demands that she transform herself into a strategic asset.
This produces a tension where Leona’s personal desires collide with an inherited legacy she never asked for. She understands the stakes: the Council threatens to reshape society into something cruelly homogenous, and the Sherwoods must maintain strength to oppose them.
Yet she also understands that every alliance she forms, every suitor she considers, becomes a negotiation not of love but of utility. Her internal conflict shows how power can be both a burden and a cage.
Erik’s journey mirrors hers in a darker way. His father treats heirship as a chain, using fear, manipulation, and the threat of harm to his siblings to force him into obedience.
While Leona must preserve tradition, Erik must survive it. Both characters endure obligations that strip away choice, and their shared exhaustion becomes a connection neither initially recognizes.
Together, they expose how inherited power can demand sacrifice, how duty corrodes individuality, and how future leaders must renegotiate legacy to avoid being consumed by it. Their growth shows that true authority requires not subservience to the past, but the courage to redefine it.
Identity, Choice, and the Fight for Personal Autonomy
Throughout Head Witch in Charge, identity is a contested space where personal truth clashes with external expectation. Leona is continually forced to present a polished, curated version of herself—one who never stumbles, never questions, never desires beyond what her role permits.
Her glamour spells do more than alter appearance; they symbolically represent the way she is urged to mask chaos, joy, fear, and longing in order to embody an heir her mother can proudly display. The handfasting with Erik is the first moment she makes a choice for herself, not because it is politically smart or socially acceptable, but because she wants a night that belongs to her alone.
Yet the consequences of that impulsive act reveal how little control she truly has, as ancient magic binds her to a man she barely knows. Erik, in turn, lives a life built on constructed identity.
His charm, his lies, and even his flirtations are strategic tools designed to mask terror and survive an abusive father. His deception toward Leona is not purely self-serving; it is also a symptom of someone who has never been allowed to possess an authentic self.
When both characters are forced into circumstances where identity can no longer be concealed—whether through Nullam Inhibitionis at the satyr inn or the brutal clarity of shared danger—they confront the uncomfortable truth that genuine autonomy requires vulnerability. Their relationship becomes a testing ground where each learns to reclaim choice: Leona discovers she can want something beyond duty, and Erik learns that survival does not require sacrificing who he might become.
Ultimately, the story shows that autonomy is not simply the freedom to choose but the courage to assert identity even when circumstances threaten to erase it.
Love, Trust, and the Tension Between Vulnerability and Betrayal
The romance in Head Witch in Charge is steeped in emotional conflict rather than simple attraction. Leona and Erik are drawn to each other immediately, yet their connection is built on lies, withheld truths, and dangerous stakes.
Erik’s initial deception poisons the foundation of their relationship, making Leona’s mistrust not only reasonable but inevitable. Her entire world has taught her that vulnerability invites exploitation, and Erik embodies the worst possible confirmation of that lesson.
Yet magic complicates what mistrust cannot entirely extinguish. Their physical attraction exposes emotional truths they work hard to deny—their loneliness, their yearning for someone who sees beyond their titles, and the comfort of being wanted for themselves rather than for their power.
Trust becomes a slow, painful undertaking, repeatedly fractured by circumstances and terrifying revelations. Similarly, Erik’s feelings for Leona grow in direct conflict with his desperate plan to save his siblings.
His affection becomes a liability, yet he cannot stop himself from protecting her even when it threatens his goals. Their journey forces both to confront what it means to love in a world where power can twist affection into leverage.
As they navigate magical trials, political danger, and their own emotional wounds, love becomes less about passion and more about choosing honesty over fear, connection over control, and forgiveness over self-preservation. By the time they reunite after the divorce spell and the brutal transformation ordeal, their relationship has shifted into something intentional—an act of trust neither expected to earn but both ultimately fight to deserve.
Corruption, Oppression, and the Abuse of Power
Much of the conflict in Head Witch in Charge stems from institutional and familial corruption. The Council represents a rigid, oppressive authority determined to reshape Witchingdom into a sanitized hierarchy where difference is eliminated and compliance is enforced.
Their pursuit of The Liber Umbrarum and their ruthless enforcement tactics show the destructive potential of centralized magical authority. They are not ideologically misguided—they are purposeful, strategic, and willing to destroy communities to maintain control.
Opposing them is not merely political; it is a fight for cultural survival. Erik’s father embodies corruption on a personal scale, twisting familial bonds into tools of coercion.
His willingness to sacrifice his children, barter his daughter to a lender, and manipulate ancient magic for his own survival shows how deeply abuse can take root within supposedly noble bloodlines. Both the Council and the Svensen patriarch demonstrate that power without accountability becomes predatory.
Leona and Erik’s families respond differently to such corruption: the Sherwoods maintain strict expectations, but their control is built on tradition and fear of political vulnerability rather than cruelty. Even so, Leona experiences the more subtle oppression of being shaped into a role that leaves no room for individuality.
The novel uses these layered forms of corruption to highlight the moral responsibility of those with power. Leona and Erik ultimately dismantle oppressive systems not simply by defeating villains but by refusing to replicate their methods.
Their victory is rooted in compassion, cooperation, and a willingness to challenge inherited power structures, suggesting that rebuilding society requires more than destroying tyrants—it requires rejecting the cycles that created them.
Sacrifice, Loyalty, and the Meaning of Family
Found family and blood family coexist in uneasy contrast throughout Head Witch in Charge. Leona’s siblings, her chaotic extended relatives, and even magical creatures like Barkley create a world where loyalty is expressed through humor, frustration, exasperation, and unconditional support.
Their love is imperfect but genuine, and despite the burdens of heirship, Leona knows her family will never use her as a pawn for harm. Erik’s family is the opposite: he carries the loyalty of an eldest brother who would endure anything to protect Cy and Sigrid, even if doing so demands he bind himself to a life he despises.
His siblings are his reason for every deception and every morally questionable choice. The story contrasts these family structures to show how loyalty becomes either a source of strength or a weapon of control depending on the environment that shapes it.
Sacrifice becomes a recurring measure of devotion. Leona sacrifices her pride, safety, and even her heart to rescue Erik when he becomes a tree, demonstrating that her love is not conditional on convenience.
Erik sacrifices his future, his body, and his freedom when he agrees to become part of the orchard, choosing Leona’s survival over his own. These sacrifices redefine marriage not as a political arrangement but as an evolving partnership built on mutual willingness to risk everything for the other’s well-being.
By the end, family is no longer determined by bloodline or magical inheritance but by acts of bravery, kindness, and steadfast support. The epilogue’s peaceful gathering symbolizes the creation of a new kind of family—one forged through choice, respect, and shared struggle rather than obligation alone.
Magic, Freedom, and the Struggle Against Control
Magic in Head Witch in Charge is both a gift and a source of danger, constantly tied to the theme of control. The Council seeks to regulate magic to enforce ideological conformity, turning supernatural ability into a tool for oppression.
Their methods reveal how easily freedom can be constricted when those in power decide which forms of magic are acceptable and which must be erased. Leona’s personal relationship with magic reflects this tension.
Her spells are bound to rules of presentation and discipline, reinforcing the idea that her power must be controlled to maintain Sherwood dignity. The accidental family-freezing spell from Tilda and the chaotic adventures involving trolls, satyrs, pixies, and enchanted cars show a contrasting vision of magic—wild, unpredictable, and resistant to institutional confinement.
Erik’s fear of losing his magic reveals how deeply control is embedded in his life. His father treats power as an inheritance to hoard rather than a tool to protect others.
Erik’s fight for magical freedom is therefore a fight against generational tyranny. The magical trials in pixie territory emphasize that power used purely for control fails, while power used in cooperation—whether in solving riddles, calming dragons, or negotiating impossible bargains—thrives.
Ultimately, magic becomes a metaphor for personal agency. True freedom does not come from suppressing magic or using it to dominate others but from accepting its complexities and wielding it with integrity.
By reclaiming control over their own magic and refusing to be bound by the expectations of older generations, Leona and Erik forge a future where magic and freedom coexist rather than conflict.