First off if you haven’t read any of the other books in this series I recommend reading them in order. While it’s not essential it will make many of the relationships and character’s motivations make more sense in my opinion. I have mixed feelings about this book. While I think the premise is quite interesting there’s just so much going on it’s a bit overwhelming. Honestly I had trouble connecting with Clarissa the main character. She just seems so passive letting people boss her around like she is still a high school student rather than an adult and a fellow teacher. While there are sparks where I though here’s where she’s gonna turn it around like when she stood up for Maddy in the fae court it just never really happened. I’m not sure there was enough spark to make me want to try another book in the series. But your mileage may vary.

I didn't realize it was the fourth book in the series until later on. I don't think I'll start the series. I love the cover though

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was one of the funnier books in the series by far mainly because of Carissa’s botched or sometimes not so botched attempt at magic. Thatch has decided that Carissa now needs to broaden her horizons and learn magic from various teachers other than himself, including Vega. These lessons do not always end well however there was one incident that stood out from the rest and that was with the Hands from the pit of despair. I love those Hands and I hope they make more appearances. Carissa also gets better acquainted with her students and really starts to bond with them.
Carissa’s sexual tension with Thatch continues to grow and if I hadn’t read ahead in the books, I’d be wondering when this is going to explode.

I found this book to be more of a stepping stone or a bridge in the series. It’s building towards something but nothing overly crazy happens in it. I still really enjoyed it. It had a ton of informational and character building in it. I adore this series!

A Handful of Hexes is the fourth book in this series and the first I have read. This book is well written and has interesting characters. I can't wait to read the others in this series.

This is the fourth book in Sarina Dorie’s Womby's School for Wayward Witches series. The author has intended for the books to be read out of order but I prefer to see the story develop chronologically.

In this book, Clarissa is coming to terms with her affinity. Having to keep it a secret is proving hard, staff and students are only beginning to tolerate her and they would quickly ostracize her if they discovered she was a red affinity. When Clarissa finds her birth mother’s diary outlining her experiments with the Fae Fertility Paradox, this could be a way for her to discover more about the woman who gave birth to her and solve the problem that’s causing a decline in both fae and witchkin fertility. She is also still searching for information on her lost first love Derrick and has to deal with a horny bunch of unicorns.

I really loved this book. Clarissa is still the dorky fantasy obsessed heroine trying to navigate through a world that carries so many risks. As the series progresses we learn more about the wide array of supporting characters and there is still plenty left to learn. This book like all books in the series is heavily influenced by Harry Potter. While it appears to be a young adult book the series features sexual scenarios that are not age appropriate. I was offered some of the books for review which is how I discovered this series but I did go back to the beginning, some are available on kindle unlimited and others I purchased.  I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Clarissa is the daughter of one the the most wicked witches of all time and the most dangerous headmistress to work at Womby's School for Wayward Witches. Clarissa can't control her magic, so she is stuck teaching fine arts and crafts instead of the dark arts and crafts she prefers. But she has more important problems brewing, like the evil Fae that will not be good for her students. Then Clarissa discovers something her own mother did that just might help her find out why she is having trouble with her own magic and the feud between the Faes and the Witchkin. Can she do it? You will have to read the book to find the answers. I would like to thank Net Galley for a copy of this book for me to review.

I have just started the series with this book and whilst there are a number of things that I didn't immediately understand, I was able to follow ultimately what was happening.
I found the book overall an entertaining and relatively easy read. The ending however I found to be abrupt but hoping with the next book to answer some of the questions.

I came into this series at book 3, which doesn't seem to have done any harm; there's a good, but not excessive, amount of catch-up provided.

I found the first book entertaining, and felt that this one rose a little higher, showed a stronger grasp of the author's craft in general.

Having said that, there's not, unfortunately, a really strong central plot. The protagonist is trying to achieve a lot of different things: find out more about her mother (who's reviled as a wicked witch even among people who don't have the strongest moral compass); get her fellow teachers to like her; help her students in general, and several of them in particular, to gain the skills and knowledge they need to (literally) survive in the magical world; find out what happened to her vanished ex-boyfriend Derrick; learn magic; and there are a couple of other subsidiary goals, mostly to do with relationships. This does muddy the story, since while she's always pursuing some goal (and not achieving it, though she does make progress sometimes), the goals are so many and various that it almost feels like she doesn't have a clear agenda.

This is how real life is, but fiction sometimes benefits from simplification. Perhaps if the goals meshed more closely, if there were more instances where she was progressing several of them at the same time, it would help.

Setting this aside, the character grows, her tribulations are tense and entertaining, and overall the book worked for me.

(Content warning for a scene in which Clarissa has a sensual interaction with a number of disembodied hands.)

I received a copy via Netgalley for review.

Overall this was a good book - although the words "Harry Potter" were mentioned way to many times for a book not written by JK Rowling.

The mystery around the mother's book and the character development were interesting as was learning the author's vision of witchcraft (I think I'd prefer being mortal).

I didn't love the abrupt ending, but having the next book in the series eased the pain.

All in all, I'll keep reading.

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon for this arc.

I was still looking to satisfy my Halloween craving (the trick-or-treaters were a little thin on the ground this year) when I downloaded this one and started to read. I'd never heard of the author, Sarina Dorie before nor was I familiar with her books. During the first 15% of the book, I kept wanting a "playbill" type of cheat sheet before I realized that this was smack in the middle of a 7 book series. Duh.

Never mind, just enjoy the ride (read). And this was a fun, easy and entertaining read with likeable and engaging characters. Maybe not the best selection for a "tween-ager" but more for high school readers / young adults.

If you like fast, fun and fluffy reading, this did it for my "Halloween Fix".