Oh, this witch book? Thanks, I hated it.

Big thank you to Raincoast Books for sending me an early copy. I'm just sorry it flopped so hard. A romance trend I've noticed for this upcoming fall is witchy stories! And I couldn't be more excited about that, especially when this one landed in my lap a couple weeks ago. So imagine how disappointed I was that this started off okay, then completely fell apart in the second half. Best I can describe it? The editor forget to read the rest because this feels distinctly like two different stories.

Where to even begin? Well, I'll admit that the worldbuilding was a bit of a mess. From what I understand, each witch bloodline carries an affinity for a particular type of magic. For the Waterhouse girls, this is apparently a proficiency for fixing technology. It works well within the confines of the story and was quite cute, but I have so many questions. Like, these witches have been around for a few hundred years ... so what did they do before they had affinities for technology? Another thing was the idea that if a witch marries a mundane, she loses her magic. For the first half of the book I thought this applied to all witches, but it's actually just the Waterhouse line and. And don't get me started on the fact that literally no witch can tell anyone that they are so they spend their entire lives just ... lying to their spouses? Workabouts for that came way too late for me to like that detail, but let me just tell you, I would not give up one drop of magic for Titus Winnaker.

Look at that perfect opportunity to segue into discussing the characters.

Let's start with Danica. I actually quite liked her. The aforementioned worldbuilding mishaps kept me from understanding her a bit, but I did like her character. She is quite typical of a romantic female lead. You know, bubbly and confident with a great support system behind her - minus one overbearing grandmother that I did not care for. Danica's mom married a mundane and now Grandmother believes that gives her free rein to dictate every inch of Danica's love life, shoving every eligible male witch her way. Danica does her best to keep Titus at arms' length for reasons that seemed a little weak to me thanks to a crappy pact she made with her cousin, but as you would expect, she can't stay away from him.

Now, Titus. Whoo boy. First impressions are everything and this guy creeped. me. the. eff. out. He considers himself cursed because he has never had a relationship work out. He is 32 and still a virgin, but within five minutes of meeting Danica I chalk that up to him, not a supposed curse. He has determined he has found the person he is going to marry and isn't really listening to her at the moment because he's too busy picturing the 2-5 kids they'll have. Girls get unfairly called crazy for that, but I would support it applying here. If there wasn't strong chemistry on both sides and a lack of thinking of sex on his part, I would declare him to be giving off major incel vibes. He has some many awkwardly weird possessive thoughts about Danica that made me stumble. He literally has a thought process that goes "If she gets pregnant from this condom-less sex she initiated, it is totally okay by me because it means I can MARRY HER." Exit stage left, bro.

I will refrain from telling you how many times I read his name as Tits.

Romance-wise, the pair of them have serious chemistry. You'd be a fool to deny that. There was clearly insta-attraction between that blazed fast and bright. Was it a little too pedal-to-the-metal for my taste? Yup. I like a little bit of teasing and a touch of slow-burn, but that was still steamy. However, much of the multiple sex scenes were a wee bit awkward to read, not to mention the dirty talk that I did not find hot at all. Like okay dude, whatever works for you I guess. Alpha male talk is such a turn-off for me and honestly, Titus needed to just shut it. Part of the premise that attracted me was the fact that Titus was a bisexual virgin as that is rare to see, but the author may as well not have bothered. There was no fumbling, no conversations about it. Just bam! spice! expertise! perfect execution! weird inner thoughts! There is a miscommunication moment that resulted in such a leap that I lost a lot of respect for the character who did it. Just send a text, oh my word.

Finally, the writing was not great. This was a quick read, but it genuinely surprises me how much this still needed a good tightening. Several times we get multiple pages worth of mundane play-by-plays of things that I think I can safely care no one cares about. Titus comes home, cooks this by cutting this, calls for his dog, plays with her, makes her go out to pee, gets her inside, brings her upstairs ... on and on and on. This issue was extremely prevalent in the last half. So much digging into utter boring moments. There were a lot of pop culture references that are so obscure and niche they did not fit, but not as bad as the couple references to COVID without actually calling it that. There was no reason to add it. The characters also took such leaps action-wise towards the end that I had to pause a few times to stare into distance because that's ... not how that works?

As I said, I'm delighted with the trend this fall of witchy adult romances, and I can only hope that this will have been the worst one I read. I saw that the companion novel is Clem and the witch hunter, and while that is more my jam than this weak forbidden love, I have little hope considering how much was already revealed in this book.

I am really enjoying modern witch stories where the witches have adapted and figured out how to use their abilities for work and convenience. It's a fun idea and the cute romance in this made the book an entertaining read!

Danica has grown up being told she must marry a witch or lose her magic. Being with a non magical person (aka mundane) would cause her to lose her magic, something that would kill Danica. When she encounters the owner of the local bakery Titus, there's an instant attraction that Danica can't deny.

The story has plenty of cute, funny, and steamy moments and was very well paced. Titus is adorable and his love for Danica made me swoon. He wanted to propose after their first meeting! They are a perfect couple and I liked that Danica changed her views and realized her grandmother is racist trash.

I'm really looking forward to the sequel and seeing what Clementine has been up to. A witch and a witch hunter? Sounds like an interesting book.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. Thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the copy.