thanks Netgalley for the ARC!
i did not think I would enjoy this book - so i put off starting it. however, overall, i did enjoy.

i think it had a lot of the same issues i've had with some of the other books of the author (4 horseman series specifically) - not a fan of the lack of character development. side characters did not feel flushed out/felt very 2-dimensional. romance between the main characters wasn't making sense to me - not sure what they have between them besides lust/physical chemistry etc. i'm not really rooting for them?

BUT the premise of this new series is really interesting! hoping for more world building in future books. i'm definitely invested enough to continue with this series.

overall, not my favorite, but still solid.

Selene is a witch, but every time she uses her magic her memories disappear. However, that becomes the least of her problems when she accidentally wakes a cursed Warlord-Sorcerer who is convinced they are in love ...

This is such a excellent read! I was completely gripped from the first page and devoured the whole book in a day. Can't recommend it enough for any lovers of romance and fantasy - and can't wait for the sequel!

Thank you to the publisher for providing a copy for review.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me receive this Arc! Bewitched was such a fun read and concept. Selene having magic that eats her memories, a curse, an awoken ancient sorcerer, and soul mates who could ask for more? The twists at the end your amazing and I look forward to book 2!!

Bewitched was the start of something really special from Laura Thalassa. I loved the magic, the anti hero, the world.. everything except for the cliffhanger! I need more.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book had a lot of tropes I love, and the plot was so good!

- Witches
- Enemies to lovers
- Romance
- Magic
- Mystery
- Past Life

The MC has memory issues from using her magic, and whether intentional or not, I felt there was a lack of backstory that would help with the world-building and character development.

Despite that, that was a fun read! Thank you so much to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books for the eARC.

I love the Bargainer series so much, that I reread Rhapsodic EVERY.SINGLE.YEAR. I just love Callie and Des so much especially in the first book. Their tension was just so captivating. I also devoured the Four Horsemen series. I read Pestilence in one night because it was so captivating and emotional, that I just couldn’t stop reading. Considering this, I would call myself a huge fan of Laura’s books.

And now I really have to ask, was this book written by the same author? It never felt like the prior mentioned series.

There is basically no world building. I read Bargainer, so I felt pretty solid in my knowledge of the world but what about new readers who haven’t ever heard of Peel Academy? Politia?
Why was the Henbane coven so important for Selene? Are there more covens? What makes the difference between this one and any other? The reader is just supposed to understand and accept her determination to be selected for Henbane without any real explanation.

Throughout the whole book I just wasn’t interested in Selena’s arc, why should I root for her? Her characterization is just so shallow to be interesting. She is also super naive and annoying. She has no backbone at all. She gets treated so badly by Memnon but because he is hot and she feels drawn to him, she excuses all of his shitty moves. I was eye rolling so much. She felt like a doormat. I mean the girls from the Four Horsemen series were all so strong and active in their roles, Selene however just let’s anyone walk on her. I am really baffled how unlikeable she was.

The same can be said about Memnon. I mean the premise sounded interesting but he was mostly a douche, who didn’t grovel at all. I was also super annoyed by the repetitions of „empress“, „my queen“ etc.

The plot if you truly can call it that, felt rushed and the development of their relationship was just not organic. For most of the book they are in disagreement but suddenly they are ripping each other’s clothes off. I was so annoyed by Selene‘s constant lack of a backbone because he is soooo hot. Girl please wake up! The love story felt flat and shallow. I love villainous characters but Memnon wasn’t someone I would add to my bookboyfriend list.

Best part was Nero.

It’s really hard to write this review because so far I have loved all of Laura’s books but Bewitched was a huge letdown. Not sure if I will continue with this series.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me this ARC. I can not tell you how amazing this book was done. It was so well written. I was half way done and already telling people they needed to read it. The characters, the love hate relationship, the way Laura had me thinking the book was going one way then was like nope just kidding. I NEED the second book. I fan wait to see where she takes us with this series.

This book had everything: enemies to lovers, betrayal, magic, murder, intrigue, spice, and so much more. I definitely have to read the Bargainer series now!! Laura Thalassa, you and your books rock!

As with every Laura Thalassa book I've read, I flew through this in a matter of days. It would have been faster, but hey, a girl has to work. While I did enjoy it, because Thalassa's writing style is one of my favorites, I found myself feeling a little let-down by the ending. It is a cliffhanger, which I knew going in, but the book descended into chaos so fast that I felt a little whiplash. The first half was strong, introducing the setting, building the world, introducing all the characters that would be important in this story...but then the romance actually got in the way of plot development. Which is odd, because I so rarely say that in romance novels. The romance IS the plot, typically. However, in this case, things felt forced in order to further the romance, and eventually the FMC started to act in a manner I would have expected in a YA novel. Granted, she is young, but this felt a bit like Twilight deja vu. Right down to the werewolf love interest who would have been a much better option. #TeamJacob

Some things I liked...

- The worldbuilding - Laura Thalassa is a master at this, and it's absolutely no surprise to me that this was strong here. It also helped that the setting is the San Francisco Bay Area, where I grew up. I could easily picture the surroundings, the society instilled with magic, and the rules by which that society lived. It made sense.
- The magic - I loved the entire magic quest sequence. It was brilliant. The way the FMC meets her familiar was so cute, and then the whole "horror movie" style scene where she descends into a dark crypt (hello - never do this!) and awakens something that may or may not be evil. This just was the highlight of the book, really. I also loved the heroine's memory loss issue, it was fascinating, and I thought her way of managing through it was well thought out.

What I didn't like...

- The FMC's character deterioration - she essentially lost all her wits upon seeing the MMC's abs, and folks, I just can't with this entire thing. The MMC has choked her, keeps going hot and cold acting like he wants to kill her and f*ck her. It makes little sense, since it takes a long time for context to build around the why. And we actually still don't have a solid understanding of the why by the end of the book. He actually does something absolutely heinous about 2/3 of the way through, making my blood boil, and the FMC still can't help but be attracted to him and have a hate makeout session with him. He threatens to kill people, physically injures many, and even then...she is still commenting on how hot he is. I expect this in dark romance - people fall in love with sadistic killers all the time in this things. But this guy? His only redeeming qualities are his muscles and tattoos, and I gotta tell you - I still prefer the squeaky clean werewolf. And I like muscular tatted guys.
- The mystery - there is a lot of chaos around multiple murders in the book. That's fine, I love a good murder mystery. But the author kept us in the dark for way too long, and it became very jumbled in the telling. I felt like she was trying to add too many elements in book one, when things could have been paced better. It's like she needed to get to book two faster, so she shoved in more in book one than she really needed to.

All I can say right now is that the author better pull a Sarah J. Maas and give us the werewolf guy as the real love interest. Or really anyone but this psychotic irredeemable MMC who treats the heroine like a yo-yo and has a very unhealthy obsession with her. It's creepy. It was hot at first but it wasn't by the end, and I think if he is endgame, it's not going to work for me unless his personality undergoes serious transformation.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book. The main character felt very lack luster and was not likeable. She had very little personality so there was little for the reader to connect with her on. Regarding characters, it felt like there was no attention to creating dynamic characters at all. The love interest was boring and kept repeating the same sentence a million times throughout the book. All other side characters were completely irrelevant to the plot.

For the plot, it was not interesting or constructed to the point where it felt like there was any build up. One of the primary obstacles the main characters names is that by using her magic, she loses memories. You’d think this would be a great plot point that gets her into trouble and wrecks havoc on the story. But no, there are never actually any real consequences to the plot because of her memory loss. I was shocked that the opportunity to create some real conflict was just dropped. Yhy not make her secretly a villain, but she doesn’t even know it or something? Overall the writing wasn't the strongest and I wish there was more attention paid to quality over trying to create a relationship based on pure sexual tension and nothing in common with the characters.

Wow. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but that turn of events was definitely a surprise. I was scared of Menmon, loved him, and hated him all in this book. I am really curious to know who is responsible for all the stuff happening around the coven. And there is some spice that I wasn’t expecting. Great job! Loved this book!

Sometimes I regret getting ARCs because it means I just have to wait longer for the next book and I don’t have anyone to gush about the book with yet and this is one of those books for me. This book is a combo of Ninth House, some Buffy the vamp slayer, and a heavy dose of the mummy. (Shoutout to Janessa for putting a name to the buffy and mummy vibes for me) It is the perfect mix of spice, murder mystery, magic, stalkers, villians and so much more.

One of the wonderfully unique parts of this book is out FMC’s magic. All magic comes at a cost, but hers takes more than most magic and steals a piece of her memory every time she uses it. This creates such an interesting backdrop for our FMC as she is

a) an unreliable narrator

b) trying to not only live her life with that but also unravel the mystery of the witches turning up dead on her campus

c) deal with the psychotic mummy stalker she awoke that is convinced she is his wife who betrayed him.

Absolutely LOVED THIS BOOK! I’ve missed Laura’s books as she didn’t have a new release in over a year, so I was so excited to jump into Bewitched. While this ends on a cliffhanger, I still couldn’t get enough. The world building and the magic system was so interesting. Can’t wait for book two!

I REALLY wanted to love this one, but honestly it fell very flat for me. It wasn’t until about 40% of the way through the book that it picked up for me a little bit, and at that point it was almost a DNF for me. There wasn’t much backstory to the characters and some of the scenes felt repetitive and could have done without, it honestly felt like a little bit of space filling. I feel as if the author wanted to make the relationship between Memnon and Selene appealing, but it was honestly toxic and abusive and I wasn’t attracted to that at all (maybe it will change in upcoming books?). Another issue I had is that you literally find nothing out with what was going on in the story line (once you read you’ll see what I mean) and the story ended in the weirdest way ever. I’m not sure if it was meant to be a giant cliffhanger but I thought it was terrible and made zero sense to end the way it did! I would still recommend giving this book a shot! It wasn’t a terrible read, just slow going without much climatic events.

The beginning was simple enough with a witch wanting to get into Henbane Covern but not being deemed good enough as she has memory loss every time she casts spells.
An aeroplane that she is on being brought down by a voice only she can hear.
Finding a tomb that contains an extremely attractive man who says she’s his wife!
Once she returns home she is celebrated as saving lives by guiding the plane down safely and welcomed into the covern. Unfortunately freeing Memnon will have repercussions on Selene and everyone around her.
The book bowled forward at a pace that grew and grew.
I was absolutely engrossed right to the end but I couldn’t believe it was the end. I went back, read forward and then totally stunned because my head is racing with what happens now!
This was a great read and I was so fortunate to be allowed to read an ARC.

I was so happy when I was given the chance to read Bewitched, and I was desperate to like it because I loved The Four Horsemen…alas it wasn't the case, unfortunately.
Let me start with what I liked – the idea was intriguing, the magic system and the way that the female lead, Selene, had to pay a hefty price for doing magic. For every performed spell she lost a bit of her memory and she didn't have the luxury of choosing what she'll lose. I adored her for the way she handled that problem with her diaries and notes, and she didn't let stop her from her dream of becoming a Henbane Coven member.
Here are the things that I didn't like – the world building was scarce almost none and that took a considerable part of the feeling and the dept of the story. Would've loved to hear more about Selene's background and more history flashbacks about Memnon's background and story.
The relationship between Selene and Memnon doesn't evolve in any way and is disturbingly toxic and abusive. Not to mention how the repetitiveness of the word Empress that quickly becomes annoying and ruins your focus on the story.
A little bit heartbroken because I was eagerly looking for this book, but I won't lose hope and I will continue to check Laura's books with interest with hope that it was a one-off for me.
I would rather not post a bad review for the book's release, so I'll post only here on NetGalley .
Again, thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I've been a huge Mummy fan since forever so when I saw the summary for this book... I had to read it.

It was impossible to put down. I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline and can't wait to see what happens next!

Thank you NetGalley and Bloom for the chance to read Bewitched by Laura Thalassa before publishing.
All thoughts spoken are my own.

GR rating: 4 ⭐'s
My rating: 4 ⭐'s

Selene Bowers has been trying desperately to get into Henbane Coven, an academy for young witches. To do so, she just do two things. Go on an epic magic quest, and find a familiar. Easier said than done. The biggest problem, every time Selene uses her powers it eats away at her memories.
When a magical attack takes her plane down, she must retaliate with her own powers to safely get the plane down...in the middle of the jungle. To make matters worse, she's awoken a 2,000 year old sorcerer that's dead set on her being his long lost wife.

I will not lie when I say that I struggled to get into the book in the beginning. I don't think it really clicked for me until close to chapter 10. However, after that I did thoroughly enjoy it, and blew through the book in 2 nights.

The world building was rich and complex, but not so much so that it was overwhelming.
After getting over that initial hump with the beginning, I enjoyed the characters so much more. They were well written and Selene was definitely relatable.

Overall I enjoyed the read. It took me on a wild rollercoaster ride (AND THAT CLIFF HANGER... HELLO).
Spice level was fairly tame, although I feel the following books in the series has potential to be waaaay more.

I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the next in the series!

Releasing April 18th 2023

What a rollercoaster this one was! The whole time I was trying to figure out who I was rooting for because man so many ups and downs. This story was pretty wild and thankfully it isn't the last especially after that wild cliffhanger. Not even sure how I totally feel bout everything that went down but I know I wanna find out. So our story follows Selene and her magic is pretty rough. I do not envy this girl. For every time she uses her magic, a memory is taken away. Living like that cannot be easy. But despite the struggles Selene faces, she is determined to push through and make something for herself. And right now her goal is to get into Henbane Coven so she can work on her magic and be around other witches. But she has been struggling to get in. And in her latest try she is told that she needs to go on a quest and get a familiar. So she'll do it. But she never expects what comes next. A supernatural force brings her plane down in South America and she hears someone calling to her... Memnon the Cursed. And she may have released him. What's worse? Memnon is convinced Selene is his wife and that she betrayed him. And if that isn't complicated enough, she returns back to the US and gets into Henbane but then there are a series of murders going around. And with Selene's memory gaps, she is the main suspect. Poor girl can't catch a break. This story was pretty wild. I was hooked from beginning to end. I wanted to know more about Selene and her magic and how she could be Memnon's long ago wife. Reincarnation was my first guess but the big question was how? And if she was his wife, then why did she betray him and lock him away? Or did she even do that? Then Memnon himself was an enigma. To trust him or not? Could he be good? Bad? A bit of both? So much happening in this story and some many threads that overlap. Like I said, a crazy cliffhanger and I cannot wait to see where this series takes us.

Thanks to Netgally and Bloom, I received an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Back to the world of the Bargainer series we meet Selene, a witch who is trying to get in to the Henbane Cover. She needs two things to get in a magical quest and a familiar. Seems easy for a witch but anytime Selene uses magic she looses memories. From the start of her magical quest things seem odd, she finds her familiar and an ancient god. Everything for Selene changes.

I am so excited to read the latest Laura Thalassa and this one was exciting to read and excited to see the expansion in the Bargainer series universe.

The world building is really good, it isn’t an overly complicated supernatural world. I would say it is pretty standard. I liked how the concept of magic here is not just freely given it comes at a cost. I also like how we see how it impacts Selene’s memory.

Selene was a great character, she read so genuine in her want for acceptance in the Henbane Coven and her trying navigate her life with her memory loss. Also seeing her try to figure out how she woke up a god Memnon and why he is still around. I also really like seeing things that are normal for university students and reading when Selene and Sybil go to party. It adds to the building the the characters, especially when you know big things for the MC are going to happen it gives them something common.

I really enjoyed the little bit of mystery element with this book as well. From Selene trying figure out why there is god and why he thinks she is someone else to the mysterious deaths on campus.

There is some spice in this book but it is some what limited but adult language is used.

One thing I do wish we got a little more in this book was Selene’s relationship with Sybil. They are best friends and you do get a sense of that but I really like seeing a strong bond and connection.

There were a few questions I wished I had the answer to at the end, but I fully suspect we will get them through the series. Which I am excited for.

I can’t wait for the next book!

I recommend this book if you have read and enjoyed any of Laura Thalassa’s others books. If you love books about witches and the supernatural, but don’t want too dark. If you love Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

CW/TW: death