✨ Book Review ✨

I love the Buffy-verse and @heyashposton, so of course I had to jump into this combo! Happy pub week to The Bewitching Hour (A Tara Prequel) which sees Tara in her pre-Sunnydale times as the new kid in school at Hellbourne, Vermont. It's not ideal - few are particularly nice to her at school, her dad and brother aren't nice to her at all, and she very much misses her mom (whose passing was traumatic especially for a budding witch). And oh yeah, kids are dying all around her and she has a crush on Daphne, a witch hunter.

This hit the right notes for me as a Buffy fan: solving a mystery, found family, a forbidden romance. The setup chapter sucked me in immediately - it was exactly how I remember the opening scenes of a Buffy episode. I was also delighted to have Tara as a cornerstone of the story, both as a kickass heroine in her own right as well as a romantic lead.

Still, one of her scoobied, Baz, was a standout character. The affable popular kid with such golden retriever energy - funny, nice to Tara, tries to push Tara and her crush together, shows vulnerability - what's not to like?!?

While I think this book would play best if you're already a Buffy fan, I don't think that's strictly necessary. You'd also like this if you are into Paranormal Nancy Drew stories or any YA case of the week books (as long as magic elements aren't a no-go for you).

Thanks to @netgalley for the ebook!

"The Bewitching Hour" by Ashley Poston is just an ok book. It isn't great, and it isn't terrible. It's just ok. If the reader is familiar with the Buffy-verse, they will enjoy a prequel to Tara's story. Her character development fits decently well with her character that fans love in the show. But, there were many times that it felt like Poston was trying too hard to make everything fit. The nods to the original series were fun, but there were also times when she missed the mark on mid-90s teenage lifestyles and angst.

As a newer Buffy fan, and a newer Ashley Poston fan, I was SO excited to read this prequel. I loved Tara and her end is obviously terrible so I was hungry for anything related to her.

This was such a cute story that gives you more insight into who Tara is and how she became/becomes the character we came to know and love in Buffy. I loved the queer rep that we got in Tara and Daphne; I wasn't expecting it due to the time and setting of the story but it was such a lovely surprise. I also adored Baz, he was the perfect side character/friend for this story. I got the Scooby Gang feels from this gang of ragtag teens just trying to make it.

Working with pre-existing IP is always hard but Ashley Poston did a great job!

I don't know how to feel about this book. I love that Tara has been portrayed so well. She's still the Tara we love and adore from Buffy. Shes shy and self-doubting but as the book goes on, she gets stronger and believes in herself. There's plenty of nods to the show throughout the book. Even characters with the same names (or partially). The character name "Moss Jedon" was not lost on me. I see what you did there, Ms. Poston! Also some of the chapters are named after episodes, which didn't go unnoticed either. There's lots of nostalgic pop culture references thrown in to take you back to 1998, but I felt it was a bit "much". Too try-hard. The book is officially canon which means it's officially part of the Buffyverse now and I'm like waaaaaah. 😭 It also implies that Tara's death was destined to happen as a result of something that she does in the book and I'm not liking that. At all. There's certain things that happen that don't sit well with me and kinda messes with the continuity of the TV show when it comes to Tara going to college in Sunnydale. It reads very much a like a fanfic, then I got to the end and read the acknowledgements. The author writes/reads fanfics. So there ya go. Having watched Buffy many, many times over, I could also tell that the author has taken parts of episodes and slotted them into her own story, too - there's definitely parallels between the book and the show. Soooo yeah I don't know how I feel. I think if you've never watched the show, you may enjoy it more than I did.

As a girl who LOVES buffy the vampire slayer, when I saw that Ashley was doing this, I HAD to read it and I wasn't disappointed.

Tara has always been a character we know so little about, so to get a sneak peak into her pre-buffy life was excellent.

Character representation on point.
Story was entering and easy to read

A 5 star read for any Buffy fan.

Thank you to Netgalley for the review copy!

While this book is great, please know that Joss Whedon is a pretty terrible person and will profit off of this book.

The Bewitching Hour is a realistic fantasy novel about teenage Tara Maclay moving to Vermont and starting a new high school rife with murder and mystery. Ashley Poston did a great job with Tara, one of the most beloved Buffy characters. When I saw Poston’s name attached to the project, I knew it was going to be great. You do not have to have seen Buffy to enjoy this book, but there were some really cute nods to the tv series. Ashley Poston also did a great job of including diversity with all the new characters she introduced.

thank you for this arc! i’m not a huge buffy fan and don’t know much about it, but i requested this one because i’m a huge ashley poston fan. without knowing much about the universe, it was still really fun to read! i ended up really liking tara and the rest of the characters in the book. the storyline is fun and i ended up reading the book in one day… i highly recommend this one! and i know fans of the show would appreciate it even more

It’s been a while since I’ve even watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but this story jumped out at me and took me right back to the fandom. I was genuinely excited to read more about Tara because I recall enjoying that storyline in the show (until the obvious happened).

It was really fascinating to read some background on the character in what felt to me to be a totally believable story for the universe. While I did find myself missing Buffy, this takes place before Tara even came into their lives and easily stood on its own. I also really loved the little breadcrumbs alluding to Buffy and friends. I’m sure there’s a lot more than I spotted (it has, I mentioned, been a while) but I was proud of myself for spotting the ones I did.

Well worth the read for any Tara (and Buffy) fan!

Thank you to Disney Hyperion for providing me with an arc of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review!

As a fan of Ashley Poston's work when I found out she was doing Buffy prequel around Tara Maclay, the mega Buffy fan in me just HAD to read it and she didn't let me down.

Having just lost her mother, Tara's father moved the family away from her home town. Enrolling her into a new school, Hellborne academy. After being there just a couple of days a student dies a horrible death and others are attacked by a witch.

At Hellborne academy she met Daphne, who she falls in love with but the problem is Daphne is a witch hunter and Tara is a witch. As their relationship grows Tara is worried about hiding what she really is.

Ashley Poston portrayed Tara's character really well including her horrid family and how they treat Tara, forcing her to suppress who she truly is. Her characters inner turmoil is written well, struggling with being a witch and suppressing it like her family are forcing her too.

Baz is my favourite character, he is the best, he took Tara under his wing and helped her even though he was hiding a secret of his own.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this and loved my Buffy fix. It really set things up for future Tara.

Ashley Poston is very much an auto-buy author for me, so I was excited to pick this one up. Unfortunately, I am not really in a paranormal vibes mood right now, so I am not able to give it the love I'm sure it deserves. Maybe once it comes to audiobook?

This will be short and sweet as I won’t give anything away but IVE MISSED TARA!!!! Buffy fans will know what became of her in the series & of course it was one of the most heartbreaking losses in the show. Here we have Tara pre Sunnydale, before willow & the scoobies , after the loss of her mother navigating life whilst still believing her horrid families lies about who she truly is. I loved this so much I honestly got so excited when I saw this on here I’ve been in need of a buffy fix and this was perfect!

I received a free e-galley of this title in exchange for an honest review. I have also never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer which this book is a prequel to.

Tara moves to a new school in a new state after the recent loss of her mother. Navigating a new school with all the high school politics and drama is hard enough, but add being a witch to the mix and you have a whole new level of difficult. Tara warily makes friends as she learns about her new town's dark history with the Red Witch, finds out that she might not be the only "creature" at her school, and maybe finds her first love all while trying to find out who is murdering her classmates. I enjoyed this title and would like to read more about Tara and maybe even finally watch Buffy.

Loved getting a look at Tara's life before Buffy was neat. As someone who loved Buffy at as a tween and teen. It was the secondary characters that I like more than Buffy sometimes. So I loved learning more about Tara.

So far, the new Disney Buffyverse books have not quite managed to get the characters quite right. Ms. Poston has, as is only appropriate in a book about my favorite witch, broken that curse. The books will certainly annoy some Scoobies who are looking for something specific. I understand that to make a prequel to on of the greatest TV shows of all time that is going to need to bend some continuity to make it work. Tara never let on that she knew who Giles was in the show. Fine. Let some of that stuff go and enjoy the way that Poston gets Tara. She sees her fully and even manages to nail her stutter. Not an easy task. The fact that Beth still is young Amy Adams in this book is a nice touch. It would be amazing if and or when they do an audiobook that Amber Benson, who is quite an amazing audiobook narrator would do this . Fingers crossed Scoobies.

I read some, but not a ton, of YA- so I went into reading this trying to keep the genre in mind. Tara Maclay is precious to me and I so wanted the story to do right by her, especially as the author says she is a fan.

And, it does, kind of.

The author writes Tara with the qualities that make her who she is: sweet, smart, talented, and sometimes self-doubting- I am very grateful that the author didn't try and 'fix' her by making her more gregarious and quippy- we need characters who are shyer, more social awkward, not always 'on'- and to see Tara recognize her own strength is lovely.

The plot itself is...ok. It's a YA book about murders that people don't seem to care enough about and there are the requisite 'cool kids', football games, this book's version of 'prom queen' gone weird (the why of this is never explained and the event itself ends up being less relevant than built up) and the threat of being sent to boarding school (why this would be a worse choice given Tara's home life is also not really looked at).

I enjoyed Daphne a lot (her story is very familiar though if you have watched Netflix lately). She is well rooted and fun to read, but also, I was ok saying goodbye to her by the end of the book.

I had a hard time with the conflicting and/or completely off-character ways Tara's relationship with magic were written- in the scheme of the story these could be tidbits- but in the scheme of keeping Tara true to who she is, these are essential. There are truths fundamental to Tara and these seemed to be thrown about without much thought- or maybe hurriedly and thus messily.

MINOR SPOILER: There is one thing written- basically about a price- that was a fatal stroke for me against this author's characterization of Tara's story (basically it suggests that what happens to Tara in S6 is because of her choices made within this story-and just no, I do not like the blame being placed on Tara- valiant or not) I admit though that is taking into consideration everything within the Buffyverse- and that within The Bewitching Hour, it narratively makes sense.
..............................................................

I found the characterization of Tara's family similarly conflicting- especially in regards to her father's opinions on magic and his relationship with her mother. In two paragraphs, completely different histories are written. This leaves Tara's foundation nebulous and the choices her father makes unclear.

However, the way the author wrote Tara's relationship with her mother, the grief and love, are absolutely beautiful and my favorite thing about the book.

There is a sweetness to the story and I was very glad that Tara is her own motivation in the end- that she recognizes and embraces her capabilities.

So, overall... it's ok. There are very lovely parts, there are parts that conflict and don't make sense, a few parts that make me angry, parts that are formulaic and a bit shallow, and parts where we see the Tara we know and love. It's not a story I will likely revisit though.

This book takes me back to my days in middle school in its vampire obsessed haze, only now its super gay. I loved Tara as a character in the original series and love that she is getting the spotlight all to herself in this book.

The Tara tale we deserve! A recommended purchase for collections where paranormal is popular. Significant adult crossover appeal given original fanbase.

Tara Maclay has just moved to Hellborne, Vermont, & all she wants to do is quietly finish high school in peace. Unfortunately, Hellborne quickly lives up to its name as her new classmates start dropping dead & her chance to fly under the radar slips away. As a witch Tara is able to since auras and magic and she knows that there is something mystical going on at Hellborne Academy. She teams up with her crush Daphne, who just so happens to be part of a family of witch-hunters 😳 in order to find the witch behind the killings. Can the girls stop the killer before anyone else gets hurt?

• • •

As a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I have always felt that Tara deserved better and I was so excited to see that her prequel story was given to one of my favorite authors.

In the story we learn more about her background and how she wound up in Sunnydale. We get to see her inner strength and the tranquility that she quietly exudes in the show. We meet her first love and see her come out of her shell a bit.

I am still curious about some things, specifically about the school her cousin, Beth, keeps wanting to send her to and says “fixed” her? Was Beth also a witch? Or was the school a conversion school? Does Beth eventually get Tara sent there? What happens?

I’m really hoping Poston will get to write another Tara prequel where we can see her grow more into her magic and get the story of what finally made her run from her family.

• • •

#2023reads #bookstagram #TheBewitchingHour #YAsupernatural #YAromance #lgbtq #NetGalley #buffyverse #TaraPrequel

I was so thrilled to get early access to this book! Tara is my favorite character from Buffy, and Ashley Poston absolutely does her story justice.

After the death of her mother, Tara moves with her dad and brother to Hellborne, VT. Her dad wants her to steer clear of magic, but Hellborne seems to have other plans. In the midst of a series of mysterious deaths, Tara teams up with the other new girl, Daphne, to figure out what's really going on as the authorities struggle to identify the killer. The Bewitching Hour is a fun, energetic addition to the Buffyverse that will appeal to diehard fans and newbies alike!

Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC of this book.

As any Buffy fan will tell you, Tara Maclay deserved so, so much more during her time on the television series, so I was very excited for a prequel about her pre-Sunnydale life. Although after reading more about her past (her family was VERY punchable in the one episode we saw them), I was even more upset about her treatment in the series.

Tara, as a character, had overcome so much in her young life, and we get to see her really begin to embrace her inner strength in this book. While still reeling from the loss of her mother and being a new kid in school, we watch as Tara uses her kindness, intelligence, and gentle spirit to save the day. I enjoy stories that provide alternative ways for kids/teens to be seen as "strong" or "heroes" and this book does just that.

The story moves as a good pace and there is enough of a mystery to keep readers interested. Daphne and Baz are great side characters and add a lot to the story. The Buffy references sprinkled throughout the story (such as a willow tree and the Scooby gang) will make OG fans smile. But the story is good enough that potential new fans will enjoy it too.