I’ve been dying to get my hands on a copy of Kate Robb’s debut, THIS SPELLS LOVE! Let me tell you, it was everything and more! Thank you to netgalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

After getting dumped, Gemma does the only logical thing: get wasted with her sister, aunt, and best friend, Dax, and jokingly complete a spell to cleanse her past relationship. To her shock, she wakes to realize it worked. Her life looks completely different, including the fact that Dax has no idea who she is.

To get her life back, she’ll need to repeat the spell exactly, including that kiss she shared with her best friend who doesn’t even know her now. But starting fresh with Dax—and without the barrier of her ex to stop them—is complicated, and their relationship shifts. When her new life starts to settle into everything she’s ever wanted, Gemma will have to decide if going home as she planned if worth losing it all.

GOD, THIS BOOK! First, let me say how brilliant the tension is between Gemma and Dax 😚🤌 We get just enough of them before the spell to see just how much potential there is for their friendship, and then he suddenly doesn’t know her! It leads to plenty of antics while Gemma tries to win back his friendship without looking like a crazy stalker. It’s funny and heartbreaking at the same time, perfectly balanced in Kate’s witty and unique voice.

The side characters, especially Gemma’s sister, are so brilliantly done, too. Kate somehow balances an interesting and complex sister relationship without letting it dominate the story. And as a mom, I related so much to her side plot!

I loved every second in this story, and I can’t wait to read whatever she gives us next!

I LOVED this book.

Not only was it written amazingly and such a good story, but it also had some great life lessons as well. The things we go through in life are all part of how we got where we are today, change one single thing and we could be living a whole other life.

The story telling was phenomenal, the characters were fun and so easy to relate to. I also really enjoyed the secondary characters, they really added to the story and helped build the plot.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for sending me this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

After breaking up with her boyfriend of 4 years, Gemma is regretting ever meeting him. After a few margaritas (or a lot), her aunt suggests doing a love cleanse spell from a book that she had found. Along with her sister and her best friend Dax, who she happened to meet the same night as her ex-boyfriend, they complete the spell. But when Gemma wakes up, her entire world is different, and even though she never met her ex-boyfriend, she also finds she never met Dax either. Determined to have Dax in her life, she tried to woo her way into a friendship with him in this new life, but maybe it’s not just friendship that is between them.

This book was utterly adorable. I love the subtle magic in it, and the whole wake up in an alternate reality plot line. Dax is dreamy, and sweet, and hot. My favorite character has to be Aunt Livi who is so subtly witchy, she’s just the coolest all knowing aunt ever. I loved Gemma and Dax’s friendship and then alternative relationship. I also loved Gemma’s growth. It was just a really cute romcom filled with love, coffee, and donuts. 4/5 ⭐️

I believe this was a debut? It was a pretty solid story. I'm a sucker for witchy romance and it was open-door with a great balance between spice and plot.

<i>I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

2.5 stars

This was fine. I didn't love it but it didn't suck so much that I couldn't finish it (even if I did wonder at times why I was still reading it).

This whole story is told first person from Gemma's PoV. And while I read a lot of single PoV and/or first person stories, this one could've used a different narrator. Because Gemma is not great. She's annoying in a way you can't quite place your finger on. She feels immature. More than cautious and rationally-minded, she feels scared and flighty. And that would've been okay if that's why the author was going for but it seems more like an accident.

Yeah, she grows up and learns and takes ownership of her crap throughout the story but I just didn't care. She was too annoying to begin with and then I was never pulled in enough for her transformation to pay off.

Dax is okay, though I don't get what's so special about him. Aunt Liv and Kiersten are intriguing but needed more development. All the characters did, really. I wasn't able to connect with any of them.

The magical realism element was my biggest source of disappointment. It was just . . . fine. I agree with other reviewers that it seems doubtful that you could substitute ingredients for a spell and still have it work. It's all just lacking in magic. I recently read a magical realism/time warp story that was so much more engaging so maybe I'm making unfair comparisons.

This is a very low stakes, friends-to-lovers, finding yourself read. Unfortunately, I can't see myself recommending this much.

I had no intention of reading this book in one sitting, but it sucked me in so quickly! If you love rom-coms this is definitely for you!

It’s always a treat to find a really enjoyable debut novel by an author, because I know I can expect more great reads from them in the future, and “This Spells Love” by Kate Robb hit that mark for me! The story follows Gemma as she makes a wish that she’d never met her ex, and then gets a taste of what that life would have been like.

Alternate timeline stories always run a high risk of being too far fetched and leaving too many plot holes for my taste, but I thought Robb did a really nice job with this story. You obviously know going into it that it’s going to have a happy ending, but it could have taken many paths to get there, and I think the author settled on just the right one.

The main character felt a bit selfish and unlikeable at times, but the supporting characters were all really well written. I found myself rooting for the whole cast of characters to end up in their ideal timeline by the end of it, because they all had their own stories built out so well. Overall, this was a really interesting and engaging read. It kept me turning the pages right up until the very end to see how things would play out, and then left me satisfied that all worked out well in the end.

Oh, the classic best friends what if we date and things fall apart romance. Yet this book presents it beautifully. You have a parallel world that really shows the power of choices. One small change in the fabric of choice and everything else can play out completely differently. Yet the one thing that may never change is if there is really a true connection between two people. No matter the circumstances they will find a way back to each other. Now once they meet what happens is up to them, but true connections are fated. I really enjoyed Gemma’s characterization, and liked seeing her try to figure out how to best help those around her even if it might mean that she didn’t get what she wanted the most.
Thank you so much to Random House Publishing Group, Dial Press Trade Paperback, and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book.

Even after reading the description, this wasn’t quite what I expected. It was okay. But I didn’t love any of the characters and I found Gemma annoying. I thought the ending would be longer, but there was so much wasted time on the alternate reality, it felt like the author ran out of space to finish the book.

This (Book) Spells Love! I've really been on a magical realism romance kick lately, with all these amazing books coming out about wishes and time-travel. And I’m here for it! In this case, it's a classic wish to re-do the past - Gemma has just been broken up with by her long-term boyfriend, and in a fit of despair, she drunkenly agrees to her aunt’s suggestion to follow a love-cleansing spell - a spell that requires a kiss in order to live in a world where she never met her ex. When Gemma drunkenly asks her best friend Dax to kiss her after completing the rest of the steps to the spell, she thinks nothing of it… until she wakes up the next morning in an unfamiliar apartment and her best friend has no idea who she is. Turns out a lot of things can change over the course of four years with just one small tweak to the timeline. Now she’s trying to navigate her new life while trying to figure out where things went wrong. Determined to undo the spell, she needs to befriend Dax so that she can convince him to kiss her again at the next waning moon when she attempts to reverse the spell. But the longer she spends in this life, getting to know Dax in a different way, as well as beginning to see what went right for her, she also starts to see all the things that are worse. This leaves her caught into between - go back to do it all over again and fix what went wrong, or stay and try to fix things in this new life. Full of heart and some hijinks, This Spells Love was such a fun and fulfilling read about paths not taken and what-ifs. You’ll love this book if you’re a fan of Sliding Doors or storied of destiny and soulmates.

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

Great read, well-written, takes you exactly where you want to go with a lot of heart and humor! Sure, it's a smutty romance, but the relationships between all the characters are what really make this book sparkle. If they continue to be this good, I'll be looking forward to more works from Kate Robb in the future!

Gemma has just been dumped by her long-time boyfriend and she’s drunkenly doing some sort of cleansing ritual with her aunt, sister, and best friend, Dax. She wakes up the next day in an alternate reality where she had never met her ex, but then she had also never met her best friend Dax. In trying to get back to her own reality, she needs to re-do the ritual at the appropriate moon-phase, but will also need Dax’s participation. Gemma sets off to befriend Dax in this universe, but realizes that they have romantic feelings for each other instead. It seems she never got the chance to think of Dax as anything but a friend, since she quickly fell into a serious relationship with the other guy. This book was funny and sweet and also steamy. It was an easy, relatively low-angst, friends-to-lovers read.

4.5 stars!!!
I LOVED this book!!! It reminded me of 13 going on 30, but it had it's own unique twists and turns. This is one of the best rom-com books i've ever read, and if it's not made into a movie like it deserves, I'm gonna be sad. Aunt Livi is one of my favorite characters. She's so quirky. I NEED a Dax in my life like are you kidding??? The sweetest most supporting man!!!! Gemma is fun and has so much character growth. Her relationship with her sister is the best and makes me wish my sister was older, so ours could look like that haha. Gemma and Dax together are amazing. I loved the different timeline/universe aspect, and thought this was a very unique rom-com. Can't wait to see what else Kate Robb does!

I enjoyed this story of Gemma and Dex. They have been best friends for years but after a particularly rough break up for her, she wishes that she could forget the whole relationship and start over. But when her "love cleanse" spell comes true, things aren't always as good as they seem.

This story definitely has some growth in it. Gemma is likeable and fun, but also kind of a jerk to her friends and family. So seeing her come to realize that everything isn't about her all of the time is very satisfying. I loved the romance and and seeing her happy but also felt like the end tied up really quickly. A good, fun read that was great for an evening in.

I was hooked from the writing alone right away but by the time the alternate universe hit I wasn’t enjoying it as much. I wanted her to hurry up and go back to her timeline so I could read more about their relationship.

This book was just what a needed!! The slow burn, the banter, the drama, the friends to lovers, everything was so great!! I was drawn in from the start and wanted to keep reading and see what was going to happen for Gemma with a G and Dax!

Gemma wished for a different life and that’s what she got….but her new life wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows like she thought it would be!! Through her journey she not only discovered herself but her true feelings and what things were really important to her and her life!!

This was a great feel good rom com love story!

I had such a great time reading this! It was fun & super unique. This Spells Love is friends to lovers romance but with a twist. I loved seeing Gemma navigate her situation while also learning a lot about herself. I spent a good chunk of this book thinking about what I would do if I was in her shoes! I’m a sucker for books with sibling relationships and this one was wonderful. The romance was cute and I was rooting for them the entire time! My only issue with this book is that I wish Gemma would have got back to her world quicker. I wanted to see more of her and Dax afterward! Other than that, I loved this and I can’t wait to read more from this author!

This was a great read! Funny, heartwarming, and so engaging! Dax and Gemma are so well-written and the character chemistry is phenomenal. We see Gemma grow up a bit and come to some personal revelations that shape her future. Dax is just the sweetest and deserved every bit of the goodness he got. I’ll be keeping this one (thanks BOTM for the early release allowing me to have a physical copy too)!!

I'm really enjoying the romance with a little bit of magic genre and this one is an absolute hit. Our female main character is terrific and I really enjoyed the plot.

Gemma Wilde wasted years of her life in a relationship and knows she isn't going to get over it any time soon. Her aunt then suggests a spell that will make her forget her ex. I think we can all agree we wish this spell was real. Unfortunately, the spell has some unintended consequences, her best friend Dax has no idea who she is.

It was such a quick, fun read and I can't wait to recommend it to my friends when it comes out!

Thank you the Dial Press and NetGalley for the arc.

I am not sure how this happens but I seem to end up reading similar stories around the same time. I just finished Ghosted by Sarah Ready and time/dimension travel is the common theme. I liked this book a lot. It was a very easy ready. The FMC and her family was hilarious. It was a friends to lovers romance with a dash of mysticalness.

Gemma Wilder is over being heartbroken. She just got out of a 4 year relationship that she is starting to realize she may have been in for the wrong reasons. She is relying on her sister, her slightly crazy aunt and her BF Dax to get her through this. To move things along, her aunt suggests she do a love cleanse. It seems a little voodoo but there are candles and a kiss between her and Dax are required. When these things happen, Gemma will have moved on from Stuart (her ex). Everything is setup until the kiss which happens but then Gemma being a little more than tipsy overthinks things and they get a little awkward between her and Dax. She goes to bed but when she wakes up things have change.

She is in a different room then she went to sleep in. There is a man naked walking out of the shower. She doesn’t remember how to get home because apparently that isn’t her home. She barges into Dax’s shoe store only to realize he has NO idea who she is. Her life as she knew it is over. She goes to the one person who is consistent her sister. Her sister doesn’t believe anything Gemma says about time travel and how everything in this Gemma’s life is different than what was happening in her other life. She has her own beauty store that has only been a dream. The only thing she doesn’t have is Dax. So Gemma makes it her mission to get to know him and get him back so to say. Along the way she starts to realize things from a different perspective. New Dax seems into her, and she is thinking she is in to him too. Why did she never realize how handsome he is? Why did they never make a move on one another? Gemma is trying to decide whether to stay in this timeline of her life or go back when things around her start falling apart. She realizes that she would rather sacrifice this budding romance with new Dax and go back to what she knows- but what will it be like with her and Dax now that she knows what he looks like naked and all the wonderful things he can do with his beautiful body to her? Know that she knows she really loves him? Will it be unrequited? Or will their relationship take a new turn?

I really liked the banter between Gemma and Dax. I liked how Gemma thought. I liked her overall arc. And Dax don’t get me started on him. He seemed like a shy hot BF who has always wanted more but it never seemed like the right time. He was so patient with Gemma. And how he responds to her confession had me melting.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did.