THIS BOOK. I don't like friends-to-lovers or instalove romance books usually, but Kate Robb found a way to incorporate both and did it so well. It was sweet and steamy and had me grinning and kicking my feet like a teenage girl. Thank you so much to NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

I love anything with a what if you had taken the other path/alternate reality and This Spells Love by Kate Robb was perfectly fitting!
A sweet and cute romantic comedy with a bit of magic. It’s a story with characters you really like, hoping they can find that happily ever after.

I thought the cover was eye catching and figured it would be a cute read. The characters came off as juvenile and the MC didn’t really stand out much. I didn’t see all that much chemistry between her and her best friend and I thought they were both pretty bland. This is the kind of story where two characters we are supposed to be are in love are right in front of each other but for no reason at all they can’t see it. There were a bunch of things that didn’t add up and made the story seem unbelievable. Not a bad story, just not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the arc.

Now I want a donut. This book plays around with the common "what if" story line while introducing some great secondary characters that will likely have their own books down the line. I liked reading about Gemma and Dax since they were relatable and highly believable as people who were best friends in one universe. It was a fun, quick read that I enjoyed.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This book took me by surprise a bit. I requested it because I hod gotten an email saying I would like, so of course I had to read it. I really appreciated how this book showed genuine problems while still being a fun romance. Both Gemma and Dax have realistic problems with owning small businesses and generally just being an adult. I also think it was so sweet that Gemma and Dax were in love in multiple universes. All in all, a cute magical romance.

This Spells Love is a charming and witty romance novel that follows the lives of two spellcasters who work at a magical bookstore. Cassie is a shy and sweet witch who loves books and baking. Jake is a confident and charismatic warlock who loves adventure and flirting. When they are assigned to work together on a special project, sparks fly, and magic happens.

I enjoyed reading this book because it was fun and engaging. The characters were likable and relatable, and the chemistry between Cassie and Jake was sizzling. The author did a wonderful job of creating a cozy and whimsical setting for the story, with a lot of details about the bookstore and the spells. The plot was fast-paced and full of twists and turns, keeping me hooked until the end.

However, I also had some issues with this book that prevented me from giving it a higher rating. First of all, I felt that the conflict between Cassie and Jake was too contrived and resolved too easily. They had some misunderstandings and arguments that seemed to come out of nowhere and were quickly forgotten. I would have liked to see more depth and development in their relationship. Secondly, I felt that the ending was too rushed and convenient. Everything wrapped up neatly in a few pages, without much explanation or consequence. I would have liked to see more epilogue or sequel potential for the characters.

Overall, This Spells Love is a light-hearted and enjoyable read for fans of romantic comedy and fantasy. It has a lot of humor, romance, and magic that will make you smile and swoon. It is not a perfect book, but it is a good one.

This romance starts off with Gemma Wilde having a night of solace after the breakup of a years-long relationship with Stuart. Gemma has a lovely condo overlooking the lake, a great job as beauty-products buyer for a popular chain store, and the people she is spending the evening with, her intriguing aunt Lily, her older sister Kiersten, and her best friend Dax. Her aunt suggests using a love cleanse spell in a book she's just acquired, and Gemma is definitely onboard. But the spells requires a kiss, and so Dax gives her a chaste kiss at the end of the evening before tucking Gemma into her bed in her margarita haze.
When Gemma awakes the next morning, she is surprised to find that the spell may have worked, and she never went out with Stuart, but she finds herself in a dismal basement apartment with different possessions. When she goes out in search of answers, there is no one at her aunt's shop, and she finds herself at Dax's sneaker store, sneaking in the unlocked backdoor to look for reassurance. Dax is there, but he has no idea who she is and Gemma is aghast to find that her ex-boyfriend may not be the only thing thar she no longer has. As she discovers the alternate version of her life that she finds herself in, she discovers both good and bad things are true.
It seems that this Gemma made one of her long-time secret dreams come true, but that things didn't go as well for others. As she remakes old friendships and discovers new ones, she also must decide whether to stay in this reality, or attempt to undo the spell and return to her previous reality, if she can.
Set in Hamilton, Ontario, this novel gives the feel for an authentic place, and some Canadian quirks. It also a lot of imagination in the details of Gemma's predicament.
Her friendship with Dax is a strong one, and I can see how losing that would be hard. He's also a hot guy and maybe there are feeling between them beyond friendship. As their relationship develops in one world, it's possible that it might be a stronger one in the other world as well.
I like the unflappable quality of Lily, and the strong relationship between her and Kiersten, who always makes time for her despite being married with three kids. And I liked Dax, who has dreams of his own, and who has been an amazing friend to Gemma.
A great read.

This was a super sweet rom com about with alternative versions of reality — in real time, Gemma Wilde is recently split from her long-time boyfriend, in a corporate job she doesn’t love but gives her financial security, and has an incredible best friend named Dax.

After too many margaritas and a weird ritual from an old spell book, Gemma wakes up to an entirely different version of reality. In this timeline, she has her own beauty store, she’s flitting from hook up to hook up — and Dax has no idea who she is. Once Gemma comes to terms with stranger Dax she begins to win him over — as a friend and then as something more. But other core elements of this new timeline aren’t great, and Gemma needs to make a decision about which parallel reality is the right path to continue on.

I loved all of the characters in this book, especially Gemma’s kooky and psychic aunt. Every decision we make has a ripple effect — you can’t erase one without changing the entire map of the rest of your life. It was super enjoyable to watch Gemma realize this and proactively make the decisions for her future that would give her the best of all worlds.

I really enjoyed this book. I absolutely loved that it takes place in Ontario Canada!! The love of donuts rang home and true to me too.

By removing one thing from her past it completely altered Gemma’s new present. A cute story where Gemma rediscovers her best friend and parts of herself too. Deciding what is most important to her. There were a few laugh out loud moments and some swoon worthy flirting. Dax is a catch and charmer.

A big thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Random House and NetGalley for the ARC for mt review.

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I really enjoyed this book. It was a fun, quick read. I really liked the approach to Gemma’s second reality. I loved that it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows and that she got to grow as a character and see how her actions affect others. I just wish in the end she could’ve gone back to when she started and made the changes on her own instead of jumping to the next reality. Great book!

I absolutely adored this book from start to finish- from the best friend turned lovers relationship to the family members to the alternate universe and spell gone awry- it was everything I look for in a rom-com. I usually hate the miscommunication trope with a passion but the pay off with it in this book is so worth my frustrations in the moment. This is absolutely going to be my new comfort read.

The start of this was touch and go, but overall very cute and quirky. I thought that it would be more based on magic, but alas that wasn't the case.

Robb uses the phrase "Bow Chika Wow wow" un-ironically twice in one paragraph, and the main love interest seemed a little too perfect. However, I loved the relationship between the two sisters. This was a quick read and I would recommend this book to people who like romances.

Spoiler Warning for the beginning of the book.
I dnf’d this book at 15%. I just did not vibe with the main character and I found it annoying to be in her head. We start off finding out that its been three weeks since her break up and she’s out getting doughnuts with her sister. We kinda get an idea about her ex and why they broke up, and then we see the main female Gemma deciding to have margaritas with her sister and aunt. From there we see Gemma getting drunk discussing her breakup, her best friend Dax shows up, and then her aunt randomly suggest doing a spell to make Gemma forget about meeting her ex. The whole scene surrounding the spell was really cheesy, and I personal feel like not much research was done in how spells are constructed and performed with this scene. The group doesn’t have quite bit of the ingredients and they swap things in. There’s also a moment where the aunt sends Dax to look for chicken feet which felt weird and didn’t make since as to why that was needed for the spell. Then Gemma backs out of the spell and Dax takes her home and puts her to bed, but Gemma doesn’t want him to leave. Dax decides to go before anything happens and makes it down to the door, where Gemma stops him and asks him to kiss her. Dax agrees and gives her kiss and then leaves. Gemma then goes to bed and wakes up in a strangers place while remembering the night before. She then gets up, gets dressed, and rushes out the door after a chat with the man living in the place. Now here is were my issue with the main character comes in. Her first thought is to contact her ex, then remembers they’re broken up and she can’t do that, then decides to head to her apartment to figure it out. At no point does she stop and check her purse to make sure nothing was stolen or lost. This bothered me a lot because if only Gemma had looked in her purse and wallet she would have seen that something had changed. She gets to her apartment and low and behold the guard up front says she doesn’t live there after she sees she has a different set of keys. She argues with him thrusting her license at him. At which point hey says hey doesn’t want to call cops that early in the morning and its at this point she looks and her license and sees her address isn’t the apartment, but is a street address. Then she decides to head over Dax’s place which makes no sense to me. She has a different set of keys, a sweater she swears went missing three months prior to the night before, and she’s living at a different address. Why is she going to Dax, who most likely isn’t going to know her, instead of calling her sister or aunt? Or better yet why isn’t she trying to figure out what day it is? It’s these dumb decisions that really took me out of the story and made me decide to DNF.

After getting dumped, Gemma drunkenly performs a spell that puts her in an alternate timeline where she never met her ex. There she learns how her life was positively affected by never dating her ex, but she also learns the negative affects of the alternate timeline. The biggest negative: her best friend, Dax, not knowing her.

I loved this book! The "what if" scenario took some time for me to buy into, but it ended up working and I was surprised by the book's humor and heart. It handled the alternate timeline well and I loved Gemma and her relationships with her sister, aunt, and Dax.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Gemma is heartbroken that her boyfriend broke up with her, and decides to wash away her woes with alcohol and a love cleansing spell. She wakes up the following morning realizing the spell actually worked, and in her new reality she never has dated her ex and her life is completely different than her previous one. Especially concerning is that her best friend, Dax, has no idea who she is. She has an opportunity to reverse the spell, which involves getting a kiss from Dax – but then she wonders if she wants to return to her previous life, because perhaps Dax is a better romantic fit? This was a fun friends-to-lovers storyline with fun and relatable characters. I enjoyed the spin of the book involving magic and other realities – and this is a great book if you like the steamy side of romance!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – I received this arc free in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book was just okay for me - I was expecting something a little more "witchy", but it was still an okay read. I kinda just finish it to finish it.

It was nice to see a book set in Canada and specifically Ontario, as not a lot of books are set out here!

This book would make a good breach read or just something to read during travel. But it wasn't enough that I'll want to read it again or own it in print format.

This Spells Love
After a long relationship that ended leaving Gemma feel like she wasted 4 years of her life on a “safety romance” with some
Encouragement from her Aunt, sister and best friend Dax she decides to perform a spell to erase her ex from her timeline. Waking up the next morning in a different bed, living in a different apartment and without her best friend knowing she exists leads Emma down an adventure to discover that her friendship with Dax may be more than a friendship and that her dreams don’t need to wait.

This book was the perfect cozy book. The characters are instantly lovable and you are invested in the story right from the first chapter. I suggest this book for anyone who is a fan of Erin Sterling and Ann Aguirre. Thank you NetGalley for the Advanced copy in advance for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was lucky enough to snag an advanced copy of Kate Robb's debut, This Spells Love. I couldn't put down this warm and snarky Sliding Doors romcom with just the right amount of Practical Magic vibes and curling. Yes, curling! This Canadian pastime has never looked sexier!!! Dax and Gemma (and Kate Robb) stole my heart with this one. Out Dec. 5.

Thank you @netgalley and @thedialpress for the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This book was good, and if you like movies/books similar to 13 going on 30 I think you'll really like this.
Gemma is a 27 year old women and has just gone through a surprise break up with her long term boyfriend. So, she does a drunk magical cleanse with her sister, best friend Dax and kooky aunt, as one does. But, she gets more than she bargained for when she wakes up as herself in a parallel universe. She may be rid of her ex but, her best friend doesn't know her, her fancy apartment is gone, and she has a completely different job. How is she going to survive or escape, and what happens if she ends up not wanting to leave?

I enjoyed the writing style and the characters, it's a fun contemporary romance, and it takes place in Hamilton, Ontario is Canada which was fun because I am Canadian. However, there were almost too many Canadian references (of course curling was the hobby 😅)and I'm curious for those who aren't Canadian might not understand them all. My other criticism was the end. I was absolutely invested by the end but, it ended far too abruptly for my liking. Like a door slam in the face, oh, it's over? I want a bit more wrap up.

Overall though I enjoyed it and would recommend. Cheers to a Canadian author writing a novel set in Canada

This was adorable and perfect in every way!

I loved the characters. I loved normal life them and their parallel life versions. The parallel life thing was super cool and interesting to me.

I loved Gemma’s sister and Aunt Liv. Aunt Liv was a hoot!

If you love cutesy romances with a little spice and time warp/parallel existence, read this one!

It’s the type of book that will warm your heart and make you smile.