I wasn't really a fan of the writing style but the idea behind the story is really good! Interesting and unique it's something for everyone!

I love a witchy rom-com. Cute plot line, quirky characters. nothing super special but an enjoyable read. would recommend to anyone looking for a quick, light read.

A fun and light romantic comedy that will make you smile and enjoy the story from start to finish.

This is such a fun light romantic comedy with a side of witchiness! A very cosy rom com vibes and exactly what you'd expect, I enjoyed the characters and I enjoyed the plot, it was such a lovely quick read. Would be perfect as a little palette cleanser or getting you out a reading slump

Thank you to NetGalley, Bonnie Doon Press, and Linsey Hall for granting me an advance copy of this eBook in return for my honest opinions.

This book is a wonderful a cozy paranormal fantasy romance. I enjoyed reading it so much. It is such a quick read.

Aria leaves Charming Cove believing her magic is broken,but comes back at her Grandmother's request to compete for ownership of a magical garden.

Aria discovers her nemesis, Callan Hawthorne, is a competitor. Callan tries to win her affection. He has been in love with her for a long time.

The romance is sweet and all of the characters are so, so loveable. Tabitha (Aria's best friend) her niece (Catrina), and Aria's familiar the badger named Boris, were favorites. I especially loved the antics of Boris! He was my absolute favorite!!!

The slow burn romance was beautifully crafted.

Highly recommend. Five Stars!

This was a cute and fun read. I loved Boris and I wish we got a bit more of him. Hopefully there are more books in this town. The romance was cute. I also loved that even though there was only a 4 year age gap between the two, when they met she was 17 and he was 21 and thought that was too young.

This was a great story of coming into your own, a found family and overcoming past difficulties

I knew this was going to be a 5 star read after only a few chapters and it didn't disappoint! A witch whose powers were just as likely to blow something up in her face then do something useful, a mage who has made himself a millionaire by buying properties and turning them into profitable masterpieces but leaves little time to make friends or have a family. A competition for the most highly coveted magic garden and all the profits that came along with it. Shenanigans, witty banter, a sassy badger and a chance of love and finding a family will bring this mismatched pair together to create something amazing.

Loved it. Lightweight easy reading that just makes you happy as you read it. Aria is returning home to enter a contest that she feels she has no chance to win. However her winning is important to her grandmother and friends . But how can she, with her wonky magic, win such a major competition, especially against a powerful mage ad Callan? Totally enjoyable

Captivating urban fantasy with a strong heroine and a thrilling blend of magic, action, and romance. Hall's world-building is enchanting! 5 stars!!

I love witchy romcoms but this one did not work for me, I'm afraid! It's very badly Brit-picked right from the get-go (has the author ever actually seen a badger??), and something about the writing feels very unpolished, but the nail in the coffin for me was the voice of the male lead, which sounds incredibly like a teenage girl's narration and is almost indistinguishable from the female lead. DNF at 10%.

The Modern Girl's Guide to Magic is a cute contemporary magical romance about kinda enemies who end up competing against each other to win ownership of a huge magical garden. I love plants, contemporary magic, and cozy romances, so I was excited for this one!

Things I liked: there is a badger familiar named Boris!!!! He was great and stole every scene. I liked the premise and the magical competition. The descriptions of plants and potions were also nice and gave me cozy witch vibes. There are also some very cute and unique magical creatures that I loved hearing about! I also enjoyed Aria's grandmother, I hope I'm as cool as her when I'm older!

What I didn't like: This book was just a little too trope-y for me and I wasn't super into the romance. The two meet when the female main character is 17 and the male main character is 21. He then THINKS ABOUT HER for the next 8 years and we're supposed to think that is sweet! Nooooo!!!!! Why on earth couldn't they have aged her up to 18? An adult lusting after a 17 year old girl is super creepy!! I had a hard time forgetting that part when he talked about how he couldn't get her out of his mind and how no other woman could compare. Ick!

I'm not a huge fan of romances, but I do really like contemporary magical stories so I hoped that this one would be a good balance. I'd say it's more on the romance than magical side, which was not quite what I was hoping for. I ended up skimming a lot of this book because I was bored by how fluffy it was, but at the end I realized that I was probably being too harsh and went back to more closely read some other parts. I'm glad that I did because I liked it a lot better on a closer read. So, I'd go into this one ready to go for the fluffy ride and just autocorrect 17 to 18 in your mind to enjoy it more.

Overall, I liked parts of this book and recommend it to anyone who loves magical romances! 3.5 stars from me rounded down to 3. thank you to Bonnie Doon Press and NetGalley for the electronic advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Firstly, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for approving me for this book! I loved it!

From start to finish I was engaged in this book and didn’t want to put it down. I loved both main characters so much and would love to see even more of them and I did notice this was going to be a series! I cannot wait for the next book. I loved all the magic and made up beings in this book. The author is so imaginative and it was really well written and followed a clear plan. I love that there was no third act break up because it’s always so inevitable.

✨ 4.5 stars ✨
I really enjoyed this quick and cozy read. it was so refreshing to read a sweet magical book that also included my favorite tropes. Between the one sided hate to love and the message of growth and rinding your own strength I really felt connected with the main character Aria. Although she is a little childish in the beginning I really felt like we were on the journey together. Callan was such a charmer and even though this wasn't a hate to love relationship for him, i appreciated how much he respected Aria.

I love that this story constantly reminded me that no matter what you're going through you will always be able to very on those around you to help. Even at your darkest times, those who love you will be Rooting for you even from miles away.

I have to end this review with a shout out to my favorite character Boris! Thank you for bringing the constant sass and reminding me to eat <3

Thank you Netgalley, Linsey Hall, and the publisher for the arc read! Can’t wait to read more from this author!

Aria’s grandmother’s potion store, Seaside Spells, is at risk of closing down unless Aria can return home and win a competition to inherit the town’s Enchanted Garden. But Aria’s magic is ‘broken’ and Callen, the most powerful mage (and Witch Weekly’s Sexiest Man of the Year) is also entering the competition. Can Aria learn to control her magic in time to save her family’s shop?

The Modern Girl’s Guide to Magic was the cozy hug I didn’t know I needed. Beautifully written, transformative seaside setting, small-town charm, fun magical competition, crackling romanctic tension,
and a foul-mouthed snarky familiar!! Perfection! I am thrilled this is the start of a new series, and know that returned to Charming Cove will feel like pulling on my new favorite cardigan. Lovers of magical realism, Gilmore Girls, and Practical Magic will adore this book; available now in stores and on Kindle Unlimited.

Such a fun and magical read! Perfect atmosphere and the banter was top tier! I couldn’t get through it fast enough yet I never wanted it to end!

(To Publisher: I will not be posting this review on my Bookstagram as it was a book that I will not be rating highly - please let me know if you would prefer me to post regardless. I will be posting to my GoodReads.)

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

I requested this ARC as the book itself had a lovely premise: a young woman struggles to control her magic, finds man along the way in an enemies-to-lovers situation with good romps and a playful tone along the way. This seems like your standard romcom read with some witty banter and a little bit of spice (and a little bit of magic, of course).

However, this did not do it for me for a couple reasons:

- While the book is set in the UK, it reads as someone from the US wrote it and thus the dialogue and references are choppy and made me cringe as an American who lived in the UK for some time. It would have greatly benefitted from localization efforts or even a British editor.

- The romance seemed very "bleh". I wasn't really invested since the romance seemed mostly one-sided and, in my opinion, I think it had to do with the development of Aria's character. She has her difficulties but we still dont get an idea of what her personality *actually* is. It suffers from a generic templated romance heroine, which really just killed my interest in the story. Callan is a dashing hero, but we also don't get much into his character or the foundation of their romance as a whole, so the entire romance seems like it comes out of nowhere.

- The execution of the plot was very limited in its engagement. The pacing was really slow, and because the characters are not very substantial, you aren't very invested in the plot.

There were some cute aspects to the story (the badger and Grandma duo are fantastic) but I really was disappointed with the premise and the following execution.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnie Doon Press for the ARC in exchange for this review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Linsey Hall, and Bonnie Doon Press for the eARC. All opinons are my own.

3.5/5 ⭐️

This is the adorable magical story of Aria on her way back to her roots, both historically and literally. It was a very fluffy, heartwarming, feel-good read with a little romance mixed in.

The supporting characters were a bit flat and didn’t really give off independent voices and the conflict wasn’t really conflict. Everything was basically on the surface and I found myself wishing there were more depth of all aspects of the story. All that being said, I did very much enjoy this book.

This was a great palate cleanser after reading something else complex. I would definitely read more of the story if it continued, but I probably wouldn’t reread this first book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bonnie Doon Press and Linsey Hall for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I had to DNF this book. I found it uncomfortable and also unnecessary that Aria was only 17 when she meets Callan for the first time and he is 21. He insinuates that he had romantic and intimate thoughts towards Aria. I tried to look past that but I found a few more references to her being small and childlike in comparison to him. It was just a little too close to inappropriate for my comfort. I felt like it wouldn’t have affected the story to age Aria up to 18 and would’ve avoided some unnecessary gross feelings towards her being underage.

Sadly, I found the writing to be juvenile for an adult novel and the characters felt hollow and underdeveloped.

That being said, I did like the concept of a cute little magic neighborhood in the sea side and this concept was adorable and the novel was close to likeable but the execution was lacking.

Charming is right on the money with this one. There wasn't a single moment while reading this that I didn't feel so genuinely good. I was completely sucked into this sweet little town and its charming (there we go again with that word) characters. And for an enemies(ish) to lovers plot, it was written in such a way that I liked both Aria and Callan from the start and immediately saw the chemistry, which I did think was very organic. But I have to be honest—as much as I like our two main characters, Catrina really had my heart. That little girl is going to grow up to take over the world, I swear, and we'll probably all thank her for it.

Watching Aria grow from a self-doubting, struggling witch to the confident, magical plant mom that she did was such a fun journey, and Callan's belief in and support of her was really sweet, too. I'd probably come back to this book when I need something to make me feel good, and I've already recommended it to at least 3 of my friends.

I received an ARC provided by Victory Editing. All opinions expressed are my own.

Aria is a witch that's rather bad at her craft. She's never learnt how to use her magic without chaos. After years of bullying, Aria chooses to leave the magical village of Charming Cove and strike out in London. Sure she never learns how to manage her magic, and the resulting fall-out means she has to find a new job and apartments every couple of months, but she's not disappointing anyone, not really.

Aria's grandmother arrives to inform her Aria has been invited to compete for the prized magical garden in Charming Cove. If she loses, the grandmother's magic potion shop will be forced to close. Aria returns to compete, and quickly finds herself competing against a couple of her high school nemesis and Callan, the person she hates most in the world.

As the competition heats up, she finds Callan might not actually be a terrible person, and she might have more magical ability then even she thought possible.

I really enjoyed reading the first half of the book, but the last half was to saccharine and needed some grit, some depth to provide balance and add realism to the story.