Be careful what you wish for!

This story is a slow burn, friends to lovers romance that will have you rooting for them to find their HEA. Ursula may have acted terrible in the first book but I am loving her redemption in this one. She wanted her dad's side of the family to accept her so bad that she became someone she didn't recognize. I enjoyed watching this love story unfold.

I would like to thank Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and net galley for free arc in exchange for an honest review.

Love and magic between two black main characters I couldn’t ask for more. Lover the chemistry between the two the magical element of the story. It’s rare to read about black witches and I think this was executed perfectly.

Kiss and Spell is the second in a series by this author, with Witchful Thinking, being the first. I hadn't read the first book and although this story holds well as a stand-alone, I think I would have enjoyed the book much more had I read the first book, as much is referenced to what happened previously, with full explanations not happening until somewhat towards the end of this book and the details were still a bit murky.
I did really enjoy the world the author has created, with magical, fantastical beings living amongst more common humans (although most humans in the book do seem have some magical gift). The characters were unique and interesting, and the scenes were very descriptive, so it was easy to imagine being in the midst of such a unique place as Freya Grove. I also enjoyed the different meanings of crystals, flowers, mythologies, folk tales and celebrations that played roles within the book. I did wish that there were a bit more world building, however, to better understand how the realms worked (for example the Prince mentioned the Faery Queen but it wasn't his parents who were also King and Queen, so how do they fit in the kingdom?). Ursula also didn't seem clear on what she wanted to do for her future as she enjoyed working at her mother's shop and was good at her work, and she seemed like she truly loved the gardens and the language of flowers, yet she was seeking a job working with the mayor. Also the wish lists and the boss lists were not fully explained for those of us who missed the first book.
I look forward to reading more about the magical mysteries of Freya Grove, and meeting more of these fantastical characters when I read the author's next book (AND go back to read the first one in this series too!).

I am in love with Celestine Martin!!

I loved her previous book and when I was given the chance to read this one I was over the moon!!

This book brings together Ursula Caraway who was left at the alter and not happy with her life's direction, plus she wants to believe in magic again......enter Prince Xavier Adler who needs to break a curse by going on dating apps in search of true love.

This is friends to lovers at its best!

If you love cozy, fun, romance, this is for you!

After reading Witchful Thinking, I was shocked to find out Ursula was the FMC for Kiss and Spell considering she was engaged and also the literal worst. After her life implodes in a spectacular way, Ursula is trying to claw her way back from rock bottom when a chance meeting with Xavier, a cursed Fae prince puts her on the path to helping him find true love and break his curse while also falling in love with him.
This was a good redemption arc for Ursula, getting more of her background story made me understand her motives. Xavier is indeed a Prince Charming (WITH A LEGIT FAIRY GODMOTHER) with a cynical view of true love. This was perfect for October. Cozy, witchy and low stakes.. However, I still need to see more of the fabled gnomes. Can’t wait to see what’s next in this series.
Thank you Forever and Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for my honest review.

Contemporary magic romance is my jam! Full disclosure, I have not read Book 1 Witchful Thinking of this series, but it is a standalone book in an inter-related town/family. In this book, Ursula is a witch who apparently had a failed wedding and who is trying to rebuild her life. Xavier is a fae prince under an enchantment spell that can only be broken with true love’s kiss. These two meet and at first fall into a friendship where Ursula is trying to assist Xavier find his cursebreaker. I enjoy slow-burn friends to lovers story arcs so I enjoyed this one so much; I also enjoyed the open door spice and cinnamon role characteristics of Xavier. The town, vibes, and plot are perfect for the fall spooky season and I plan to now go back and read book 1 as well!

I am just so obsessed with this series. I didn't know if we could top the first book, but they are both easily tied for me now.

I just loved watching Ursula get her happily ever after so much especially with the heartache she endured. I can't imagine her with another hero.

Xavier was everything and so sweet.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to finish this book but I do think it would be a great fall read for most people. I found myself a bit thrown off by the setting—like another reviewer shared, I couldn’t figure out if it was a hybrid human/magic world or if there was a small group of people who could interact with the “magic realm” and no one else knew it existed. I also didn’t realize it was the second in a series and think the additional context may have helped a bit.

3.5 stars

First of all, while Kiss and Spell is the second book in a series, I think it’ll work fine as a standalone.(That’s something I always want to know when I’m contemplating reading a book that is part of a series.) You gradually get a lot of backstory so you won’t feel lost.

It was so nice to be back in Freya Grove! The town itself is one of the best things about this series. It’s a fictitious town on the Jersey shore that’s somewhere in the vicinity of the real Asbury Park and Ocean Grove - and it’s magical! “Regular” humans live there, but there’s also a large contingent of witches, mermen, vampires, gnomes and so forth. So it’s a special place. And being familiar with the area made it even more fun.

The first book (Witchful Thinking) focused on Lucy, one of three Caraway sisters, but this one focuses on Ursula, Lucy’s cousin. I was a bit surprised to see Ursula as the main character because she was really, really unlikeable in Witchful Thinking. This time, Ursula is trying to rebuild her life, make amends for past bad behavior, rebuild her magic powers, and recover from being left at the altar.

Xavier is a fae prince under an enchantment. He needs to find his perfect kiss to break the enchantment, but it’s complicated by the fact that he doesn’t believe in love.

As with most romances, you pretty much know how it will end, but the fun is in getting there. The romance between Ursula and Xavier is a friends-to-lovers slow burn. There’s a bit of steam, so if that’s not your jam, you may want to skim a bit.

Another plus is that this series centers on wonderful black characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book, although I was a bit late to it. All opinions are my own.

✨𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀✨
• type A personality witch
• socially awkward Fae prince
• playing wingwoman to the man she loves
• true love’s kiss will break the curse
• “class” differences

✨ 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪 ✨
Looking for wholesome, which is goodness, a spooky season? The Elemental Love series is where you need to be. Kiss and Spell is the second book and follows Ursula, our type A personality Boss Witch who had it all, and is now trying to live on the broken pieces of her life.

Xavier Alder is a fae prince who doesn’t believe in love, and is cursed by the Queen to find a perfect kiss, or else remain banished from The Realm.

I love/hated these two as they danced around their feelings for each other. The spicy seems weren’t abundant, but present enough to keep you satisfied by the romance and the “finally!” of it all. These to really take the faerie cake with their stubbornness.

Blog Post goes live Nov 10th
Amazon Review pending System Approval
Covered in Weekly Wrap-up (currently in Editing)

Kiss and Spell does what most books can’t do for me, and that’s redeem a horrible character from a previous book. This follows Ursula, or Sula, who in Witchful Thinking was the absolute worst bridezilla I’d read in a long, long time. She is on the path to redeem and refresh her life after her wedding crashed and burned and she alienated her friends. Meanwhile, Xavier is a Fae prince who was placed under enchantment by the Fae Queen and he’s attempting to break that by finding his perfect kiss.

As I mentioned this did a fantastic job redeeming Ursula to me. I think the biggest win for that is that she acknowledges fast and early and establishes to the reader that she knows she messed up and she’s working to fix it. She has been humbled and she frequently reminds herself of that and what she’s doing to fix it, without wallowing. I love that and her Boss Witch energy she brough.

Xavier is an absolute cinnamon roll and while I loved him, he was a shadow to Ursula’s personality. The two made for a fun pairing! The biggest complaint I have on the story is simply that it was too heavy on the purple prose. We couldn’t simply ‘smile’ it had to be a few lines on the beauty of the smile and comparing it to this, that or the other. While this worked occasionally I did end up skimming those descriptions after awhile.

The book was a bit long, but again I could have felt that due to the prose. Otherwise I had a lot of fun with this. I’ll keep it on my shelves and I enjoyed seeing Ursula redeem herself and find her happy ending. If you enjoyed Witchful Thinking this is a really great follow-up and I’d definitely recommend it!

I really enjoyed reading Witchful Thinking. It was my first book of its kind and I was so thrilled to be invited to read it. I was excited to receive Kiss and Spell, the 2nd book in the series. The story of Ursula and Xavier was a sweet one, two people from two very different worlds. Ursula, a witch from the human world and Xavier, a fae prince from a magical realm.

All Ursula wants is to live her own happily ever after, but life and circumstances make her question fairytales and happy endings. Xavier, forced to find true loves kiss to break an enhancement, ends up in Freya Grove.

A chance meeting and Ursula is ready to help the Prince find 'the one'. Meanwhile, she has her own heartbreak to deal with and her own Boss list to complete.

Little do they know that fate has plans for the two of them.

I really enjoyed reading this story about witches, faery Godmothers and casting wishes!
Thank you to Forever Publishing and NetGalley for the E-arc.

All Ursula wants is her happily ever after - so much so that she wished for it. But because she’s a witch, that wish led to her relationship coming to an end and now she’s single and working as a psychic. She happens to run into Xavier walking down the boardwalk one day. He’s a fae prince looking for his own happily ever after. While she offers to help him find his partner, she ends up falling for him herself. But can they merge their two very different worlds together to make it work?

I loved that this book featured not one but two magical worlds and how they came together in the story. I enjoyed the slow burn of the relationship between Ursula and Xavier. I loved how they were always willing to listen to each other and support each other, and how they could really be their authentic selves with each other. This was a cute story with all the whimsical and magical vibes for spooky season!

Thank you to Forever Publishing and NetGalley for the advance copy.

4 stars!

After I read Witchful Thinking last year, I was really excited for Kiss and Spell. I didn’t realize this book would be about Ursula (she kinda ruined book 1 for me) but I throughly enjoyed this story. She completely redeemed herself in this book and the slow burn romance was so worth it. The romance and spice at happened just the right time. Xavier was so sweet and I learned so much about flowers and fae culture. I really enjoyed this one.

I love Celestine Martin (I devoured Witchful Thinking) and Kiss and Spell is a delightful follow-up to that debut!

I was super surprised this was Ursula’s book! I didn’t love her in the first book so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Now that we have her back story and more about her I really felt for her and see why she was the way she was in the first book. I enjoyed getting to hear her story and exploring more of this gorgeous world! I hope that there is more to come from this series!

PERFECT FALL SPOOKY VIBES! Strangers to friends to lovers galore! Princess and the frog retelling! I was so excited to receive and read this book. Having not read the first book in the series I still felt that I enjoyed and was able to understand all the dynamics of the characters. I so fell head over heels for both Ursula and Xavier. Ursula is a witch who was decided to get her powers and wishes back after heartbreak, and Xavier is a reluctant prince who needs the perfect kiss but has sworn off ever falling in love. As Ursula helps him in his journey, they form the greatest of friendships by becoming each other’s comfort person. Their love develops in the most organic way and I could not put it down! There is spice of course and it was perfect!

Thank you to Forever and Celestine Martin for allowing me to read this book before it was released!

Ursula Caraway isn't living the life she she dreamed of and hopes to change that one day. Selling fortunes and crystals at the local psychic shop isn't where she saw her life going. She needs to find a way to reclaim her missing magic and turn her life around. Prince Xavier wants to find the one but he has no game when comes to meeting women, it doesn't help that he is also cursed. Ursula agrees to help the Prince and in doing so hopes to believe in magic again. Follow along as.these two try to fight the attraction they feel for one another, will Ursula help break the curse for the prince? Will the two.end up together or does fate have something else in store.

I’m really glad I put this on my October TBR! Prince Xavier Adler of the fae has a curse and in an attempt to break it, he’s starts going on dating apps in looking for his true love. Ursula Caraway is feeling pretty lost as she was left at the altar and is trying to find herself again. These two run into each other and it potentially turns into more than they expected. This was a fun cozy read. It’s a little bit of a slow burn with the friends to lovers but it’s very worth it.

Thank you to Forever Books and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A great spooky romance! I love romance as a palette cleanser between hefty fantasy books and this one is perfect for October. I got to read the fun flirty stuff without taking myself out of the witchy vibes.