This is my first book by April Asher and book 3 of her supernatural singles series.

Olive is a witch from a powerful family and the youngest of triplets. Bax is a guardian angel and the son of a warrior angel who has unrealistic expectations for him to live up to. This book gives me “Charmed” vibes.

I loved the wittiness of Olive and the broodiness of guardian angel Bax. As the two of them become roommates, Olive’s desire to step outside of her comfort zone causes Bax’s angel radar to go off. Their attraction is no secret to one another, which drove me bonkers because of all that desire to fester between them. Trust me, the spicy scenes were worth the suspense.

I couldn’t stop reading as I needed to know if they would finally give in to one another. I found Bax to be hilarious when reacting to Olive’s spontaneity, which causes his angel radar to skyrocket. It’s funny because he’s a literal guardian angel. A Guardian angel’s job is to protect and avoid potential risk. Olive challenges all of his being.

Each side character is significant to Olive and Bax’s story. Harper is the funniest and I can’t wait to find out if she gets her own book. It would be epic!

Love Always, Catherine


This book is for you if you like:

Friends to Lovers, Medium-High Spice, Witchy Rom-Coms, Paranormal with a modern-day twist, Found Family, Forbidden Romance, and a dash of Golden Retriever MMC vibes.


I received an advanced review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

3.5 ⭐️

I loved reading their small interactions in the past two books, and I’m so excited that Bax and Olive’s story is finally here 🥹

I loved both their characters, and reading about Olive pushing past her comfort zone with Bax there by her side to catch her if she fell.

I do wish there was a little more .. roommate-y scenes? A little more forced proximity mayhaps?
But getting to see them slowly fall more in love while Bax helps her with her “Dare I Docket” list
AHHH I loved it

Thank you to the author and publisher for the chance to read it in advance so that I could share my honest thoughts 🫶

review: not your crush's cauldron by april asher 💕📝

•
•
•

"i’m in love with you, olive maxwell.....rule-breaking, earth-shattering, heaven-quaking in love."

✨ MY THOUGHTS ✨

⚠️ cw: toxic parent, injury/injury details ⚠️

if you love motorcycles, tattoos, men with piercings, pop culture references, taylor swift, body positive heroines, friends to lovers, forced proximity, fated mates, found families, lots of laughs & spice this book might be for you!

alexa willow by taylor swift 🎶

🌟 RATING: ★★★★★/5
🥵 spice scale: 🌶️🌶️

where do i even begin?! this book was just phenomenal! i'm not a huge friends to lovers fan, but olive & bax are so adorable & hawt!! just perfection!! i laughed. i swooned. i had to pause and fan myself. i don't want to spoil it so just know i loved it!!

Unfortunately due to the current SMP boycott, I will not post my review until the concerns are addressed..

I am obsessed with this series. The perfect amount of supernatural and sexiness. I think out of all of them, this one is my favorite

Not Your Crush's Cauldron (Supernatural Singles #3)

By: April Asher, I read book #2 in series and gave it 4⭐

Publication date 2-13-24 , read 2-11-24

📃 Page count: 331 kindle

🏃🏾‍♀️ Audiobook run time: 11:38

🗣️ Narrator: Zura Johnson-read all characters and every audiobook in this series. Harper's voice stood out to me as clow and seductive. I followed the pacing well, and the author and narrator were in sync and fit together perfectly.

Quick Summary: Olive has moved in with her longtime crush Baxter "Bax" because she can't get any sleep living with Grandma Edie. He gives her the master bedroom and free range of the place because he secretly has a crush on her too. Oilve assigns herself and her students a term project to write down and do things outside their comfort zones called the "Dare I Docket." Bax is unexpectedly assigned as her guardian angel while she completes the items on her list, some potentially dangerous. His boss has had it with his screw ups so he must follow all the rules- mainly don't fall in love with your charge. Olive can't know he's her guardian angel, so he agrees to do the scary stuff with her.

🤷🏾‍♀️ What to Expect:

⭐ ️friends to lovers
⭐️ roommates
⭐️ paranormal romance/fantasy
⭐️ witches/angels/shifters
⭐️ rom-com/contemporary romance
⭐ forced proximity
⭐tattooed and pierced biker H
⭐college professor/lawyer h

🤔 My Thoughts: I loved how they protected each other. They helped each other face their fears and change for the better. Bax was an undiscovered artist, and agreed to design her tattoo-an item off the docket. They spend a lot of time together, fall in love, and

My recommendation is to read the audiobook and eBooks (if you can) because you can adjust the speed, skip parts easily (if desired), and picture the characters more vividly.


Rating: 4/5⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice level 4/5🔥🔥🔥🔥

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Griffin, and Dreamscape Media for this ARC and ALC 💚! I voluntarily give an honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

Definitely not your typical guardian angel! Bax is a strong biker and tatoo artist. Unfortunately he was assigned his new witchy roommate Olive because she was going through a bit of a crisis and doing a list of things to get out of her comfort zone.

I enjoyed all of the crazy things that Bax was helping Olive do on her list, like the circus and some "steamier" items. The part that was so hard to believe was Olive taking so long to figure out that Bax was her guardian. I mean, come on, he went out of his way to always be around and wasn't really elsewhere doing his job.

Overall the characters were fun and had unique personalities. I liked that previous characters were included too, sister power. This is a fun series and I am hoping that our favorite demon gets her own book!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this ARC for my honest review.

Not Your Crush’s Cauldron is the last in the Supernatural Singles series but sadly it wasn’t our favourite. You definitely need to read the first two books in the series in order to get the full arc for Olive and Baxter’s story because it’s been building book by book. Personally we didn’t want them to be the love story of this book. We felt that she had more chemistry with another character in the series and had hoped her love story would be different.

The story centres around Olive and her Dare I Docket which takes her out of her comfort zone but we just didn’t like that Bax had to tag along for everything. It felt like Bax didn’t really have a story except for following her around and guarding her. Although it was full of sexual tension, we felt like Bax was a bit too flirty and full of innuendos when they were supposed to be friends and roommates.

Read if you like:
▪️Plus size heroine
▪️Forced proximity
▪️Friends to lovers
▪️Roommates
▪️Paranormal series

It's a fun and sexy romp and I appreciate the way that they are patient with each other as their friendship and relationship grows. It felt mature and honest and I think the way that their adult lives and professions factored into the story was a nice change in cozy PNR -- often its more about the magic, but the struggle of balancing professional and personal obligations felt very relatable.

I've read the other two books in this series and I do think that it's important to read those ahead of time, so I wouldn't quite call this a true standalone, but I very much appreciate that each sister has a very different personality and narrative, along with their partners. This is also definitely the spiciest of it, and has a nice little bit of pining by both parties. Even though we're done with the triplets, I'm hoping we get more books in this universe!

Hanging with the Maxwell sisters is always a pretty good time, and Not Your Crush’s Cauldron is no exception. That said, unlike her sister actually called Violet, Olive Maxwell is the shrinking violet of the witchy triplet trio, and unfortunately for Olive, that’s pretty much my least favorite type of rom com heroine. So, unfortunately, is the hero-keeps-secrets-from-his-love-interest trope, and in the case of Bax, a Guardian Angel tasked with protecting Olive and he’s definitely not supposed to tell her. Does this blow up in his face? Of course it does. Should she have probably figured it out? Definitely yes.

The upshot was I spent most of Olive’s book wishing we were spending more time with Violet and Rose, the heroines of the first two books in this trilogy (? maybe we’ll get a Harper/Adrian book, which, if nothing else, should be extremely spicy). Olive’s “Dare I Docket” project just isn’t that interesting, the stakes aren’t that high, and it was pretty obvious from the jump that Bax would be perfectly happy turning tail from his professional guardian gig, with two middle fingers up to his dear old dad/sperm donor in the process.

Lest this review seem overly harsh, the chemistry between Bax and Olive is real, and their journey from friends to lovers is sweet and a bit sexy. I'll definitely give April Asher another try.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 3.5 stars rounded down

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A cute fantasy romance! Perfect if you need a valentines day read! Thank you Netgalley and St Martins Press!

I have been waiting for Olive's story since I read the first book in this series, and I was not disappointed. I really enjoyed Olive and Bax's friendship, and the mutual pining was perfect.
This series is just fun, and I always enjoy reading these magical, witchy, whimsical love stories.

Not Your Crush’s Cauldron by April Asher 🩵🩵

This was my first time reading a book from this author and it did not disappoint! This is the third book in a series of interconnected standalones. I haven’t read the first two but since I really enjoyed this one, I look forward to checking them out!

Not Your Crush’s Cauldron is about a risk adverse Olive, who creates a Dare I Docket list in order to force herself out of her comfort zone, which draws the attention of the Guardian Angel Association.

This was a fun, sexy, and fast paced read! I loved the paranormal element in this and how it didn’t take away from the romantic aspect.

I loved the relationships in this! The close knit family relationships between Olive and her womb sisters was so sweet, but I also love the fact that they consider Harper (their friend) as a sister as well. They were all so supportive of each other!

I also really loved reading about Olive and Bax’s relationship, it was filled with tension, it was entertaining, and sexy! 🌶️ When Olive tries to get out of her comfort zone by trying new things on her Dare I Docket list, he’s so supportive of her.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read! The characters were complex, funny, relatable, and definitely badass in their own ways! I definitely recommend this if you love a paranormal romcom!

Tropes:
-friends to lovers
-found family
-secret crush x2
-roommates to lovers
-curvy/plus sized rep
-forbidden romance

Thank you NetGalley & St Martin’s Press/St Martin’s Griffin for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

DID NOT FINISH at page 75 (20%)

Is it me? Am I the problem?

Having read the first two books in the Supernatural Singles series, I was sure Not Your Crush’s Cauldron was going to be an easily enjoyed book. Returning to this world was sure to be fun, and I had already expressed my interest in reading Olive’s story!

Unfortunately, I started having problems with this book from the very first page.

Maybe I’ve changed. Maybe my tastes have shifted within the last few years and I just no longer enjoy these types of books. Because Not Your Crush’s Cauldron immediately opened up to the same “hilarious”, horny writing I was kind of expecting from this series… and I wasn’t here for it.

There’s something about friends to lovers that just makes me think that immediately being attracted to each other and so obviously wanting to have sex with the other person doesn’t fit the vibes of the story we’re trying to tell here. Despite the fact that Olive and Bax have been background characters in the first two books and we therefore vaguely know what to expect from them, the book immediately opening with Olive receiving a dildo from her sister and Bax needing to leave the room before she notices that he has a boner was not making me want to continue reading.

I was also confused by the humor in this book. Maybe I’m forgetting the writing style of the first two books, but the writing in this book carried that cringy, “boomer”-esque humor that felt like it would fit in better in a Facebook photo post with a Minion in the background. At one point, Olive reveals to her friends(/family) that she’s anxious about an important presentation coming up, to which everyone decides the best remedy is to crank up the music (in the middle of a bar) and dance to Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off.

We might as well slap a medication’s name over this scene and list possible side effects, because it felt exactly like one of those commercials.

The last thing that bothered me in this book was the setup to the plot/Olive’s personal conflict. Olive works as a teacher in a magical college, where she’s getting bullied by her fellow teachers for being boring and never stepping out of her comfort zone. While this is the push she needs to begin experimenting and finding new joy in her life, I’m also questioning everyone’s maturity and age in this book. We’re college-level teachers, and yet we’re still forming cliques and bullying our peers? Just a few chapters ago, we were describing a dildo in the shape of a tentacle, and now we’re falling back on overused teenage plots our characters should be past by this point in their lives?

I tried to stay with this book until the conflict was fully introduced and the beginning was past us, but at 75 pages in, I got to the beginning of a new chapter and realized I could not sit through another word of this book.

This was such a hexing good time! I was able to tandem read this ebook/audiobook, and it was so fun! I didn't want to put it down.

Olive and Bax had such a sweet friendship going into this story, and I loved all of their dynamics! I will say, some of the characters and their different supernatural talents were a bit confusing, as I haven't read the first two books in this series, and there wasn't a ton of world-building or explanation, so if you want to read this one, my personal recommendation is to read the first and second books in this series first!

There was lots to love about this book, though! Let's take a look:
- Olive's commitment to her Dare I Docket List
- Bax's commitment to help Olive with her list, both because he has to and he wants to
- Bax giving up his master bedroom so that Olive can have the room with the balcony (swoony moments from him FROM THE VERY BEGINNING, PEOPLE)
- The NICKNAME ANGEL FROM THE LIPS OF A LITERAL ANGEL (gosh, I loved Bax a whole lot)
- That both characters were scared of things along the way!
- The triplets together with their bff (who might've been... a demon? idk! still confused tbh haha)
- Olive's relationship with her grandma
- The politic drama 1. in witch society 2. in angel society 3. in higher ed (RELATABLE to this former higher ed employee)
- SURPRISINGLY SPICYYYY AND HERE FOR THE PARANORMAL INTERSPECIES ROMANCE
- Angel rides ;) both of the angel-variety and the motorcycle variety
- the fact that Olive made Bax braver and Bax made Olive braver / they were interested in making each other the best versions of themselves, even when that required them to push each other a bit
- the friends to lovers trope allowed for them to KNOW EACH OTHER SO DEEPLY that they could recognize what the other needed, wanted, when something was wrong, when something was right, when new behaviors were new and should be celebrated or when behaviors were concerning; it allowed this deep foundation of trust to already exist, and that made the interactions between them that much more special, because they knew it mattered!
- Olive becoming so protective of Bax <3 He's been protecting other people for so long, it was refreshing for someone to care enough about him to be that person.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media for access to the audio and St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Griffin for access to the ARC of this one via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own!

3.5 Stars

I absolutely adored the first two books in April Asher's Supernatural Singles series, Not the Witch You Wed and Not Your Ex's Hexes, so I was super-excited to read Not Your Crush's Cauldron. Book three is about Olive Maxwell, the 3rd of the Maxwell triplets (sister to Violet and Rose) and my personal favorite of the three.

Olive is a professor of Supernatural Studies, who after assigning her students a project makes her realize that her life is just a little too safe--she never steps out of her comfort zone and maybe her life is just a little boring. She makes a list of things that will break her out of that comfort zone.

Bax has been a friend of Olive's for a long time (and had a crush on her even longer if possible). He's a guardian angel who is always in trouble, He's got a bad boy vibe...motorcycle, tattoos, you know the type. Now he and Olive are roommates, he's been assigned her guardian, and this crush/lust is hard to control with her in his apartment.

It's not that the book isn't good. Asher's writing is still great, it's more that the book is missing the actual magic from the first two books. There didn't seem to be anything "supernatural" happening like in the first two books, and I missed that. Still, I recommend it and will read Asher's next book...I'm so holding out for a book about Harper!! Please!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Olive has always been the responsible sister. The one more likely to be found with her nose stuck in a book versus out on an adventure. But when she challenges her students to step outside of their comfort zone she feels like a real hypocrite sitting in hers so she decides it's time for a change. This is how she ends up on the Guardian's list requiring observation from a guardian angel.

Bax is on his last strike as a guardian. He never wanted this job but thanks to nepotism he can't exactly quit. He's broken every big rule except one, the rule stating you can't get involved with your assignment. When he's assigned Olive, though that rule becomes harder to follow than ever because not only is Olive part of his friend group, the girl he's had a slight crush on for forever, but also his new roommate. The other problem is he is forbidden to tell her she's his assignment. The more time they spend together crossing experiences off her list, the harder they both fall. But when the truth comes out, will Olive regret taking risks after all?

I've enjoyed this series so much and I've been eagerly awaiting Olive's story. The nerdy academic witch and the tattooed motorcycle riding broody guardian angel? Yes please. Add in the forbidden element that even though they are roomies he can't have her because he has to protect her, and I was sold. Normally I find friends to lovers isn't a favorite trope, but this one really hit the spot. I loved seeing Olive get out of her shy introverted rut. Her antagonist relationship with Harper was hilarious as they are complete opposites especially when she kept trying to get her to get some action which led to Bax getting all possessive over her.

Plus, we got plenty of great moments with her sisters and their mates with lots of enjoyable call backs of their earlier antics. Even if you haven't read the earlier books, you could definitely start here and then work your way back without feeling too out of the loop.

Thanks so much to St Martin's Press for providing me with an early copy for review!

Not Your Crush’s Cauldron is the third book in the paranormal romance series Supernatural Singles. This book is about the youngest triplet witch, Olive, and her Guardian Angel roommate/crush Bax.

This is an enjoyable, lighthearted, sexy book with an interesting world of magic and supernatural beings. Olive is the most cerebral triplet, a professor. Bax has a bad boy vibe with longer hair, motorcycle, and various tattoos and piercings. Both characters are likable as they undergo personal transformations.

The first book Not the Witch You Wed is my favorite of the three, but the third is a diverting romance. Definitely good for when a low stakes, low angst book is what you need.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and the author for the advanced reader copy. All opinions are entirely my own.

In support of the SMP boycott, I will be withholding my review of this title until SMP speaks out. If the boycott is resolved, I will update with a full review.

When I found out I had received this novel as an ARC I was thrilled. I’d thoroughly enjoyed the first two novels, considered them easy reads and I couldn’t wait to see what was in store for the final Maxwell triplet. This novel was exactly what I hoped it would be; an easy binge read, with steamy romance and a solid relationship between two characters interspersed with further information about the characters I already knew and loved.