Title: Not Your Crush’s Cauldron (Supernatural Singles #3)
Author: April Asher
Length: 331
Format: ebook arc
Pub Date: February 13, 2024
Genre: Paranormal RomCom
Rating Out of 5: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Spice Level: open door
Summary:
In April Asher's latest Supernatural Singles novel, which Olive Maxwell decides to spice up her life by moving in with her longtime crush and Guardian Angel, Bax Donovan. However, Bax is on thin ice with his wings, and keeping Olive out of trouble becomes his riskiest mission yet, challenging the Guardian Angel Code of Conduct. Love might just break the rules in this magical romance.

Thoughts:
This was a cute read! I did love all the characters (not you Mason and Mikael) and the love story was sweet. I loved how we got to go on all the docket list dates with the two of them! This was the 3rd in the series and can definitely be read as a standalone. However, I did have FOMO while reading this since I haven’t read the first two in this series. I’d like to read the first two in this series during spooky season :)

Read if you love:
Paranormal romance
Roommates to lovers
Forbidden romance
Forced proximity

Special thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review!

April Asher ended this series beautifully with this sweet and steamy romance following Olive, the youngest witch triplet, and Bax, her undercover guardian angel/roommate. I loved how Bax and Olive fell for each other so organically as they got to know each other and cross off items on Olive's 'bucket list'. This series was so fun and while I am sad to say goodbye to it, I so enjoyed getting to know these triplet sisters and their crazy family. Can't wait to see what is next from April asher!

Read this book if you like:
✨Found Family✨
✨Cute and Fluffy Moments✨
✨Magical Romcoms✨
✨Bad Boys w/ Golden Retriever Energy✨
✨Interconnected Series✨
✨Forced Proximity✨
✨Friends to Lovers✨
✨Pierced and Tatted MCs✨
✨Forbidden Romance✨
✨Plus Size Rep✨

~Many thanks to Net Galley and April Asher for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

Review posted to StoryGraph and Goodreads on 2/11/24. Review will be posted to amazon on release date.

When Olive finds herself in need of a new place to stay, Bax offers his spare room. It’s becomes very clear quickly that there’s more than just friendship between the two.
This book is described as a stand alone but it is actually book 3 in an interconnected series. I have not read the other two books and that definitely hindered my reading experience. There’s a whole sister/friend network that has been established in the previous books and I felt like I had entered into a series of inside jokes that I didn’t really get. I wanted to like Olive and Bax a lot but really the chemistry wasn’t there and I spend 60% of the book thinking that there was nothing really keeping these two apart. I don’t know if I would have enjoyed these two even with the previous books knowledge to go with them.

Guess what’s releasing in two days?? This gem! Truth be told, this author was new to me. However, when I heard the premise of Olives story, I was hooked. Something about the “wallflower finds love” trope hooks me every time, and I was not disappointed!


📚Grovel scene
📚The “shy” sister, gets the bad boy
📚Bad boy hero with a side of golden retriever energy
📚Roommates to lovers
📚Tattoo artist hero
📚Strong female friendships

BLURB:
Olive Maxwell much prefers teaching about the Supernatural world to taking part in it and leaves the magical shenanigans to her two sisters. After assigning her college students a project designed to nudge them outside their comfort zones, Olive realizes she’s never once stepped a toe out of her own . . . and it’s about time that changed. Her first trip into the unknown? Moving in with her longtime crush and friend . . . tattooed, motorcycle-riding, and pleasantly pierced Baxter Donovan.

Bax Donovan, Guardian Angel not-so-extraordinaire, has acquired so many black marks on his record it looks like a Scantron test. He’s been given one last chance to keep his Guardian wings—a high-profile Assignment he knows all too well. Olive is usually as low-risk as it gets. Hell, she wrote the safety manual. But something landed her on the Guardian Angel Affairs radar, and he guesses it has something to do with the heart-pounding stunts she’s determined to check off her Dare I Docket list.

Keeping Olive out of trouble is about to be his toughest Assignment. He’s at real risk of shattering the only Guardian Angel code of conduct rule he’s yet to break: Don’t fall in love with your Assignment. And he isn’t so sure that’s a bad thing.

If love doesn’t play by the rules, why should they?

📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚

I legitimately loved this story. Something about the soft spoken characters getting their time to shine, really does it for me. This story was a mixture of friends/roommates/suppressed feelings/lover. I think Olive does a wonderful job of supporting Bax without rushing him in his life goals. In addition, though she’s the soft spoken sister, she’s a true example of girls supporting girls.

Heat Level: 🔥🔥🔥

It was an epic, spicy love story that I really enjoyed. Thanks to St Martin Press for letting me read this Advance Reader Copy through Netgalley. This is my honest opinion.

This book was fun, light and full of magic. I love this paranormal world so much and Bax was the perfect broody guardian angel with a lot of tattoos and piercings. He evolves so much with Olive's help.

Olive is amazing and so relatable. I love how brilliant she is, her love of books and how she wants to push her own limits to grow.

If you want to read a story with :

✨ Paranormal being;
✨ Forced proximity ;
✨ Roommates to Lovers ;
✨ Spicy 🔥 ;
✨ Romance ;
✨ Fated Lovers.

This book will be perfect for you.

Thank you so much to April Asher and St. Martin’s Press for the EARC to review. I love this series! This book is by far the best of them yet. April always shows us how much better she can get in each book. Cant wait to see what she has in store for us In her next book.

By far, my favourite of the Supernatural Singles series! I wasn’t sure after the first book, the second was far more exciting and this one was really romantic and very interesting! I love the triplet witch idea - the one that is taking over from their grandmother (who does a runner in this book), the one that thought she was and had trained for it and the introverted one - and how the girls are coming into their own magic and adulthoods through the series, and finding their supernatural partners.

Violet and Rose have already found themselves, and swapped roles and settled down now, so it’s just Olive left in her shy, comfortable zone. She assigns her students a task to make a list to do things out of their comfort zones and decides that if they have to do it, she probably should, too. Having just moved in with a new roommate, her long-time crush and guardian angel Bax (Baxter), he decides (after being assigned to guard her, for no reason given by the council), to do the scary tasks along with her - things like circus school, hot schmex, dating, and getting a tattoo… as they grow closer, they have a fantastic time working on the list, untitled all comes crashing down (because of course, in the supernatural world, rules, and outside forces, etc., make everything super difficult).

Fantastic read, the best of the series, and I’m hoping we get a book for our favorite succubus, Harper! Definitely recommend it for everyone who enjoys supernatural romance, witchy reads especially, but it’s not a standalone so it’s best if read in series order.

I received an advance copy from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press (St. Martin's Griffin), and this is my honest feedback.

In the previous books of this series, we followed Vi and Rose, two of the Maxwell Triplets, granddaughters of the Prima Witch Edie, as they find love and their place in this world. This book is Olive's story.

Olive Maxwell is Head of Supernatural Studies Department at New York University (NYU). This book opens as her sister Rose and her husband Damien are helping her move into Bax's apartment. It's the best solution other than sleeping in her office to get any measure of sleep. Her last apartment shared with an herbal enthusiast kept her awake at all hours due to 24-hour pick-up. Bax, their friend and guardian angel offered her the space since he was rarely home except to sleep. He also has a crush on her, and the feeling is more than a little mutual.

Bax knows having Olive move in with him is going to be challenging, he just doesn't realize how much. There is no doubt he wants a relationship with the beautiful witch but isn't sure how she feels about him. He's certainly about to find out.

An assignment Olive gives her students becomes the catalyst for her to make changes after hearing a scathing conversation about her and her habits from colleagues. She starts her own Dare I Docket to step out of her comfort zone, just as she has challenged her students to do.

Things come close more than a couple of times before Bax gets called to Guardian Angel Affairs (GAA) Headquarters after a near miss on a client. He's expecting to be called on the carpet and possibly suspended. He wasn't prepared for his father, Mikael, a warrior angel, to be present, nor to be handed a prime assignment. One that in some ways would be easy and in others the hardest thing he's ever done. His charge is Olive. He doesn't know what put her on the danger radar, but now he has to follow the rules, this is his last chance. She can't know he's her guardian angel, he can't let her get killed and most importantly he can't fall in love with her.

The last rule gets severely challenged as she goes through her list. Especially when aided by her best friend and succubus demon, Harley. The aftermath of which leads to some sizzle with no regrets, at least not yet.

It's a dangerous path Olive and Bax are traveling, and Olive doesn't know the half of it. A surprise encounter with his father with not a threat but a promise that she won't like the outcome, has her questioning some things. However, not enough to back away from what she and Bax are starting.

As Bax and Olive work their way through that list of hers, I found myself laughing and wondering if they would ever realize they are in love.

This is such a fun journey, with laughter, sizzle and even a few tears were shed before it was done.

I am really hoping we get a book for Harper.

Not Your Crush's Cauldron is book three in the amazing Supernatural Singles series by April Asher.
Ok, I can’t get enough of Asher’s writing!
She writes the most charming contemporary paranormal romantic comedy.
So fun, and entertaining! I stayed up way too late finishing this one.
The world building was fantastic. I loved the descriptive details.
A light, witty, bantering romance with some paranormal love thrown in. So what’s not to love here.
The characters were remarkable. Bax and Olive are funny, sweet and so good together.
An adventurous witchy rom-com. This is one series I’ve been recommending to all my family and friends.

Thank You NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Not Your Crush's Cauldron is the third book in the Supernatural Singles series. It can be read as a standalone but I do recommend the first books, Not The Witch You Wed and Not Your Ex's Hexes. This was a fun and steamy story featuring a sexy angel with a secret and a witch with a crush.

Bax is on his last chance working as a guardian angel. His assignment: his new roommate Olive. But what to do about his developing feelings for his roomie? Olive is the youngest of the Maxwell triplets and is trying to complete a bucket list of items designed to push her out of her comfort zone.

I enjoyed this book for it's likeable characters, flirty banter and found family and friends to lovers tropes. Olive and Bax were so supportive of each other. This book was a bit more lacking in drama and suspense than the previous books. But I really liked seeing the gang together and Bax and Olive finding their HEA.

Thank you to the publisher for my e-copy of this book.

Did not finish - it seems cute with a lot of potential to be a good story but I just couldn't get into it.

The Supernatural Singles series follows a set of 34yo triplet witches finding their path in life, and their soulmates along the way. They are interconnected, standalone romcoms set in our real-world New York City where supernatural beings have recently revealed themselves and integrate openly in society. I was excited to get approved for this eARC because I read the first book, Not the Witch you Wed, a couple years ago and needed an excuse to pick the series back up. Book two, Not Your Ex’s Hexes, set up Olive and Bax’s dynamics, ending with her agreeing to move in with him out of desperation to get some sleep with a quiet roommate. Not Your Crush’s Cauldron picks up right after, set up for a secret crush, he takes care of her, roommates romance.

Olive Maxwell is the youngest of the triplet sisters and the head of the Supernatural Studies department at NYU. She assigns her students a Dare I Docket to get them to step outside their comfort zone, as the supernaturals had to do to reveal themselves, and realizes that she lives inside a safe bubble and needs to do one too. Bax works as a guardian angel and has failed his past few assignments, so is given a last chance to protect Olive. While he doesn’t want to have a conflict of interest, he takes it because he wouldn’t trust anyone else. This gives them an excuse to hang out outside of being roommates and help her with her docket.

I enjoyed the storyline of following your dreams by stepping outside of your comfort zone, and that it’s worth it by bringing in the people you love along the way. There were a few plot holes as they jumped between adventures, conveniently leaving out past conversations or methods of transportation to push the couple closer together. But with some suspension of disbelief, this was a fun story and Olive and Bax’s relationship development from friend group to roommates to lovers to relationship was cute.

“Everyone has a spark of Magic, and when you follow it, there really is no possibility of straying from your true path."

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an eARC for my honest opinion.

This series is just delightful! I’ve been absolutely loving witchy romances!

I’m so glad a friend recommended it to me. I’ve enjoyed all three books, but I just loved Bax and Olive. I listened to the audiobook and love Zara Johnson’s narration!

Bax has had a crush on her for awhile so he obviously offers to be her roommate and once he’s her guardian to work through her list with her. I loved how they both pushed outside of their comfort zones. Her list was so fun and seeing about her learn about herself in the process.

This was steamy and swoony. I loved seeing Rose and Violet and their partners (and of course their grandmother!)

I really hope that their friend/adopted sister Harper will have a book too!

This was one of the more spicy romance books from this author, and I loved it. It was nice to see the final sister get her happy ending. I'm going to miss this series so much!

Since Not the Witch you Wed, I have been WAITING for Olive and Bax's book. Their tension in the first two books and how obvious it was that Bax had a soft spot for Olive made me so intrigued to read their story but it lacked the magic (hehe get it?) that I was expecting.

Don't get me wrong I LOVE this supernatural world and grandma Edie, but I think so much was going on that it distracted from Olive and Bax's actual relationship. Olive had her school stuff and learning to be more out of her comfort zone, which I enjoyed and Bax had his daddy issues and work secret. Their relationship lowkey felt like it was on the backburner to their individual issues, which isn't a BAD thing but the romance was lacking for me. The hot tub scene; however, was A++.

I did enjoy every scene Harper was in. PRAYINGGG for her and Adrian's book. And some more grandma Edie because I didn't get enough this time around.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

Not Your Crush’s Cauldron was definitely my favorite of the series! Thats not saying much though because I really liked all three of the books. I love Olive and Bax as characters and as a couple. Bax’s piercings were also a plus. The spice was excellent.

An insta love, roommates to lovers romance, this is the third installment in this witch sisters series. I liked the characters but the story was a bit flat for me.

This review is being held in solidarity with the marketing boycott on SMP and their imprints regarding the Islamaphic comments made by a member of their staff. Once SMP has addressed the concerns being addressed by the book community and ascertained that they do not as a company hold the same beliefs and will do better in the future, I will be more than happy to review this book.

I will update with my review once the SMP boycott has ended.

In the meantime...
#SPEAKUPSMP has three demands:

Address and denounce the Islamophobia/racism from their employee.

Offer tangible steps for how they're going to mitigate the harm this employee caused.

Address how, moving forward, they will support and protect their Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab readers, influencers, and authors in addition to their BIPOC readers, influencers, and authors.

I really enjoyed this one! It was funny, entertaining, and kept me fully interested the entire time. I loved that Bax was tasked to be her guardian angel, it made for an interesting "forbidden love" dynamic. I also loved that the angel was a bad boy, complete with a motorcycle, tattoos, and *ahem* piercings.
Which brings me to....
✨ FAV QUOTE:
"Your 🍆 is bedazzled."