3.5. I didn't enjoy this as much as the first book in the series--somehow I missed the second one--but it's a cute and fluffy (and steamy) read. There's some elements of insta-love, but otherwise Bax and Olive's relationship develops well; I enjoyed how they played off of one another and were similarly vulnerable with one another. There's more surface-level development in the rest of the characters, plot, and setting than I thought there would be, but that lends itself to being a fun and quick read.

Another solid entry in this series from April Asher. I love how funny and entertaining these books are and that I don't really have to do a lot of thinking while reading. They do delve deeper into the relationships between people and their pasts, but there's never really super high stakes.

One of my biggest gripes about this book was the title. I know they're following the format from Not The Witch You Wed but it makes zero sense in context of the story or otherwise.

April delivered on the last of the supernatural singles series! Olive's story was the perfect ending to a magically magnificent trilogy!
I love all of the sisters and watching them find their happily ever after. Olive and Bax are the perfect mixture of push and pull. Longing and hoping, the pacing was spot on, and I enjoyed every moment!

Olive! Finally! The third book in this series, and another fun story about these savvy witchy Maxwell sisters. It was a light, easy read.

Olive and Bax are friends who end up turning into something more. Bax ends up being Olive’s guardian angel. Safe, rule-writing Olive should be an easy watch. Olive challenges her students to push out of their comfort zones, and decides to lead by example. Bax comes along for the ride and ends up out of his comfort zone as well. I’m glad to see Olive get her happily ever after.

Thank you April Asher, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

This was so fun and it was great to see the two characters who we haven't seen a ton of in the previous books. I love a good "oops, my crush is now my roommate" moment but when Bax is assigned to Olive as her guardian angel, it brought that to a whole new level. Asher got their whole opposites attract dynamic down perfectly where the seem so different on paper, but their personalities just mesh so well that is is obvious they belong together. I loved how Olive was really the catalyst for a lot of the romantic growth between them and it really showed her coming out of her shell in many ways. I loved learning more about this world and the guardian angel system was so interesting to me. We get to see a good amount of the other characters as well, which is always fun.

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC. Publication date was February 13. 2024

If you read the other books in this series, you’ve been eagerly awaiting the payoff in the Olive and Bax arena. Wait no longer! This is payoff and then some!

Bax is a reluctant guardian angel. He’s kind of terrible at his job, but some mix of obligation to his family and determination not to give up keeps him there. After a series of fails, he gets a rather unfortunate assignment right after Olive moves in. Olive got the offer at the end of the previous book as a way out of sleeping in her faculty office because of her terrible roommate. Not sure I’d say Bax had the best of intentions in mind, but these two end up roomies at the start of this book. After much tiptoeing around things, this book finally sees the combustible chemistry that is Bax & Olive.

So, probably not super great to date your roommate, but they keep it on the low low and also manage to work together accomplishing Olive’s to-do list that pushes her outside her comfort zone. As usual, the side characters are still amazing, and we get to see the culmination of the magical core story. We also, thankfully, get way less misunderstanding time and way more make out time with these two than I anticipated. After being conditioned to expect the worst in paranormal romance, this was like a breath of fresh air. Love these stories and can’t wait to continue!

Not Your Crush’s Cauldron is the third installment of Asher’s adorable series Supernatural Singles. As with the first two, it follows the life and non-existent love life of the third triplet sister in a witch family. It’s funny, sexy and imaginatively creative. It’s an easy, enjoyable read if you are looking for something soft and feel-good.

Olive Maxwell is a witch who is a serious professor. She is always embarrassed by her two sisters’ antics. Especially when it comes to their love lives. Olive has not time for a love life. She is too busy with work and her students to look for a partner. Plus, she feels as if compared to her two beautiful sisters, she can’t compare anyway. But with that said, she has recently moved into an apartment (as roommates, of course) with the most handsome, sexy man she has ever seen, Bax Donovan who works as a guardian angel.

Of course, she realizes he could never see her as anything other than the person he lives with as Olive sees her life as very routine oriented even to the clothes she wears on certain days. But that begins to change when she assigns a project to her students having them make a list of items they need to do which would be totally out of their comfort zone. Then do them and write a paper on what happened. But after overhearing two of co-workers discussing her, she decides she too will attempt the assignment as well. Her list is honest, uncomfortable and awkward. Some items even terrifying. But she decides to close her eyes and take the proverbial plunge.

In the meantime, Bax, who finds Olive to be an absolute angle and beautiful gets his next assignment. It is to watch and protect Olive. At first Bax thinks, what a piece of cake! Olive follows the rules and always stays out of trouble. Until he realizes what she is planning on doing and she could get herself into a great deal of trouble.

So now he must somehow watch her without her knowing what he is doing. But what ends up happening is the more they are together, the more he discovers how terrific and wonderful she is. But this cannot happen! He is her protector not her boyfriend. He begins to assist her on her crazy schemes and enjoys what is on her list. But the challenge soon becomes very difficult as he begins to fall in love, an absolute rule breaker in his line of work. He also starts to learn more about himself and whether this job is truly what makes him happy. All because of Olive!

And then unfortunately Olive finds out and an angry witch is someone who does not play!

Not Your Crush’s Cauldron is laugh out loud hysterical, with a great story in which someone who tries to go beyond their comfort zone to try new things without feeling embarrassed or afraid and starts to learn many life lessons. It’s about finding out things you never imagined not only about yourself, but about others. And having a whole new world open up in front of your eyes. It’s just a great romp!

Thank you #NetGalley #St.Martin’s/Griffin #AprilAsher #NotYourCrush’sCauldren for the advanced copy.

Olive Maxwell, the third of the Maxwell sisters, sees her sisters finding their own paths as well as in committed relationships. To break out of her own rut, she begins creating a list of activities that will force her out of her comfort zone. When she does, it alarms the Guardian Angel service to assign an angel to protect her. Unfortunately she is assigned her brand-new roomie, the sexy Bax, as protector. Guardian Angel service is clandestine, no one knows who they are and definitely there can not be any relationship with them. Once the story got going, I really enjoyed it. At first, I was a tad confused. Admittedly if I had read the first two books in the series that would not have been any issue.

This is the third and last in a series about the magical Maxwell triplets, Violet, Rose, and Olive, who live in a world where vampires, werewolves, angels, demons, and witches live side-by-side with humans. The first book was about Violet, the second about Rose, this finishing up with Olive. I wanted to read this one because Olive, the quiet sister who's a teacher, was my favorite. She's sharing an apartment with Baxter Donovan, a bad-boy guardian angel who's been one of her friends for years. When Olive decides to participate with her students in a "get out of your comfort zone" project, her list includes some far out goals, including to "join the circus" and "have a one-night stand." But there's something so dangerous in her future that she gets assigned a Guardian Angel--quick, guess who! And this is going to be a problem because "Bax" is falling in love with Olive--and Olive with him--and Bax's future rests on protecting her properly.

I think this was my favorite of the three because of Olive, but Bax is a bit over the top for me, and I don't know why he just doesn't tell his dad to go shove it. As others have observed, these folks are supposed to be in their thirties, with responsible jobs. Most of them act more like lovesick teens or college students.

Not Your Crush's Cauldron by April Asher follows Professor Olive Maxwell who has moved in with her bestie, Bax, because she was in a pretty sketchy roommate situation and her friends/family put their foot down that she was not to stay there. She's also trying to get a pretty big grant for this project promoting inter-species relationships. This project winds up pushing her outside of her comfort zone and Bax finds his friendship with Olive being tested as he's given a new work task as a guardian angel.

Things I liked about this book: I love books with a list of things to do/accomplish. I like the idea of pushing a character out of their comfort zone and I enjoyed the way that was done in this book. I liked the friendships and sister relationships in this book and in the series as a whole.

But, here's the thing. As a lover of friends to lovers romances, I really feel like I should have connected to this romance more. And sometimes there were snippets of the dynamic that I wanted, but other times I just sort of wanted to scream. The problem is that there is an element of deception here and I struggle with deception at the best of times, but it's really difficult for me to reckon with when it's taking place with a friends to lovers romance and it specifically impacts the other character. So, all in all, although this book had a lot of great personal development and the relationships between the friends was great, I wound up not loving it as much as I wanted to. Also, though, why does Bax, an actual angel, call Olive angel as his term of endearment? That made no sense to me and I really hated it.

Anyway, if you've liked the other books in the series, I would still recommend this one, but if you haven't, definitely don't jump in here.

Once again, a cute witchy rom com following a family of witches trying to weasel their way out of love but also wanting it desperately. So fun and the character development was wonderful!

I love the Maxwell sister's books. I love the world that is built among the three of them. It is unique to see a magical community living in tandem with normies in NYC of all places. The spice in these books is also A+. It's tasteful and it is just there for entertainment. It's not all spice and no plot, its lots of plot with spice for fun. I will say that I liked this book the least out of the three. I just didn't connect with Olive or Bax the way I did the other Maxwells. Which was pretty disappointing to me because I thought, a brainiac book loving fat female main character? Instalove? No in reality I found Olive just a little buttoned up. Which I suppose is the whole point of the book because it's all about stepping out of your comfort zone. I just feel like there wasn't really any conflict in this book. There are small hiccups and the usual miscommunication trope, but nothing high stakes. Which will absolutely thrill cozy fantasy readers. For sure if you're a cozy fantasy reader, you will absolutely love this one. All in all this one was good, but I'm not sure i'll want to reread it the way I do with the other Maxwell books.

I don't know if I just wasn't in the mood for this or what, but this book dragged for me. I loved the forced proximity trope and the books started off strong with them moving in as roommate. It was pretty obvious they had the hots for each other, and it was just a matter of time. The book almost had three story lines going on. The Bax being a Guardian who needed to protect Olive and the weird conflict with his father and the GAA. The sister become Prima and the disappearance of their grandmother, and the school project with the Olive completing her Docket list. I kept waiting for something big to happen while she was completing her list so that Bax would save her explaining why he was assigned her Guardian Angel.
Maybe I would have liked this book better if I had read the first two sisters books. Although their stories weren't pivotal to this story there seemed to be lots of items that I was missing and maybe I would have felt more of the sisters connection if I had read the early books.
I couple things that I loved about this book. I loved the chapter titles. I always love cute and witty chapter titles that give you a little glimpse of what is going to happen in the chapter. Why don't more books do this?
I loved the witty banter between Olive and Bax. They were a sweet couple.
I think I was missing a little bit of the world building. (Maybe because I haven't read the first two books).
Overall, I really like the world and the love story. I wish there had been a little more action, or more of a climatic blow up scene. Something to really bring them together.

Good to be back in this world. The dialogue is still not my favorite with the way the characters talk, but I do feel it has improved with each book in this series!

dnf @25%

I was really looking forward to this set of characters and was hoping that I would be able to get through the writing style. I didn’t love the first book and despised the second, but I hoped that Olive and Bax would save it. Alas, I was so beyond bored I couldn’t finish. I kept putting it down and picking it up and I just accepted that I wouldn’t finish it. This author is just not for me.

*A special thanks to St. Martin’s Press for early access in exchange for a review. all opinions are my own.*

This book was just not for me. I have not read either of the previous two novels in the Supernatural series so I do not have another book to compare this one too, but it worked fine as a standalone. I just wanted a lot more supernatural elements and felt that this part of the writing was lacking. If you like super smutty this book is for you, but it just didn't work for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for granting me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

4 stars for this cute witchy romance. I have not read the previous two in the series but that did not affect much since they are all connected standalones. I just adored Bax, the sweetest mushiest brownie cake. I love books where the guy falls first, and I also was a big fan of Olive, she was smart and funny and had spunk. If you're looking for an easy, funny, supernatural romance, this is the one. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read in return for an honest review.

Are you ready for a bewitching blend of romance and fantasy? “Not Your Crush's Cauldron" by April Asher is an addition to the Supernatural Singles series and in this novel, Asher weaves together magic, romance, and unexpected connections in a way that will leave readers craving more.

Meet Olive Maxwell: a pragmatic witch who prefers teaching about the supernatural rather than diving headfirst into it. When she moves in with her long-time crush and secret heartthrob, her life takes an unexpected turn.

Meet Baxter Donovan: a tattooed Guardian Angel with a penchant for rule-breaking. He is tasked with keeping Olive out of trouble. Will sparks fly and feathers ruffle? Will they get to discover how love doesn't always follow the rules? Trust me, you want to know.

I found Asher's writing to be enchanting! She balances humour, mystery, and sizzling chemistry, and I’m normally a clean romance girly! The novel does explore themes of risk, vulnerability, and the courage to step beyond comfort zones. However, readers should prepare for magical mishaps, daring stunts, and heartwarming moments.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a temporary e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Not Your Crush's Cauldron is an enjoyable read in the Supernatural Singles series. It's by far the most enjoyable story in the series.
Olive and Bax have amazing chemistry that jumps off the page in the first chapter. This story felt steamier than the two prior books but it worked well for this couple. As a fan of the series, it's always nice to go back and revisit /incorporate prior couples in to the story. The interactions between Olive, Harper and her sisters are written with lots of love and humor that made me laugh out loud on multiple occasions.
Here's hoping that Harper is getting a book because no way can this series be complete with her falling-and falling hard!

Thank you for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

3.25⭐️

Happy late release to Not Your Crush's Cauldron! This novel is the third installment of the Supernatural Singles series, but can also easily be read as a standalone:)

I liked this book, the romance between Olive and Bax grew organically, but we did have a few questionable moments. This book reminded me of the love I have for the characters in the series, especially the Maxwell sisters and Harper.

The stakes did not seem too high in Bax's Guardian assignment, and because of that the plot felt a bit slow at times. The magic and fantasy elements were not as pronounced in this book, but there are many cute and spicy scenes to make up for that! As a romance, the book was still enjoyable.

The lesson learned by Olive by the end is definitely one that can be applied to anyone, and if you like found family and soulmates, then this series for sure falls under those tropes. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!