The Wedding Witch

The Wedding Witch by Erin Sterling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a very cute, fun, wintery paranormal romance. I admit, I didn’t read the previous books in this series, but was easily able to slip into this world, especially because it takes a timey-wimey twist.

Bowen is a broody loner who is determined to solve a magical mystery for his friend Declan. He is, of course, not telling anyone his true intentions here, so he tries to go through a magical acquirer of things to further his research. Tamsyn is said “acquirer” and he has an adorably awkward meeting with her that ends with a kiss and her accepting his business proposition. Through ghostly and ramen intervention, both these lonely friends end up together on an estate for a wedding that turns sour when yet another ghost interferes.

When the bride has a major meltdown, Tamsyn and Bowen somehow end up back in time and trapped in (gasp) a room with only one bed! This was truly fun and romantic, and it even had some good mystery that shocked me at the end. There’s smutty goodness and a really fun time all wrapped into this romance. I’d recommend this even if you haven’t read the others in the series (like me). It gave good holiday vibes, too!

View all my reviews

Impractical Magic

Impractical Magic by Emily Grimoire
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was a mix of small town romance and a witchy mystery in a fun way!

Scarlett is returning home (aka the bed and breakfast her family owns) at the request of her eldest sister. Bad things are afoot in her small town that brings back all sorts of traumatic memories for Scarlett, since the last time they were tasked with fishing the town’s magic, her father ended up dead. She also had to abandon her childhood sweetheart, Nate, to run away to the mundane world. This weird witchy world is… definitely odd in an interesting way.

Scarlett and Nate were my favorite part of this book. They didn’t get enough romance time due o the life threatening magic issues they were forced to face, but what we did get was great. Scarlett has to work through buckets of problems in this book - her family issues, unspoken resentment, misunderstandings and blame, and also Scarlett’s magical self-confidence. All of this culminates in the book’s ending, which, while HEA-like, really took you on a journey to get there!

View all my reviews

Best Hex Ever

Best Hex Ever by Nadia El-Fassi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an adorable paranormal romance that wove together wonderful friendships, family, and even a wedding with the perfect amount of spicy goodness.

Dina is a witch who owns a coffee shop/bakery. She’s got a great, supportive group of friends who encourage her to break through a hex that’s been placed on her. While she eagerly helps others find love or comfort, she herself can’t find the same without cursing whoever she is with. One failed relationship has cursed her love life, literally. When Scott, a local museum employee, stumbles into her shop, and subsequently her life, she knows she’s in trouble.

Scott, on the other hand, is smitten. These two do a great dance around one another until they are (shocker) stuck in a cabin together, forced to handle their attraction during a getaway wedding weekend. Loved everything about this story and the world that this author has built for the characters! What a refreshing and surprising story with, yes, an HEA.

View all my reviews

Fang Fiction

Fang Fiction by Kate Stayman-London
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a completely unexpected read! It takes a lot to surprise and engage me, having read a ton of paranormal romance, but this book really surprised me at every turn. While this book might not be for everyone, I loved the meta qualities and was ok with the darker elements.

Tess is somewhat naive when we meet her, new to grad school, making friends, and generally optimistic about life. Her love of a vampire series, Blood Feud, ties her to a larger fandom that ultimately becomes where she hides after a terrible thing happens. It turns out, however, that the vampires this series is based on are real and one of them needs her help getting back “home.” Of course, the books end up being unreliable narrators and Tess goes on a wild adventure directly into the pages of her favorite book.

I was completely addicted to this book from the start. Even with the darker tones sometimes expressed, it felt gritty and real and I loved it. The characters were fully formed and fun! Even the universe had neat unexpected lore thrown in. The outcome of the overall mystery was a surprise to me, which is always great, but it was the characters that I was rooting for. I’m not sure what I expected at the start, but this book won me over 100% by the finish!

View all my reviews

Demon’s Bluff

Demon's Bluff by Kim Harrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rachel is infuriating. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love this crew of characters, but the way Rachel stumbles through life is so frustrating. This book, in particular, lands somewhere around 3.5 stars for me just because I struggled to motivate myself to pick this one up again when I stopped.

We join Rachel still in the thick of things like vampire politics. She’s still leading from her secret position behind the official vampire ruler and she is also still struggling with the curse she cast in the last book. Without a key component of the counter-curse, the coven is threatening to throw her in a cell. Elyse, the new leader of the coven, sets off a series of decisions that somehow makes it logical in Rachel’s mind to go back in time. It’s kind of hard to explain, but she needs to go on a solo trip back 5 years so she can get the missing piece of the counter-curse from the most powerful demon in existence.

Of course, things don’t go as expected. Not only are we left alone without our other familiar characters but she ends up with Elyse, who is probably the most annoying character in the series. It was a buddy adventure I never wanted to read, but somehow had to because there’s a true threat that Rachel can muck up the future if she changes too many things. Don’t worry, though, because there is a lot of hand waving that goes on to explain away just about everything. I wasn’t rooting for Rachel to fail or anything, but it was a truly frustrating read.

View all my reviews