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apoppyinthewind's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Introduced as Emmy's judgmental jerk cousin in Payback's a Witch, Delilah's never been a likable character. Even when she popped up in the prior book Back in a Spell I wasn't too keen on her and didn't feel too bad when Nina cast a spell on her. That said, when I picked up this book & saw she would be the primary character I was curious. Would we learn why Delilah had developed such an off-putting personality? What about the ramifications of the spell Nina cast on her?
We do learn more about the latter and reading how much Nina's spell messed up Delilah's mind did make her more sympathetic. However, we don't really learn much about Delilah's past or why she has such a prickly relationship with Emmy or half the town. It just seems to chalked up to being Deliah's personality. The only aspects I felt I learned about Delilah's were her love of being a Harlow witch, her love of plants & birds, and her deep connection to Ivy, her ex and now best friends.
If fact, their connection is so prominent I felt like the book could have just been about Ivy & Delilah, be it solely about their friendship or a possible reconnection. But they're not the couple in this romance, that would be Delilah and Cat, the new comer to town who's half fae, half human.
I wanted to like Cat more. At times I did but every time I read Cat's description I have to admit I kept picturing Ikumi Mito from Food Wars! Not a terrible thing but something about her felt cartoony. I also didn't love the break-up & reconciliation as it happened so quickly. Given the things Cat did, they should not have reconciled so easily. This feels like there needed a couple more characters to build up the reconciliation or maybe it needed to happen in a later book when the Shadow Court subplot pops up again.
Not my favourite in the series but aside from the romance, I enjoyed more of the world building and seeing more of the other background characters. I am curious about the set up between Ivy & another one of her exs, Daria and the offhand mention of Delilah's sister makes me think we'll be seeing her at some point too.
We do learn more about the latter and reading how much Nina's spell messed up Delilah's mind did make her more sympathetic. However, we don't really learn much about Delilah's past or why she has such a prickly relationship with Emmy or half the town. It just seems to chalked up to being Deliah's personality. The only aspects I felt I learned about Delilah's were her love of being a Harlow witch, her love of plants & birds, and her deep connection to Ivy, her ex and now best friends.
If fact, their connection is so prominent I felt like the book could have just been about Ivy & Delilah, be it solely about their friendship or a possible reconnection. But they're not the couple in this romance, that would be Delilah and Cat, the new comer to town who's half fae, half human.
I wanted to like Cat more. At times I did but every time I read Cat's description I have to admit I kept picturing Ikumi Mito from Food Wars! Not a terrible thing but something about her felt cartoony. I also didn't love the break-up & reconciliation as it happened so quickly. Given the things Cat did, they should not have reconciled so easily. This feels like there needed a couple more characters to build up the reconciliation or maybe it needed to happen in a later book when the Shadow Court subplot pops up again.
Not my favourite in the series but aside from the romance, I enjoyed more of the world building and seeing more of the other background characters. I am curious about the set up between Ivy & another one of her exs, Daria and the offhand mention of Delilah's sister makes me think we'll be seeing her at some point too.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness
Moderate: Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, Medical content, Dementia, Toxic relationship, and Blood
thaliareads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was absolutely a fun read, but aside from the romance itself, I think I preferred the plot of the other books better. While I love Delilah and Cat, the actual plot just felt lacking compared to the depth of the other books in the series. It was still enjoyable and I loved to see Delilah reclaim her self confidence and her power after the events of the last book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Blood, Violence, and Death
Minor: Alcohol
Dementia is magically induced, not an actual medical condition.
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