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3.16 AVERAGE
3.16 AVERAGE
Yawn. A romantasy that sticks on the right side, focused on fantasy, that is very simplistic with nothing exceptional about either the plot or the characters. Not bad, just forgettable.
Kylie moves from California to a small two in Maine to open an herb and tea shop. She finds a book in the wall, meets a coven, gets the hots for a demon, and has adventures. Oh, joy.
Kylie moves from California to a small two in Maine to open an herb and tea shop. She finds a book in the wall, meets a coven, gets the hots for a demon, and has adventures. Oh, joy.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book is the first in a new series. When Kylie moves all the way across the country for a fresh start, she didn’t know it would include demons, witches, and a mysterious book. But when her world is turned upside down, she has to use all of her knowledge to capture all of the demons let loose by the book she found. How will she also get her new tea shop off the ground and deal with the attentions of two men, one of whom is a demon? I really enjoyed this book. I found it to be well-written, and it moved along really well with great characters, plot, and action. The only tiny thing was I didn’t exactly feel the chemistry between Kylie and her two men, less between Kylie and Ed. However, I know that sometimes the first book in a series can have a few bumps, and I am definitely looking forward to more in the series to see where everything is going. Highly recommend! Thanks to NetGalley and Diversion Books for the e-book which I voluntarily reviewed.
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Interesting and entertaining. Jumanji meets cozy paranormal mystery.
The bad news is this book is trash. The good news is, if you picked this up based on the back cover, you were probably not expecting or wanting a literary masterpiece anyway. When I picked this up, my expectations were low, and Westerson still managed to slip in just under them anyway. This reads like the kind of stories I wrote when I was in high school, so it gets an extra star for nostalgia and the book that it could have been.
This was... fine. I finished it. It was readable. The love interests and virtually every antagonist that spoke was about as paper thin as they were predictably dull. It struck me as strange that an author who allegedly makes her bread and butter off of well-researched historical novels would do so little research on Wicca, which plays such a big role in the book. It reads like she took one look at a Wikipedia article and went from there. Obviously there are many ways to practice Wicca, but simple stuff like taking blood from the palm or throwing out egg shells and using the yolk in a protection spell just struck me as bad writing. If she wanted to make up her own magic, she could have just made up her own brand of witchcraft and set it up as exclusive to this coven/this universe. So many problems in this book are so easily solvable but Westerson clearly just wanted this to be a fun nonsense project and to spend as little time as possible on it.
This was... fine. I finished it. It was readable. The love interests and virtually every antagonist that spoke was about as paper thin as they were predictably dull. It struck me as strange that an author who allegedly makes her bread and butter off of well-researched historical novels would do so little research on Wicca, which plays such a big role in the book. It reads like she took one look at a Wikipedia article and went from there. Obviously there are many ways to practice Wicca, but simple stuff like taking blood from the palm or throwing out egg shells and using the yolk in a protection spell just struck me as bad writing. If she wanted to make up her own magic, she could have just made up her own brand of witchcraft and set it up as exclusive to this coven/this universe. So many problems in this book are so easily solvable but Westerson clearly just wanted this to be a fun nonsense project and to spend as little time as possible on it.
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
2.5 stars A curious mix...an adult protagonist yet the writing seems more YA. The blurb intrigued me; I wish the author had spent a little more time establishing characters and world-building instead of cramming in all of the adventure. I actually expected Seraphina, Doc, or Ed to be the succubus/incubus in disguise. This has the same problem many small town settings do--too much action and too little population. Could a tea shop survive in such a location?
DNF around 50%, mostly because of the dialogue. So many ellipses. So much antagonism-pretending-to-be-feisty.
I wanted to care, but just couldn’t
I wanted to care, but just couldn’t