Reviews with content warning for Blood - Not the Witch You Wed

Definitely not my favorite and I likely will not be rereading. To be fair I think reading it in audiobook format played into my lack of enjoyment. There were multiple repetitive moments that if I’d been reading a physical copy I would have simply skimmed or skipped. But there was only so fast I could listen before I couldn’t understand.
I wanted to enjoy this one and I was able to enjoy about the first 20% of it. But I think it dragged on longer than it should have. I wish it had been more novella length.
The dynamics between the main couple got boring quickly. I think there was meant to be some “enemies” to lovers vibes with the second chance romance, but I think too much information is given to make their dynamic make sense or be enjoyable for me. And their relationship definitely suffered from some of the formulaic tendencies of the romance genre, in my opinion. I think the world building that’s slowly worked in was interesting, but I really felt like I needed more of it before the end to be interested in reading further into the series. I often found myself significantly more interested in friends and family of the main couple than the couple themselves.
Essentially my rating boils down to the story being too predictable (I knew the ending, as well as many upcoming plot points, within 3 chapters and then felt like I was trudging through the rest), overly formulaic/trope-heavy, and heavy handed in use of pop culture references.

Content Warnings

kfmcf's review against another edition

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lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I couldn't get into this one. I think there was a lot of promise that never really delivered.

Prefacing by saying that this book being really tropey is not something I have a problem with. I think romance books need tropes and the hea and all that jazz.

The characters were really flat. For a second chance romance, we got so little vision into their history. Everything was just a fleeting mention. It was hard to understand why they liked and were drawn to each other. Also the ML had no flaws - he was a nice guy who wanted to dismantle the patriarchy and his only baggage was daddy issues. A bummer imo. And honestly the payover for those was real weak. The FL was fine but her catchphrases were over used. "Hell's spells" would have been real cute used about a fifth as much.

The most disappointing thing to me was the actual paranormal aspects. I wish we could have learned more about the magical world qualities but we were just dropped in the middle of the story and there was no acclimation. That's not necessarily a bad thing but none of the dynamics of the magics were ever touched on really.

Too much of the KCC - I thought it was honestly incredibly unnecessary to the story. It dragged the pacing and tbh i just didn't care about it at all.

I wish the side characters had been better. I didn't connect with any of them and they seemed pretty one note. Again I think this may have had to do with my point about the magical world itself.

Lastly - and I know this is pedantic - but Olive, who is a college professor, says the line "a scholar never reveals her sources" (p) and I just about threw my phone. That's the #1 thing a scholar does. That's what makes you credible. I just could not. If that line had been any earlier in the book I could have DNF'd (which I honestly struggled to not do).

Bummed out about this one for sure.

Content Warnings

amberinpieces's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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