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A review by mitzee
Rewitched by Lucy Jane Wood
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I’ve been on a cozy, witchy read kick lately and this is my third (after The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, and A Dark and Secret Magic). For me this was earning a 3-3.5 rating to start out because while I did like the coziness of the whole thing, Bella’s attitude toward life I found to be quite annoying. Still I preserved and when more characters were introduced and a bit of mystery I was more willing to ignore how she approached things and/or keep a more open mind.
The story has good autumn vibes and takes place in October, leading up to Halloween (similar to A Dark and Secret Magic). It’s a cozy read but something about the MC was annoying to me.
Including a summary for my own records
Bella (Belladonna) works in a bookshop, and has for a very long time, lives in a flat with her best friend Ari (Ariadne) and cat Jinx. The whole premise is that Bella was born a witch but has not really been embracing that side of her, not studying magic (from her grimoire), and using her magic for little dumb things, and she has been watched this whole time by the coven’s council. So every witchy person (witchy folks as they are called in the book) has an assessment at age 30 and the coven decides if they get to keep their power or return it back to the coven - like it is a finite resource? I guess I didn’t really pay attention to that explanation - and Bella failed her assessment. She complains that is unfair and nobody told her they would be watching but I felt like she didn’t even seem to enjoy being a witch, she hid it from everyone (even her best friend who she loves) and rarely used it for anything good or meaningful.
So there are two coven sisters who basically run the coven - a good cop, bad cop situation. Good cop tells her that there’s a stipulation in the book that she can get a second chance if she gets tutored by someone (and this person can’t be someone she knows and can’t be someone on the council) so that adding her to a guy who was excommunicated for murdering his brother.
They meet and she finds that Arty (Artorious) is actually a nice old man and doesn’t believe that he could have done it. Eventually (after half her lessons) she asks him about it and he says he can’t really remember doing it but he can see it happening. This is revealed while Bella and Rune (her assigned protector and soon to be love interest) are with him. They dig into his mind and watch the thing play out live, the two leaders of the coven were the ones who killed him and Bella’s grandmother. Also learned that Arty and the Coven Sisters are siblings so they killed their own brother and blamed it on their other brother.
The story has good autumn vibes and takes place in October, leading up to Halloween (similar to A Dark and Secret Magic). It’s a cozy read but something about the MC was annoying to me.
Including a summary for my own records
Bella (Belladonna) works in a bookshop, and has for a very long time, lives in a flat with her best friend Ari (Ariadne) and cat Jinx. The whole premise is that Bella was born a witch but has not really been embracing that side of her, not studying magic (from her grimoire), and using her magic for little dumb things, and she has been watched this whole time by the coven’s council. So every witchy person (witchy folks as they are called in the book) has an assessment at age 30 and the coven decides if they get to keep their power or return it back to the coven - like it is a finite resource? I guess I didn’t really pay attention to that explanation - and Bella failed her assessment. She complains that is unfair and nobody told her they would be watching but I felt like she didn’t even seem to enjoy being a witch, she hid it from everyone (even her best friend who she loves) and rarely used it for anything good or meaningful.
So there are two coven sisters who basically run the coven - a good cop, bad cop situation. Good cop tells her that there’s a stipulation in the book that she can get a second chance if she gets tutored by someone (and this person can’t be someone she knows and can’t be someone on the council) so that adding her to a guy who was excommunicated for murdering his brother.
They meet and she finds that Arty (Artorious) is actually a nice old man and doesn’t believe that he could have done it. Eventually (after half her lessons) she asks him about it and he says he can’t really remember doing it but he can see it happening. This is revealed while Bella and Rune (her assigned protector and soon to be love interest) are with him. They dig into his mind and watch the thing play out live, the two leaders of the coven were the ones who killed him and Bella’s grandmother. Also learned that Arty and the Coven Sisters are siblings so they killed their own brother and blamed it on their other brother.