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A review by aleromo
Not the Witch You Wed by April Asher
3.0
I feel like my reviews keep getting longer and longer.
I like paranormal rom-coms, so the moment I heard the premise I was on board. It was very cute and fun, I liked most of the characters and the diverse set of creatures: witches, angels, demons, vampires and shifters. Vi's relationship with her sisters and bff's was amazing. I can see all the different plots and couples that could work for future books, and I'm very excited for the sequel with Rose and a Demon vet.
But here's my problem:
The world: I was very confused at first, for a moment I thought they were some sort of secret society hidden from the human world, but no. Once I realized humans and paranormal creatures were all coexisting (only for the last 50 years) I wanted to know more about the world, the repercussions from this revelation, the political aspects, new laws implemented, the norms-supers dynamics, the magic system, even the new pop culture (since there are many reference to contemporary tv shows like stranger things and the walking dead) but sadly there were no descriptions or explanations. There are hints of bigger problems between these two worlds, like animosity and hatred, that could have made an amazing plot but they're just left there. Why even make the distinction between these two worlds if the humans are completely unimportant. As well with the magical triad, that it’s supposed to be important but we don't even know why. If this was just focused on the romantic part or was the second book of a series, I could have overlooked most of the worldbuilding flaws, but it was heavily drawn to politics: the council, Lincoln trying to take down archaic laws, the KKC Center, the alphas, the fights for power.
Rushed ending:
I feel like this was supposed to be a very light story, but was made very complicated and ambitious with lots of storylines happening all at once, and don't get me wrong, they all had potential but without the worldbuilding it just felt flat to me. I should probably lower my score from 3 to 2 stars for this, but I had an entertaining time reading the book and like I said I do plan on reading the sequels because the characters are really cool.
I like paranormal rom-coms, so the moment I heard the premise I was on board. It was very cute and fun, I liked most of the characters and the diverse set of creatures: witches, angels, demons, vampires and shifters. Vi's relationship with her sisters and bff's was amazing. I can see all the different plots and couples that could work for future books, and I'm very excited for the sequel with Rose and a Demon vet.
But here's my problem:
The world: I was very confused at first, for a moment I thought they were some sort of secret society hidden from the human world, but no. Once I realized humans and paranormal creatures were all coexisting (only for the last 50 years) I wanted to know more about the world, the repercussions from this revelation, the political aspects, new laws implemented, the norms-supers dynamics, the magic system, even the new pop culture (since there are many reference to contemporary tv shows like stranger things and the walking dead) but sadly there were no descriptions or explanations. There are hints of bigger problems between these two worlds, like animosity and hatred, that could have made an amazing plot but they're just left there. Why even make the distinction between these two worlds if the humans are completely unimportant. As well with the magical triad, that it’s supposed to be important but we don't even know why. If this was just focused on the romantic part or was the second book of a series, I could have overlooked most of the worldbuilding flaws, but it was heavily drawn to politics: the council, Lincoln trying to take down archaic laws, the KKC Center, the alphas, the fights for power.
Rushed ending:
Spoiler
We got no explanation on why Violet's magic never manifested as a child, and all the problems were solved with the *true mates* trope. I was looking forward to how Lincoln was going to solve the hex his father put on him, but again, it just disappeared, and not even in the magical sense, they realized they were true mates and boom… no more hex.I feel like this was supposed to be a very light story, but was made very complicated and ambitious with lots of storylines happening all at once, and don't get me wrong, they all had potential but without the worldbuilding it just felt flat to me. I should probably lower my score from 3 to 2 stars for this, but I had an entertaining time reading the book and like I said I do plan on reading the sequels because the characters are really cool.