Payback's a Witch: an absolutely spellbinding romcom (The Witches of Thistle Grove)

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The tournament was interesting as well, although I could have used more of it. It's basically like the Triwizard Tournament, but for the founding magical families of this town. I wish there would have been more of that aspect. Emmy's family normally acts as the arbiters for the competition and because of where she falls within the family line, it is her turn. She could have passed the duties on to her overzealous cousin, but Emmy feels like it is finally time for her to be involved.

A lot of the writing style / verbiage just wasn’t it for me. The pacing of the plot seemed to drag on. There were a lot of repetitive fluff parts that could’ve not been in the book and I don’t think it would’ve changed it. I can’t stand when things feel over explained via dialogue between characters rather than internal monologues. The sexy Sapphic modern Gothic I didn’t know I needed…fresh, sharp, and often frankly hilarious…a perfect winter read, highly recommended for one of the longest nights of the year.”— The New York Times Book Review The worldbuilding may be slightly suspect and the prose purple, but at least those elements have some attention to detail and thought behind them. Harper approaches everything else in this book with the energy of a vague wave you might give a former classmate whose name you don't quite remember (Kristin? Kirsten?) when you pass them in the cereal aisle at the grocery store. I didn't feel any attachment to the characters, and there isn't any real sense of tension or conflict throughout the story. I knew more about what everything smelled like and what everyone was wearing than I understood about any character's inner life. I also found that the narrators voice was not right for this story. Jeremy nailed Talia’s voice, I have to give her that, but the intonation and the flow of sentences just took me out of the story too many times. The British accent just didn’t sound right either. Now onto the things that I enjoyed. I liked the witch tournaments but I do have to say that they were straight out of Harry Potter. I mean they were copied completely.I felt that this book was perfectly balanced between the romance and the paranormal/magical elements. It's the true embodiment of a romantic fantasy. And the worldbuilding was spot on. Absolutely phenomenal. The setting, the way the magic in this book works and interacts with all of the characters, and all of the magical history of the town itself and the four founding families. I loved every second of it. Especially that the four families were somehow descended from the likes of Baba Yaga and Morgan Le Fay. Besides Emmy and her stupid reasons, I did love all the other characters. I loved Talia Avramov the most and I wish we had a dual POV. All the other characters were done really well. I also liked the magical aspect and all the secrets that were revealed. Well, not if you’re the protagonist of this book. At the ripe age of twenty-six, she’s still obsessed with her high school boyfriend to the point that she refuses to visit her parents for fear of being in the same town as him. She also holds a major, and frankly overblown, grudge against him. In the hands of a more skilful writer, this could have been a great premise for a psychological thriller with an unreliable narrator; instead, we got a romantic comedy that also tries to be a Sabrina-meets- Goblet of Fire contemporary fantasy.

Eighteen-year-old Mallory Greenleaf is no longer interested in chess, not since her hypercompetitive dad left—the game calls up painful memories. But she grudgingly agrees to play in a charity tournament as a favor to best friend Easton Peña. After she unexpectedly beats current world champion Nolan Sawyer, she’s offered a fellowship that will prepare her to play professionally. Even though Mallory doesn’t want to play anymore, she needs the money that winning would provide; she’s delayed college to support her family, since her mother is chronically ill with rheumatoid arthritis and is unable to work regularly. The more time she spends with Nolan, the more Mallory comes to like and respect him—and the more time she spends playing chess, the more she remembers how much she loved it. But when she learns that Nolan has been keeping a big secret from her, she isn’t sure if she’ll be able to move past it to build a relationship with him. Filled with the author’s signature humor, well-developed characters, and realistic conflicts, plus the fully realized setting of competitive chess, this captivating romance will delight teen readers as well as Hazelwood’s adult fans. Mallory and Nolan are both cued white; there is some racial diversity among the supporting cast. Mallory and Easton are queer. With all of this being said, this was a super cute story overall. I loved the town of Thistle Grove. It felt to me like an Adult version of The Babysitters Coven and I'm not mad about it. I will absolutely be continuing on with this series. These things took away so much of my yearning to love this book. I know this is the beginning of a series, so I’m not going to give up on the rest because I love everything about the idea of this story.I also didn't like the romance if I can call it a romance because I did not see any romance. There was also no chemistry between Emmy and Talia. Everything happened so fast between them including that misunderstanding. I couldn't care about that aspect at all. YA writer Harper’s first adult romance offers an imaginative and intriguing portrayal of magic, and a pansexual romance between Emmy and Talia, and launches the promising Witches of Thistle Grove series.”

I am cursed to be disappointed by this year's crop of autumnal witchy romances, it seems. All of them have been varying shades of "meh". It's also the third time or so this fall where I've thought a book had distinctly YA vibes, and learned that the author is making their adult debut after previously writing YA. There's nothing wrong with YA, or authors transitioning to writing adult fiction, but these books (this one included) felt like YA: But With Steam and it hasn't worked for me.Second, I was somewhat bothered by the conclusion of this book. Keeping things vague to avoid spoilers, Emmy basically gets absolutely everything she wants at the end of the book. Like, literally everything. Even things that are more or less presented as being out of bounds in the beginning of the book. This frustrated me because I thought it undercut the profound character growth in Emmy’s arc. I felt that the point of her journey as presented was that there is inherent value in living in accordance with your values and deepest desires even when you don’t always “win” everything or get everything you want. That is, like, a core lesson of adulthood that I thought was presented in an unusually moving way in this book. And then for her to get every single thing she wants at the last moment feels like we all collectively learned nothing. If she had gotten, like, one less sudden and inexplicable boon during the last chapter, I think I would have been on board.

Emmy’s relationship with Talia Aramov, one of Gareth’s exes-turned-enemies, was another high point of this book for me. Talia exudes bad bitch energy but also has a softer, more vulnerable side that she slowly reveals to Emmy. From the moment they encounter each other as adults they have truly sizzling chemistry and this is palpable in the prose throughout the book. Here’s a taste: Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)

Other than the slight world-building quibble I mentioned above and my ambivalent feelings about Gareth’s characterization, I had two other relatively minor critiques of this book.