Hazel Beck

Small Town, Big Magic by is book one of two of the Witchlore series. The book is captioned "a witchy rom-com." The book is definitely witchy, with an entire town centered around witchy. In fact, the book is more about witches, their covens, the rituals, and their enemies than it is a rom-com. That, for me, makes it a more fun read. The ending clearly leads to a book two, but the book itself can stand alone for a fun read.

Read my complete review at rel="nofollow" target="_top">http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2023/10/small-town-big-magic.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.… (meer)

Small Town, Big Magic
Witchlore, Book 1

I Picked Up This Book Because: #Scarathlon Buddy Read

Media Type: Audiobook
Source: Scribd
Dates Read: 10/4/23 - 10/6/23
Stars: 4
Narrator(s): Natalie Duke

The Characters:

Emerson Wilde :
Jacob:
The rest of the coven whose names I do not remember

The Story:

This one had a lot going on and I enjoyed it. Lots of secrets and surprises. I was a bit worried about the length when I picked it up, but time flew by. I really enjoyed my time in this town.

Writing: Good. I found Emerson insufferable at times, but the other characters rounded her out. I love the way things unfolded.
Overall Interest: Great. Couldn’t put it down.
Length of Reading Time: I finished it much more quickly than I expected.
Re-read-ability: Probably not. But I am looking forward to the next installment.

The Random Thoughts:… (meer)

Publishers really have to lay off of calling romances rom-coms. This is about a woman finding a way to heal her past, forgive her mistakes, and owning who she really is. And saving lives and falling in love with immortals, as one does.

The latter had the potential to be uncomfortable but the author handles it by having it mentioned by multiple characters in the book, only to have the MC affirm she likes the power dynamic, and by having our immortal MC never being the one to make a move. Their relationship began when she was a teenager and all we find out about that time was that he never treated her as anything other than a student, despite knowing she was his destiny. The needle was threaded well.

We learned a lot more about the power dynamics of the town as well and a substantial part of the book is our group figuring out the threat they pose and how to fight the forces of evil against them. Grief is also a big theme in this book. This series is following the structure of my favourite Nora Roberts supernatural trilogies and I'm here for it. Can't wait for the next one.… (meer)

I agree with the other reviewer who wrote that the "whole feminist/patriarchy thing made me want to spit, because if you have to preach it honey, you aren't living it." Because that is so true. It's also true that this books is pushing a whole white supremacy, colonialist narrative shtick--not in any obvious or overt way, but by creating a world where things are right/wrong, true/false, good/bad--and only those things--as well as creating a whole world where everyone is white? It seems all the witches were white. There's only one kind of witchcraft/tradition of witchcraft, and it seems to be practiced/in the bloodline of white people. It's weird and disturbing, more so because I could imagine myself at 12 reading this and not picking up on any of that. I don't know why I finished it. I kept hoping it would get better? It didn't. It got worse. I will not read anything by this author again.… (meer)