Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this last Wednesday of July? Things here are mostly okay. But it’s book review time, so let’s get to that! This month, in a panic since the other book I’d chosen moved up a week, I decided on something that seemed relatively quick and cute. The Witch Hitch by Elizabeth Bass was released on the 25th by Kensington Books. I didn’t realize it was the second in a series until I was halfway through, so remember that I’m coming at it without having read the first book. Anyway, as usual, I must thank Kensington Books and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do it!
The Witch Hitch follows Bailey Tomlin as she prepares for her upcoming wedding. All she has to do is pick a dress. Easy, right? Not so much. And the wedding preparations are only complicated even more when her birth mother shows up. What a witch! Throw in a blast from the past (1930 to be exact), a pompous parrot, and a wicked witch of the aether and the wedding jitters just explode.
Like I said, I went into this not knowing it was a sequel. It reads just fine on its own. The only reason I discovered it was a sequel was because I glanced at the “also by…” section. I’m not even sure if the events of the first book come up here or if it’s one of those series that are only connected by the setting. The whole wicked witch in the aether thing could’ve come from book one, but it’s explained in a way so it doesn’t really matter if you’ve read book one or not.
As far as the plot goes, it was convoluted. There’s a wedding. The groom’s ex is still in the picture and she’s insane. The bride’s birth mother shows up and informs the bride that that entire side of the family are witches. A new love interest is pulled from 1930. An evil witch with no body is causing mayhem. And that’s just part of the drama. There’s too much going on and nothing really has room to breathe in this book. It’s very clunky. The romance part feels forced and unnatural. All of the relationships feel that way, actually. With everything going on, there isn’t time for feelings to build naturally in the story, so instead of a growing attraction to Seton (or warming to Esme and the cousins, or gradual detachment from Wes, etc.), we get random bounces of emotion that make no sense.
The characters are all cute, if somewhat flat. None of them do anything surprising or out of the box. They’re all very much the cookie cutter stereotypes they’re meant. There’s nothing wrong with that. It makes for a quick and cute read, but it also means that I’m not particularly invested in what happens to them. I couldn’t even remember most of their names while I was writing this if I’m being honest. But all the expected roles were there, so it wasn’t a bad story.
There wasn’t anything noteworthy about the writing. It was cute and quick despite the plot being clunky. Not a bad little read in the end.
Ultimately, I enjoyed The Witch Hitch for what it was, but have zero desire to search for other books in the series. It’s just not my cup of tea.
Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. If you like cheesy romances and don’t mind a cluttered plot, check it out. But you’re not missing much if you skip it.
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