Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? We have tomatoes (Sweeties and Black Krims)! Yummy. Be jealous. We also have jalapeños that are good too. But mostly yay for tomatoes! Anyway, we’re not here to talk about yummy goodness. It’s the last Wednesday of August, so we’re (you and I, not the royal we) here for the book review. This month, I went for a witchy little romance. Not like an epic, sweeping romantasy. Just a cute sounding little romance with fantasy elements. It’s the first book in the Scottish Charms series. Love’s a Witch by Tricia O’Malley was released yesterday (the 26th) from Gallery Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. So, let’s get to it.

Love’s a Witch follows the MacGregor sisters as they move back home to Briarhaven in Scotland to try to break the curse that’s been on their family for centuries. Sloane, the oldest, is so used to playing mother hen to her sisters that she’s having trouble acknowledging that they’re all young women now. She’s also struggling with the fact that she’s coming into her magic as her 25th birthday looms. Throwing in a pushy hottie hellbent on running them out of town before their curse quite literally destroys everything, and Sloane can’t get much more stressed. Can they stop the curse and save themselves from a nomadic existence? If they do, does Sloane even want to settle down? Maybe with a certain pushy hottie?

The plot. I love the plot. The whole idea of trying to break the curse because they want a place to call home without having to move all the time. There’s enough family drama introduced to keep the future books connected to this one. I didn’t even mind the enemies-to-lovers trope (it’s not my favorite, but I try to give it a chance). It’s interesting and fun, but I have to be honest… the pacing sucks. There’s lots of talk about breaking the curse, but none of the sisters actually do anything about it. All the information just kind of falls into their laps. They don’t do any research or anything. Hell, when they find out the name of the woman who cursed their family, they don’t even bother asking around about her to try to find her descendants. Everything gets done for them, which makes any step forward unsatisfying. Plus, everything is crammed into the end of the book. It’s not balanced at all.

The characters. I’m going to preface this by saying that I don’t have to like the main characters in order to like a book. That being said, I absolutely hated Sloane and Knox. I don’t give a fuck how hot a dude is. If he comes to my house, drags my bags out into the snow, and tells me I have to leave without so much as a “hey, what brings you to town?”, then proceeds to have the townsfolk bully and blackball me and my family when we don’t leave, the dude’s irredeemable. No way I’d talk to him, let alone have sex with him. And his whole background is supposed to make me sympathetic to him, but it only emphasizes the fact that he’s just a giant walking red flag with too much money and zero communication skills. Sloane’s not much better when it comes to communication. And even though she supposedly took care of her sisters, it’s like she still expects everything remotely difficult to be done for her and if it isn’t, she threatens to run away. They’re both annoying and I hate them. Luckily, the side characters were all wonderful and did a lot of heavy lifting in this story.

The writing itself was fine. Nice description and dialogue. The steamy scenes were disappointingly short, but I guess that’s more realistic than most scenes like that.

Ultimately, I was just kind of meh about Love’s a Witch. I enjoyed the plot and side characters enough that I will check out book 2, especially if it switches to Lyra as the main character as I’m guessing it will since she comes into her magic next.

Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. Not a must-read, but if you enjoy little witchy romances, it’s an okay read. Hopefully the next one is better.