TLDR: I recommend this book to those who want a descriptive, modern story of witchcraft with phenomenal worldbuilding. TLDR: I absolutely recommend this one to readers looking for good Halloween books. I think this book will have a wide appeal to many different readers and it was good fun too. I really enjoyed the writing and I hope Harper will write more sapphic stories, in the future, as I would love to read them. This was really enjoyable and I hope this will be out on audio as I think the writing style would transfer very well and I would definitely buy it.

Chris Alberghini and Mike Chessler (“BH90210,”“Awkward”) will serve as executive producers and showrunners on the series. ACE Entertainment will also executive produce. ACE founder Matt Kaplan will executive produce with Paul Kim and Ben Purdy serving as co-executive producers. Village Roadshow TV, which is led by Alix Jaffe and Bri Hennessey, is the studio. Harper is consulting on the adaptation. 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. First of all, it's supposed to be an adult book but pretty much everything reads like YA with sex scenes thrown in there. Now, I love YA but when I am promised an adult book, I expect an adult book, not YA. So this was a letdown.

Discussion

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. Thank you so much to the publisher, Berkley Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. From this episode on, Charmed became the longest running hour-long series featuring all female leads in 2006. However, the ABC drama Desperate Housewives, overtook that record by ending with 180 episodes, while Charmed has a total of 178. 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. I might have forged a new life away from Thistle Grove, but this was still the town that grew and made me.

We learn more about the reasons behind Emmy leaving town, more about her and her relationships with her family. BRB, I will be driving aimlessly around the environs of Carbondale, IL, until I find Thistle Grove. Piper does not use her Molecular Immobilization power and Phoebe does not use her Premonition power. 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.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. And I haven't even gotten to her relationship with Talia, yet. I loved that Talia had her own complexity, as well. Her family is descended from Baba Yaga and Harper chose to lean into the necromantic as their gift's focus. So Talia's magic is inherently creepy and Talia embraces that aspect. Only. Harper shows how she engages with the dread and darkness with compassion and understanding and even love. So yeah, Emmy and Talia have all the exciting chemistry that pulls them together initially. But it was easy to see why Emmy would engage emotionally, as well, as she got to see Talia's soft center emerge. This early in the evening—though by non-witch time, it was already well after eleven—Talia and I had the dance floor nearly to ourselves. Haunting minor-key sonatas wafted around us as I let her draw me close, and spin up into a lazy, swaying dance. She was one of those aggravating (yet irresistible) people who looked even better up close; skin seemingly poreless, eyeliner perfectly winged, deep plum gloss lending her lips an edible sheen. Or maybe it was just a gloss like any other, and me who wanted to bite her.

Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.) The author’s writing shines in the small moments, particularly in the lush language used to capture the enchanting, autumnal atmosphere of quaint Thistle Grove and its supernatural allure. Readers are sure to fall under the magic spell of Thistle Grove and its inhabitants.”

Summary

The second reason is a ton more subtle. I kept getting the feeling that everything was ramped into crystal hues. Like, lots of adverbs and adjectives and sense descriptors. This was a real advantage as the story dips into the magical world of Thistle Grove. The magical elements and effects were vivid and engaging and as lovely as they were atmospheric. And I really regret that I learned the author has written YA because it made me aware that this makes it feel a bit like it was written for that genre, only with adults and sex and careers and stuff. This is a completely unfair feeling because Emmy isn't a YA heroine (despite the above concern) and the story has a lot of layered emotional depth. In terms of the romance, it was refreshing to see that it avoids queer rom-com stereotypes, the relationship between Emmy and Talia feels very natural, with ups and downs and it also doesn’t feel too fast nor too slow. It really has a great development. There’s also quite a bit of angst but it’s well balanced with other tender moments and don’t we all love a bit of angst and slow burn! 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.

I guessed what the second book would be about even before reading the blurb about that and I will be reading that. Out of the adult witchy books from 2021, I think this is the best even though this could be better. I really enjoyed that aspect of this book. Emmy being reintroduced to her roots and really reconnecting with the people she had left behind.I was really impressed by how good Harper’s writing was. Her style is very smooth and nice to read, plus her details are really on point. Not only do you know what this magical town run by witch’s looks like, but you even know what it smells like. It seems to me that authors don’t use taste and smell very often anymore, but Harper did and it just really brought this story to life. I live in New England, actually only a couple of hours from Salem, Mass., and I can’t tell you how magical the month of October is around here. The gorgeous colors of the leaves changing, the sunny days that are just cool enough to keep the bugs away, and the smells of pumpkins and apple cider in the air just makes it special around here. The way I feel about New England in the fall is the same way Harper described the town of Thistle Grove (minus the witchey magic of course) and I could not help but to fall in love with her setting. While this is her first book under Harper, it’s not a debut as she writes YA under Lana Popovic.