Review by Kayleigh

Books and Bewitchment is a perfect cozy paranormal romance that wraps you up in a hug.

Favourite Quote:

“No matter how bad my day is, someone in a book  has it worse and will still get a happily-ever after eventually. Maybe that’s why I read so much. It gives me hope – and an escape. If my life were a book, right now I would probably give it two stars.”

Book Synopsis:

Dutiful and hard-working, Rhea Wolfe lives a simple, mundane life with her pet parrot in small-town Alabama. Sure, she may not love her desk job working for an insurance agency. And her on-again-off-again relationship with the local mechanic may not have the fiery passion she’s read about in her favorite books. Still, things are stable, which is more than she can say about the two hopelessly immature younger sisters who rely on her.

But when Rhea’s estranged grandmother dies, leaving her everything—including a magical heritage Rhea never knew she carried—she finds herself in Arcadia Falls, the quaint mountain town her mother made her swear to avoid at all costs. While the defunct business she’s also inherited needs a serious upgrade, Rhea’s lucky that resident handyman Hunter Blakely is more than happy to help—and more than easy on the eyes. If only he wasn’t the grandson of her grandmother’s sworn enemy in witchcraft.

As Rhea works to build a future, strange occurrences begin to make her think someone—or something—is trying to drive her out. As she gets closer to solving the mystery, each clue she uncovers points to Arcadia Falls’s magic hanging in the balance. To keep her new home safe, Rhea must step into her enchanted birthright . . . before it’s too late.

Review:

This book is a small-town cozy romance blended with some soft magic. Rhea, when we first meet her, is an ordinary woman who’s bored with her life. She’s just turned down her on-again/off-again boyfriend’s second proposal. She’s still living in the home she grew up in, so she can take care of her younger sisters, who are adults who just don’t have their lives together, and she’s just been fired from the only job she has ever had. 

And then she gets notice that her grandmother, her mother’s mother, has passed away and left everything to her. The only thing is that Rhea has never met her grandmother. Her mother was estranged from her, and before her parents passed away in an accident, she never let Rhea know why she hated her so much. With very little to lose, Rhea heads to the small town that her mother grew up in, which she has never been to. Along with her small possessions, she has Doris, the cockatoo she rescued from her old boss, who hated her. Doris is kind of her only friend. 

Quickly, Rhea realizes something isn’t normal in this small, quaint town. It starts when, to complete her gramma’s will, where she’s hoping to get her hands on money, sell, and be able to rescue her sisters from their poor decisions, she is forced to stand under a waterfall near town and scatter her gramma’s ashes. Through a series of events, she gains her family’s magical powers, and somehow Doris has taken on her gramma’s soul. It gets stranger from there. Rhea has to keep the business, an outdated VHS rental shop, going or else she doesn’t get the money. And those buildings that she now owns can’t be sold. 

She slowly comes to understand that something has happened in this town, that her grandmother was loved by some of the local witches, and hated by others, that magic has been fading away, and that there are secrets here she needs to discover. 

Aided by Doris and the seriously handsome Hunter: her grandmother’s arch nemesis’ grandson, and a selection of funny, smart and caring characters, Rhea learns to go after her own wants and needs for once in her life. This is the cutest, heartwarming, and cozy book. There’s no third-act breakup, and even the “villains” of the story are people who just need to be understood. I was grinning from ear to ear while reading about Rhea’s adventures in both life and love. 

Hunter is a fabulous book boyfriend: he’s caring, funny and smart and genuinely cares about Rhea. He’s just tortured enough with their slight Romeo and Juliet vibes with their family feud history. The magic is fun, the small town is like Gilmore Girls with magic, and I just wanted to keep spending time there. I was genuinely sad when the story was over. Luckily, I feel like with Rhea’s two other sisters and two other storefronts still existing in the inheritance, I’ll get a chance to visit Arcadia Falls again. 

Thank you to Del Ray for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.