I absolutely loved Small Town, Big Magic and Big Little Spells was such a delightful followup. More of what you love: witchy small town romance. This book will definitely be a re-read when fall hits and the weather is more appropriate, but I loved it in summer nonetheless.

Thank you to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

I read Small Town Big Magic, and after that cliffhanger was looking forward to this one. However, I started this book over a month ago, and it took everything in me to finish it. I got weird vibes the love interest - almost groomer vibes which I hate to say because I love Rebekah and looked forward to her story. I also love the magic system and world that Hazel Beck has created, but I was so bored this book. Slight spoiler here - I never understood why Rebekah didn't see her aunt the entire book if she is so close to her and texts her constantly. That just felt so odd and off to me. The relationships here just didn't make sense to me, and I wanted to see them play out more.

I am still looking forward to their third book to see where this story goes!

Sigh, I had high hopes for this book since the first one was good and ended on a cliffhanger - but I found myself disappointed.

Big Little Spells picks up right where Small Town Big Magic leaves off. Now, granted I read STBM in October 2022, and I’m picking up this book in July 2023, my memory of the story wasn’t super strong. But because of how it starts immediately jumping in where it left off, if it’s been almost a year since you read it, you probably won’t remember some of the finer details. Not that I love books that rehash the last book in the beginning chapter, it felt a bit like a disservice to the readers by not reminding us where we left off.

I think the biggest issue for me with BLS was that it focused too much on what was going on around the characters and not what they were doing. It didn’t have the same vibe of the world developing and character depth of STBM.

Since Emerson and Rebekah have to go back to retake their pubertatum test, they have to do all sort of high school type things - which is very much my nightmare of having to go back to high school even though I’ve graduated from college. I think that turned me off from enjoying the story because the characters are 28 years old, living in their 18 year old past. Additionally, the build up of the story and romance between Rebekah and Nicholas Frost felt underdeveloped, because the book was trying to do too many storylines and the romance just fell by the wayside of the magic trials.

There are supposedly two more books in this series and I’m not sure if I will seek them out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

The strength in this story was the vibes. Small Town, Romance, Witches, all things that I find myself loving. It's like a more modern Practical Magic (not the same plot, just the vibes and sisters and yeah).

I didn't realize it was a sequel and am looking forward to grabbing the next one soon. I would definitely sell this to my adult rom com customers who are looking for family ties and romance.

To start off with I wasn't a fan of the first book in this series but I wanted to try this one. It was a bit better, but still a bit of a disappointment.

I was given Big Little Spells by Hazel Beck from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This book was such an enjoyable read. I will say that the first book in the series was a little bit of a slow read, but Big Little Spells read so quickly. I most liked the relationships in this book. Sisters and friends and lovers are portrayed in realistic fashion for a fantasy novel. It was refreshing to read about an engaging witch story with excellent romantic elements, but it had touched on recovery and mental health awareness. I really cannot say enough good things about this book.

Just as good as the first one , which means I'm so looking forward to more of this series and see what happens next to the characters.

Glad to revisit this witchy world.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, Small Town, Big Magic, so I was happy to get my hands on this book. It was just as addictive as the first book. I enjoyed learning more about Rebekah, who had her magic taken away, and forced to leave town, when she was just eighteen. Ten years later, she is back in St. Cyprian after being summoned by the Joywood Coven. She is glad to be reunited with her sister and friends, but they have a big battle ahead of them and it will take all of their powers if they want to succeed. Rebekah is also reunited with her secret crush, the immortal Nicholas Frost. Overall, this is a good book and it was fun revisiting this world of witches. I would definitely recommend reading the first book in this series before this one in order to know what is going on.

Thank you to Net Galley and the Publisher for the Advanced Copy of Big Little Spells by Hazel Beck. This is a second round purchase for most libraries.

Thanks NetGalley and author for this arc.

I didn’t enjoy this as much as I thought I would. I didn’t read the first book so maybe if I read it then try and read this one again I will like it more. Just didn’t like it much.

Last year, when I read the first novel in this series ("Small Town, Big Magic"), I liked it just OK. So imagine my surprise and delight when I started reading this one and realized I was happy to be back with these Missouri witches! I enjoyed Rebekah as a main character more than Emerson — she seemed to have more depth and felt more real. And then, of course, there is the romance. If you love some immortal-falls-in-love-with-a-human business, put this at the top of your TBR. Overall, I had a nice time with this story and will happily keep up with the series!

Big Little Spells is full of friendship, family—found as well as blood, love, and self-acceptance and forgiveness. It’s follows Rebekah Wilde and her return home after living in exile for ten years unable to use her magic. She returned home harbouring the secret of why she was really exiled and struggling with accepting what had happened and feeling she couldn’t forgive herself and certainly didn’t believe anyone else could either. Emerson (her older sister) and Rebekah must face her coven once more to be tried in a ritual usually performed on younger witches to show they have power. With time, and the coven, against them they must prepare for a ritual that they’re destined to fail. Love, of course, also hangs in the balance and Rebekah is once more thrown into the path of Nicholas Frost—an immortal witch that she has had a crush on since she was a teenager.
Big Little Spells has a huge amount of heart with a journey of self-reflection that is entirely relatable. Thank you HarperCollins for the arc!

Was so happy to be in the world of these characters again! I love a good witch story and when you throw in some romance, we’ll all the better! There’s just something about witch angst that keeps you wanting more! Can’t wait for another one in this series!

This book was just as good as the first one. It’s not my favorite witchy series but it’s a definite must read!!

Thank you so much for an ARC!

The first book was fine for me, i was really hoping that book 2 would really find its voice and be a little better.

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case here. 😕 I'm not finding myself interested in any of this.

Book 2 of a series, this book follows Rebekah as her return to town after an exile. We get to see her journey as she tries to fight off real danger with the help of a blast from her past Nicholas.

I thought this book was just as good as book 1. It’s even easier to get into since there is less world building information. I thought the story was dramatic and heartwarming. I really loved seeing Rebekah and Nicholas’ relationship form. I do love a second chance romance in that way.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Publishing for the ARC.

A compelling, compulsively readable follow-up to Small Town, Big Magic, this book is told from the perspective of Rebekah, the exiled sister of our book 1 heroine.

Rich with language around trauma, healing, and different kinds of healing, the main love story involved some problematic power imbalance elements (that are discussed in the book), but that took away some of the joy for me.

The characters and the little town and the entire world building of the secret kind of magic, corrupt leaders, and powerful discussions of rebellion all made this is a worthwhile read for me and I'm excited for book 3!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

"Big Little Spells" is the second book in the Witchlore universe by Hazel Beck and it's a solid addition to the series. Our main character, Rebekah, is fleshed out well and is more relatable than her older sister, Emerson, who we followed in the first book. The events of the novel carry the overall story forward and increase the stakes, though, based on how this book ends, I'm curious to see where the plot goes in the future. I enjoyed getting more character progression for the other members of the coven; I'm assuming we would follow Zander and Ellowyn in a third installment. My biggest complaint is that I would have loved to get more information and detail about Nicholas's back story and his feelings about the situation in which we find our characters; there wasn't much about him, which was also the case with Jacob in the first book. 3.5/5 stars

The joy I felt getting my hands of book two of The Witchlore series isn't something I can properly express in words. There was a lot of squealing and incoherent noises, so from that you should understand my excitement.
I can't say too much as this is book 2, and I don't want give away any spoilers for book one. I will say, I love that this story picked up exactly where the last one left off, which I really appreciate. There was no confusing middle space that needed filling in. Even though the MC changed for this book, I still got plenty of the previous one and all the other characters, so I was immensely happy. Rebekah is only suppose to be a year younger then her sister, Emerson, but the way she acted made here feel a lot younger then that, which threw me off at times. I did see the twist at the end coming, so that wasn't a huge surprise. At the same time, this book is a fantasy rom-com and I feel like rom-com's have that predictability that you want and expect.
I love this series so much and will absolutely continue on. I can't wait to see who's story they tell next.

In immensely hugs thank you to Harper Collins for the eArc. All thoughts and opinions are me own.

I loved the first book in this series I was a little wary on whether or not I'd like this book because I wasn't too interested in Rebekah after Book 1.

But quite literally ~15 pages in and I was absolutely irrevocably hooked and was forced to binge.

I did feel disconnected from the main characters this go around. Whereas in Book 1 I was invested on what was happening to them, in this book I was way more interested in what was happening around them.

This book succeeded in getting me sufficiently hooked and on the edge of my seat for Book 3 and overall happy that things worked out for Rebekah in the end.