The premise of this book had me ✨p u m p e d✨, but the story itself was a bit disappointing. The author is definitely setting up for a series, but I felt like this book was only half finished. Far too many loose ends were left, and I feel like lots of important plot points were really glossed over.

Not sure if I’ll continue on with the series, but this first book did have some lovely moments… and some steamy ones too.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Witch Please sounded like such a cute idea, and I was stoked to get approved for an advance copy by the publisher. I realized almost immediately upon starting it, however, that there was a glaring "it's not you, it's me" problem with the story. There is SO. MUCH. DESCRIPTION. This book is drowning in irrelevant description. I know this is very much a matter of my own preference--I find description-heavy stories really distracting--the exposition pulls me out of the story every time. Did I need to know that the witch needed to remove her shoes when she walked in the door of her home to protect the hardwood floors, before jogging up the steps to shower off the pineapple smoothie that spilled on her? Do I care what exact pieces and colors of clothing are the uniform for the hero's bakery? Is it relevant that he bought a used Nissan Leaf despite the mockery of his friends? No, no, no. For those who don't mind detailed descriptions of every person, place, and thing in the book, however, this will not be a problem.

What might be a problem for more than just me, however, is the uncomfortable subplot element about witches needing to date and marry pure-blooded witches. It seems to be presented, as far as I read, as a bad carry-over from prejudiced elders, but I found that just the inclusion of a storyline like this, and the language used to frame it, put my teeth on edge. On one hand, it's good to grapple with issues of generational prejudice....but something about it in this story did not sit right with me, and between that and the distracting descriptions, I'm just not comfortable reading any further. My inclination to not finish the story was confirmed by a very detailed and thoughtful review of this story by author Alexis Hall, who outlined some concerning story elements involving issues of consent and bisexual representation, as well as the almost-incel-like attitude of the hero early in the book.

So thanks anyway to #NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for gifting me with an #advancecopy of #WitchPlease in hopes of an honest review, which this certainly is.

This book was billed as a Practical Magic meets Gilmore Girls and it definitely fulfils that. I could definitely see Fix-It Witches in Stars Hollow helping Lorelai with her coffee maker. I think this book was written to hit all of my feel good fuzzies. I loved this hero, he was incredibly sweet, kind, caring and funny. The chemistry between Danica and Titus was on fire and I loved their banter. I also love a man who knows what he wants and goes for it. I also thought the dear god this women is the one for me, but I need to cool it so I don't scare her off energy was charming, adorkable and romantic. It really worked for me.
I also loved Danica and her internal struggles with her growing attraction to Titus, her love of magic, her difficult relationship with her family. The family dynamic was very well done in this book. Many times complex family dynamics can be overblown and unbelievable, but the author did a good job setting up the relationships between Danica, Clem, their grandmother and Danica's mom, so when you find out the lie, you understand how deeply it cuts. It would have been so easy to just make the grandmother evil from the beginning but instead what the author did was show the loving relationship between her, Danica and Clem. And when all is revealed it's clear that the grandmother thought the ends justified the means. As a person with my own complex family dynamics it was refreshing to see. (Although I still hated her)
The only thing I did love was the curse the mom put on Titus. Although in her head her actions justified the means and it definitely proved that she was her mother's daughter.
Overall I would recommend this book.

I can not express how much I enjoyed this book and how disappointed I was for it to end. Witch Please is the perfect read for rom-com readers who want a splash of spooky added to their reading for Halloween. The characters were delightful and I can't wait for the next book in the series.

I am so here for all the witchy rom coms that came out this year. And this book was so freaking cute! Titus was so adorable and I could not stop swooning and these two had the best chemistry!

This book was so funny and I loved the small town vibes and all of the hilarious side characters. I also liked that we got both characters POV in this book!!

I am super excited for Clem’s book, Boss Witch to release next year because I have to know what happens with her and Rhys.

I received an eARC of this book from Sourcebooks Casablanca in exchange for an honest review and I also bought a physical copy for myself.

I struggled to finish this. I wanted to love this, I really did but it had a lot of the same issues I had with "The Ex Hex" and POV from a male which I did not care for at all, some rushed story, an man I did not enjoy at all and I wanted to screech. The whole set-up here is SO cute and it just doesn't deliver which isn't Ann Aguirre's usual thing for me. She usually hits it right on, with something special on the side but this did not do that.

The insta-love was just off for me. I can believe it, but it wasn't there. His "claiming" energy threw me off and it kinda gave off those angry incel internet man vibes. Titus would 100% be on reddit posting memes and telling everyone about his plate girlfriend. I regret pushing myself to read this. I could have done without.

When I saw that this book was about a modern witch falling in love with a bisexual baker man I knew I needed to read it because it sounded awesome. Sadly, this book didn't do it for me. I mostly liked the main characters, but the first half was too slow and didn't capture my attention and the second half, even if more interesting, found me disinterested.
The conflict wasn't really dramatic, but it wasn't funny as I would expect of a rom-com either. I just didn't feel anything at all.
The magic was cool, but I would have liked to know more about it.
Anyway, I don't think I'll check the next book since I didn't like what I saw of its main characters on this book.

I'm so glad I picked this book up, it's super fun and delightful to read. it's not your typical witchy book, it's even better. I loved how Titus spoke his mind without hesitation, you don't see that everyday, so that was the highlight of the book for me, aside of course from the cute/funny banter which made me laugh out loud and in public, you can imagine the weird stares I received but it was totally worth it.

This was my first book by Ann Aguirre and it certainly won't be the last.

Thank you @netgalley & @sourcebookscasa for this ARC in exchange for an honest review💕

This story was exactly what I needed to get into the spooky season feels.

To have witches fixing up things with magic and a bi-sexual baker mixed up is a great set up! The grandmother who disapproves and the mother who just wants her children to be happy make the mix complete.

All in all a great story and I would love to see more stories of their world!

I read and very much enjoyed Strange Love by Ann Aguirre (which is a highly amusing science fiction romance that made me believe insectoid-like aliens and humans could end up together – no really, you should check it out!) and that’s what made me pick up this book. It was a very good decision.

Completely unlike the aforementioned sci-fi romance, this one takes place down here on earth with a quiet, unassuming (but very attractive) baker (known to the women in town as the ‘CinnaMan’) who is down on his luck with partners (he’s bisexual) and has almost given up on finding love when he meets his friendly, neighborhood witch, Danica. Danica runs a fix-it repair shop, Fix-It Witches (a tongue- in-cheek shop name) with her cousin. Now, Danica and her cousin happen to use old-fashioned magic to repair things but nobody knows that as it’s strictly forbidden for regular humans to be aware of the fact that witches still exist and flourish (especially after all those nasty witch trials that made them go underground).

Our baker hero Titus needs an oven repaired and so he goes over to Danica’s shop and their witty banter leads to him actually contemplating asking her out – which he does, and she accepts, and they live happily ever after. The end.

Ha! Just kidding, of course that’s not what happens. They date but here’s the thing: Danica’s grandmother really doesn’t want Danica marrying a non-witch because her daughter (Danica’s mother) did and then lost all her powers (or so Grandma says) and she doesn’t want to see that happen to her granddaughter. So Grandma is insisting on setting Danica up with men from proper witch families. Meanwhile, Danica is seeing Titus on the sly (they are both happy with keeping things on the down low as Titus doesn’t want to get his hopes up that this relationship will last, so he’s trying to keep things casual). Danica’s mother, having followed her own heart and who is perfectly happy in her marriage wants Danica to be with someone she chooses, not someone chosen for her. Caught between her family members’ different opinions and the acknowledged difficulty of making a happy life with a human (without him finding out she’s a witch) Danica makes certain decisions that lead them to their black moment before they find a way to be together, and then yes – they do get their happy ending at last.

The author does a great job of combining humor, interesting and likable characters, swoon-worthy romantic moments, and some sexy love scenes with some touches of magic and fantasy that aren’t over the top. I appreciated the inclusion of bisexual characters (both Titus and his sister – with whom he runs the bakery – are bi), complicated family dynamics (not just for the witches), and creative worldbuilding. There’s a secondary storyline involving a witch hunter and Danica’s cousin that is sure to make the second story in the series just as much fun as this one. Overall, Witch Please is a really enjoyable paranormal romantic comedy that I’m happy to recommend.

I would like to thank netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first witch romance, and I'm so glad I picked out up. I can't wait to read more from this genre.

I read Enclave, a YA book by Ann Aguirre and loved it. I wondered if this is the same author, the books are so different. Aguirre proves she is a cross genre best selling author with the new Fix-It Witches series. Book one Witch Please features modern day witch Danica who has an affinity for fixing technology with magic and her cousin Clem. The two made a pack never to pick sides in the battle between their grandmother and mothers. They would never fall in love and they would stay away from mundanes (Muggles for HP fans).

The two run a store in St. Clare called Fix-It Witches. Danica is called to fix the oven at a bakery run by the CinnaMan, a hunky baker everyone in town has a crush on. His name is Titus. Poor Titus tends to hide in the back of the bakery leaving the front counter to his younger sister. He is unlucky in love and feels like a professional bachelor. Poor guys has had ladies and gents drop him for really weird reasons, like running away to Iceland with a puffin researchers. When the two meet it is like something clicks but Danica is on the rebound and Titus is a mundane.

Danica's grandmother threatens to hex Titus if she pursues the relationship and Clem is mad at her for considering dating him. Then a scary biker, who is really a witch hunter, rolls into town looking for Danica. He can sense Danica's magic and is tracking her. Clem tries to distract him while her cousin figures out her love life.

Fans of Practical Magic, The Good Witch, and pretty much any rom-com or Hallmark movie, will love this book. It is perfect for getting into the Halloween witchy mood.

Thanks for the opportunity to read and review Witch Please. I really, really wanted to love this one. A big fan of Ann's earlier romances, I was thrilled to learn she was writing more. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into this book, so I won't be writing a full review but I'll give you a few of my thoughts:

I switched over to audio once it had been released to see if that helped and sadly it didn't. My entire experience with this book might be a case of "it's not you, it's me" and that's okay. I think that was particularly true when it came to Titus. I wanted to love this guy who was supposed to be this bearded, virgin, bisexual, cinnamon roll baker, but I just kept getting a weird vibe. Usually a love it when the male character is the one who is "all in" immediately, but it was hitting me wrong here.

2.5 stars

There are few things that are more disappointing than an anticipated book not reaching up to its potential.

Witch Please had the makings of a great rom-com: a sassy witch and her small town coven, a sexy mundane baker who falls hard for her, and the struggle to reconcile their love while the world around strives to keep them apart. Unfortunately, the execution of these tropes just never really clicked for me.

Honestly, a lot of this book was pretty boring and repetitive. After a typical insta-love meet cute, the majority of the book is focused on Danica waffling between whether or not to pursue Titus. It's a trope we have seen before, but it got old REALLY quickly. Considering how aggressive Titus' feelings were for her, it really ticked me off that Danica could treat this person she supposedly cared about so poorly. On top of that, she never really faces any consequences for her behavior because Titus is willing to forgive her anything. The entire book felt like one drawn out miscommunication trope and it just felt a bit lazy.

In a similar vein, Aguirre sprinkles in a bunch of plot points that never really get resolved. Magic is barely mentioned or even used in this novel, making the importance that Danica puts in it feel out of place. A witch hunter is thrown in at about the halfway point to create a different kind of tension, but it never really becomes an issue. The grandmother does some pretty terrible things, but we never see Danica actually confront her about them. For me, however, the worst thing of all was the cursory mention of COVID in an airport scene when it is never mentioned ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE NOVEL.

Every time that the small town charm began to win me over, something would occur that would have me scratching my head. I definitely think that there is an audience for this book, but it ended up not being for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Danica is one of the witches who works at Fix-It Witches fixing appliances and tech with her magic. She isn't looking for anything more than a fling and when the owner of Sugar Daddy Bakery, Titus comes in looking for her to fix his oven she gets more than she bargained for. What seems like just a hookup to her is a date to him and the two grow closer (while getting a little steamy). But Danica has big things to worry about, a curse on her family where a witch will loose her powers if falling for a mundane (non-witch) as well as a witch hunter sniffing around town. Trying to please her Grandmother and her coven if tough work while also trying balance her growing feelings for Titus. Titus has his own struggles, he believes he's cursed never having had a successful relationship. He is also dealing with his new step-family and trying to keep his sister happy. The two have everything tearing them apart, but this might be more than a fling.

This was a sweet romance that I really enjoyed. It does get quite steamy at times and I wasn't expecting that, especially considering that one of the characters is a virgin. The plot was good and the magical world was fleshed out enough to make sense without any plot holes. My only issue was there was just a bit too much crammed into the end of the book. The grand gesture had occurred and there were still quite a few chapters left. Clearly setting up another book, that also probably won't feature Danica and Titus. I am definitely going to read the next one in the series and hope for some kind of queer book in the future.

This book started off really fun for me, but I quickly stopped enjoying it, because for one, the dialogues were... really weird, by which I mean I had to do a double take several times throughout the book because I thought I must have misread. Aside from that, it was strange to me that there was hardly any world building and the main character didn't really have a big witchy community or anything like that. Because the book has a forbidden romance, in the sense that witches need to keep themselves strictly hidden and tend to hate "mundanes". From that, I would expect the main character to connect with her community more, and also to have more world building in terms of what that community is like, since it's so central to the plot.

One thing I did love about the book is how the male character is the one who's bisexual. There's so little representation of bi men in books, and there's still a huge stereotype that bi men are secretly "just" gay, so it was great to see a bisexual man in an m/f relationship!

Unfortunately, although I am a fan of Aguirre's other books, this one just didn't work for me. The writing was bogged down with the minutia of characters' lives and it felt like an actual plot was aching slow to develop because of the moment to moment details of a character walking their dog, or cleaning something, or cooking something. I think many will be delighted by the cuteness of the town and characters and not mind the meandering of the writing, but it didn't work out for me.

Ann Aguirre's Witch Please is a contemporary witch romance brimming with techy magic, baked goods, and family drama. Danica is from a long line of powerful witches. Between her coven/book club, witch family, and magic tech-repair shop, her life is brimming with charms and spells. She is not, however, charmed when it comes to love. Her last boyfriend from a witch line had everything her grandmother wanted for her, but when he breaks it off and marries a non-magical woman soon after, Danica commits to a no-dating pact with her cousin. Sworn off dating, and unable to marry a non-magical partner without losing her magic, she is unprepared for CinnaMan to walk into her life. Titus is the new baker at Sugar Daddy's, a family bakery run with his sister. His business has been thriving, but his personal life has been less than stellar. After Titus's mother passed, his father quickly remarried a much younger woman and moved to live with his new family. Not to mention his long string of girlfriends who moved to Alaska and boyfriends who left him for a job on a cruise. At this point, Titus cannot help but think he is cursed to be single for the rest of his life. But, when Titus meets Danica, both their family problems stand aside for their undeniable chemistry.
Danica is a messy character dealing with family dating expectations and the prospect of a new guy who is perfect for her. Her grandmother is a wild, emotionally abusive character who insists Danica and her cousin marry witches. Something their mothers did not do. This incredible family divide drives a majority of the plot and leads to Danica consistently flip-flopping between enthusiastically dating Titus and ghosting him. It is honestly painful in the center. If you are not a fan of characters who do not clearly communicate this is not the book for you. Don't get me wrong, it is fun to be thrown around when you know they are going to end up together, but it is a wild ride.
When you get to Titus's perspective the relationship rounds out. His bakery, dog, and sister are all stellar, supportive figures in his life. Unfortunately, he has consistently been abandoned by his partners and recently been abandoned by his father. When you see how into Danica he is you have to root for him. At times, his selflessness gets to him and he gets angry about it. He is not a clean character, but he tries not to mess up the lives of people around him. He is internally messy. It is also fun that people in town call him the CinnaMan. I am always down for a character who is unaware the entire town thinks he is hot.
The book is one in a long line of witch romances being released this fall and I am down for the trend. The coven is a fun way to integrate the magic system into the text without having to include blocks of explanatory information. Also, the concept that her business is the best in town because she has tech magic is fun. It is unfortunate that her grandmother is the worst, but all witches cannot be perfect. If you are down for some casual magic in a contemporary setting Witch Please by Ann Aguirre might be fun.
Thank you, Sourcebooks Casablanca via NetGalley for providing the eARC of Witch Please by Ann Aguirre in exchange for my honest review.

I am a huge fan of Ann Aguirre's writing and Titus is a wonderful main character. Danica's grandmother on the other hand was the opposite of wonderful and made me want to scream much too often while reading. Danica's complicated family history was hard to follow because she wasn't estranged from her mother. I do think this book did a great job in setting the world up but it left with me with too many questions, which sounds good since it's a series but it felt like Danica and Titus' story didn't get the best chance.

The writing is fantastic and the found family aspects that we're shown (Danica's coven and Titus and his sister welcoming their stepsister) were my absolutely favorite parts of the book!

A perfect sexy, witchy book for fall reading, complete with a truly adorable cover and catchy title.