This is a witchy sort of John Tucker Must Die. It started off very promising with a triwizard kind of competition between the four founding families. Emmy is back home after being gone for a heartbreak straight out of high school. I thought it was a little insane she never came back to visit because of a boy when she was 18 but to each their own. She's finally back and has an instant connection to Talia, their resident friendly dark witch. Talia, Emmy, and Lin all bond to together to take down Gareth, the one who all broke their hearts at some point. I wish they would have spent more time on the actual competition but it drifted into an introspective journey on Emmy exploring her new relationship with Talia and her strained relationship with her family. It was a nice witchy read for the season but I expected more action.

Everything about this book worked so well. The magic and world (or town)-building was well though-out and felt real. It felt like a real town, one I would very much like to visit. The revenge plot was delightful and both petty and not at all. It was so wonderful to see three woman who had been spurned by the same man not take it out on each other but support and champion each other. The relationship between all the characters - in particularly Talia and Emmy - felt honest and complicated and like they had a past. The spark between Emmy and Talia was almost palpable and the development of their relationship had the pull of something that had been simmering beneath the surface for year and was finally allowed to come to the surface. And Emmy's personal journey - going back to a town she never wanted to return to, reckoning with how she felt about it truly, why she'd left, and how she had treated the people she loved and loved her - it all felt very familiar and real. I loved this book!

This is a cute lgbtq+ witchy romance about the power of friendship, family, and going home, set in an idyllic magical town. The beginning of the story reminded me of John Tucker Must Die, with three witches uniting to publicly humiliate the man who wronged them all in Thistle Grove’s upcoming magical Gauntlet that will determine the town’s new leader.

However, this book couldn’t decide if it wanted to be more of a romance or a fantasy adventure, and as a result both aspects fell a bit flat. Emmy and Talia had amazing instant chemistry, but their relationship had an unnecessarily slow build as it kept getting pushed to the side for Gauntlet research. The Gauntlet contests themselves were a bit underwhelming.

I wasn’t a fan of Emmy’s internal conflict throughout the book, and the ending was definitely cliche, but this was a fun spooky book with sweet friendships and spicy romance, and it definitely put me in the mood for fall.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC!

It is an LBTQ romance about three scorned witches who aim to break down the warlock that broke their hearts at different times but instead find love together and the true meaning of roots. The tagline for this book is a comparison to the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and a romance. I could not watch all of that show as it eventually went far off the rails from what I enjoyed in that show and much prefer the other milder version of Sabrina. This book took the best part of that show and wove a story about family competitions, magic roots calling you home, and friendship, and of course, a very well thought out sweet romance. I appreciated that I knew ahead of time that this would have a romantic vibe, but it did not feel overwhelming or took away from the story's point. The competition between the four ruling families was well thought out and, for once, not predictable in the twist. Lana Harper has a good start with this series, and the sequel coming up in 2022, I am sure, will not disappoint.

The Spooky season has officially BEGUN with this one!!

It took me a chapters to really get into it, because admittedly I just wasn’t feeling the witchy, fall vibes, but once it hooked me, it didn’t let go. Emmy, Talia, and Linden are so powerful and hilarious I wish I could hang out with them and plot revenge against anyone who’s ever done me wrong. And MAN do I wish Thistle Grove was a real place.

Thistle Grove (the setting but also its own character to some extent) gives me Stars Hollow vibes, but like…make it spooky. It’s charming and autumnal, but there’s also a dark side (e.g. the very creepy and literally haunted woods), and I had no trouble seeing why Emmy felt such a pull to the town. If I could move there, I would.

Talia and Emmy’s chemistry is excellent, Emmy’s relationships with Linden and her family are all nuanced and heartwarming, and the energy of women teaming up to ruin a man who truly deserves it is just immaculate. And the Gauntlet! The challenges! I love a good tournament plotline, and this one is so much fun. I did predict a couple major twists towards the end fairly early on, but it didn’t lessen the gratification I felt one bit.

Also, it would be remiss of me to not mention how funny this book is. Like, laugh out loud funny. Harper’s (or I suppose Emmy’s, since it’s written in first person) narrative voice is one of the most consistently entertaining I’ve read in a while, dry and modern without going overboard on millennial humor. There are even humorous chapter titles, my kryptonite!

A queer, witchy, adventurous story of self-acceptance and letting yourself grow into the person you were always meant to be, it’s kiiiind of the perfect addition to a fall tbr.

This book was everything I want in an autumn read - sapphic romance, witchcraft, and vengeance. There’s not nearly enough sapphic relationships represented in fiction overall, but especially not in New Adult, and this book filled that void. Emmy and Talia’s relationship was incredibly sweet, and I loved the friendship between Emmy and Linden! I will be rereading this book a lot, I think, and I’ve already recommended it to several people to preorder!

'Payback's a Witch': 4⭐

Okay, so this was so much fun! Total Hocus Pocus vibes with a hinge of romantic comedy! Loved the sisterhood vibes and all the bisexual representation!

Loved the friendship between the main characters and loved all the witchy vibes! I knew Talia, Lin and Emmy were powerful but a vengeance pact only made them even more amazing! I'm so happy for having read this book, absolutely incredible!

Also, hands down, f*ck Gareth, that absolute big trash can!

Payback's a witch gives you everything you could want in a witchy autumnal romance. The writing beautifully conveys the magic of Thistle Grove, a town I deeply wish I could visit in real life.

Payback's a Witch has just the right of internal introspection, magical action, and romance. It's a story that feels well rounded as Emmy struggles to figure out who she wants to be. That we can get so caught up in running that we forget to wonder why. To confront whether we are running from a place or ourselves. At the same time, there's a fabulous story line of questioning the way things have always been. Of wondering if there's room for the status quo to be disrupted and how we can.

When I think of fall from now on, I’m going to be thinking pumpkin spice, apple picking, and this book! This is the most atmospheric book and is just the epitome of fall and magic. Payback’s a Witch is a wonderful mix of Sabrina meets John Tucker Must Die meets Harry Potter’s Triwizard Tournament. It follows Emmy as she returns to Thistle Grove after leaving five years earlier after getting her heartbroken. And that same man who broke her heart has since broken her best friend’s heart, as well as fellow witch Talia’s, and these girls want revenge. I absolutely love the sweeping magic of this and the competition of these four magical families in town. I loved that these four families all have such distinctive magic they excel in, and the magical competition was just so interesting and creative! Plus Emmy and Talia have such scorching chemistry!! They’re both such complex characters. Talia is such a badass, but I love she’s a closeted romantic too! Emmy too is such a great narrator. Her relationships with her family and her best friend Linden are so wonderful and genuine! In addition to a chemistry-filled romance, this is so much about finding home and a place where you feel home. Emmy’s journey in re-falling in love with Thistle Grove and her inner conflict about her life there and in Chicago is just so heartwarming! I just want to live in this book, there are so many amazing bits! Magic, banter, girl power, and revenge plots with charming characters… it’s a perfect fall read!

Emmy Harlow has carefully excised the town of Thistle Grove from her life until a pesky familial obligation forces her to come back and arbitrate the town's traditional magical competition. However, when Emmy teams up with her best friend Lin Thorn and gorgeous witch Talia Avramov to get revenge on her awful ex-boyfriend Gareth Blackmoore, she gets more than she bargained for.

The romance in this was hot, the magical town was really interesting, and I really liked the treasure hunt/magical competition. I wish the relationships between characters had been better developed and given more depth, particularly the best friendship and the main romance, but in general every relationship, like Emmy's relationships with her family, could have used more detail. We get a lot about what she feels about magic, but what about all these human beings? I also wish the town, the witch society, and magic system had more development (but that could just be because I'm a huge nerd). I'd read the sequel to see if there's more detail to things there.

Payback’s a Witch is the absolute perfect book to read in the fall! It has an atmospheric setting and it’s full of witchy goodness. It just screams October. I couldn’t get enough of this story. It was everything that I wanted it to be!

After a long time gone, Emmy Harlow is back home in Thistle Grove for the traditional magical tournament. Her first night back doesn’t go as planned when she runs into Gareth, the man who is responsible for why she left town years ago. Emmy learns that Gareth is still breaking hearts. So now she is teaming up with her best friend Linden and Talia to get a little vengeance.

I really enjoyed following the main character Emmy. This book was all about her figuring out who she wants to be, which was super relatable. There was a slow burn sapphic romance and it was so cute! The chemistry between the two was there from the beginning!

I loved the setting of Thistle Grove. It gave me major Halloweentown vibes. I enjoyed learning about the history of the town along with each founding family’s magic.

The tournament is held between the founding family scions. The winner’s family will be in charge of the magic in town. I loved this part of the book. Not only were the challenges fun to read but the behind the scenes secret game play was so interesting. I was fully invested and I couldn’t wait to find out how things would play out!

The ending was a total surprise to me and I was living for it. I am looking forward to seeing what happens in future books!

A very solid New Adult book from Lana Harper. Great LGBTQ representation throughout the book, and none of the typical bigotry that usually comes with a book featuring a queer romance. This book is perfect for new adults, early-to-mid twenty somethings who can easily relate to some of the struggles that Emmy has to contend- staying at home versus leaving, when to return home and whether or not you're returning for the right reasons, what it means to build a place, etc. Talia was a fantastic character and by far the most interesting of all of them. This was a quick, fun read that I thoroughly enjoyed, perfect time for Halloween. As much as I detest split narrative books, this book may have benefited from a split narrative between the town's original founders and the Emmy/Talia plotline. I think the more interesting element of the story was the town's founding, to be honest.

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for access to the eARC of this book!

This was a wonderful book! I confess, something about the way the description is written, I fully expected this to be a young adult novel. On re-reading it, there's nothing in the description to lead me to think so, so maybe it's just the amount YA I read, but regardless, that's where I was when I started reading, so I was caught off guard when it comes out a few pages in that Emmy, our protag, was 26.

I will also state that I had trouble seeing the appeal of Gareth Blackmoore that drew in these three amazing women (particularly Talia) to the point that they needed to form their revenge pact. He just came across in the text as attractive but skeezy, and with the exception of Emmy (because high school dating, right?), I can't picture why Linden and Talia touched him with a ten-foot pole. I thought the book needed a bit more evidence of his supposed charm, but it didn't have that, or at least I didn't pick up on it.

That said, this could be because Gareth isn't even really a character in the book. He doesn't really have dialogue after the gala a third of the way in, apart from cursing when he's not getting his way. He's more of a MacGuffin to get these women together, to help Emmy and Linden refresh their friendship, and to help Emmy and Talia to spend time together, and get close, and develop their feelings for one another.

As others have said, this is definitely a romcom, but the romance is not the central theme of the plot. Don't get me wrong, it's a big part. When Emmy's not around Talia, she's often thinking about her. And when they ARE together, the chemistry is usually super cute (or downright hot)! I love the peeling back of Talia's layers, until we see the sensitive, romantic soul underneath her swaggering exterior.

The book is also ostensibly about the magical tournament, but I don't think it's really central, either. The book goes big swaths of pages where it doesn't even come up. The first challenge happens early, and then it's quite a while until the second.

The book is really about identity, and belonging. Do we make ourselves, or are we made by where we come from, what happens to us. This is Emmy's journey, from where she thinks she needs/wants to be, to what really matters, and how does she become 'someone'.

The supporting cast was mostly excellent. Some are more shades, just impressions of people that I suspect we'll get more indepth with as Lana gives us more stories of the Thistle Grove Witches, and others are very distinct and fun.

All in all, wonderful book, and I can't wait to read more in this series as they come out. 4.5 stars.

With competition akin to All of Us Villains and many other magical tales, Payback's a Witch brings a rom-com style to the concept. Lana Harper's writing is descriptive, sometimes bordering on overly descriptive. Our characters fade in and out, from interesting to prop pieces. However, the main romantic characters were sexy and interesting- and queer, which really holds this book up at times.

This book could have been much more enjoyable had the pacing been more understandable. Unfortunately, the writing lost itself with the overly grandeur and too much filler. The magic was less than charming, and the characters felt disconnected. This easily could have been a fully enjoyable rom-com, or a fully enjoyable fantasy, but oscillating between the two simply did not work for this particular story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC.

🌟🌟🌟🌟 4/5 stars

This book was a whole vibe. I want to live in Thistle Grove with all of it’s spooky and witchy ways. Payback’s a Witch is a mixture of John Tucker Must Die and the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. It follows Emmy Harlow, a witch who returns to her hometown of Thistle Grove after a self-imposed exile following a heartbreak caused by Gareth Blackmoore, heir to the most powerful family in town. When she returns, she discovers Gareth has broken the heart of her best friend, Linden, as well as Emmy’s high school crush, Talia. The three team up to take down Gareth, but Emmy finds herself falling for Talia all over again.

The premise. The romance. THE ATMOSPHERE. This is the perfect October read if you want the witch vibes, but also want an adorable romance. Harper has created such a detailed and surprisingly complex magic system that it made me love that side of the story even more than the romance. The magic and town history was so interesting and I loved the modern spin Harper put on it. I’m desperate to return to Thistle Grove. That place is my DREAM. Think Stars Hollow meets Halloweentown. The. Dream.

Overall, Payback’s a Witch was a fun and surprising read full of mystical vibes and sweet romance.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Full review to be posted closer to release date.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the current trend for "witchy" romance, and Payback's a Witch was a thoroughly enjoyable ride. The chemistry between Emmy and Talia was hot and it was a treat watching the trio (Emmy, Talia, and Linden, with the help of her brother) attempt to take down a common enemy. But I think my favorite part was watching Emmy rediscover her love for Thistle Grove and its traditions and her family's magic. The writing was beautiful and filled with lush descriptions of the town and the spells. I felt like I was right there with them. Looking forward to the next book in this series.

Get out your grimoires and grab your familiars because Payback's a Witch by Lana Harper is ready to bespell you with sapphic witchy romance. Emmy Harlow left Thistle Grove and her magic behind nine years ago after a difficult breakup with a bit of a magical jock, Gareth Blackmoore, and the crushing realization that she wanted a bigger life. One she couldn't have if she stayed in town and kept her magic. But with a spellcasting tournament on the horizon, she is back in town for one month to be the arbiter of the whole show per Harlow family tradition. It was supposed to be an easy break from her real-life in Chicago before Talia Avramov walked into a bar Emmy's first night back. Turns out Gareth has broken one too many witches' hearts while Emmy has been away, and now the lot of them will conspire so the Blackthorns will finally lose the tournament. They will have to bend the rules if they want to take down the most powerful family in town, but hell hath no fury like a witch scorned.

Listen, this is an all-around good time. You have a big city girl coming back to a small town, a magic tournament, a group of women teaming up against an ex, a sapphic love story, a made up history book with witty historians and so much more.

The characters are to die for with a good combination of family traits influencing magic abilities and baseline personality types alongside individual characteristics. Linden and Rowen are amazing twins, whose sibling dynamic immediately fell into place. As an aside, I was a big fan of the range of the natural magic they used from healing to plants to aquatic life. I would also love to spend a day in the Avramov household that sounds equal parts chaotic, spooky, and fun. It is a haunted house but it has character and I hear they throw good parties.

The Blackmoore's are appropriately gaudy and annoying, making for a wonderful family of antagonists. If you are anything like me, you will want him to lose spectacularly. When you have an appropriate foe, winning feels so much sweeter.

On the whole, the book also delivers a few narrative beats about learning the difference between carving your own path versus running away. Sure, there is magic and romance involved, but at the end of the day, her relationship with her best friend and parents also factor into her reevaluation of her flight from town. As she begins to understand the effects of her choices on the people she left behind she begins to grow and heal. It is really quite touching.

Then, you add a fun witchy romance to the mix and you have yourself a winner. Talia is a chaotic neutral witch whose traditionally Russian family leans into the spookier side of the grimoire. Think seances, communing with the dead, curses, etc. Emmy had a crush on her in high school but now they are both old enough to pursue something that may last. While the romance doesn't dive too deeply into the ramifications of a longer courtship, watching the two initially dates speaks to a successful future.

If you are in the mood for a bit of ceremony, competition, and revenge in your witchy reading materials Payback's a Witch by Lana Harper is for you. It also helps that the cover is absolutely enchanting. For a few years now witchy books have been placed on the backburner. Books like Don't Hex and Drive by Juliette Cross, Help Wanted by J. Emery, and A Potion to Die For by Heather Blake come to mind. Either there have been titles independently released or they have gotten smaller runs. With the sheer number of witch romance novels about to hit the shelves, I do imagine we have another wave on our hands.

Payback's a Witch by Lana Harper is set to release on October 5th, 2021. Thank you, Berkley via NetGalley for providing the eARC of Payback's a Witch by Lana Harper in exchange for my honest review.

I am very much on the fence about this book. On the one hand, it was a delightfully fun read with a super sexy wlw romance, and given how few and far between those are, I don't want to dismiss it so easily. However, this book was so obviously written by a millennial writer that at times it was extremely irritating to read, and on more than one occasion I considered abandoning it altogether. On the whole, the good does outweigh the bed, but I can't say this is one of my favorites.