Emmy Harlow was chased out of her magical town of Thistle Grove by heartache. She had to sacrifice family, friends, and magical ability in a desperate attempt to escape her pain and find herself. Now she must return to fulfill a family duty, as arbiter of traditional witchy games.

Emily is a sexually fluid heroine, which I wasn't expecting, but fit in well as a Pride Month read. I think we could all identify with her heartache from Gareth, and her attraction to Talia was electric. The women-scorned aspect made for a good story angle, along with the power imbalance of the Blackmoores vs. the other founding families. Unfortunately, I just couldn't forge a connection with Emmy. I think I was more drawn to Talia and her talents, and I would've loved to have some of the story from her POV. The only time I got drawn into Emmy's plight was during a heartfelt conversation with her mother, and I wish there could've been more of that connection throughout the story.

I really like the concept of Thistle Grove and the founding families, but I'm a sucker for magical tales and abilities. Now that the games are over and a winner has been crowned, I'm interested to see what changes are in store for this small town. Can Gareth be redeemed? Will Linden and Rowan find their own happiness, and with who? And will the Harlows start being respected for their contributions to magic? Lots of questions that can be answered!

3.5 stars

Witchy fall vibes, sapphic love, and a cute cozy town atmosphere collide in this fun rom-com. And it's the start of a series!

Concept: ★★★
Characters: ★★★★
Plot/Pacing: ★★★

A short reader disclaimer: So first off, I have to SINCERELY apologize to the publisher, as I messed up and did not review this book in a timely manner despite having an early digital copy. In general, I've struggled a lot more with ARC reviews this past year due to a lot of upheaval in my personal life, but that's not this book's fault or the publishers so please keep that in mind.

On to the review!

So, did you ever watch Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Halloweentown, or those other adorable witchy vibe tv shows and wish they had a lot more lesbian action and just a gooey romantic plot arc?? Payback's a Witch is the novel for you.

The magical town of Thistle Grove has been the home of several powerful witch families for generations—including the Harlow family. Emmy Harlow thinks that her family's line isn't exactly prestigious or on the same level as the others, but it's still their claim to fame and Emmy's the reluctant heir of the situation.

The catch is, Emmy fled Thistle Grove years ago due to some unfortunate angst and hasn't been back to her home town in quite some time.

When she does come back for the all-important tournament that requires all of the Thistle Grove witch family heirs to be present, Emmy is met with something new: the enigmatic and wickedly devious Talia Avramov, one of the other family heirs and a reluctant partner-in-arms.

Will Emmy and Talia intertwine as they work together to bring down their mutual ex, Gareth, or will tensions collide?

Ok y'all, this was super cute. I do regret missing out on the opportunity to read this in the fall, when the vibes would have been immaculate, but this did give me a wonderful dose of the season anyway. Payback's a Witch was clever, funnier than I expected it to be, and filled with a lot of small town shenanigans.

I had some small quibbles with the pacing and lack of real stakes—it was a bit too quaint for me, a little less dramatic angst than I tend to like in my romances—but overall I do think it was a wonderful and fun rom-com to spend an afternoon reading.

Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

My thoughts on this one are a little bit mixed! I really, really enjoyed the setting and the almost grown-up-Halloweentown-y vibes of it all, but I'd be lying if I said that this wasn't a little.. cheesy? Which isn't necessarily a bad thing! But I went into this one hoping it would be the queer, witchy contemporary fantasy of my dreams and it ended up falling quite a bit short of those dreams. I do definitely still intend to carry on with the series because I'm very curious to see where the story will go without the whole magical competition as the center of the story, but I just didn't enjoy this installment quite as much as I was hoping to.

Happy Halloween season, readers! For October, I was looking for something sapphic and spooky. Luckily, I was approved for an ARC of Payback’s A Witch by Lana Harper, which meets those two requirements perfectly. I absolutely loved this fun, feminist story and am excited to share it with you all.

Our story begins with our protagonist, Emmy Harlow, returning after a long time away to her hometown of Thistle Grove. Thistle Grove might seem like your run-of-the-mill Halloween-themed tourist trap, but it secretly is the home of four powerful witch families: the Harlows, the Thorns, the Avramovs, and the Blackmoores. As Emmy returns, it’s time for the families to compete in a magical competition called the Gauntlet, and it’s Emmy’s turn to be the judge. Before the tournament starts, Emmy meets with her best friend Linden and their other classmate, Talia. It turns out that all three of them have had their hearts broken by golden boy Gareth Blackmoore. The three hatch a witchy plan for Talia, the only one of them actually competing, to take Gareth down and seek sweet revenge.

The plot is surprisingly intricate, so there are also layers I didn’t mention in my short summary. It’s basically John Tucker Must Die meets The Craft, with an extra serving of queer relationships. The book is as fun as it sounds. I loved the short, page-turning chapters and engaging competition between all of our characters. All of the challenges in the Gauntlet were fun to read about and had compelling stakes. The central romance in the book really worked for me, as well. Tension and surprise happened at every turn without the plot becoming too complicated or dour. I also really liked the ending, especially the final setpiece. To avoid spoilers, I will leave my review at that. I encourage you to read this book for yourself and see how you like it.

All that being said, my favorite aspect of this novel was the setting. Thistle Grove felt like a real place, and Harper’s vivid descriptions brought the Halloween vibes in a big way. That’s probably why I found the book so comforting to read. I especially loved the cozy feel of the Harlows’ witchy bookstore and the town dive bar, the Shamrock Cauldron. The powerful, scary aura of the town’s lake was similarly striking. The book opens with Emmy almost being bowled over by the magic of her hometown, and I felt the same way reading about it. Thistle Grove was definitely a place I would want to spend time in, and that compelled me to keep reading.

At times, the characters did feel a little flat, especially the extended family members of our four core competitors. However, that didn’t take away from the story at all for me. At the heart of this story was friendship and forgiveness. Forgiving others, yes, but also forgiving yourself for past mistakes. All of this was wrapped up in a bow of Halloween excellence. Payback’s A Witch comes out on October 5th, 2021. Thank you to Berkeley Publishing Group for the Netgalley ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Payback's a Witch is such a fun read! it's a witchy novel perfect for October set in a rom-com! Fans of rom-coms will fall in love especially if they grew up with Practical Magic, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, or Halloweentown. Witchy romances are all the rage and perfect for getting readers in the mood for Halloween. The characters are so fun and well-written. You can just feel the small town fall setting and smell the pumpkin spice and apple cider in the air. Harper's atmospheric writing is fantastic. I truly cannot recommend Payback's a Witch enough!

I think I've read too many "witchy town" books, and I'm a little over the trope. This book was cute, and had interesting characters and dialogue, but it just didn't grab me.

This book is like if the CW and Hallmark had a baby. It's got super fun supernatural stuff and lesbian lurve.
The characters are entertaining and Thistle Grove seems like a very cool place to hang out.
You won't strain your brain reading this but it will be a pleasure!
#NetGalley

This was a fun Halloween romance! Perfect for the month of October and full of all the witchy vibes :) definitely appropriate for those who enjoy the fall season and are looking for a spooky story :)

This was such a fun read! I loved reading about the little town of Thistle Grove and all it’s amazing witches! I loved every character especially Talia. She was my favorite.

Emmy (our MC), Talia, and Linden are 3 witches from 3/4 founded families of Thistle Grove but that’s not the only thing they have in common. They also have each had a relationship with Gareth, who is from the 4th founded family. Gareth is quite a jerk, and basically broke all three girls hearts over the years. The girls seek revenge by teaming up to stop Gareth from winning the spell casting tournament. If all this isn’t enough, Emmy starts for fall for Talia!

I felt the beginning of this one started slow, however, it begins to pick up by the time the tournament starts. (So hang in there!!) I almost put it down, but I’m glad I didn’t! By the end, I was dying to read book #2! This will be released May 17th and I will definitely be getting myself a copy!

If you like witches, love triangles (or squares?), magic, LGBTQIA rom-coms, and action packed completions than this one is for you!

Paybacks a witch was so fun. I loved the idea of women coming in and taking down a shitty man. I also loved the romance.

A delightful book full of adventure, action, and thrills. Fun to read, engrossing world building, and very descriptive imagery made it feel like it was cinematic. It's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. Would recommend.

I always love a good witchy story to read in the Fall, and was so excited for PAYBACK’S A WITCH by Lana Harper.

This was a cute sapphic romance that really brought those pumpkin spice, cooler weather, and Autumn colors of Fall that I was hoping for.

The magic and spell casting was my favorite, and I loved that there was a rivalry between two witch families, which led to a an enjoyable plot.

*many thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for sending me and ARC in exchange for an honest review. I tried this book a couple of times and honestly couldn’t get into the plot. The writing was well done, the story just wasn’t catching my attention. I think I had a difficult time connecting to the characters in the story. It just wasn’t the book for me.

Thanks Again!

It was a decent romance novel, but I didn't love it. Everything fell a little flat for me and it wasn't memorable or really hit me.

Yes, please! I am here for all the witchy books and this one is setting up for such a great series! I cannot wait to read more and I really like Lana's writing.

Fun and Sexy

Emmy Harlow is a witch but not a very powerful one—in part because she hasn't been home to the magical town of Thistle Grove in years. Her self-imposed exile has a lot to do with a complicated family history and a desire to forge her own way in the world, and only the very tiniest bit to do with Gareth Blackmoore, heir to the most powerful magical family in town and casual breaker of hearts and destroyer of dreams.

But when a spellcasting tournament that her family serves as arbiters for approaches, it turns out the pull of tradition (or the truly impressive parental guilt trip that comes with it) is strong enough to bring Emmy back. She's determined to do her familial duty; spend some quality time with her best friend, Linden Thorn; and get back to her real life in Chicago.

On her first night home, Emmy runs into Talia Avramov—an all-around badass adept in the darker magical arts—who is fresh off a bad breakup . . . with Gareth Blackmoore. Talia had let herself be charmed, only to discover that Gareth was also seeing Linden—unbeknownst to either of them. And now she and Linden want revenge. Only one question stands: Is Emmy in?

But most concerning of all: Why can't she stop thinking about the terrifyingly competent, devastatingly gorgeous, wickedly charming Talia Avramov?

Lana Harper has shown remarkable skill in taking the standard witch trope and creating a sexy, spellbinding version. It reads like a cross between Halloween Town and Hocus Pocus combined with dynamic female characters that have no need for a man to create a romance. It is a story that is fresh, fun with characters that grow and change and characters that while not perfect still resolve the situation. 

Both Emmy and Talia are engaging characters, with sizzling chemistry at least on the page. The secondary characters are just as endearing even the ones that aren’t magical. The other part that makes them so endearing is that the characters’ differ in abilities and strengths but also complement each other well, even while plotting their revenge. And I love that they work out a plan to take their adversary down, not just because he scorned them but because the family is dominating the town and taking over. I also like the descriptions of the magical abilities. They are still recognizable as witches but the magic is kicked up a notch to make it otherworldly. 

If you like stories with magic and sexy women, this book should be checked out for sure. The characters are fun, engaging, sexy, and the magic reminds me of a cross between Harry Potter and Hocus Pocus. I enjoyed the story immensely and I think readers will too. 

Rating: 5 out of 5 broomsticks

Lana's writing was excellent. I love this take on John Tucker must die where two girls fall in love. Yes to lite paranormal small town romance.

Hello, this is the small town queer witch story i've always needed! Its a sizzling rom-com meets wizard games, and i couldnt help but fall in love with the story and the characters.

I absolutely loved this. I wish I would have read this in the fall because it had the perfect fall vibes. A magical town, with bad ass witches, plus a love subplot, and themes of connecting back to those you love. Also, the three witches taking revenge on a man? Here for it. This was such a great read!

This was a fun, sapphic take on Sabrina the Teenage Witch mixed with John Tucker Must Die. I enjoyed the competitive banter between the characters and thought the concept was super fun! I didn't super connect with the characters, which definitely left me wanting more out of their relationships, but overall, it was a fun halloween-time read.