Not my favorite. The cover is gorgeous, the title is catchy, but I just couldn't get into it. The characters just didn't sell it to me. It was just too much of everything, and it fell totally flat.

Witcha Gonna Do? possesses an extremely light, fluffy tone with a supremely modern voice. Some of the plot bores and some of the worldbuilding is weak, For some folks this book will be like having to listen to someone complain about their Starbucks order while driving them to a Pilates class. But for others, its playful voice will definitely entertain.

Baker Matilda – Tilda - Sherwood is the youngest member of a famous magical dynasty which goes back generations. Unfortunately, she has not been blessed with magical skills like the rest of her family, and people in her magical community of Wrightsvillle, Virginia, think she’s an abomination.

Even worse, she has absolutely no luck, which is why she keeps getting set up on dates with Gil Connolly, a warlock with a secret – he’s on a mission from the Council and is in fact studying Matilda to figure out how someone with her lineage could possibly be unmagical. But he soon realizes she’s a spellbinder – someone who can change or redirect any spell cast by a magical person back on to them. This factoid soon rears its ugly head when her sister, Leona, casts a spell to try to help Tilda’s luck turn around and Tilda accidentally binds it and turns her whole family into bad luck charms.

Only someone as magically strong as Gil can undo this curse, but he and Tilda are less than convivial partners who hate each other but want to kiss each other. Can they find love - and will Tilda find her place in the world?

Definitely, but not everyone will enjoy the journey there. Witcha Gonna Do? has a certain sparkle, but it will mainly appeal to readers who enjoy trope-heavy romances. I liked Tilda, I liked Gil well enough, the romance between them works all right and there are some downright charming moments. But the worldbuilding is muddled and sometimes confusing, even though so much time and word count is sunk into explaining the social caste system and magical influences at work. The threat from the Council is underplayed, as is a family feud that pops up, providing background information for future books (Tilda is furnished with many sequel-bait sisters.)

I keep circling back to Tilda’s voice being a problem but ooh-ee. Our Heroine says unfortunate things like “the extra sandpaper in [Gil’s] voice made my core do a happy clench.” Leave us out of your kegels, hon. It’s things like that that keep Witcha Gonna Do strictly at a low-level B for me.

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This book was the perfect cozy mystery with witchy vibes to pick up. The characters were well written and the plot was engaging without feeling overdone.

This was such a cute romcom! I loved the characters and the plot was unique while still having some of my fave romcom tropes. The writing was witty & the pacing was bang on. I'll definitely be reading more from this author.

Witcha Gonna Do is a forced proximity, enemies to lovers, witchy rom com told from a dual point of view. If you’re a fan of witchy rom coms like The Ex Hex and The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling, then you should definitely check out Witcha Gonna Do. The addition of heists and rebellions in Witcha Gonna Do were reminiscent of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo and Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin so, if you are a fan of either of these series, then I highly recommend checking out Witcha Gonna Do. Lastly, since Witcha Gonna Do is witchy but not “Halloweeny”, I would also recommend this book to fans of witchy reads like A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna.

First off, the punny title, witchy vibe, and the cool character illustrations featured in the cover art really helped to draw me into this book. I really liked the comedic elements that Flynn included in the story (like a spunky unicorn shifter who enjoys Lucky Charms and a witch who sneezes whenever she casts spells), and I loved how Tilda found a second family in her club of magical misfits. I enjoyed the unexpected inclusions of heists, rebellions, secrets, and danger as it added more excitement to the story and made the story more unique; although, I must say that I was disappointed that the romance almost took a backseat to these other elements. Furthermore, even though there was a fair amount of spice, I was surprised that most of the romance was confined to last third of the novel.

To be honest, I didn’t like the Epilogue, which takes place 5 years after the events in Witcha Gonna Do, as it left me feeling confused; even though a lot of things were up in the air and unresolved at the end of Tilda’s story, at the beginning of the Epilogue, Tilda starts to tell the reader how everything worked out before stating that her sisters need to fill in a lot of gaps in the story before everything makes sense.

Overall, I thought that Witcha Gonna Do was a fun witchy rom com that would be perfect for fans of magic, dangerous heists, and “enemies to lovers” romances.

Honestly, I thought it was a strong different start, and maybe it was the first-person POV, but at some points, it took me out of it. This had a cool setting and magic system but then it felt like we were introduced to so much of it, we got lost in it all.

Witcha Gonna Do? was so-so for me. I love witchy stories in the fall, but this one felt too disjointed and didn’t give enough character background or depth to keep my interest.

This was fun! It was a bit cheesy at times but overall I enjoyed it. Sometimes the fourth wall breaks were a little unnecessary and I really didn’t like the use of “pics” instead of “pictures”—it felt very informal or almost unedited to me. I’m not sure if I’ll continue the series, but I do like the idea of the other books being from the perspective of Tilda’s sisters. I wasn’t a huge fan of the big time jump in the epilogue; felt like an easy way to make everything wrap up nicely without having to explain any of the big stuff yet. I think a cliffhanger probably would’ve been a better way to go for me personally. I was also confused about the mention of Tilda’s first born child, even though she had triplets. I know they’re not all born at once, but I wouldn’t think of any triplet as a “first born” compared to the rest. That’s just a minor thing in relation to the rest. Overall I enjoyed it, and the spice wasn’t super heavy if that’s a concern in any way.

The synopsis, the premise, and that cover--it all should have worked for me. It didn't. I can't get past how childish and whimsical the writing is and then how adult and sexual some interactions are. It's jarring and so disturbing to me. It felt both info dumpy and not at all fleshed out. I honestly am so upset I didn't love it.

Unfortunately, I did not jive with this one. The writing was trying to hard to be quirky and fun and that just didn’t grab my attention.

I fell in love with Cate Tiernan’s Sweep series as a young adult librarian about twenty years ago (I might or might not but definitely do still have a three-in-one compendium of the first volumes–ICYMI, the series is concerned with a magical teen who doesn’t know her heritage who gets caught up in a love triangle with two other powerful witches). I’m surprised I have not pursued more books in this vein: charming magical realism romance like The Charmed List, which I really enjoyed for its more complete, and better-paced world-building.

Witcha Gonna Do is a classic enemies to lovers romance. Tilda is an anomoly in her gifted family, and she keeps getting matched with hot, sauve Gil, who figures out pretty quickly she isn’t non-magickal, she is in fact, an amplifier. Powergrabs (and attempts to prevent them) ensue.

The voice –and language–are youthful and may not appeal to all romance readers.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #WitchaGonnaDo from #NetGalley

The start of this book was obnoxious. I recognize that the author was trying to do something different but it didn't work well. However, as I continued reading I found myself very much enjoying it.

Tilda was such a fun character. The story was fast paced and fun. Gil was HOT!

I would have preferred a little more backstory of this world building.

All together it was pretty good. That beginning really irked me though.

Thank you Berkley and Netgalley for the advanced readers copy.

This book literally had the following sentence on the first page: “Hi. *Waves*. That’s me”. Yes, there was an honest to God action written as an online RPG and the main character introduced herself to the reader by saying hi. Like she was talking to us. Were it not an ARC I had to review, I would have closed the book and pretended I’d never started it. Unfortunately, I don’t DNF, especially when it comes to ARCs, so here we are.

I understand informal writing, I do, but some things are okay when you are writing Twitter threads with your headcanons, not when you are publishing an adult romance book. Traditionally, I might add. So this book passed multiple copy edits and several people tought it was greatly written. It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever read, as far as writing style is concerned, so I don’t understand how anyone could find this okay.

The author was trying too hard in so many ways I’ll just write this part as a bullet point list to make it easier for both me and you:
- She was trying too hard to be funny. She wasn’t, everything felt just so cringeworthy I actually wanted to scream and throw my Kindle at the wall;
- She was trying too hard to shove it in our faces how sex positive she and her main character are; it’s more than okay to be sex positive, but when you push it this much, you just make it feel like you want people to clap for you for being so progressive;
- She was trying too hard to make us care for the romance. The chemistry wasn’t there. Like, at all. I couldn’t care less for Tilda and Gil as individuals, let alone as a couple.
- She was trying too hard with the fantasy bits and failing spectacularly. The world building is not original, but I wouldn’t have cared if this was mainly a romance book. I have overlooked wobbly world buildings before, if the characters and the romance were good enough to hold everything alone. In this case, they weren’t.

Overall, the book felt extremely childish and unpolished. I don’t know if any major changes are going to be made before this hits shelves, but as I read it, it was truly awful. I am going to make another bullet point list to enumerate the horrors of this book:
- As I said, the writing style was atrocious. I don’t want to read anything written like this ever again. Please put a warning somewhere on books written this badly.
- The magic system and world building were basic and the two organisation Gil worked for were mentioned but never explained and at some point they just started to feel useless. It was like someone told the author she had to include some kind of uber villain and whatever to give this book a fantasy plot, when it would have been more than enough if it were a “basic” romance with a fantasy background.
- The characters had zero personality. The author clearly missed the first class of Writing 101 when they tought the “Show, don’t tell rule”. She probably missed all the following classes, because my God was this book bad on every account.
- The fantasy plot, as I said, was ridiculous and I don’t understand why she had to add it. The romance plot was equally ridiculous and the relationship was built on literally nothing at all. Which is maybe why they added the fantasy plot, now that I think about it. It is what it is, nothing about this plot was good.

I would prefer to stab myself than ever reading book two in the series and I don’t recommend this book at all. If you are looking for a cute witchy romance (why does this come out in December is another mystery), continue looking, this isn’t it.

There was too much description and honestly the plot doesn't sound interesting as it was described.
The story seemed too lame and the female lead was too stupid in my opinion.

While this book had some funny and cute moments there was too much inner dialogue especially at the beginning. And I’m not a fan of books where the main character is talking to the audience. I like the witchy aspect of it though but it’s just not for me.

All I want to read in September and October are books with magic in them. Give me all the witches, secret societies, and magical stories and I’m a happy girl. I love throwing in some lighter witchy reads though, especially a good witchy romance. Last year I loved The Ex Hex and Darynda Jones’ Betwixt and Between series. I was already let down by the sequel to The Ex Hex , The Kiss Curse, this year so I was really excited to get to Witcha Gonna Do?. I mean there is romance, a heist, and magic, what more could I want!

The answer is alot. There was so much I needed more of from this book and quite a bit I needed less of. For starters is this Witchingdom set in a Modern US? It sounds like it does, I mean there is a Superbowl, but at the same time it doesn’t. Where are all the ‘normal’ people? I have so many questions on the world itself. What exactly is this place that people can be banished to? More of a flushed-out world would have been nice. The magic system was not very well established either. We were basically just thrown into it without much information, I’m still not sure what Tilda’s actual talent is besides being ‘all powerful’. The physical descriptions felt inconsistent, the romance scenes were ‘meh’, I couldn’t keep The Committee/The Council straight, and the heist aspect felt rushed.

Finally, I really didn’t like the way this was written. Our main characters Tilda and Gil literally tell us allll of their thoughts. They had so many rambles that I honestly would lose track of the actual story. More dialogue and less telling would have at least taken this up a star. I don’t mind the occasional breaking of the fourth wall, but it did not work here.

I really wanted to enjoy this book and the idea behind it is good. But I just cannot recommend this one. I couldn’t get a good handle on this chaotic story and while I know this was a setup for a series, I was left with way more questions than answers. I won’t be picking up the second book and hope this one gets cleaned up a bit more before pub day.


Witcha Gonna Do? comes out December 6, 2022! Huge thank you to Berkley for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof.books.

This was a fun read to start off October (aka: perfect fall fluffy read) (although not actually being published until December which is bummer timing).

Let's start with what I liked: The cover, obviously. It's amazing. The vibe. Magic, family, rom-com-i-ness.

There isn't much depth here - it's a lighthearted contemporary witchy rom-com. Not quite enemies-to-lovers (but tries to be?). There isn't much world building. Basically our world + some magicky stuff. But you know what? I was alright with that. I just want to sit and not think too hard sometimes and get lost in a book.

Look, I'm not going to lie to you, the writing style wasn't my favorite. It's a weird blend of first person POV (dual POV between the MMC and FMC) but also breaks the fourth wall sometimes, which is weird and no thank you. The dialogue didn't always flow and the steamy scenes were not for me (but also, I already don't really remember them). There was a lot going on - secret government entities, powerful families and their... powers, unknown magical abilities, side characters who I think were meant to be kinda inclusive but were sort of forgettable. This could have been written more tightly. THAT SAID, it was a fun read and I'm not disappointed I read it. I may or may not continue following the series as it sets it up for another book after this one.

I'd say 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the eARC - all opinions are my own.

I really love Avery Flynn but somehow I always end up missing her books when they show up on NetGalley. This was a fun departure from her usual contemporary romances because all the characters are witches. There was some good enemies to lovers stuff happening here, and I liked that it got unexpectedly tied into a semi-mystery plotline and a heist plotline as well. Tilda Sherwood is an outre, a non-powered witch from one of the most powerful witch families in Witchingdom. She also keeps getting set up on dates by her godmother/local matchmaker with Gil Connolly, her nemesis, who has been assigned by the shadowy and secretive "Council" to figure out how to exploit Tilda as the weak link and bring the family down. He's a double agent, just trying to get his parents out of exile in The Beyond, where they were sent because their powerful magic amplifies feelings of love and lust and is considered dangerous. I thought this was cute and fun and also good setup for a series about the Sherwood sisters, which is very much what I hope it will be starting!

2.5 stars

I was so darn excited to read this book. I mean, look at that COVER. It is just stunning. Beautiful. Gorgeous. And the synopsis sounded divine.

I will admit, I was turned off from the first page. There's breaking the fourth wall, and then smashing it with a sledgehammer. It did the latter, and it just didn't work for me. The other main issue I had was with the writing. I just didn't like it. I found the dialogue stilted at the best of times and just...juvenile. I wanted so much to like it, but if those two things hadn't turned me off, the rest of the romance and plot line did.

I did not buy the romance in this book. And I also didn't love the plotline. I found it was all over the place, and I just wasn't getting invested with the book. It was definitely a steamy book, and I think it could have been a quirky book, but it just sadly didn't work for me in the end.

“I want you. I can’t stop wanting you. And now it’s reached a point where the magic is taking over and I don’t even care because you are everything I want.”

Tilda and Gil. A non-magical witch teaming up with her nemesis to stop a family curse. Not only are they fighting against evil forces, but also the attraction building between them.

I’m so torn! I wanted to enjoy this book but it confused the heck outta me. There was SO MUCH happening: blind dates, secret agents, a curse, saving parents from being exiled. The writing style was so hard for me to focus on and understand. And there were lots of unnecessary informations that felt unimportant to the story. I also felt like the chemistry between Tilda and Gil was forced/rushed.

✨READ IF YOU LIKE✨:
- dual POV
- enemies to lovers
- tarot cards
- a witch with no powers
- slooow burn
- family matchmaker
- secret agents
- witches & shifters & curses
- mystical adventures
- fourth wall breaks
- muffins & elderberry tea

cw: cyberbullying, lying, blackmail

Thank you to @netgalley and @berkleyromance for the advanced copy! Witcha Gonna Do? is available on December 6, 2022!