The Witch Hitch by Elizabeth Bass is book two of the Cupcake Coven series. I very much enjoyed this book. The characters really made the story, and the author had me rooting for them throughout. I didn't read the first book in the series but now I want to go back and read it as this book was fun and can definitely be a standalone but I hope to know the characters better.

I think this had the potential to be a really good book but I felt:
1. The character development wasn't there
2. There was not enough about the magical element and how it works
3. The romance just didn't make sense
4. The ending felt rushed
5. There is a bit of cheating which I did not like

I did read the whole book but I found myself skim reading as the execution of the storyline could ave been better. Because the concept is great and it has the potential to be a cosy halloween read but I think this book was just not for me.

This is book two of the Cupcake Coven, and it was wonderful getting back to Zenobia. The Witch Hitch follows Bailey, a new cousin. She's preparing for her wedding, and the jitters are intense. Her life sort of goes haywire when her witchy powers show up just as her birth mother enters her life. Now she's dealing with the wedding, her new witch family, and a lot of magical chaos. Her life has certainly taken a strange turn.

This series is so much fun, and this one was so quirky and cute! I can't wait to find out what happens next for the Cupcake Coven.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I enjoyed this series as a whole and am glad I read it.
I really loved the characters and thought it was going to be hard getting into the new characters in this book, but was pleasantly surprised to find I loved them too!
I found the story line to fall a little flat, but overall I did enjoy the book. I was glad to see the cupcakes back again, but do wish they would of caused a bit more trouble. I also wish we would of had more drama and spells in this one, like the first book.
I feel like this is a perfect read for spooky season and was a great book to grab to welcome the fall season.
Thank you Net Galley for my free copy, I am leaving this review of my own free will.

⭐️ 4/5 | 🌶️ 2/5

This sugary-sweet quick read from Elizabeth Bass was just the right amount of "Kate & Leopold" meets the first half hour of "Harry Potter." It's not outright said, but it was giving major "Yer a wizard, Harry" vibes, and I was here for it.

Esme's challenging relationship with the family she's about to join, combined with the clear attraction to the newest addition to her life, makes for an interesting love triangle. And while the collateral damage is still pretty substantial, I was happy with the way things wrapped up with this rom-com.

A cozy witchy book, but I wanted more magical cupcakes.

This book really focuses on Bailey finding her witch heritage. I felt like this book was a mash-up of a bunch of things from the wedding drama to a time travel romance with Seton. I felt like I didn't get enough of any of the plot lines, but maybe just wanted more romance.

This is a light and cozy book, but was a bit all over the place. I am hoping the next book is more like the first.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this ARC for my honest review.

Imagine cotton candy… transformed into a book (with great cover art!)

Cotton candy is a pretty, colorful, cloud that dissolves immediately when you taste it. That first pinchful tastes sweet. The problem is that it only gets sweeter with each successive bite, and your fingers get stickier and stickier. And then you remember you spent $8 on a bag of artificially colored white sugar, and your teeth start to hurt.

This rom-com is essentially that. It’s whimsical and airy from start to finish. There is absolutely nothing of substance to the story, but if you’re in the mood for a read that's fluffy, sweet, and innocuous, this might just hit the spot.

The overall story idea is good. The problem is that the idea never really coalesced. There were too many characters, and the reader doesn’t get to know anything interesting about any of them. By 50% I had written off all the protagonists (Bailey, Wes, and Seton) as being the worst part of the novel. By the end I was rooting for the antagonists (Paige, Madeleine, Olivia, Joan, and Tannith) for the sole reason that they seemed to have actual human personalities.

Our FMC Bailey is not sympathetic. She doesn’t know her own mind or have a sense of self in pretty much any area of her life. She is ready to wed her fiancée, Wes, when she meets Seton, an innocent, married guy from 1920 that was snatched from death and transported through time without his consent. She also finds out that her biological parents are witches. There were some reasons why her parents gave her up for adoption, but I don't remember what they were because they were convoluted and silly.

I felt so sorry for Wes, who seemed to be devoted to the emotionally immature Bailey for reasons we were never made to understand. He was written to be a really nice, stable, guy, and came off as being Bailey's superior, emotionally and intellectually. The poor man didn’t do anything to deserve the way he was treated by Bailey throughout the book. She begins cheating on and lying to Wes the day she meets Seton.

Bailey’s “true love” story is made even more icky because there are no reasons for her to fall in love with Seton other than his looks, and that he’s completely non-threatening. He's a one dimensional beta male, has a pitiful backstory, and in the present day comes off as insecure and awkward as he obviously doesn't have a clue about life in the 21st century. Seton winds up being the “other man” who essentially upends/ruins the lives of many of the other characters in the book simply by existing. We don’t know why Seton falls in love with Bailey either, unless he realizes that without her he'd be homeless and completely destitute. There's also the not insignificant fact that Seton is already a married man. But we're not supposed to care because he's not in 1920 anymore.

There were also a few different subplots that distracted and took time away from the attention that should have been paid to crafting the two primary story arcs of Bailey’s self-discovery and her romance with Seton. (e.g. Paige’s schemes to climb the corporate ladder; Bailey’s mom's dating woes; Joan’s obsession with the Schadenfreude House; Seton's near-murder; Esme’s witch problems and attempts to find Odin.) Because of this, the novel ended anti-climactically, and all the storylines either collapsed completely on themselves or were left unresolved.

There are no TW/CW other than the cheating aspects of the Wes-Bailey-Seton love triangle.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the opportunity to read and review this novel. All opinions are my own.

This is a delightful paranormal read. Bailey is about to get married into one of Zenobia’s prominent families, but as the wedding approaches something feels off, like suddenly she can have a conversation with her parrot, Django.
She finally meets her birth mother and discovers that she’s a witch. Bailey wonders if she has powers too. Unfortunately, her mother saved a man’s life just before he hit the ground after falling from a window. In 1929. Seton appears dressed and acting like he’s still back in 1929.

When Bailey meets him, she feels sparks like she never has before, even with her fiancé. Being a witch is not going to go over well with her new family.

This is kind of a cozy paranormal, I really enjoyed it. 4 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed as in this review are completely my own.

I love the world Elizabeth Bass has put together in Rochester! Being a fellow upstate New Yorker, I absolutely love the little easter eggs of life in upstate. Like a casual mention of Syracuse University (neighbor to my alma mater). Add in the fact that it's about a disgraced witch family and the shenanigans they all get up to? I'm in heaven. I love this series so much. I devoured A Letter to Three Witches and was beyond excited to get approval for The Witch Hitch. I think the continuation of the series was very cleverly done. Its not exactly that the books are standalones (although I think you could pick up The Witch Hitch and still like it even if you haven't read the first one), but rather a continuation of the world built into a new cast of characters with the other characters popping in. This series certainly did not suffer the second book slump. I flew through Th Witch Hitch just as fast as A Letter to Three Witches. There are witchy hijinks and random curses, cute familiars (yes Griz is back!), and all of the laugh out loud moments, The book starts out with the main character, Bailey, finding out who her adoptive mom is. Yup you guess it, Esme and Odin are her parents. It follows Bailey in the run up to her wedding while juggling this new witch family member, dodging Tannith and her evil witchiness, and figuring out how to help Seton. Esme and Odin accidentally brought him back to the 21st century from the 1920's in their quest to clear the families name with the Council. Will she make it down the isle to her dream man? Will she form a bond with the witch family? And for the love of all that is holy, what will Tannith do? You'll have to read and find out!!!

I'm so happy to be back in Zenobia with the Cupcake Coven!
In this installment we follow Bailey who is suffering from some pretty intense pre-wedding jitters
Things take a turn for the strange and unusual when she acquires the sudden ability to talk to her pet parrot! With a bit of sleuthing she discovers that her birth mother is a witch - making her a witch as well!
Now instead of focusing on her wedding she is grappling with her new reality and dealing with all of the magical chaos that comes with her new found family!
This series is such a hoot and I can't wait to see what the Elizabeth Bass will come up with next!
Thank you to Kensington Books for the advanced copy!

What a sweet, fun little romance novel! I'm a bit new to the romance world but I had as much fun with this one as I'd hoped.

Bailey, our MC, has an upcoming wedding and is feeling the pressure of being a new bride. One of the biggest set backs? She can't find the dress of her dreams. As fate would have it, she encounters a strange but familiar looking woman who offers to make her the perfect dress. Little does Bailey know, this is a loaded offer that opens up many doors - witchcraft, time travel, an opportunity to meet her birth family, and that's just scraping the surface.

This book had a lot more depth than I was expecting, I was thinking it would be light and fun, which it was (!), but the character development and conflict went much deeper. I'd highly recommend this one to those who enjoy an MC in a chaotic setting, questioning their position in life, with a dash of romance and a whole bunch of magic.

Thank you Netgalley and Kensington Books for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you, NetGalley and Kensington Books for allowing me to read this arc.

The synopsis sounded like the perfect story for me, but unfortunately, it was not my cup of tea.

I really loved the magic in this story it was interesting and I really wanted to know more about it. The time travel part was cool and intriguing. The witchy family were the perfect quirky side characters that I wished were constantly present in the story. The parrot was the only thing that made me laugh and he was too cute.

The reason why I did not enjoy this book is because the story was way too chaotic. There is too much going on and nothing is developed well, Not one storyline gets the attention it deserves and nothing is explored deeply enough. Everything is just slightly touched upon and then left alone for what it is. There were too many important storylines, but all without depth.

- You have the wedding that is being planned
- The relationship between Wess and Baily (this is so undeveloped that it is almost laughable...)
- The new romance (super underdeveloped and hardly believable and it is suddenly there...)
- Baily finds out she is a witch
- She finds her birth mother and her real family
- Her adoptive mother starts online dating and this brings problems with it.
- There is a bad guy that needs to be defeated.
- A jealous ex who tries to ruin everything and keeps showing up.
- Not to mention some very controlling in-laws that are a big impact on everything

All in all, if this sounds interesting to you, Then this might be the book for you and you should definitely give it a go.

For me, however, it was too much. I prefer a simple well-developed romance. If you combine that with one or two things from the above you might have an interesting story. This could have been better if the book had at least another 100 pages to give at least some of these storylines more depth. Unforntaley it hasn't. It is too rushed and too much.

2.5 stars

First, I would like to thank the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review this ARC with honesty.

So this is a sequel to "A Letter to Three Witches" regarding three cousins dealing with magical ties. Without being spoiler-ish, this story centers on Bailey. Bailey is a very focused, very safe person that is trying to get through the last few steps before her wedding to her sophisticated fiancé who comes from a very highly regarded family of fortune.

Magic however steps into Bailey's life, turning everything upside down, including someone from ninety years ago that Bailey can't explain.

The story is an interesting take from the previous installment. I do feel like this was more about Bailey than romance (I believe others have said this as well) and that's fine, just not really much chemistry was showing (more telling) with certain individuals. Overall, I did enjoy the story. I would prefer if there was more character development with the romance but I do like Bailey's journey through breaking free of her fears.

My Rating: 3.5 (rounded up to 4)
(cross posted to my Good Reads)

Family, friends, and romance. This was a cute, easy read which I found enjoyable. It was a nice diversion from what I typically read. Thanks #NetGalley

The Witch Hitch by Elizabeth Bass
This was a quick read with some cute, funny witty parts. The writing was fluid and well paced and I found the book pretty engaging.
That being said this one flopped on me compared to the first book. When I was really getting into a part of the story I enjoyed I felt like it jumped quickly to the next.
I believe this can be read as a stand-alone as the central characters are different in this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington Books for providing the Arc in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a fun book! Bailey Tomlin is trying to get married but in the process discovers she is a witch. This brings up so many more issues to handle. Her birth mother, Esme has conjured a man from 1929, Seton. Esme is trying to figure out how to send him back to his own time but in the process, something unexpected happens. Definitely a fun, light-hearted romantic comedy!

The hilarity continues as does the witchy angst! The evil witch wasn't actually vanquished and she's back to cause more havoc on unsuspecting people and witches. A wedding hangs in the balance, a bit of time travel causes havoc and more cousin fun is on the menu. This author knows how to weave a compelling story that will have you giggling and turning pages as fast as you can devour the words. It's listed as a romance, which it is, but the comedy and drama far upstage the romance to keep you on your toes and better entertained! I absolutely can't wait for more of this series!!!

In book 2 of A Cupcake Coven Romance, Bailey is all set to be married soon. When the woman who gave her up for adoption shows up, everything is turned upside down. Her mother, a witch, has brought someone back from the past and wants a place in Bailey's life, especially as Bailey shows signs of being a witch too. Add on that there are things happening that can't be explained, Bailey's adoptive mother is starting to date and her newfound cousins want her to join their coven, Bailey just can't find time in the day to do everything.
Opinion
I went into this book not realizing it was part of a series, and actually didn't know until I went to write the review. It absolutely can be read as a stand alone. However, if the first is as exciting as this one, surely it is worth the read.
What amazed me was the number of characters that Bass was able to clearly define throughout the book. I have a tendency to highlight character names the first time they appear so that I can keep track of who is who. I honestly did a double take on the number of characters I had highlighted. I will have to say that my favorite character was Django, Bailey's pet bird. He was a hoot.
Followers of my reviews will know that I love witch books. This book offered so many ideas combined in one that I was fascinated. I loved the time travel paradox that came about during the bachlorette party. Finding out that Bailey is a witch fulfilled some childhood fantasies of mine as well. (Imagine being ten and being able to hex your siblings for their annoying ways!)
Overall, this book was a fun time to be had while reading. Many thanks to Net Galley and Kensington Books for providing me with an ARC of this book.

If you are into cozy witchy contemporary paranormal/fantasy, this book would be right up your alley.

If you're looking for a story about how a 30-something who should be dealing with getting ready for her wedding-which is three weeks away-but instead has to deal with the aftermath of meeting her birth mom and therefore finding out she's the daughter of two powerful witches, and everything that comes along with that... This is the book for you.

My biggest problem with this book is that it is categorized as romance and PNR, when in reality, the romance is a very minot subplot, that in my opinion isn't executed very well. So don't go in expecting a romance novel, or you'll be disappointed.

Let's start of the review with what I liked, though. My favorite part of both books in this series are the snarky familiars. Griz was my favorite part of book 1; Django's replies were the only times I laughed out loud while reading this book.

(Bailey) "I'm not a witch."
(Django, after having snarkily asked for some fruit added to his dinner) "Fine. You do you. I'll just mind my own business over here and eat my tasteless parrot pellets."

Apart from that, I also liked the story overall. It kept moving and it was nice to see Bailey come to terms with this new crucial information about her life. The writing is also good, which makes for a smooth read.

**SPOILERS ahead, although it does contain a CONTENT WARNING of cheating**

Unfortunately though, like I said, my biggest problem with this book is that it is categorized as romance and PNR, when in reality, the romance aspect is a very minor subplot that is sudden, rushed and based on cheating. Although if we have to believe Bailey...

"I haven't cheated on you with him, except for a couple of kisses."

Right, sorry sorry, I forgot kisses don't *count* as cheating, because what's the big deal, right? *agressive eyeroll*

I started struggling with the book the moment Bailey started to suddenly get heat flashes toward Seton and I sniffed the rushed romance subplot coming along. Add to that the cheating aspect... Well, I dragged myself through those last 40%. Took me about a week to read those pages. Am I glad I did? Kind of, but only because reading Tannith's dramatic "HELLO? I've been a poltergeist for the past six months." made me chuckle. Other than that, there wasn't really anything special about it.

It's not a bad book, if you overlook the cheating aspect of it, but it's misleading to categorize it as PNR when the romance subplot gets barely any attention which therefore gives it a rushed and instalove feel to it.

**I received an ARC from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own**

Bailey (or Izzy) is adopted and she is also a witch, but she doesn't know that yet. It all starts with her wedding to the heir to the Haverman dynasty. However, with two weeks to go she still hasn't found her dress. So, in desperation she turns to a lady she met in the bridal boutique who promises Bailey the dress of her dreams. Strange, this lady, Esme, looks a lot like Bailey and lives in Zenobia. When Seton Atterbury jumps in her car when Bailey is pulling away from Esme's house and tells her that Esme and her niece Gwen are witches, Bailey must decide what is important in this life. The story gets even more crazy with biological fathers who are time traveling witches, witches who are out to destroy the whole family, and a group of biological relatives who will drop everything to help Bailey.

This was a story full of twists and turns, but I felt like I could never really get into any of the sub-plot. Truthfully, I felt sorry for both Bailey's fiancé and Seton whose stories were never really completed. It was a fun read but just not my thing. I did love the found family aspect and Bailey finding her biological family. It gave me hope that Bailey would no longer be alone and that the backstory of her adopted mother wouldn't break her.

Big thanks to NetGalley, Kensington Books and Elizabeth Bass for this early release copy.