I haven't read the other books in the Fix-it Witches series, but I loved Strange Love very much and was excited to receive this ARC by Ann Aguirre. Unfortunately the book didn't work for me, I'm very sorry to say. It's possible it was my mood, but I found the story and the prose a bit flat. I also wanted more magic and didn't love the greater things it was saying about paranormal people and othering. Also, I read a lot of romance and queer romance and I just wasn't feeling Iris & Eli's chemistry on the page. Maybe you need to read the first 3 Fix-it Witches books to really get it?

However, I did really enjoy the found family aspect of what Iris does with the house. The narrator has a tone of voice similar to Julia Whelan (my favorite) and she did a good job with the different voices. And I really like the cover art!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape for the audioARC!

Thank you NetGalley for letting me listen to this ARC of The Only Purple House in Town by Ann Aguirre! This book follows Iris, who comes from a family of vampires but doesn’t particularly fit in. But luck seems to turn around for Iris when she inherits her great-aunt's violet-colored Victorian house, which she decides to turn into a B&B for people and more alike who need a helping hand. Eli is an app creator who’s been waiting for Iris since elementary school, when they first met. But when Eli doesn’t disclose the truth to Iris on why he’s in town and staying at Iris’s B&B, things may go a little haywire.
The found family vibes were so strong in this one! The unique and diverse cast of characters made this book feel so warm and cozy. Every character felt singular and fleshed-out. I really liked the subplot of Iris finding out she wasn’t actually a vampire and was fae, and I wish we had gotten more time with Iris grappling with this world shattering realization. While I enjoyed it at times, the plot was also slow until ⅔ of the way through the book, and then the ending felt very rushed. I just feel that the book didn’t have a satisfying conclusion.
I really wished I liked this book more. The way Eli was written as a character really irked me, especially when he almost openly admits to stalking Iris since she helped him in elementary school. While I think it was meant to be endearing, the fact that he still kept her bracelet from that first encounter just gave me the heebie-jeebies. I think it was perfectly understandable that Iris was upset when she found out that Eli had deceived her, but it felt a little unrealistic that she would take him back after such a shocking reveal.
If you like cozy fantasy, this book is definitely for you!

I don't know what I was expecting from this book, but this was almost tooooo hokey. As someone who absolutely ADORED The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, I was hoping for something that kind of felt the same as that. Instead... everything felt way too cheesy and out of place.

There were. too many moments that felt like a character turning to face the camera to tell us "homophobia/transphobia is BAD" or "you don't need to love your biological family if they don't love you back". Like yes, these are all true statements but we should just be able to pick up on that from the storytelling rather than have several scenes dedicated to talking about that and detracting from the main romantic storyline.

I also didn't particularly enjoy any of the main cast of characters, which is sad because I could tell that Aguirre was really trying to give them fun personalities. But they just didn't click.

This book gets a 3 from me because even though I didn't like it much, it still was fine. Nothing wrong with it!

This was cute, heartwarming, and what I like in magical realism. A little bit of all magic - fae, changlings, witches, etc.

The Only Purple House in Town by Ann Aguirre is a great fantasy book which is centered around Iris Collins. She always felt like misfit even when she was surrounded by her family. She was broken and struggling to make ends meet until she inherits an old Victorian model house from her aunt.

Iris decides to turn the house into a B&B and opens for roommates and this decision turns out to be a life-changing decision. It was joyful to listen to this audiobook and learn from Iris shortcomings and follow her journey filled with love, affection and about found family.

I will definitely recommend it to others who are looking for cozy, friendship-based with fantasy romance.

The Only Purple House in Town by Ann Aquire
Paranormal romance. Fix-it Witches series #4. Can be read as a stand-alone.
Iris Collins doesn't feel like she fits in with her family and her current roommate situation is no better. The news that she has inherited a house from a distinct relative is the perfect time to start over and get her own jewelry making shop started. Iris moves into the huge purple house with gingerbread trim and starts looking for roommates.
Eli Reese believes moving into Iris's house is the perfect opportunity to thank her changing his life all those years ago. If he can help her now, he will think of it as fate. Spending time with her has his feeling deepening and he realizes he needs to come clean about their history, his job and the fact that he's a hawk shifter.
© I read an ecopy of this book and followed up with an audiobook. The narrator is Carly Robins and the performance is wonderfully done with distinct voices for Iris, Eli, Sally, Henry Dale, and others. The narration makes clear the careful steps Eli takes with Iris, the gruffness of Henry Dale and Sally's exuberance. Emotions are clear and timing is well done.
This narrator has an extensive catalog and it's clear with this book that experience lends to an audiobook preference over reading. listened to this at 1.5 which is my preferred timing.
"When Iris smiled, stars might as well be twinkling in her gray eyes. He lost his breath a bit."
Eli is a bit timid with Iris but so adorable in his wanting to help make her life better. When the home group teams up, it's clear they are now a family.
The paranormal twist for Iris is a bonus which brings joy and satisfaction.
3.5

This is the 4th book in the Fix-It Witches series by Ann Aguirre! That being said you can read this as a standalone. I have not read the other 3 in the series and I had no trouble reading this.

The Only Purple House in Town follows Iris Collins who out of nowhere gets a call that she has inherited house from her great aunt. She moves in and quickly finds out she needs a way to make money to pay for some renovations and remodeling in the house, so Iris decides to rent out the rooms. One of her new roommates is Eli, a very successful app designer. Eli knows Iris, Iris was Eli’s first crush! So with Eli and the help of the new roommates, Iris is able to keep the house and unexpectedly find a new family as well.

This was such an awesome story of the found family trope! Iris doesn’t have the best relationship with hers and you see that throughout the story with the few interactions she has with them.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to listen to an early recording of the audiobook! All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

I was so excited for this book. However, I ended up struggling to get through it.

It started good enough but then it has all these species of characters and they aren’t very well explained just casually thrown in. The FMC just randomly chooses people to live in a house with her without any background checks or knowledge of their background, just complete strangers. Also how can she even afford the house when she’s got all these people bartering instead of actually paying.

Then the MMC is a stalker! Flat out stalker and she just welcomed him into her home.

Then bam she suddenly finds out she’s not who or what she thought she was.

I really wanted to like this book but it felt very rushed and some of the situations didn’t make any sense!

2/5 stars for me.

I loved the narrator. Each character was easy to distinguish. The story fell apart for me. I felt like there was too much going on. I loved the concept though and pushed through.

This is a cozy, sweet novel about found-family and supporting one another in their dreams. This would be a great book for fans of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches!

I enjoyed it but did wish there was more depth into some of the storylines. There were also a lot of characters, which were hard to keep track of, and I wanted to know more about many of them. I hope the author continues the series! (there are some callbacks to earlier books in the Fix-it Witches series, so that's fun if you've read those books. But it's not needed to be able to make sense of the story as this one isn't so focused on witches and more on a range of magical beings (such as shapeshifters, etc.)

The book is very diverse, and the author incorporates many gender and sexual identities in a respectful and meaningful way, which I appreciated.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC of the audiobook! The narrator did a great job, and it was a fun listen!

another book down yayyyyy! honestly this book is soooooo speak now codes, especially long live but also last kiss and back to december with maybe some parallels to dear john, you get me. now i must say, i didn’t really care for the romance BUT the found family was amazing and i loved the character’s dynamics. not gonna lie, eli was a little creepy with the whole stalking/lying bit and their chemistry was fine but nothing outstanding either. also want to point out that the whole paranormal aspect was just forgotten? you’d be reminded at times that eli could shift and that witches existed but i was expecting more magic. it was also pretty interesting how the author basically wrote magic folks like the queer community, especially in how they are perceived by some people and this is further shown with the almost all queer cast of characters (so wholesome to see older queer people) and we even have a Karen (she’s technically a susan but you know, same thing). this is the perfect book to cuddle under a blanket with on a rainy day with a hot drink. 4⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, Sourcebooks, and Ann Aguirre for letting me receive the audio arc of The Only Purple House in Town!

This book was so charming and cozy! I was hooked on this book just by the cover. Each character was unique in their own way and relatable. There is also LGBTQ+ representation which I loved.

Iris and Eli are such a cute couple. Their relationship I say is a slow burn which I don't mind and even though there wasn't any spice it was an enjoyable read. I think Iris was my favorite character just from her development and personality.

The narration was great! It was one narrator and she made every character distinguishable. I wish it could have been a duel narration just because it switches povs between Iris and Eli.

Overall I would recommend this cozy fantasy. One of my favorite tropes found family was a big part of the plot and really made the story more wholesome. I will be buying a physical copy ASAP!

This is a cosy story about found family between various different types of supernatural beings and humans who end up living together. Iris is a vampire (albeit not the blood sucking kind) whose life seems to be stuck in a permanent state of disaster, her family thinks of her as a screw up, she has no real friends and the people she lives with are fed up with her owing them money due to her failings in the employment market as well! Things start to turn around when a distant family members leaves her house to Iris after passing away-and Iris decides to take on roommates to help with paying bills and fixing up the old house. Cheesy in places but like a warm hug in a book.

Hey there! I just finished reading 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑶𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝑷𝒖𝒓𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝑯𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑻𝒐𝒘𝒏 by 𝐀𝐧𝐧 𝐀𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐫𝐞, and I have to share this positive and heartwarming read with you. It's a story about a rundown purple house, the lonely young woman who inherited it, and the lovely found family that seem to gravitate toward her. The world-building in this one was fun, unique, and interesting, and the quirky characters were totally lovable. Despite the strife and struggles in the story, I still couldn't help but feel warm and fuzzy inside while reading it. It was such an uplifting story. Iris and Eli were just the cutest couple ever. They went from being strangers to roommates to good friends. Their slow-burn attraction was perfect, and I couldn't wait for them to finally find their way to each other. I enjoyed the determination of the characters, especially Iris. She was an inspiring FMC. She never gave up on herself, even when things got tough.⁠
What's more, the LGBTQIA+ representation is refreshing and beautifully done, with no unnecessary drama or debates. The characters were happy just living their lives, coexisting, and helping each other, which was lovely. This book was a phenomenal read/listen. The audiobook narrator, Carly Robins, does a fantastic job bringing the story to life. I wholeheartedly recommend this book if you're in the mood for something uplifting and heartwarming. It's a sweet found family romance with a touch of magic that you won't want to miss!⁠
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A special thanks to NetGalley, and Dreamscape Media, for an ALC of this excellent book.

If you like cozy, witchy, magical books, this one's for you. It reminded me a bit of The Secret Society of Irregular Witches, which I absolutely loved!

Iris, the odd one out of her family inherits a house from her great aunt and after her plans to turn it into a B&B fail, she ends up renting the rooms out instead. Eli is plenty successful in his career but struggles to find a community of people who truly understand him. That is until he gets sucked into Iris’ world and ends up renting a room in the only purple house in town.

What I loved most about the book is that every character had their own plot and development, which made the book really fast-paced and interesting. While the romance is not the main focus of the book, I did enjoy reading about Iris and Eli’s friendship blossoming into more.

The narrator did a wonderful job with this book, making it clear whose perspective the scene was told from, and clearly differentiating the characters. I was captivated by her narration and listened to the book for hours at a time.

“Careful you don’t encourage me too much, you’ll never get rid of me.”
“I should be so lucky.”

I saw a few reviews complaining how Eli was too much of a stalker, and let me just say I respectfully disagree. We’ve all done some social media stalking in our time, let’s not pretend otherwise. Besides, I’ve read Haunting Adeline, so nothing phases me anymore. Eli is a cinnamon roll softie and I love him. Sure, he should have been honest from the beginning about who he really was and how he knew Iris, but it made for an interesting plot and confrontation.

Some of my favorite things:

Found family with a lovable cast of misfits
Boy OBSESSED
Encouraging MMC
Third-person dual POV

Thank you, NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This is a cozy fantasy, romcom. It is a very character and relationship driven story (less on plot and action). I loved all of the side characters; they had really well built out personalities. I loved that all of these quirky characters came together and meet each others needs. This was a really nicely done, low-stakes, found family story.

The audiobook narrater was fantastic. The different voices were done well. It is duel POV and I thought it was easy to pick up on the switch in narrators voice (which is hard in some audiobooks).

This is a great book to fix a hangover after an intense series! I used this to get over Fourth Wing!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing an eARC of this book!

This book has many problems but the main and first problem is the synopsis of this book. From the synopsis I felt that this is friends to lovers and romance it was anything than that. I saw the author’s page on Instagram which mentions that this is “childhood friends to lovers “ but the fact that they didn’t even know each other, the FMC didn’t even know that he existed until he told her that they met in childhood.
Second, the MMC’s character - he was literally a stalker and it’s disturbing how author tried to mix it with his “shy” personality. The relationship development was not really well written. Also he just tried to fix everything thinking oh he is her boyfriend now so he can do whatever he wants without telling her the truth. He eavesdropped, hid the truth and somewhat creepy.
Third, the title which mentions “the purple house” which clearly evokes the thought in readers mind who is gonna read that there would be something special but guess what there was nothing special in that house!
Fourth, the characters and the plot - I loved that characters but they keep coming in plot with no importance they were literally just room mates and this happens till like 80% of the book. They are renovating the house in which different characters helped THAT’S ALL and they get discounts and they cook and then eat. It was only after 80% that something really did happen.
I only survived this whole book because it was an audiobook and the narration was good.

The coziest romcom. I feel like every book that is cozy fantasy is sold as Gilmore Girls meets Practical Magic but this one really is I promise. For a fourth in a series, it was so simple to jump into. The world is wonderful.
The narrator was perfect for the story.

I don't really think this is the book for me. I thought it would be a comfort fantasy read, which it was, but it was incredibly slow. I finally decided to put it down at 35% because it lost me and not much had happened.
I'd probably try again when in a different headspace.

This was such a sweet and inclusive story about the power of found family. The relationship between Iris and Eli was a bit flat, but I loved all of the different and diverse characters that became Iris’s roommates. There was good banter and it was an interesting magical story. I didn’t realize this was the 4th book in the series but I feel it worked as a stand alone. Thank you Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for my complimentary audiobook!