A clever and enticing read! This book had me laughing out loud. Thankful for this introduction to Noelle Rider.

"Witching and Scheming" by Noelle Rider is an enjoyable, if unremarkable, read that earns 3 stars. The novel follows a plus-sized witch, Penelope (or Penn), navigating a magical world, and while the premise had potential, it didn't fully deliver for me.

I found Penn likable enough, but the constant focus on her weight felt excessive and reductive, turning it into a personality trait rather than a facet of her identity. This overshadowed her development and made the story feel repetitive. Similarly, the political commentary woven throughout came across as heavy-handed, reflecting the author's views more than the character's, which pulled me out of the narrative.

The plot had moments of intrigue, but the buildup to key events fell flat, leaving me unsatisfied. Nothing stood out as particularly memorable, and the story didn't leave a lasting impression. That said, the writing was decent, and the magical elements were fun, even if they didn't break new ground.

Overall, "Witching and Scheming" isn't a bad novel, it just wasn't for me. Readers who enjoy light fantasy with social commentary might find more love here than I did.

Witching and Scheming introduces readers to Penelope Ophelia Odenberry, a sharp-witted witch returning to her quirky hometown of Huckleberry Hollow, Idaho. The narrative is infused with humor, magic, and a touch of romance, as Penny navigates complex relationships and town politics.

The story delves into themes of body positivity, autonomy, and challenging patriarchal structures, all while maintaining a light-hearted tone. Penny's dynamic with her best friend, Artemis Nita-Nusi—a half-bear, half-demon shifter—is both endearing and entertaining, especially as they engage in a faux romance to outwit the town's council.

While the novel offers a delightful blend of comedy and fantasy,I have noted areas where character development and plot depth could be enhanced. Nevertheless, the book's charm lies in its eccentric characters and the whimsical world-building that sets the stage for future adventures in the series.

Witchy RomCom, sign me up! I love just about every book with a little bit of magic. This one was no exception. With a whole town of witches and werewolves, what's not to love!

This was a cute well written story with a just hint of spice. This book is really funny, and I genuinely mean that. it's bit awkward at times and I found myself getting embarrassed.

I thought this book actually a somewhat unique storyline with loveable characters and shockingly avoided a 3rd act miscommunication trope like most of these romcoms have which I appreciated.

Overall I recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley for the copy of this book!

I tried, but the style and worldbuilding didn't cut it for me. Overall, I was also a bit confused. Considering the content, it's hard to know what the target audience should be.

I’m afraid this is a DNF for me. I enjoyed the prologue but once I got in to the book I didn’t enjoy the writing style or the story so unfortunately I didn’t finish this one!

Copy prived by netgally

Sadly I was unable to finish this book, as I found it difficult to get into. A lot of the conversations felt very repetitive and like exposition, but again information to each other that they'd already know. We get told multiple times that Penny is cursed over and over but never anything different about that just she was born and someone said she was cursed and that's it; and this is told to us over and over again like the author is afraid we didn't read it or forgot in the last two paragraphs.The prologue also felt completely unnecessary the scene of her deciding to leave and hex her friend I feel it wouldve been better pacing if we just started at chapter one and that information was told to us while we were reading so it didn't feel like it was tacked on to the start.

Penny herself doesn't feel like a 33 year old woman with a degree she comes across as a honry teenage girl with a tumblr. She repeatedly makes pop culture references in her inner monologue and when talking to people and frankly I'd prefer the author make their own joke or convey the mood in their own way rather than oh this is bad because she compared ut to being like voldermort. It also felt a bit cheap to make Harry Potter references and have characters talk about it, then just have one of them slip in oh yeah fuck the author though, if the author actually felt strongly about it she wouldn't make cheap references in the first place.

Her motivations are also confusing because we can't be shown a prologue where she talks about the horrible bullying and treatment she recovered growing up only to cut to 15 years later when she's come back because her mother, who also relentlessly mocks her asked her too. It doesn't make any sense and makes Penny look like a doormat. I understand that that is probably a character flaw she needs to overcome however when this is the first in a series set in this same town why would I want to keep reading about these people who I know are horrible bullies.

I found the romance hard to get into when our first proper interaction between them is just sexual innuendo and then for no apparent reason she passes out. She's meant to be his best friend who at the start has never done anything physical or romantic with Artmeis even if he doesn't remember, but she never says anything of value about him she talks about him like he's a sad adonis sex doll which makes Penny feel the same as anyone else who only uses him for sex. It wouldve been nice if Penny liked him beyond how good looking he is and the fact he's a succubus but with how sexual heavy Penny's thoughts were makes me think the rest of the book would just be sex with little else.

This book was a DNF for me.

I love the idea of the book - but several things ruined the experience for me

1 - The formatting of the book on my kindle app was unreadable - forcing me to read the book on my PC.
2 - It is written in the First-Person Narrative - UGH!
3 - it was all over the place and hard to follow.

This book was, unfortunately, a DNF for me. I just could not get into the writing, it was chaotic and disjointed and the plot was not doing anything for me. I gave this one multiple attempts, but maybe it's for another type of reader.

This book had so much potential to be a fun, cozy romantasy but honestly I was just confused? There were so many situations where things were happening and I just couldn’t picture it or I didn’t know how it was fitting into the story (maybe that’s a me problem though lol.) The world building was also all over the place and the modern references (Trump, Taylor Swift, etc.) took me completely out of the story. On top of that, I wasn’t really invested in Penny or Artemis, both individually or as a couple. Their characters didn’t have enough depth. Overall this one just really didn’t do it for me 😞

as much as this story is up my alley with the best friends to lovers trope, fake dating, and being able to get back at the town that hurt her and underestimated her, i couldn't bring myself to go any further. the plot had its merits because i love fake dating and i love witches and werewolves and whole town of them, but the way we were introduced to everything felt like it was being thrown on me. and the friendship nor the closeness between the two characters seemed natural. and from what i got into her getting back to town, penelope's voice did not sound like she grew at all from the girl in the prologue, despite the time jump. i might give it another chance, but it felt a little forced.

i wish this was more show than tell and more shown naturally than just in your face told with the bullying and the way the town hated her. and i wish a little more research was done on the tarot cards aspect because in my small knowledge, the biggest misconception is taking the cards at face value without researching the other aspects of the card. and it seems disrespectful to tarot, whether one believes in it or not, to do so. the same with using any tarot card as a threat.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 💕

A trope I can not get past: insta love/lust. With the time jump this book took, the insta lust was, well, insta, but also so one sided. She loved and was obsessed with him so quick but he, was so mean and rude to her. Besides this, there was so much going on at times in the book I found myself re-reading many paragraphs, going back several pages, or even just re-reading sentences several times before I figure out what was going on. I love a witchy woman story, but this one was not the one for me, but could be for you.

Thank you netgalley! I really like the set up and the female main character. Would be four stars if there wasn't pacing issues.

Overall I did like this book! The story was interesting and i am always down for a witchy rom-com. The story was good and the romance was fun! However, I didn’t love all the real world and political things thrown in, when I’m reading it’s to escape and having political things brought up all the time defeats the purpose.

Cawpile rating: 2.5 rounded up to 3 stars.

I received an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I want to like this book. Between the body positivity and the supernatural witchy story line it honestly should have been a slam dunk for me. However, overall I was left confused and super frustrated.

The pacing was incredibly jarring in this book. You're kind of thrust into a tense situation with no idea what is happening and it never really gets cleared up. Next thing we know we are jumping forward in time and there are more things happening with no explanation as to what is happening. It honestly makes no sense.

The characters should have been engaging and fun to follow but often being in Penny's perspective left me trying to decipher exactly who or what she's talking about because there was zero context.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the second hand embarrassment that I got from a few of the scenes in this book. It left a weird taste in my mouth.

Lastly some of my problems could have been a matter of taste. I think the book could have been a 3 or 4 star book with more editing for flow and clarity, but I also know there are people who potentially will enjoy the sweetness of the story and could really enjoy Noelle's writing style. It just wasn't for me unfortunately.

Death was the only card drawn on the day Penelope was born….If Penelope Ophelia Odenberry could make a list of all the things she hated it would be: Sunshine, running out of coffee, her initials spell Poo, bullies, skinny culture, zealots of any kind, people in denial about being zealots, student loan debt, when her dad wears his kilt in a wind storm, having to move home to the bassackwards town of Huckleberry Hollow, Idaho where despite the array of magic and creatures living there, only the old white witch men make decisions…

Fascinating and highly recommended read.

I will definitely be reading more books by Noelle Rider. For the first book in a series she had a lot of world building and characters to introduce. That is my only reason for my rating.

I love that the FMC, Penelope, is on the larger size while the MMC, Artie, is literal eye candy with tattoos and rock hard abs.

For those criticizing the author about off page sex of the MMC, did you read the prologue or any of the other times she mentioned his demon half was a succubus? You could have stopped reading at the prologue.

There are some dark themes in the book, men in robes who rule over the town and other creatures who do their best to snub them even in tiny ways. Oh, and a spell gone awry that was cast out of desperation 15 years ago.

I love that they talked to each other like adults, once Artie convinced Pen he wasn’t going anywhere. Yes this book has spice.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

this was a fun, witchy rom-com with magic, mayhem, and the fake dating trope that keeps things very entertaining. full of snark, heart, and chaotic small-town drama—perfect for fans of quirky fantasy romance!! (like me)

Penelope Ophelia Odenberry is hilarious, strongly independent, utterly unapologetic and a Witch! She is reunited  with her bff Artemis after having parted ways when they were teens. Penny now has a medical degree in psychology and reuniting with Artemis is causing her many feelings, emotions, sensations and lots of sexual urges. Between dealing with her strongly opinioned mother, her town, racists, sexist council (who are also Witches) she will navigate the town and her powers and her feelings for Artemis like a good strong and very opinionated Witch with an overactive and hilarious imagination.

Witching & Scheming will have you laughing out loud with it's dry, witty,  sarcastic and humorous story telling.

Thank you Netgalley for this sexy witchy rom-com.

Fifteen years after a young witch leaves the home town she's always hated, she's forced to return at her mother's request. Once there, she is reunited with a best friend who cannot remember her and must overcome the hostility of the town and save it from evil.

The male protagonist (Artie) is interesting and both he and the overall concept had potential. Unfortunately though, neither the characters or the plot were well developed. Most of the plot is crammed into the last 15 pages and very little happens throughout the rest of the book, aside from a whole lot of vaginal moisture and lustiness. I'm not averse to spice in novels but it was pretty full on from the get-go (no build up) and, with not much else happening plot-wise, it was easy to become desensitised and bored with it. Characters and concepts were often dropped in without introduction or context, while the writing is repetitive and often abruptly switches tone or jumps between ideas - all of which had a tendency to make it a bit confusing, and there were plot holes with ideas or characters being introduced (or even disappearing) without explanation. Some pretty heavy topics are introduced (e.g. bullying, violence, racism, extremism) but they were not well developed or dealt with so it sometimes felt like just having a rant against these issues, rather than actually trying to deal with them, and any attempts to do so were often superficial.

It's a shame as this could have been a lot better, but was unfortunately not a good read for me.