First of all, excellent use of Taylor Swift references.
The haunted house aspect was also very very fun.

Unfortunately, there was a bit too much going on in this. I do not mind duel POVs but I just don't get the ending of each chapter.
This definitely does give you spooky fall vibes. I feel like if the plot and romance had been tailored down just a bit more it would have been more successful for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you Atria Books, Netgalley, and to the author for the advanced copy of this novel. I really enjoyed reading this one!

This novel has a really cute, and quirky premise, that is set apart from many novels, and is definitely something I would like to see in more books. I loved the dark, cozy feel of this one. The characters were so sweet and I definitely felt that they were relatable to a lot of people. Parts of this novel were a bit unorganized/messy but overall I loved this novel for the fall vibes that it gave off.

This one had such a fun and quirky premise, but I never fully clicked with it the way I hoped. The spooky manor setting, family tea shop, and curse element gave it a cozy Halloween feel, but at times the story felt a little overstuffed. I liked Az and Vickie as individual characters, but their dynamic didn’t pull me in as much as I wanted. Still, it was charming in places and I think readers who enjoy witchy romcoms with a gothic twist will have a good time with it.

Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books, for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Two people who have always loved each other but never admitted it move back into their home towns and it’s like they had never been apart. This is a witchy romance where our main characters are dealing with their feelings for each other, grief, a mystery, demons and a curse.

I’ll start with the things I liked about this book, the haunted manor is awesome, I love a sentient house and the one in this story didn’t disappoint. I also can’t hate on the Taylor Swift references, I love me some Taylor Swift.

Unfortunately in a lot of other ways this book just really annoyed me.

1. The main characters tell each other how they feel about one another pretty early on but then have to pretend they can be together? Like why?
2. A cool, flirty demon is introduced, I’m thinking to myself, “ok this is going to be so fun, him popping up at the worst times for our main characters” but no, instead he does something petty and dips for most of the book.
3. The chapters switch between the MMC and FMC which I like, but each chapter ends with this long internal monologue about how obsessed they are with each other but just can’t be together, this was so repetitive.
4. There was so much going on! With a town mystery, a debt to a demon, a curse and the relationship between the characters it was just so much all at once, and yet with my above number 3 point somehow the story dragged!

If this hadn’t been an eARC I probably would have DNFd at the 30-40% mark.

Witchy, spooky & magical and cute. If you’re looking for a mystery this is for you. It was filled with mystery.. she has to give 3 souls to the devil.. the mystery about the church.. then a mystery of them not being able to touch.. literally filled mystery book.

Yearning for the romance but once it happened it was cute & spicy.

Overall 3.5 stars

This was cozy, dark, and spooky all at the same time. Definitely a must read for this season! It’s hard to show yearning, but this did for sure.

This one was really cute and I had a lot of fun!

I loved all the characters, and the world was super interesting.

I loved all the little Addams Family nods and touches. Right down to the love between Morticia and Gomez... and the high-stakes pranks between Prissy and Az.

I also really enjoyed the themes of finding "home". It came up quite a few times with Vicky and how she always felt like she had a home with the Harts. And then both Vicky and Az learned what it was to find a home in each other. Loved it!

There were some parts of this book that I found confusing. I think it might have been a mix of my brain not paying attention from being tired and some things not being explained as well as they should.

I really enjoyed the "I touch her and I die" dynamic. I don't know that I've read that many (if any at all) like that. I will say at times, it did feel like we were going in circles with emotions. Instead of inspiring yearning, we just got repeated thoughts that I swore were already addressed.

All in all a fun time. Great for the Halloween season!


Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Audrey and Netgalley for the e-arc. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.

This was a small town witchy vibe book that missed the mark for me. If you like friends to lovers, witches, second chances, and forbidden love, you could like this.

I thought this book was a tad too repetitive and had a lack of communication between the two MCs.

I wanted to love this book. I really liked the premise and I love witchy romances, but I had several issues that prevented me from enjoying what I was reading. First, I could tell the author was an English major before I read her bio. I was an English major, so this felt at times like a creative writing assignment in which I used a paragraph to say something simple, in order to pad the word count. The language was soooo flowery. I love when authors are descriptive, but waxing poetic on every little thing got tiresome incredibly fast. PNR romance is a genre I read to get lost in my head and be entertained, but I stopped several times to look up words I didn't recognize, which took me out of the story. Also, I thought I was paying attention to the storyline, yet I still never understood what actually happened between them in college that caused the rift, and why it got dragged out for so long. There was a lot of miscommunication and then random characters would appear and I was confused as to who they were and how they were relevant. Maybe my attention drifted too much, but I found the story hard to follow at times. And I'm perfectly fine with any level of steam, but some of the spicy scenes seemed gratuitous. The MCs were like two different people in and out of the bedroom. I think there just needed to be more consistency with the plot and less of a reliance on the thesaurus. :(

Ready to get bewitched by the spicy, magical rom-com Hopelessly Teavoted by Audrey Goldberg Ruoff? There's so much jam packed into this book that is perfect for witchy season 🧙‍♀️. It has a serious slow burn with literal burning between our MCs, Azrael and Vickie. It has witches and devils who, in some cases, actually do serve the greater good despite their usual reputation.

I loved how magic was integrated into the story. For Azrael, our MMC and main witch, it's simply a snap of his fingers to conjure up magic, which comes in very handy during some very spicy moments 🌶. Plus, the author cleverly turned the metaphorical saying "making a deal with the devil" into an actual thing in the book. Despite being human, Vickie is cursed with the ability to summon the dead - all thanks to a deal her parents struck with a sexy devil named Lex. When the contract is transferred to her, Vickie must help Lex reap enough souls before Halloween. I found that added bit of magic and devil deals very interesting.

Azrael and Vickie's romantic relationship is definitely a complicated one. The two obviously have feelings for one other, but can't move past an incident from college. This leads to many moments of yearning between them. As a reader, you can feel the connection these two have for one another, but, of course, it's never that easy. Especially when a certain devil named Lex loves to throw a wrench, magical gravedirt, and an inconvenient curse into their plans.

Beyond the romance, I loved that there was mystery baked into the story that had me, as a reader, trying to uncover along with the characters. There was a lot going on in the story with the romance, the magic and the mystery, but it never got too overwhelming, which is a testament to the writing. Bonus points for all the hilarious puns that were sprinkled throughout the book!

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Hopelessly Teavoted by Audrey Goldberg Ruoff. If this is her debut novel, I can't wait to see what she conjures up next! A big thanks to Audrey, NetGalley and Atria Books for giving me the opportunity to read the eARC before its release.

This was fine. I don't normally like second-chance romances, but the cover and witchy/demon themes really drew me in. I liked the dynamic that Azrael’s family had in the beginning, and the cozy atmosphere seemed to set the book up well. The Tea Shop was very Gilmore Girls coded, which I loved. The rest of it was just so boring. Sometimes it was going too slow, and other times it was moving/resolving too quickly. And omg enough with all the sex talk. It was actually all the characters could think about. I was rolling my eyes every chapter.

I really didn't care about the characters or the storyline by the end of this book. It was really not for me. I needed more depth.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Audrey Goldberg Ruoff, Atria Books, and NetGalley for giving me an eARC of Hopelessly Teavoted in exchange for my honest review.

I have mixed feelings about this book. Normally, friends-to-lovers is my jam, and I am always looking for the next friends-to-lovers that I can read. However, while this was a romance book, I truly do not think the romance was at the heart of it. The romance felt more like a subplot to the main storyline, which centers around a mystery. When looking at the various storylines individually, the romance was good, the mystery whodunit, and even the subplots for each of the characters' family dynamics were good. When you put it all together, though, it was too much. I wanted more from each of the storylines, and it felt like there was too much going on. The overall concept of this book was so good, and Victoria and Az are really cute together. But it is hard to get invested in any of the plotlines when it switches from Victoria getting disowned and Az dealing with grief, to them reconnecting, and then to a who made a deal with the devil plot. What's hard is that I still do not fully understand what happened that made Victoria and Az go their own ways in the first place. Like, I have a general idea, but even by the end, I was still unsure.

3.75 stars

Hopelessly Teavoted by Audrey Goldberg Ruoff is a super cute paranormal romance for anyone who loves a second chance romance set in autumn with Addams Family vibes.

Our childhood pals witchy tea shop owner Vickie and high school English teacher Azrael must solve a mystery together in their hometown - there's suspense, romance, and great puns.

The writing sometimes fell flat for me, but I found myself invested in these characters and the premise of the story, and the ending was worth it for me in the end. I was thoroughly entertained throughout the novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3 Stars.

This wasn't the book for me. It felt like if you removed every dirty thought and spicy scene, it would be a middle grade choose your own adventure book. I felt like the author did a lot of telling and not showing. Pages and pages of thoughts between dialogue.

The book was fun but again, fun in a childish way, not in an adult spooky way.

The injection of Covid-19 was actually jarring. I know it's a main plot point in how he lost his family but it just didn't flow in the scheme of things. The also constant injections of real-life issues and pop culture was also off-putting because it was SO prevalent. This was a bad man, he was a gun lobbyist. He was a bad man. Build up the character in different ways instead of just saying: This is X, he's a bad man, he lobbies for guns. OBVIOUSLY, they are bad, but I felt like again, I need more showing and not telling.

The back and forth with Vickie and Az didn't feel productive. Vickie always running away to think. The pretending was weird.

Not for me. Beautifully written though.

ARC Review

Thank you to Audrey Goldberg Ruoff, Atria Books, and Netgalley for the ARC!

First, this book helped get me in to the spoopy season! It's a lighthearted rom-com with witches, deals with the devil, and spirits! Oh, my!

The mystery being solved in this book was well written! While I did guess who did it, I second and third guessed myself along the way! Personally, I love when a reveal feels like an episode of Scooby-Doo! I.e. you're not shocked by the reveal, but didn't quite get there on your own.

Now, let's talk about Victoria and Az! I loved them together - two of my favorite tropes are second chance romance and childhood friends to lovers! My only frustration with them was their communication skills! For me the lack of communication went on too long!

I enjoyed the pop-culture references and inspiration for this book! I also appreciated how Az's grief was handled and portrayed! Also, Victoria's "gift" is so cool! I do wish she was able to use it help others more publicly!

Overall, this book was a good time and it made my heart happy!

Struggled with the way this was written unfortunately, just couldn't get into this book no matter how hard I tried.

DNF @ 10%

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really like charming small-town cozy books and this one was posed as having Wednesday vibes so I was excited for the meshing of those elements. Unfortunately I don't think either of the main characters reminded me of Wednesday (snarky, brooding, black cat) but I do see the Addams Family "kooky spooky" elements and I think that would've been a better marketing comparison. The Pushing Daisies comparison is pretty spot on though! I loved that show and Victoria's abilities were so interesting.

This book features a lot of important things including queer main characters, mental health medication, gun control, street drugs, manipulative religions, problematic rich people, and discussions on grief. For me personally, the way several of these elements were included felt a little forced and heavy handed. It seemed like every chapter contained commentary on politics and while I agree that reading is political, this book was preaching to the choir with me and I got tired of it quickly. In addition to all the real-life issues commentary there were TONS of pop culture references. I usually don't mind those but it was overdone by the 5th reference and it just kept coming. I think nuance and allegories could've been used in place of all of these things. I'm also not crazy about the choice to make literal witches die by contracting COVID but I know that's a personal opinion and maybe it'll work for someone else. I did like the distinction that this is an open-minded small town and some of the plot involves fighting "puritanical bullshit". That was a fun little inclusion.

Prissy was a fun side character! I liked her personality and friendship with Victoria. Prissy is constantly meddling in Victoria and Azrael's lives but she also clearly cares about them both. She also goes to a nerdy bar with Victoria. It's super funny and cute and it reminded me of Scum & Villainy in Hollywood. I wish they went there more than once in the book.

I didn't ever get invested or hooked by the romance between Victoria and Azrael. In the first chapter we're told that this MMC is obsessed with this FMC but it's all tell and no show (it's also barely any tell). We get a little more insight in the following chapters in the present but as a big Second Chance fan it didn't work for me this time. There are also several instances throughout that book that take Miscommunication to the extreme, going so far as to have the characters deliberately lie to each other which I found really annoying. There's tons of whiplash with "will they, won't they" moments and it was so mentally exhausting for me that I couldn't even attempt to root for them as a couple.

I liked several characters, some of the family dynamics, the varied magic, and the town. But ultimately I was expecting a romance and I was let down by that (as well as a lot of the writing choices). A cute idea, but I found myself emotionally wiped out after reading this.


Thanks to Atria for the ARC, sorry it was a miss for me.

This book was cute and a fun little seasonal read, but I found it very repetitive. It was a little longer than it needed to be, in my opinion, especially with the slow build up to reaching a “conclusion”, which felt rushed once we got there.
I liked it, and would recommend it for the seasonal vibes, but probably not for the storytelling itself. It fell a little flat for me.

Azriel is a witch who comes back to his hometown after losing his parents, and reconnects with his childhood neighbor (and crush), Vickie. She’s human, running his parents’ tea shop, but she also has a secret, she can speak to the dead. The two of them team up to uncover something dark lurking in their town… all while trying to resist the pull between them.

I loved the yearning in this one, especially since they can’t even touch each other because of a curse. Vickie was cursed with the ability to see the dead when she touches objects of the deceased, and that twist gave the story such a fun, spooky edge.

⭐️ 3.75 stars
If you love paranormal romance with witches, curses, and a dash of spooky mystery, this one’s worth checking out.

I was looking forward to reading this book because of the witchy vibes and the storyline described. Unfortunately, it fell absolutely flat for me.

I could not bring myself to care at all about Vickie and Azrael. Their story was not set up well and everything was described so vaguely. We know they’ve been friends since they were kids and that’s about it. They yearn for each other for 90% of the book (partly due to some curse 🥴) and I was over it. There’s so much telling, no showing that I don’t believe their love is anything more than lust. Even when things got spicy, I was just so over them that I didn’t care. Those scenes I rate 2 🌶️ out of 5.

The plot ended up being such a second thought. Nothing tied in nicely and there was so much fast forwarding of the timeline that we didn’t even see a lot of the megachurch happenings and then ta-da here’s the villain. The story could have used more of world building. The magic just didn’t make sense to me. Also how do the parents die from covid?! Like what do you even mean these powerful witches just couldn’t even live through that? It was weird.

This wasn’t for me but hopefully it will be for someone. Thank you NetGalley, Atria and Audrey Goldberg Ruoff for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.