Hopelessly Teavoted is a charming, lighthearted romance with a quirky premise and a feel-good tone. Audrey Goldberg Ruoff delivers relatable characters and playful interactions that make the story enjoyable and easy to read. The humor and sweetness of the romance keep the narrative breezy and entertaining.

That said, the plot can feel predictable at times, and some emotional beats don’t fully resonate. Certain characters and subplots could have been developed more, and while the story is fun, it doesn’t offer much that’s truly memorable in the romance genre.

Overall, Hopelessly Teavoted is a pleasant, casual read—perfect for fans of light, feel-good romance, though it doesn’t leave a lasting impression.

💜 Hopelessly Teavoted - Audrey Goldberg Ruoff 💜
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
🌶️🌶️
This was a cute little witchy read with a little bit of magic and spice. I enjoyed the connection between Azrael and Vickie, I mean a golden retriever witch and a girl who can speak to spirits, how cute. But for me, the plot just felt like there was too much going on at one time with a lot of characters and moving parts. I would still recommend if you’re looking for a Witchy read though.
✨ Hopelessly Teavoted is out 9/16✨

First, I want to address that I DNFd this book.

When, in the first chapter, the MMC says he wants to F his girl best friend, while being freshly 19 years old; I got the ick. Then, hesitantly I continued, only to read confusing scenarios with the FMCs family. So, unfortunately tha was strike 2 for me.

Cute title, cute cover but the inside was not as cute as it seems.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the arc. All opinions are my own.

Unfortunately I had to DNF at 18%.

I was really excited about this book, but I couldn’t seem to get very far through it. I’m also very busy and I fear I won’t get it read by the time it comes out.

The writing style was not holding my attention and the dialogue was usually pretty cringey. I was not invested in the characters at all and I don’t think we got a very good explanation of them—who they are and why we should root for them. The sister character, Priscilla, also got on my nerves a lot, as she is seemingly just a Wednesday Addams knockoff (which could not be case later on).

I see the potential in this book and I might be able to pick it back up at a later date, but right now none of my attention is on this book.

The writing is horrible. I'm not invested in the characters at all except maybe the sister. There's way too much inner dialogue happening when characters are talking to each other. Some of the phases don't make any sense. I don't know if it's editing issues or transcription issues. I'm bored out of my mind. I also get the mmc is grieving but it's coming across whiney and way to angry for a mid 20s person. There's definitely a lot going on that's not hooking me in at all. I'm actually rather annoyed by the story.

I appreciate the eARC and I was excited for the opportunity for a cozy fantasy romance but this wasn't for me. Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books, and Audrey Goldberg Ruoff for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Paranormal romance lovers, buckle up for a wild ride through Audrey Goldberg Ruoff’s supernatural playground. “Hopelessly Teavoted” promised me a magical second-chance romance, and while it delivered some sparks, it wasn’t quite the fireworks show I was hoping for.

Azrael and Victoria’s story hooked me with its deliciously complicated magical curse. Imagine being prevented from touching your soulmate—talk about romantic tension! The supernatural detective elements added an intriguing layer to what could have been a standard rom-com. Their constant presumptions about each other’s thoughts became a bit tiresome, though. I found myself wanting to shake some sense into both characters more often than not.

The magical system was the real star of the show. A witch who can communicate with spirits by touching treasured objects? Sign me up. But the exploration of grief felt distant, more told than shown. Az’s emotional depth seemed to get lost in the magical shenanigans, leaving me wanting more from his character arc.

Despite its flaws, the book has an undeniable charm. The supernatural sleuthing and magical constraints keep the plot moving, and the world-building hints at deeper stories waiting to be told.

For paranormal romance fans who love second-chance tropes and don’t mind some narrative bumps, “Hopelessly Teavoted” might just be your next quirky read.

Thanks to Atria, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley, for the advance review copies. My thoughts remain entirely my own.

This was magical! I absolutely ate this up! The YEARNINGGGGG!!! We wanted yearning and this DELIVERS!!! Witchy, cozy vibes, a mystery in the quirky small town! Definitely add to your fall TBR!

Cute cover and fantastically punny title, but ultimately this wasn’t the book for me. The blurb intrigued me - the set up was great: Two young adults return home to restart life and handle family angst and have a second chance to find love in a magical world with a mystery. Unfortunately, the pacing was so slow. We could have easily cut out hundreds of pages of the exact same yearning and internal monologue-ing about how much they want each other. The mystery needed more focus and frankly, the magical system needed more rules for me.

Thanks for NetGalley and Atria Publishing for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

I found this book to be cute. It was a little slow, and some moments with the characters were cringey, in my opinion. I would have liked just a little bit more magic touch. I feel like there was a lack of urgency and character depth. Just fell a little flat for me with the way the book was panned out, which is so disappointing to me because I really wanted to love this book.

I want to personally thank NetGalley, as well as the author, publisher, and anyone else involved in providing copies, for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF'd at 20%.

I was so excited about this one as the premise sounds so cute and perfect for spooky season.

Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into it. At 20% in not much had happened aside from our main characters inner monologuing about something that happened between them in college and lusting after each other, all while barely actually speaking to each other. It was just too boring and repetitive for me to continue.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book and share my honest opinion.

Thank you to Atria Publishing for the gifted ARC 🫶🏼

Hopelessly Teavoted is a modern witchy tale of two childhood best friends (Victoria and Azrael) that have been in love with each other but have continued to lie about it their whole lives. After an “incident” in college (that’s eluded to in every single paragraph to the point of discomfort) they don’t speak again for six years until they both move back to their hometown of Hallowcross.
Except everything has changed; Azrael’s beloved parents have passed away and Victoria’s has been disowned by her terrible parents (leaving her stuck with the debt of fulfilling a deal they’d made with a devil to give her powers of communicating with the dead. Not sure why the deal would be passed on to Victoria but there’s a lot that goes unexplained in this.)
Victoria buys the tea shop that Azrael’s parents used to own and Az and Vickie are once again reunited and have to come to terms with “the incident” as well as a megachurch devil conspiracy that’s ruining the town.
And just when they’re ready to continue dancing around their feelings for each other but also confess their love (if that doesn’t make sense, exactly), they’re cursed by a devil to never be able to touch again or Az will turn to ash (cue multiple mutual masturbation scenes).
If it feels like there’s a lot going on with little depth and cohesiveness, it’s because there’s a lot going on with very little depth and cohesiveness to this story.
The attempt to have yearning and pining between the MCs turned to cringe once every paragraph became the same repetition of “I love you but you hurt me one time six years ago” that it bordered on self-pity.
The book was extremely repetitive with the same inner monologues, the same dialogue over and over again. I could skip entire chapters and end up at almost the exact same conversation.

Overall, this one just wasn’t for me. It had the bones of being a cute, witchy rom-com that just didn’t have the execution or follow through for me.

Unfortunately, there was too much hanky panky going on and not enough hocus pocus. I was hoping that this would be the perfect cozy book to start my fall reading with, and I was left severely disappointed.

Hopelessly Teavoted had all the right aspects- he’s a witch, she’s cursed to be able to see ghosts, he’s been in love with her forever, she’s been in love with him and doesn’t realize- but I fear there was too much focus on exploring each other’s bodies than there was on their feelings. Even when Az gets cursed to be unable to be touched by Vickie without bursting into flames, all these two seem to care about is how to jump each other’s bones without one of them dying.

This wasn’t a complete disaster, however- I loved the sentient house and the little spells Az would do to brighten people’s days. His mother’s teashop sounded like my kind of place, and the relationship his parents had reminded me of Gomez and Morticia Addams. I wished I had liked this more!

Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for the e-arc! Hopelessly Teavoted releases on September 16!

Goodreads link is up and review will be edited when up on socials!

DNF. I am incredibly thankful to have been sent this book to read, however, I probably shouldn't have accepted it because I am not a fan of books themed around a holiday. I wanted to give it another shot, maybe I just haven't found the one that will turn me into a holiday themed book, and the title is so cute. I wanted to be into it, but I just am not.

I wanted to love this one so badly. Based on the synopsis, and the vibes, I thought I would. However, I got 50 pages in, and still didn't have an understanding of the characters, the world, or the plot. All of a sudden, Azrael's parents were dead and I didn't really know why. There's also a lot of grazing over the past, which doesn't make sense for an eight year time jump. Overall, the witchy vibes seem cute, this just isn't for me.

Victoria “Vicki” Starnberger has a gift, she can communicate with the dead via personal items they left behind and items that burn up when she contacts the ghost. She wasn’t born with the gift; it came to her when her parents made a deal with a demon. For years she has used the gift to help her parents build an empire, while attending college. But after 8 years, she still hasn’t graduated, and she has returns to Hallowcross with a plan. She wants to buy the tea shop that was owned by the deceased parents of her childhood friend and secret crush, Azreal “Az” Hart. Her parents are opposed to this and threaten to cut her off if she goes through with the sale. But it isn’t until she is disowned that she learns that she is beholden to the lesser devil Olexandre for the balance of 3 souls due on the contract by Halloween. She also learns that until she fulfills that contract, anything (or anyone) with a sentimental connection to a spirit will be incinerated by her touch.

Enter Az, who has finally returned to Hallowcross after a failed screenwriting career in California. This is the first time he has been home since his parents passed away during the COVID-19 pandemic. Az and his family are witches and have magical powers, but even that wasn’t enough to save his parents, and he is drowning in guilt and grief for not being able to be with them at the end. To make matters worse, he learns that Vicki is back and has bought his parent’s tea shop. He hasn’t seen Vicki since an “incident” 6 years ago when he went to visit her in college and tried to move out of the “friend zone”. Thanks to his parent’s spirits, he has a second chance, but nothing worth having is easy.

After reading the blurb, I was super excited for this book, but unfortunately it just didn’t work for me. There were just too many things that didn’t make sense and were never explained to my satisfaction, for example, the magic system, or why Vicki was responsible for a contract made by her parents, and most especially the “incident”. The story dragged and at times felt like a YA fantasy, but with lots of F-bombs and love scenes and if it is important to you, it did have LBGTQ+ representation, as both the main characters and several secondary characters identified as such. Overall, the story had good bones but lacked the depth and cohesiveness necessary to hold my attention. I do believe this author has promise and would consider reading future books.

2, maybe 2.5 stars

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher/author. All opinions in this review are my own. *

This book was really cute. I enjoyed the friends-to-lovers story of Vickie and Az. Hopelessly Teavoted was an adorable name for this book and truly encompassed the characters, the puns and the heart of the work. I enjoyed the humor, the dad jokes and the puns, I did feel the conclusion of the drama was incredibly quick for how drawn out the tension was throughout the rest of the book, but overall it was very well-written!

Such a fun enemies-to-lovers spooky cozy read—just in time for fall! 🍂 I think this was a fantastic debut, and wow… she really delivered on the YEARING (and who doesn’t love a man who yearns?!).

The cover totally sold me too—I can never resist a book with a cat on it 🐈‍⬛.

This one is perfect for the fall girlies—it was giving Hocus Pocus ✨ + Casper 👻 vibes.

Hopelessly Teavoted had a fun premise, but in reality, it’s mostly just the characters being horny and internally rehashing their feelings for each other over and over and over…There is a mystery, but even with a deadline and a potentially lethal curse, there’s not really any sense of urgency. The magic system just “is” without any real explanation, and the bad guy is obvious. I skimmed probably the last third of the book and didn’t feel like I’d missed anything. The best part was definitely Benedict and Persephone channeling Gomez and Morticia Addams. Otherwise, this book was a miss for me.

Judging a book by its cover got me this time. This book fell sooooo flat for me. The mmc was so pathetically obsessed with the fmc and I really didn’t get worthwhile yearning. Just lame.

This was magical and so cute. I felt giddiness exit my every pore while reading it. I really loved the characters and the plot as well!