Hayleigh Gray has lost her job, savings, and relationship, and will soon lose her freedom if she hopes to get any money from her controlling father. She can live with that, but the horse she loves now seems to have cancer. She knows she's been cursed and was willing to suffer through it, but to save her horse, she goes back to Elk Ridge, Washington, the small town full of witches where all her troubles began. Enter Stephan Midwinter, an animal lover, artist, and witch who likes to help people. They'll team up to find out who cursed Hayleigh and uncover a whole lot more than they bargained for.

I liked Hayleigh as a character even when she was the antagonist in the first book of the series. She knows what she wants, and she's willing to work to get it. Not so good when it's destroying the soul of a small town's Christmas festival, but admirable when it's finding out who cursed her to save her horse and get her life back on track. It's great to see her realize that she has more choices than she's been led to believe and accept magic into her life.

Stephan veers a little too much into Golden Retriever territory, where he has great points, but he's also too laissez-faire for most of the book to inspire much of anything. He's always there to support Hayleigh and let her make her own choices. I just wish he was that decisive on other things. Lockhart touches on this, and it is tangentially part of the plot, but it still left me feeling like we only got to see half his character.

The story itself is solid, with magical shenanigans and real-world consequences that balance each other out. It never gets too silly nor too dark, letting Hayleigh's self-discovery be the center of things.

It's not absolutely necessary to have read book 1 to enjoy this one, but it will explain why other characters react to Hayleigh the way they do and what set off everything falling apart in her life.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Dutton for the holiday read!