BEWITCHED

Author: Laura Thalassa
Date released: April 18th, 2023*
Category: Urban Fantasy Romance

*I received an Advanced Reading Copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: At age twenty, Selene Bowers desperately hopes to be accepted into Henbane Coven, an academy for young witches. Since one of the requirements for entry is to connect with her powers via a quest through the wilderness, Selene books a trip to South America. When a nefarious supernatural force tries to drag her plane from the sky, Selene’s magic awakens to save her life—at a cost. Using her powers devours her memories, one by one.

Worse, when Selene braves the jungle and discovers the source of the attack, she finds herself awakening an ancient evil, Memnon the Cursed, who mistakes Selene for his long-dead wife. The wife who betrayed him. Selene manages to escape and begin her studies at Henbane, but when Memnon turns up at the coven and witches are found dead across campus, Selene becomes entangled in a dangerous plot. Accused of the murders on the basis of her memory loss, Selene must rely on Memnon’s help for answers—and his plans for her will change everything.

The UnReel Take:

Story: 5.0
Writing: 4.0
Characters: 6.0
Setting: 5.0

UnReel AR: 5.0

Bottom Line: I had the weirdest reading experience with this one. For some context, I enjoyed Thalassa's “Four Horseman” series, but I haven’t read much else of hers. This is relevant because the Four Horseman novels are light on plot and heavy on the vibes. Bewitched, on the other hand, is very plot-driven and IT FRUSTRATED THE HECK OUT OF ME; the amount of disbelief you have to spend to get from one chapter to the next is ridiculous. Sometimes an after-the-fact explanation is added to absurd events, but that doesn't undo the jarring sensation of reading something that makes no sense. About 30% of the way in I was so frustrated I started skimming. THEN the material I was skimming caught my attention, so I went back and re-read. Ultimately, I did end up mostly enjoying the book and will read the sequel, but Jesus Christ was this an odd and frustrating reading experience.

Since I'm having a hard time corralling my feelings about Bewitched, I've provided some random thoughts below.

·       I hate prologues. This is fully a pet peeve and not something I factored into the rating, but on principle they’re the worst. At least this prologue adds some small value to the story…(If your story doesn’t start on Chapter One, sentence one then you’re starting in the wrong spot.)

·       Our main girl, Selene, is desperate to get into Henbane Coven because of...reasons. We're never really told why, though the coven functions as kind of a magical school/sorority combo, so we're probably meant to assume she's looking for the community and opportunities.

·       The made-up swears are so cringe. "Hells spells," really? "Great Goddess' left tit," just stop. These were especially irritating because Bewitched takes places in a fantastical version of our own world. Meaning modern day swears would 1) exist and 2) fit right into the worldbuilding.

·       There are some big setting jumps between chapters that can be quite disorienting. That said, the chapters are pretty short and the pacing is decent. The story moves right along and can be read in a few sittings.

·       Selene is a likable enough heroine. She mostly makes common sense decisions and, when she doesn't, there's typically a reason. She's funny and practical without being unbelievably quirky. Her personality has definitely been shaped by her memory loss, which I appreciated from a character development viewpoint.

·       Similarly, the reader gets shown events that Selene ultimately forgets, which creates some solid dramatic irony.

·       The foreshadowing is a bit heavy-handed, which I wouldn't have expected from an author with 22 titles to their name.

·       I thought the inclusion of a Sarmatian character was super cool, not something we see often in fantasy.

·       The plot was predictable but, again, this is an urban fantasy romance. I wasn't expecting to be surprised.

·       We definitely see the trope of "schoolwork mirroring the plot."

·       I liked Memnon, though I wish his personality was more developed. He's definitely your classic "over-protective Alpha" type but it sort of makes sense since 1) he believes Selene is his wife and 2) he's literally an ancient warlord. I wouldn't expect him to be progressive.

·       There are definitely some steamy scenes, though the first three all featured the same… act, let’s say… which got pretty repetitive. The dialogue in these scenes was also a bit cheesy, though that's down to personal taste.

·       Yes, my favorite character is Nero the Jaguar and no, I will not apologize.

·       It drives me nuts when characters use each other's names in every other sentence. That is not how humans speak.

·       There were some typos and awkward paragraph breaks, but such is the nature of the ARC.

·       Selene and Memnon develop a "mental conversation" bond-type-deal that was giving “Rhys and Feyre.”

·       I understood Memnon's motivations way more than Selene's, which is odd since the story is told exclusively from her POV. It's not that her feelings and motivations don’t make sense, so much as I didn't understand where they came from. With Memnon, he thinks Selene is the beloved wife he's been apart from for 2,000 years, so his desperation to get her back makes sense. BUUUUTTT his beloved wife was also the one who imprisoned him in a magic coffin for 2,000 years. He's understandably pissy about this. It was just a very odd reading experience to understand a love interest whose POV you don't read from better than the literal 1st-person main character.

TL;DR - If you can get past the absurdity this is a fun read, and I will pick up Book Two.

Ideal Reading Location: Those uncomfortable airplane seats. If you know, you know.

Drink Pairing: For Bewitched, go full Wine Aunt. A glass of something red, cheap, and strong.

Maybe your experience will be different!