Review: Payback's a Witch

Payback's a Witch by Lana Harper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

3.5 stars 

Every fifty years the four founding families of Thistle Grove must hold the Gauntlet, a tourney to determine the founding family that will preside over all things magical in the town. For three hundred years the Blackmoores have only lost once but there is a mutiny brewing. Emmy Harlow left town nine years ago with a broken heart but as the Harlow scion (heir) she must be the Arbiter for the Gauntlet. 

Gareth Blackmoore---my first love, my most humiliating and heart-crushing breakup, and the reason I abandoned an entire life---genuinely did not remember me. 

The delightfully titled Payback's a Witch is a magical realism story that introduces readers to a world they are going to fall in love with. At times overly descriptive with some pacing problems, it nevertheless pulled me into this world and I didn't want to leave. As the first in the series, a lot of the first half is setting up the Thistle Grove world as told through our narrator, Emmy Harlow. The four founding families are the Harlows, Thorns, Avramovs, and Blackmoores. The Harlows are the least powerful with the Blackmoores having the most power and are slowly but surely building a tourist empire that is choking the life out of the other families businesses. In highschool Emmy had a romance with Gareth Blackmoore but he broke it off alluding that Emmy wasn't good enough, which had her leaving town and creating a life in Chicago where she feels she has more agency and power as more than just the bottom of the rung Harlow. However, once the witches leave Thistle Grove, their power immediately starts to lessen until it disappears. 

She tipped her sleek head toward me, lazy grin glinting like a blade's edge. “Enter the final member of our vengeance coven.” 

When Emmy meets up with her bestfriend Linden Thorn, she finds out that Linden had a romance with Gareth but found out he was two-timing her with Talia Avramov. Linden and Talia come to Emmy with an idea to have the Thorns and Avramovs band together during the Gauntlet to make sure Gareth and the Blackmoores don't win again. Emmy as the arbiter wears a magical cloak that ensures there is no cheating and she is wary of the idea but when she learns that Gareth not only cheated on Linden but that his family is bankrupting the other families, she's in. The first half gives us the backstory, setting, and plot, which was a lot but the easy flow of the writing and the enjoyment of the world will keep you reading. 

Four witches founded Thistle Grove, and its power was meant to be shared equitably between their families---not hoarded by one family year after year, until they eclipsed the others into irrelevancy. 

The middle is where the pacing problems started to happen for me. We get the first gauntlet challenge but then have to wait until the latter second half to get the second and third challenges, delaying events that are pretty central to the plot and taking away some of the excitement and momentum. While we're waiting for the Gauntlet competitions, the story gives us more world setting and a very slow burn romance between Emmy and Talia. I liked these two together and you can see the attraction between them but there is a lot to be introduced to in this first story, so their romance doesn't hit as hard. 

Me and Talia Avramov, like some rare magic I could never have foreseen, even if I had her scrying gift. 

One of my favorite things the author did was include and incorporate magic and witch lore and history. It's mentioned and talked about at times how the four families are descended from such figures as Baba Yaga, Druids, and Morgan le Fay. This homage and nod to the, kind of, ancestors to this story was wonderful; it build and borrows but still is original. Some of the character relationships felt skimped on in favor of world building but I still felt I got to know and become interested in everyone. Thistle Grove was a big vibrant world but the story felt slow at times. Hopefully, with the foundation this first in the series has laid out for us, the next will be able to deepen relationships and trim some of the descriptive tangents that slowed the pace. I'm hoping the next features our one with nature Rowan Thorn and Isidora Avramov, a witch not afraid of a little hex, and we learn about what happened in the past to make these two so wary of each other.

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