Review: Not Your Crush's Cauldron

Not Your Crush's Cauldron by April Asher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

Everything had changed. Everyone evolved. Except her. 

If you've been reading the Supernatural Singles series, you've probably been waiting for Maxwell sister Olive and Guardian Angel Bax to finally cut the tension between them and kiss already. If you're new to the series, I'm not sure I'd recommend jumping into this third installment, you'd miss a lot of worldbuilding and character relationships. In this New York City world, a Supernatural reveal has happened and the witches, vampires, demons, shifters, angels, and any other supernatural creature you can think of exists out in the open with humans. The series has, so far, focused on triplet witches, the Maxwell sisters. With her two other sisters already finding love, Olive is feeling stagnate in her job as a professor and in her social life, and when her roommate goes on a campaign of sleeping with every strange man she meets, Bax, her “just a” friend offers up his apartment for her to move into. This brings her into close quarters with the angel and puts strain on keeping her less than friendly thoughts about him to herself, especially when he decides to join in and help her with a Dare I Docket list. 

To date, he’d now broken two of the three central—and most important—GAA Rules of Conduct. The first: Don’t tell your Assignment that you’re their designated Guardian. The second: Don’t get your Assignment killed. The third, which he’d yet to break and had no intention of doing so: Don’t fall in love with your Assignment. 

Bax has his own feelings about Olive he's trying to fight and when he gets her as a Guardian Angel assignment, she becomes even more off limits. A huge disappointment to his Warrior father, Bax doesn't want to fail at being a Guardian angel but he also hates keeping it a secret that he's been assigned to be Olive's protector as she decides to check off her Dare I list of activities. These two did have some cute chemistry between them but this was a story that seemed to have a lot of little additives that ultimately ended up stealing some of their spotlight for me. Olive's sister is dealing with becoming the next Prima (head witch) and the issues and drama surrounding that, especially when their grandmother and former Prima goes off on her own, kind of butted into the story. Characters showing up that normally I would feel connected our two mains to the existing world ended up annoying me; Harper's (demon friend of theirs) constant focus on turning anything and everything into a sexual innuendo or making it about sex just really got old for me. 

“You’re gorgeous,” she heard herself blurt out. “I mean . . . your wings are gorgeous. They’re beautiful.” 

His lips twitched in enjoyment of the moment. “Just my wings?” 

“Please. You know you could grace the cover of any angel romance book and light imaginations across the globe.” 

“Do I light up your imagination?” 

 Along with Olive trying to learn to be less rigid, Bax had to work out how he was going to live his life on his own terms, instead of thinking about what his father might want. It gets revealed that he's a talented artist and him learning to embrace that side of himself and chose what he wants out of life was his journey to make. Coming to this decision for Bax, and Olive thinking she needs to take more chances in life, felt more like the character emotional journeys we went on, more than the romance. There was a good amount of open door bedroom scenes in this in the second half and dirty talk but while the words were on the page, I again, missed the charm and intimacy of the emotion and relationship development. 

It wasn’t what you did that moved you forward the most, but the people who stood by your side when you did it. It was your family—your found family. The ones you chose to surround yourself with because them not being part of your life wasn’t a possibility you wanted to think about. 

The last twenty percent has our leads dealing with the eventual fallout you know is about to happen when Olive learns and thinks that Bax has only been spending time with her because he was assigned to be her Guardian Angel. The resolution felt natural to the characters with nothing being dragged out or ignored smoothed over and you get a happily ever after. Some of the little additives started to feel disorganized and about nothing while at the same time taking up too much of the spotlight, taking away from the romance. It's great that romance wants to give us two fully formed characters but I miss the focus on having our leads actually together and focusing on developing the romance because in a romance genre book, that's what I'm here for. This did have cute and steamy moments, and if you're looking for a lighter read for Halloween, this is a pretty fun world to immerse yourself in for a while.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

One week til Halloween! 🎃🎃🎃 

Time to read about a witch taking a ride on the wild side! 

Olive likes to teach about the supernatural world but stay out of magic shenanigans. Until she decides it's time to get out of her comfort zone, with her long time crush and friend, Baxter. 

Bax is a Guardian Angel who's about to lose his wings and his new assignment he can't mess up? Olive, who's decided to check off some Dare I Docket list. 

Bax's fighting to keep Olive safe and not break the Angel code of conduct when those friend feeling start to heat up. 

This sounds like a sweet magically good time! 

Not Your Crush's Cauldron by April Asher preorder (Feb. 13th 2024) link

Sausage and Rice one pot

I used turkey kielbasa

Review: Not Your Ex's Hexes

Not Your Ex's Hexes by April Asher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

Now that Rose had a little extra time on her hands, she was . . . lost . .. 

Second in the Supernatural Singles series, Not Your Ex's Hex was a paranormal and fantasy world story that put the spotlight on the second Maxwell sister, Rose and Damian Adams. I haven't read the first book but I thought the author did a good job catching newbies up on what happened, eldest of the Maxwell witches magical triad triplets, Vi, finally came into her power and displaced Rose as the Prima Apparent (Prima is the head witch of the Supernatural Council). Rose, gladly, not only lost her job but an unwanted fiance and now is feeling adrift as she moves from working for a ride share to working at the local bar, Potion's Up. Damian is a half-demon who is bestfriend's with Vi's soulmate, a veterinarian and owner of an animal sanctuary, and oh, has a soul hex on him that if he falls in love, he'll lose his soul. He's all about one and done encounters but a few months later, when he runs into Rose, he can't get their one night stand out of his mind. 

The more he embraced his inner demon, the less Damian saw of Damian. He hadn’t been fully aware of precisely how off-track his life had gotten until he faced the wrath of a pissed-off teenage witch and earned himself his very own hex. That was his wake-up call. And finally, after years of Hunting, he realized he had two choices: give up his humanity to become one of the volatile lowlifes he Hunted, or hold onto it with everything he had. 

I enjoyed the magical realism/urban fantasy world this had, think a lighter toned Hidden Legacy by Ilona Andrews or Third Shift by Suleikha Snyder. There's a good amount of friends and family but they stayed enough to the side to let Rose and Damian shine but came in enough to fill out the characters and world. Even though our main couple had a one night stand months ago, they get a push to be together when Rose has to complete some community service hours at Damian's clinic/sanctuary. Their teasing friendship chemistry was pleasurable to read and even though I said the tone was lighter, Rose gets horribly injured at one point but the scary danger of it was rushed through fairly quickly, never getting too dark, they curse and hit the sheets and desk pretty often. They had that chemistry snark towards each other that flowed to softening when they rescue puppies and then a little before the midway point, they come up with their friends with benefits agreement.

And then his eyes locked with hers across the room. 

The second half brings in more of Damian's half-demon issues, him trying to control his inner demon and dealing with his brother Julius. Julius is on the Supernatural Council and wants Damian to return to Hunting (think supernatural bounty hunter). Damian needs money for the sanctuary, so he's already thinking about it and when Julius involves Rose, getting her to want to hunt, Damian agrees so he can take assignments with her to protect her. This was a bit longer than usual contemporaries, around 340 pages and while I overall liked how it didn't like the story was rushed, there were some pieces that didn't feel like they smoothly fit and maybe could have been left out. There was a mean girl trio that tied into Rose's ride share job, a random flashback from Damian's past that could have worked if went longer and showed his hexing but as the only flashback felt uselessly placed, a no pants subway ride that didn't hit the mark for me, a live cams scheme by Rose to help the sanctuary that could have been left out as there was a later, rushed, adoption fair featured, and a few other little things that when I think back on them, didn't tie-in the best. I would have much rather had that time given to more resolution with Damian, his inner demon, and his brother. 

They belonged together, and he wasn’t about to let something as minor as a Soul Hex prevent that from happening. 

The last twenty percent had Damian's hex coming more into the picture to be dealt with and we meet the ex witch that hexed him, following with the tone, she's not as evil as thought to be with a surprise reveal. If you're looking for a sizable cast of characters that keeps them around but gives the spotlight to the main couple, a lighter toned paranormal world, and steamy open door love scenes between two leads that had fun chemistry, this is definitely a world you'll want to hop into. Rose's younger sister Olive looks to be getting the set-up with her new roomie, guardian a

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Snacking this morning with my witchery! 

A one night stand between a witch and a half-demon (he's also a veterinarian) leads to magical mishaps. 

Rose has community service at Damian's animal sanctuary and these two crazy kids think they can go no strings attached, friends-with-benefits. Who wants to tell them? 

Add in an ex's hex on Damian that if he loses his heart, he'll lose his humanity and this sounds like a sweet, complicated, and wild good time. 

Enjoy the long weekend, US friends! 

Not Your Ex's Hex by April Asher purchase link

Honey Roasted Cajun Cashews recipe

I always double this recipe and go Generous on the Cajun and hold back a little on the honey. It's deeeeeeeeeeeelicious!