Member Reviews
I really enjoyed this book, it was such a fun, heartwarming read with laugh out loud moments and a good sprinkling of spice.
This book has:
⚔️ Enemies to lovers
🙊 Fake Dating
😠☀️ grumpy/sunshine
⛓️ Forced Proximity
🧙♀️ Magical mishaps
❤️ Great friendships
🌿 Sentient plants
😱 A meddling mother
🛏️ One bed
💥 Multiple explosions
😈 Sensitive horns
🌶️ Spicy scenes
😍 Feeeeelings
☕️ A demon who loves pumpkin spice
If you are looking for a spicy book with some extra “spark” then I recommend picking up this book!
This was such a fun and charming paranormal romance and the perfect way to start off my spring reading. This follows our witch Mariel who doesn’t always have the greatest grasp on magic and when one of her spells goes awry, she ends up summoning a demon. The catch being that the demon can’t leave until she agrees to a bargain and giving him her soul, which she has no intention of doing. Which of course leads to a whole lot of chaos. This that had me laughing out load multiple times. The characters were really well fleshed out and I loved their interactions together. It can be cheesy at times but the romance is so adorable that you can’t help but love it. I also loved the overall theme of taking control or your own life and standing up for yourself even with those closest to you.A perfect read if you love fake dating, forced proximity with a healthy dose of spiciness. I gave this 4 out of 5 stars.
This was a funny, easy read. It was full of wit and charm. While it was a bit too horny for me, I appreciated that most romance fans like a bit more sex in their books than me. There were parts that were predictable, but all in all I had a good time reading the book.
I really liked the characters. They were both relatable and had a good amount of humour in them. It felt like they were nice well rounded characters who had decent backstories. Though the backing characters were a little more like caricature, they were also fun to read about.
I loved Mariel's plant magic so much. I loved that she was so good at it even though she couldn't see it and how Ozroth saw it instantly. I also like how the demon realm was made out to be this society that was so much better than ours despite the whole soulless demon thing.
I don't know if I will read on or not. I might do out of curiosity, though I do think this would have worked well as a standalone.
This was so delightfully charming and so sweet. I had a blast reading this and it managed to get a lot of story in while also spending a lot of time on the characters and their own personal arcs.
The characters were a blast, well-rounded, fun, and engaging. Ozroth and Mariel were the perfect main characters for this story and their romance was unbelievably sweet, I thought it would get sickening eventually but it didn't. It was very cute. Mariel's best friends are also real stars in this novel and add a great deal to the story.
This book is 'technically' enemies to lovers but it is the softest enemies to lovers I have ever read and I'm not at all mad about it.
Overall, this was a sweet, funny read that I really enjoyed and I can't wait to read more from this author in the future.
A fun and easy read, very enjoyable and funny. I loved the characters, especially the main characters best friend. I'll definitley be following this author
I gave this book 4 stars, I loved it!!
Thanks so much to Netgalley and Orion Publishing group for allowing me to have an e-arc of this book, in exchange for my honest opinions. And another massive thank you to Sarah Hawley for writing it!!
This book is an easy to read paranormal romance, which focuses on a young witch belittled by her parents and nearly everyone around her. She is struggling to
find her path in this world, and just wants to focus on her nature magic and getting through traumatic family dinners with her parents! However, after a small bit of
magic goes awry, she manages to summon a sexy, powerful demon who insists on her making a bargain to
take away her soul.
This books has enemies to lovers (kinda) with the brooding, charismatic demon holding a mortal soul giving him feelings that he doesn't really understand. All
he knows is to hold his place in the demon society, he needs this soul!
I really enjoyed this book, and I loved the way the characters had their banter from the start. My personal favourite character was the witches best friend Calladia, cause you gotta love a fist fighting witch!
I thought the timeline was just a bit quick and thought this could have been stretched out a bit more, just to make the romance seem a bit more real. However I loved watching the chemistry come together between Oz and Mariel and they do make a really cute couple.
I highly recommend it to paranormal romance readers, everyone should read this book!
This book was adorable! It made me laugh out loud on several occasions. I will absolutely be continuing with this series!
When I started reading I thought it was going to be the usual paranormal rom-com, witches who needs to manage their powers etc etc.
I was wrong as I started laughing after some pages and was in love with the story when it came to the summoning
Which is the most weird and hilarious summoning I read since Wyrd Sister even there's no soap or wooden spoon.
The rest is a very entertaining, hilarious, and compelling story that made me laugh and root for the characters.
I think the author is a good storyteller and can't wait to read other books by this author.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine
A delightful cosy fantasy.
Mariel, a witch in her 20s, is struggling to live up to her families expectations. One day, whilst practicing her magic, she accidentally summons Ozroth the Ruthless. Whilst Ozroth is hoping for a soul bargain to redeem his reputation in the demon world, Mariel is desperate to get rid of the demon.
This feel good, cosy read follows Mariel, a witch obsessed with baking and the natural world. During the book we follow her female friendships, familial relationships, as well as the development of a relationship between herself and Ozroth.
Although predictable in many ways, this book can be compared to a hot cup of tea on a cold day. I would highly recommend to anyone who is a fan of the cosy fantasy genre.
Just the title of this book makes you want to instantly read it to find out what this paranormal romance contains. This book has enemies to lovers and fake relationship tropes with a paranormal twist and it was executed really well.
It is a very slow burn romance so did take a while for me to get pulled into the story and invested in the romance. but then we are blessed with some tension building and explicit scenes which I have to admit wasn't expecting.
Overall a good read and would recommend to anyone who is a fan of paranormal romance
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this Arc in exchange for an honest review
A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon
By Sarah Hawley
Pub Date 9th March
Genre: Romance, Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Publication:Orion Publishing Group, Gollancz
When Mariel attempts to summon flour for a muffin recipe, she instead summons Ozroth , and he refuses to leave until she makes a deal with him. This book started strong but by 50% the way threw it was not gripping me. I didn't feel for either of the characters. It's felt more like a slapstick comedy than a parnamol romance. It's a cute story though.
#dejavu #gifted#arc #NetGalley #bookstagram #bookreview #goodreads #booktok #bookclub #booklover #storygraph #arcreader #silkybookloverfun #letsread #tiktokviral #readersoftiktok
Cute! A light-hearted read for fans of a classic fake-dating trope or anyone looking for a quick laugh with a touch of smut. It wasn't for me but I see the appeal.
3.75⭐️
I really wanted to like this book and I did in a lot of ways but it just took me so long to finish, it didn’t really grip me as much as I had wanted. I did like the characters and the world the author created which is why it’s a 3.75.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this arc in exchange of my honest review
Okay, so let me start off this review by saying that I don’t think the author is bad, and neither do I think her work is bad. It’s just that some things stood out to me as allocentric, and it made me very uncomfortable.
I know I’m in the minority here, and I am not attacking anyone who loved this book. I simply want to point out what I felt uncomfortable with, and identify some language that’s reductive and that we should stop using.
Let’s hop in.
Language usage
This might contain some spoilers, but I tried to take quotes from the beginning of the book to illustrate my points.
First off, the book starts off with a character telling the FMC that she needs to be fucked because she’s too uptight. “Then conjure a fuck buddy. Seriously, you’re way too uptight about this whole Spark family legacy thing.”
I’m sorry, WHAT? And the characters just breeze past it. No one corrects her for saying such a gross (and misogynistic) thing. The characters act like it’s normal when it’s very much not.
Another example is this quote, said by the same character to the FMC: “Have you asked the gyno to check for cobwebs?” in reference to the FMC not having slept with someone in 5 years. I swear my mouth hung open when I read this. It’s so gross, and once again, the characters don’t point out that this kind of language is straight up a-phobic, and disrespectful. Why would you ever ask anyone that? It makes my skin crawl.
Family dynamics and verbal abuse
Mariel, our FMC, gets a lot of abuse from her family for not being able to perform the same magic as they do. Frankly, she’s remarkably well-adjusted for someone who is constantly verbally abused by her family, especially her mother. And the rest of her family just let her mother get away with it.
Mariel’s mother is a cartoon character. She says the most unbelievable stuff, like “I’ve never seen her so dedicated to her craft! It’s amazing how motivating good dick can be.” As if there was something wrong with Mariel and all she needed was a good dick and she would be perfect.
It makes me nauseous. There’s a long history of asexual people going through corrective rape and this type of language is so aphobic.
Mariel eventually stands up to her mother and sets boundries, but I feel weird that it was the MMC that caused her to do so. It feels like he “fixed” her, which isn’t necessarily the case. He gave her some confidence, but I would have preferred therapy.
Overall story & plot
I felt no connection to Mariel and Oz, and I felt no connection between the two of them. I completely skipped over the sex scenes because it fell very flat. Their whole relationship felt flat. Aside from all the things mentioned above, I didn’t root for them as a couple.
The pacing was also off, and the whole story felt very shallow.
Overall, I didn’t enjoy this, and I can’t recommend it.
A book about a witch, I am there for it, This was such a cute one and I am so glad I got to read it. I loved the dual POVs for Mariel and Oz and I just loved the back-and-forth. Definitely one to add to your list if you want a cute small town romance.
More romances like this please.
When I requested this book all I saw was witch and was just automatically there for it, and thank god I was, this book is charming, fun and just gently pulls you in from the first page and I loved every second of it.
The chemistry on paper these two characters build gently in this book is just perfection. They have such a good connection and it makes for a funny and creative dynamic that I would love to see more of in the future - these two are just that endearing. Mariel is just a sweetpea, honestly, she's a friend goal and Ozroth for a demon is very human really.
It does give me cosy fantasy romance vibes, which is never gonna lose with me of course, Mariel and Ozroth are great characters that really shine on the page and the plot, I love it. There are good twists, cute romance and moments that make you hold your breath just enough to make this book a great read!
Utterly charming, I loved it and if you love a combination of magical and romance, this is the book for you.
Thanks to Netgalley and @gollancz for the ARC!
I really thought I was going to love this book but I ended up finishing it purely due to having already read most of it so I might as well continue
I loved the premise, didn’t love the execution
The main character was supposed to be 28 but she and her friends lacked emotional maturity (and made jokes out of one of them having severe anger management issues). The characters spoke like teenagers
Mariel Spark, I kept thinking of the author Muriel Spark, was so annoyingly passive for 80% of the book
I enjoyed the world, I’d have liked there to be more of an explanation of the world
I’d have loved to know more about the uncle too as he was the most interesting character of the whole book
The sexy times were descriptive but the word choices were interesting…
This read like satire but it wasn’t. This one really wasn’t for me but thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review
Thank you to @gollancz for ending me an eARC.
This paranormal romcom, set in the fictional small town of Glimmer Falls, was a fun, light read. Don’t let the cute cover fool you though - there’s definitely some heat too!
FMC Mariel was likeable and I enjoyed her character development. It was also great reading about a larger FMC who was confident and happy in her body. I do think it could have been made clearer whether she was mid-size or plus size though. The cover art suggests mid-size but, to me, moments in the book had me imagining her as plus size.
Mariel’s nature magic, along with the overall magic system, were explained in a way that really drew me in. I also liked the variety of supernaturals that lived in Glimmer Falls.
The book is dual POV between Mariel and Oz. I thought both characters had a distinctive voice and enjoyed both perspectives. Oz also had a lot of character growth and his confusion was both funny and sweet.
I do think this could have been shorter. While I liked Mariel’s co-workers and seeing her work environment it was not essential to the story and incidents that happened there could have been combined with other events. There were a lot of threads to follow and while author did link all of these together I think getting rid of the scenes at Mariel’s workplace and some of her narcissist mother’s dramas could have moved things along without feeling like anything was missing.
Overall I liked this book but didn’t love it. I might still try the next in the series because the setting was so cute.
Read For:
• Grumpy/Sunshine romance & fake dating ❤️
• Magical small town
• A larger FMC comfortable in her body
• Setting boundaries with family
• Gilmore Girls style town meeting but add magic ✨
• Tricky demon deals
Rating: 3/5🌟
Spice Level: 4/5🔥
Despite being prophesied to be the strongest witch in generations, Mariel Spark is far from competent at spellcraft. When she accidentally summons Ozroth the Ruthless, a soul-bargaining demon, both are confused. Ozroth's last soul bound itself to him, and ever since, he's been feeling things. Lots of things. Like how much he wants to kiss the nature-loving witch. But while gaining Mariel's soul would put him back in his master's good grace, it would also strip her of everything he's growing to love about her.
I was desperate to read this book after I read an excerpt in last year's Romance Buzz Books. I'm so happy to say it didn't disappoint. The humour quickly hooked me, but the characters are so well-written that you can't help but feel for Oz and Mariel immediately. Both of them are weighed down by expectation, honour, duty, and guilt. The chemistry between them is top-tier, a mix of grumpy/sunshine, enemies-to-lovers, with a heap of forced proximity. The intimacy was well-written and plentiful. But there's also a sweetness to their connection. I really loved the way Oz boosted Mariel's self-worth and how she treated his newly discovered feelings with sensitivity. I love a grumpy/sunshine dynamic, and it definitely worked perfectly here. Add in a myriad of magical species, a town crisis, and an overbearing family dynamic with more than a hint of neighbourly rivalry, plus a couple of kickass best friends and you have a delightful paranormal rom-com with real heart. I look forward to reading more from this author.
Overall Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Heat Rating: 🔥🔥🔥
Emotional Rating: 💓🙈😂😬😂💔😢😍😡🤤🔥🥰💔😢💓😍🥰
*Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to leave an honest review*
(Apologies for the delay in posting, I've been sick. I have also uploaded the same review to Barnes & Noble, but awaiting moderation)
This was a lovely book to read. It was a lot of fun - the worldbuilding is inventive and I really fell in love with how the author presented their world. The way that magic was ingrained naturally into every aspect of their little community was great; it felt really vibrant and lovely, which made it more heartbreaking when this life was threatened. I also liked how the book developed the concept of the “demon plane” – I liked that Oz’s world was just as developed with its own culture and sense of community, and that aspects of his world were actually gentler and more accepting than the human world. I particularly liked the idea of communal child rearing - that was very sweet.
Whilst I did enjoy a lot of the external plot, the main highlight of this book was the very lovely romance at the center of it. Mariel was a really lovely, bright character; her insecurity was presented well and I loved seeing her come out of her shell and learn to stand up for herself. Her love and affection for her town and nature was palpable. Oz was so sweet under his gruff exterior, and his care and affection for Mariel made him really endearing. He was grumpy without being mean.
Their chemistry was super hot - there was a lot of sexual tension between them before they started acting on their feelings and I just thought it was deliciously done. The way their feelings developed felt natural to me, and it was made clear how and why they would fall in love with each other. The way they defended and protected one another worked really well for me - culminating in a very touching and emotional conclusion to one of the central external plots. The sex scenes in this book are very hot and steamy, too, which I wasn’t expecting.
I will say that the actual ending was a little bit blunt - I think it could have done with another chapter or perhaps an epilogue to round things off a little bit, but as a whole I thought this was a very solid fantasy romance book. It ticked a lot of boxes - it had good, quirky worldbuilding, two likeable mains, and a lovely, sexy romance at its heart. I would recommend it if you’re looking for a romance that’s fun and magical. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy of this book.
Content Notes: Toxic relationship with a parent, violent death of a parent (in past), violence, scenes of injury and illness, emotional abuse, public humiliation, animal death / animal illness / animal injury (explicitly described), gore, on-page sex.