This book was really cute and I loved the couple in it and the setting and everything really, except that I found that I couldn't enjoy a good half of it as much as I wanted because it used my least favourite trope, when lovers don't talk to each other and so they spend most of the book struggling with a problem that could be fixed in five minutes. It was also a little predictable

Morgan should have told Rory about the love potion immediately. Honestly, I think the fact that she didn't is almost as bad as giving someone a love potion to begin with! Rory deserved to know that her feelings were being messed with. And although the consent issues in this book were definitely handled well, I just hated Morgan the whole time for not telling her.

I loved the magic in this book. It was interesting to see the rituals and spells woven into the life of everyday witches, using potion-infused bath products and drinks that are spelled to create different effects was so interesting. Honestly this was the sort of book that I would like to live in if I could.

Overall, the issues around not telling Rory was really the only problem I had with this book. The plot, the humour, the characters, the settings all added up to be really entertaining. I would recommend it as a good witchy read.

💕🔮🧪 This Spells Disaster by Tori-Anne Martin 🧪🔮💕


⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5


Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Publishers for this ARC in return for my honest review! 💕

I was a tad late to the party in finishing this book - but I am so glad I did as I read it during the absolutely best time of the year for a sapphic witchy romance.

The blurb reads as follows: Fake dating gets a magical twist in this enchanting queer romantic comedy where a witch worries that the real feelings brewing between her and her crush were sparked by an accidental love potion, and the only way out of the disastrous spell is a healthy dose of the truth--drink up, witches.

This book follows Morgan Greenwood, a potion-witch and self-proclaimed hot mess, through the trials and tribulations of a hardcore crush on fellow coven member and spell-casting champion, elemental witch Rory Sandler. Morgan has been hopelessly crushing on Rory for years, the flames of which were fanned even further when Rory quit her famed life to bartend at the local magical nightclub, the Empty Chalice in Harborage, Maine. It is here, that Morgan drunkenly offers her services as “Fake Girlfriend” to Rory at the biennial New England Witches’ Festival (NEWT); to her object horror and delight, Rory accepts her help. This offers Morgan the perfect opportunity to show Rory she is perfect girlfriend material - not just fake girlfriend material!

This agreement begins a firm friendship between the two, as they prepare to fool everyone (most importantly Rory’s pushy parents) that they are actually a couple. The more they pretend, the more real their relationship becomes. And as they become further acquainted and begin to attend events together, they soon learn more about each other outside of Morgan’s hot-mess exterior and Rory’s freckles and dark eyes. When Rory reveals her anxiety about the upcoming festival and facing her parents who are attempting to pressure her back into the performing circuit, Morgan brews a relaxation potion for her, with more than she bargained for. Rather than a harmless relaxation potion, Morgan’s intentions and swoon-worthy romantic feelings towards Rory, accidentally produce a love potion instead, breaking one of the most sacred and important Witch Council Laws.

When Morgan realises what has happened, she must work to break the love potion, all whilst keeping up the guise of a dutiful, devoted girlfriend for the watchful eyes of Rory’s parents, their intended partner for her and the rest of the world (both magical and mundane). Her plans to prove to Rory how incompatible they are for one another, backfire when everything she does or says, draws Rory closer. And despite wanting to come clean about everything, her feelings and Rory’s happiness prevent her from telling her the truth. When the truth is revealed, it threatens the livelihood and happiness of all those involved, but may also reveal more about the couple than meets the eye.

This Spells Disaster was such a fun and cosy, witchy read.

Morgan is a hot-mess and self-proclaimed “messy witch” who appears to be barely keeping it together. A previous bad relationship and words from her ex that continue to weigh heavy on her mind, influence her everyday life. She has a shockingly poor perception of herself and is extremely doubtful as to the positive thoughts and feelings others have for her. I found her self-deprecation extremely relatable; the process by which she learns and grows is entirely realistic. I also found myself seeing a part of myself in her, as I have also always attributed my own self-worth and value to my accomplishments: so having a character that is fallible and relatable was refreshing. Despite her self-image, Morgan is a bright, bubbly, sunshiney witch; who is unfailingly loyal and determined to make others happy. This is shown through her offer to help Rory, her act of brewing a relaxation potion and the numerous occasions where she defends her “fake girlfriend” to her parents.

Rory is her kindred counterpart, she is also kind, caring and considerate; but also quiet and thoughtful. I also found her to be a wholly relatable character, particularly in her discussion of anxiety and the stigma surrounding mental illness. Her characterisation also went to show that you can have anxiety AND be a badass, it does not have to be one or the other.

Rory’s characterisation segue’s well into the numerous important topics this book discusses. On the surface, it is a cute, swoon-worthy, witchy romance; however, Martin openly discusses issues such as anxiety (as mentioned above), self-medication, loss of control, magical drugging and most importantly and prominently consent and sexual contact. As someone whose own research and career, focuses on the law pertaining to consent, I found that the representation of these issues in a cute romance, to be extremely well-executed and important! These are issues that should be discussed freely and openly, particularly given the over-saturation of non-consensual sex and domestic abuse in pop culture and media.

In addition to Rory and Morgan, this book features a cast of important and equally delightful characters including Hazel and Andy, Morgan and Rory’s friends and fellow coven members, Trevor (Andy’s mundane boyfriend) and Lilith (Rory’s sassy feline familiar). The witchy community in this book is also noteworthy - Morgan’s coven is very much so her family and not just because her matriarchs are also part of the group. Harborage very much so exudes, small-town vibes; everyone knows everyone and gossip spreads like wildfire (as proven by the speed at which the numerous meet-cute scenarios Morgan and Rory discuss before settling on their final cover story. Moreover, the fact that Morgan works at a witchy, independent version of Bath and Body Works was giving me all the cutesy vibes.

Whilst I definitely loved this book, it wasn’t perfect and there were some issues. Whilst Morgan is categorically a “messy” character, she was portrayed as slightly childish and definitely naive. Particularly given she was completely adamant against telling Rory the truth, despite being pushed to do so by her friend group. This was worsened by the fact she went out of her way to try and upset Rory. Most of the issues, if not all, would have been solved with clear communication, not only on Morgan’s side but on Rory’s also. I found this to be particularly frustrating.

Additionally, it would have been nice if the book was a tad steamier - this is entirely personal preference, but as an adult romance touching on sex and consent, it would have been good to see more representation in this regard; particularly given that Rory gifts Morgan chocolate O’s.

That being said the world-building was excellently reasoned and well-thought-out - I enjoyed the concept; of the mundanes “or non-magical folk” having knowledge and acceptance of witches and magic. The author’s justifications as to why magic worked the way it did and the reasoning behind each witch’s affinities for a particular sect of magic were particularly well-explained. I also enjoyed all the magical objects/products and thought that the festival (which gave me ren-faire vibes) was the perfect place to showcase magic and world-building in a way that wasn’t in your face.

This book follows a few of the most popular tropes including grumpy sunshine (sort of), one-bed (kind of), and miscommunication (DEFINITELY).

In all, this was the perfect witchy, sapphic romance for spooky reason. I loved the characters and the world; with more honourable mention to Lilith. I highly recommend it for all those looking for a book which embodies the perfect sapphic, witchy romance.

I really liked the sound of this one but just couldn't get into it no matter how hard I tried. I'm not sure if it's down to the fact that I've read quite a few witchy romances but I really struggled with wanting to continue this one so I've had to dnf it. Sorry!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This Spells Disaster is an adorable date spoof romantic comedy about two bisexual witches, Morgan and Rory. Morgan, under the influence of love and alcohol, offers to become Rory's fake girlfriend to help him when Rory's parents try forcing her to enter spell-casting competitions. After a night of contemplation, Rory accepts.

Things go well for a while, as they figure out how to convince everyone of how they met, practice fake kisses, learn more about each other, actually love each other, etc., until Morgan realises that she may have accidentally given Rory a love potion when she mislabeled the potion's ingredients and that everything Rory was feeling wasn't real. Because this was against the laws of magic, Morgan panicked and rejected Rory's consent. But instead of telling Rory, Morgan embarks on a mission of self-destruction over the things she believes about herself because of her toxic ex. Fake dating and witchcraft – where can I sign up? I enjoyed this one - it was fun. I like Rory, and it's nice to get to know her. Morgan has so much going on that I don't always know her well. This is a cute fake dating story filled with witches and magic. It took me a while to understand the story, but I'm glad I kept reading. This was a fun magic book; I loved the characters and the writing style. This fascinating sapphic witchcraft reading.

‘This Spells Disaster’ has the makings of a great book - magic, sapphic fake dating, potions gone wrong, and an actual festival of magic, but it still fell a little flat for me, unfortunately.

Morgan works in her parents potion shop, and has a massive crush on Rory, a spell casting champion, who has recently given all that up, and is currently bartending in Morgan’s New England home town. Rory’s family aren’t happy that she’s turned her back on competing, and, since they’re all heading to the same magical witch festival, Morgan drunkenly suggests that they could ‘date’ to prove to her parents that she’s settled into a new life, and is happier for it. Completely fake of course, no real feelings involved. However Rory does seems to be falling, and Morgan is thrilled…until she realises she might of accidentally slipped her a love potion. Whoops.

I’m not sure why I didn’t fully connect with this book. I think I felt slightly held at arms length - despite wanting to, I didn’t feel fully immersed in the story, nor was I really rooting for the two main characters. There is a LOT of miscommunication between the them - it’s quite frustrating, and not in a fun way. I liked both of the characters individually, but I just couldn’t get on board with them as a couple.

I also really wished we’d seen more of Morgan’s friends! They’re introduced at the start, one is half heartedly involved in the main story, and the other shows up briefly again by the end. I would have loved to of seen both of them more actively involved in the story, as they seemed so interesting.

The way magic is integrated into the world is quite cool, and I did love the festival setting - I Iiked how witches could let loose a little more, as they were surrounded by magic, and didn’t have to worry about unsettling anyone.

The writing is also pretty strong! Despite the plot leaving me feeling a bit empty, the writing was always enjoyable, and I would be willing to read more books by this author (and even ones set in this same world - I really do want more time with Hazel and Andy, Morgan’s friends!)

Overall, it is a pretty decent read if you’re looking for some magical sapphic fantasy rep but, sadly, I’m not raving about it. I can definitely see others loving it though!

Thank you to the publishers, and Netgalley, for the copy to review.

This was such a fun magical read, i loved the characters and the writing style. Such a fun book, definitely the perfect book to curl up with a cup of tea while its raining.
3.5

This was a really fun sapphic witchy read, despite the multiple words in the arc missing out letters, therefore having to decipher some words for the story to make sense. Would recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for the advance reader copy.

This is a cute fake dating story sprinkled with witches and magic.
I did find it took a while to get into the story, but was happy I kept reading.
I took off a star because I really don’t like the miscommunication trope in romance books because it’s there for drama and I want a cozy romance.

There’s some good backstory and side characters who I imagine could have their own stories.

Overall a nice read.

This book is really engaging. And more so it is sweet, sharp, satirical, pointed and fun. The chemistry between these two shines and feels organic. Overall, reading this book was time well spent. I loved it!

Fake dating and witches - where do I sign up? I really enjoyed this one - it was so much fun. I really loved Rory and enjoyed getting to know her. Morgan had so much going on I did not always feel like I knew her well enough. Miscommunication trope is not something I enjoy and I sometimes felt this one went too far. However I did enjoy the book and loved getting to see where this adventure took us.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌶️
🐈‍⬛🔥🃏🍫⚗️

This Spells Disaster is a cute fake-dating, sapphic romcom, about two bisexual witches, Morgan and Rory. Morgan, being under the influence of a crush and alcohol, suggests to be Rory's fake girlfriend to help her with Rory's parents who are trying to force her back into spellcasting competitions, and after a night of thinking about it, Rory agrees.

Things go well for a bit, where they come up with how they're going to convince people how they meet, practice fake kissing, learn more about each other, fall in real love with each other, etc etc, until Morgan realizes she may have accidentally given Rory a love potion when she mislabeled potion ingredients, and everything Rory was feeling wasn't real. Since this is against magical law, Morgan is both freaking out about this and also taking away Rory's will to consent. But instead of talking to Rory about it, Morgan goes on a self-spiraling mission because of things she believes about herself because of a toxic ex.

I personally don't like miscommunication tropes, but what I did love about this book, is that Morgan learned her lesson, and Rory made sure she learned it. I also loved the witch vibes within this book. It gave me Practical Magic vibes, but modern. I loved the characters, the way this was written, and the conclusion, it's a very good
whitchy sapphic rom-com.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Books for a copy of the ebook. This review is left voluntarily.

There is absolutely no need for a miscommunication trope of this magnitude in a sapphic book, when we, the sapphic community, are well known for valuing communication.

This book was okay - it was an easy going cosy romance with a twist of fantasy. Morgan proposes a fake-dating scenario to her crush, Rory, in an attempt to convince her family she is happily settled in a small town. The coven attend a festival and hijinks ensue. Morgan is convinced she accidentally gave Rory a love potion and becomes consumed by anxiety and guilt, and instead of communicating this like a normal person, decides to attempt to 'break' the spell by being mean to Rory.

I, and I cannot stress this enough, would really dislike Morgan if she was real. The moment she decided to be purposefully mean to Rory I considered DNFing the book because it made me so irate. Just imagining being on the other side of that made me so sad and pissed off, and I'm reading a ROMCOM. Why am I sad and pissed off?? She's also just such a fucking mess (derogatory) - I wanted to shake some sense into her. All logic goes out the window when she just decides she must have given Rory a love potion. I might just be too straight forward and direct for this book because the mental maths she was doing was insane. She jumped to conclusions with Olympic level skill.

The miscommunication trope was way too much for me. I don't really mind it as people as a group tend to miscommunicate, but there's no way people are pulling these kinds of mental gymnastics to avoid ONE conversation that would have ended the book HALF way through. ESPECIALLY sapphic people. It totally overpowered any aspect of fake dating and the fun things that come with that.

The writing was also difficult to become immersed in - there was a lot of telling not showing, a lot of bland descriptions, and a lot of awkward dialogue. A lot of this book felt heavy handed to be honest.

I did like the discussions of consent though - it's always great to see a romance book do that.

Two stars for Lilith (cat), Hazel (the only one with sense), Rory (hot)

Thank you to Penguin & Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this fun quirky book

fake dating
magic and spells

whats not to like about this book

rory sandler is a champion elemental witch
morgan greenwood is a potion maker

both need each other to fix a problem they both have so fake dating is the answer but when magic is in the mix watch everything to pear shaped

a funny quirky read that kept me reading as loved the chemistry between rory and morgan...

will be keeping an eye out for more of this author books

thank you to netgalley for this arc!

i really enjoyed this book! fake dating is one of my favourite tropes, and i’ll love anything with sapphic witches, so this was perfect.

i did think there was a bit too much miscommunication between the mc and her love interest, but it wasn’t too bad and did make sense with the storyline.

i loved how the relationship developed, with morgan already having a crush on rory at the start of the book and then the feelings growing deeper. i also really enjoyed how magic worked in it, and morgan’s grans shop was so interesting.

highly recommend!

2.5
This book ticks all the boxes. Sapphic? Tick. Witches? Tick. Fake dating? Tick. But sadly, this book disappointed me and fell short of my expectations.

The story follows potion which Morgan as she battles her crush on the very attractive, local bartender, Rory. The tale follows Morgan as she battles her feelings, her accidental love potion disaster, and her self doubt. The story follows the very typical romance/rom-com set up of 3 acts, with a very typical third act breakup.

As usual with my arc reviews I will start with the negatives. The main issue I had with this book was that I was unable to connect with the characters in any way. I absolutely adore books with strong characters who are multi-dimensional. But for me these characters fell flat. Morgan’s only personality traits throughout the whole book is that she’s a bit of a klutz and that she’s obsessed with Rory, and after reading 384 pages of it, it soon starts to get old. Rory is probably the strongest character in this book, but because it follows Morgan’s POV we don’t actually get to see any of her and it’s heartbreaking because her character, by far, has the most depth and personality.

Then we move onto the issue I had with the pacing of the book. It’s all well and good advertising this book as being a book about a love potion, and that being CENTRAL to the plot. But when said love potion does not actually impact the plot in anyway shape or form until 44% or the way through the book, it’s less of a central theme and more of device to keep the story going. The way this book is marketed makes it look like the love potion was going to be in the running from the get-go, but alas, it goes totally unmentioned/noticed until 44% through. If you’ve read the book, you’ll also understand my further frustration with this plot point but in order to avoid spoilers that’s all i’ll say. This makes the pacing of the book totally out of whack. The first 10% is fine, character introduction, setting up the plot etc. etc. then the next 5% is okay as the plot starts to get going. Then the next 30% was a challenge to get through because we were going over the same things again and again: “Wow Rory is such a talented witch, I have crazy heart eyes for her, it’s such a shame she won’t ever like me for real thought because I’m only little old me.” Then the love potion is introduced and things go from bad to worse because then we get to add the miscommunication trope into the mix and I am vehemently against that trope with every fibre of my being, so that is all i’m saying about that.

So now that’s all the negatives out of the way, I shall move onto the positives, which for this book was that if you strip it back to its bare bones of being a romance book and remove the witchy aspect of things, the book as a romance is an okay read and can be enjoyable at times. Especially if you can look past the miscommunication trope. So taking this book as is, it’s not revolutionary, but it is a decent romance book, and as aforementioned, Rory is an enjoyable character. It’s just the way the story has been put onto the paper that lets this down in certain areas. I think this book could’ve done with losing 50-100 pages and then it would have been more focused and enjoyable, and the pacing would have worked much better, as we would’ve gotten to the main crux of the plot significantly faster.

So alas, this book was not for me, but that does not mean that it won’t be for you. If you enjoy an easy-going romance and a light read, this book is for you, but if you prefer your fake dating a bit more high angst then this might let you down in certain areas.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc of this book!

Thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

At the start of this, I was really quite tempted to DNF - Morgan's PoV takes a lot of getting used to, and, at least early on, this book would've really benefited from being multi-PoV. The writing style is also pretty straightforward, sometimes bordering on being a bit annoying - being told 1000 times outright that Morgan is just so in love with Rory fucking Sandler can get a bit grating.

But I'm glad I stuck with it, because Rory alone was reason enough to read this book. She is a super interesting character, and I'd actually love to see a novel specifically about her and her competing (without too many spoilers, the scenes of her performing magic near the end of the book are fantastic and I'd love more of it).

But surprisingly, I also eventually really got on Morgan's side. If you don't like failure to communicate tropes, you won't like Morgan at all, but to me there was something very real about Morgan's anxieties and lack of communication here. Her viewpoint was compelling in the latter half of the book, and I found myself really torn between sympathy for Morgan and concern for Rory. I can't say that if I was Morgan, I would've acted differently (even though what she did was wrong), and I think that really resonated with me, especially because she is given the space to learn and grow. Though I think the failure to communicate trope will put some readers off, I hope that it doesn't, because it's actually handled better in this book than I think I've read before.

Overall, if you like Payback's a Witch, fake dating and sapphic witches, and can deal with a miscommunication scenario, you'll like this.

I really liked the idea of this. Lighthearted witchy vibes and sapphic fake dating! I’m sold.

2 stars feels a little harsh but unfortunately I really didn’t get on with the writing style. It felt a little ‘Morgan said this, Rory said that, Morgan did this, Rory felt that’. Was very much in the realm of telling rather than showing. It will probably work for some people, but I just couldn’t engage with it and got quite bored. Felt like I was forcing myself to read it. If I’m honest I probably would have DNF’d it if it hadn’t been an ARC read.

I did like that it was pretty slow burn with likeable characters and there was some fun dialogue. Plus, lots of focus on consent and the issue of magic and consent, which gets a big tick. Lilith the cat familiar was cool, she should have featured a lot more!

Really wanted to love it because yay for sapphic witchy books!! But it really didn’t work for me.
Could be worth a try if you want a light queer witchy romance.

This spells disaster is a really great story about finding love. Add in a few troupes like fake dating and one bed plus a little witchy magic and you get this.

When Morgan drunkenly tells her crush Rory that she will be her fake girlfriend, she doesn't quite know what she has let herself in for. Rory's family are trying to push her back into the performing world but Rory wants to prove she is happy exactly where she is. The stress starts mounting and to try and help out, Morgan uses her skills in potion making to make a relaxation spell for Rory. But when a few mislabelled ingredients make their way into the mix and with Morgan mind somewhere else, will it be a relaxation potion or something else entirely?

I really like the premise of this book and the story was really good. I found parts of the book to be a little more slow burn than I like and was just waiting for Morgan to come clean when she had so many opportunities. However the characters had me in a choke hold. Each and every one had so much to love about them.

Overall, it gave me a really great story with lovable characters and I liked the setting and vibe that the whole book had.

This was a really cute read with lots of my favourite tropes. When I saw it described as a sapphic How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days I was sold!

While I did appreciate the aspects of the stories that could be compared to my favourite rom com, it didn’t completely meet the mark for me. While we had fake dating and a bit of chaos I felt like the overall feel of the characters were overly young - this may come down to how big the emphasis is on the miscommunication trope in this one - I just didn’t gel with Morgan as our narrator as well as I maybe could have.

A real plus for the story is the world that it is set in - I absolutely loved that world building and the vibes with the witch council and the festivals - that was all very cool. I would definitely be up for other stories set amongst these witches, perhaps with different tropes.

Overall a decent witchy rom com, very readable, but perhaps not standout amongst the many out there.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my advanced copy of this story.

My favourite sub-genre: paranormal romance. My favourite trope: fake dating. Rep I seek out: sapphic. Yes, I was very much looking forward to reading this one.

Morgan is a potions witch, who happily lives in the same small town she grew up in. She's bubbly and outgoing, except around Rory, who she has somewhat of a crush on. Rory's parents are pressuring her to get back to spell competitions and away from her small town bartender life, and Morgan suggests fake dating at an upcoming festival to shield Rory from the pressure.

The story is told entirely from Morgan's point of view, which works well as there's a lot of second-guessing from her about what's going on with Rory. In fact, the book wouldn't really have worked with dual point of view.

I really enjoyed the witchy world setup - the mundanes know about them but the witches take care to hide how dangerous their magic can be. Most of the book is set at a witch festival with stalls, competitions and music. The cosy magic vibes had me happily curled up with a blanket (luckily it was a cooler day).

This book has a strong theme of self-confidence. Morgan suffers from a lack of confidence, no thanks to a manipulative ex-girlfriend. Seeing Rory build that confidence back up made me so happy, particularly in the discussions of what types of magic are 'important'. Be aware going in that Rory has some issues of her own, in the form of parents who try to control her.

Read this if you want a cosy, witchy romance with women empowering women.

4.5 stars, rounded to 5.