This Spells Disaster
Sapphic Witches with Issues
Author: Martin, Tori Anne
Year first published: 2023
Original Language: English
Genre: Romance, LGBTQ
Ah yes, the ever so classic tale of Fake Dating your Very Real crush.
I'll fully admit, I picked this one up because I was drawn to the cover. The art is gorgeous!
It's been a while since I've read a romance novel, and I quited enjoyed this one, especially after the heavier stuff I've been reading recently. It's not a particularly long read, and it was engaging and rather lighthearted, which is pretty much just what I needed.
The story takes place in a world where witches have actual discernable magic, but is otherwise a modern, somewhat mundane setting in New England. It's third person, focusing primarily on our heroine Morgan, a witch who works in her family's potion shop to make the magical equivalent of Bath and Body Works. They sell soaps, lotions, lip balm, any kind of skin care product you can think of with a hit of magic for certain effects, like a lip balm that changes to whatever color best suits you, or sunblock that also cools you down. Morgan is down bad for a cute bartender at her favorite watering hole, but not enough to actually talk to her, after all, the bartender, Rory, use to be the national champion in competitive spellcasting.
Rory, while bringing some drinks to Morgan's table with her friends, mentions her troubles with overbearing parents visiting soon for the upcoming witch festival, so Morgan, in a drunken haze, offers to be her fake date to get her parents off her back.
Fake dating is actually one of my favorite tropes, whether it leads to romance or not. When done well it can be incredibly fun, and its even better when the people involved have actual chemistry. Speaking of chemistry, this story tacks on another popular trope that shows up in a lot of magical related stories, the ever popular love potion. This book subverts the usual Love Potion plot by emphasizing that not only is it bad and illegal, but it's accidental as well. Once Morgan realizes that she might have accidentally made a love potion and given it to her crush turned fake girlfriend, she decides that the only course of action is to make an ass of herself on purpose in an effort to get Rory to break up with her.
Which is uh...kinda the opposite of romance?
The two have good chemistry, and the dialogue and scenes between them are really cute and sweet, making it clear that if they had just been adults about the whole thing, they could have started an actual relationship without all of the built in deception inherent in a fake dating situation. It can get really frustrating because Morgan makes some very head scratching choices, the biggest of all being not telling Rory about the potion and instead just deciding on her own that there's no way Rory's feelings could ever be genuine. And somehow all her flubs just end up endearing her to her fake girlfriend.
Morgan starts being distant and dismissive, and it was actually pretty uncomfortable seeing Rory keep getting hurt by Morgan's willful awfulness.
To be honest, the most interesting part of the story was Morgan's potion experimentation, trying to reverse engineer love potion recipes in order to try to make an antidote. I find this kind of stuff really fascinating, and honestly you could make a whole novel just based on Morgan trying to build and refine potions, as she's very knowledgable despite saying that she has no creativity or ambition in that department. I'm a firm believer that in creation or art of any kind, you have to know the rules before you can start breaking and bending them. For example, if you're cooking, you need to first know which things go together before you can start expermenting.
People that are able to cook by "instinct" usually have already learned not just the basics, but have probably tried several recipes outside of their comfort zone. I know I'm that way for sure. I like to see other recipes to get familiar with tastes or ingredients I haven't worked with before, which helps me figure out what other uses they might have, such as say, Korean Doenjang, a fermented bean paste that adds a deep umami flavor to soups. But a good cook also knows that just because certain things taste good seperately doesn't mean they'll work well together.
That said, this book is kinda like that too. It has good elements, all the right ingredients, engaging characters, fun tropes, and good chemistry and banter, but it kinda misses the mark in terms of execution. I enjoyed it, but it I feel that having it be primarily romance holds it back. It was clearly written to be light and an easy read, but I feel like it could have just been so much more. It also lacked that Romance Novel Spice that the genre is usually known for, but overall it wasn't bad, just...not as good as it could have been.
Review posted 2024/02/22