Book Blurb:
Lucy Ansari has a magical life. Literally ― she’s a witch, managing a perfect little bookshop. And whenever she's a little lonely, she turns to Charles ― her beloved, ageing boss ― to keep her company.
Disaster strikes when Charles has a medical issue and his prickly (and gorgeous) grandson Grayson arrives. The English professor from Dublin has never bothered to visit before, but now he’s determined to look after Charles and his bookshop, and Lucy’s ideal life is thrown into disarray.
But Grayson is as stubborn as he is handsome, and he’s set on winning Lucy over, one way or another. As sparks fly between them, Lucy and Grayson may find themselves spellbound by more than just magic…
Tropes:
*Netgalley ALC *Fantasy *Witch FMC *Human MMC *Professor MMC *Enemies --> more
*Spice *forced proximity *Irish MMC *miscommunication/no communication *dual POV
*misunderstandings *Small town charm *Cozy fantasy *bookshop
Thoughts:
Lucy (FMC) is the manager at a local bookshop and she loves her job and her boss/store owner Charles. She still lives with her parents and they keep discussing how they wished she would apply herself and get a "real" job... but this is a real job, not everyone is meant to be a doctor (like her parents).
Lucy and Charles share time together and he is more of a stand in grandfather since her parents are distant and cold... they both also have magic. Things are about as good as can be at the book shop until Charles suffers a medical emergency and his handsome grandson comes to "help" at the book shop.
Grayson (MMC) is a professor in Dublin but is now taking a longer term break to help his grandfather, and to help run the store he would like to get to know his grandfather better after many years away. His parents died when he was young and he was sent to live with his Uncle over seas who didn't want him... it hurts that his grandparents didn't want him either but he wants to make this work.
Lucy sees Grayson as a danger to Charles and the bookstore... she doesn't understand why he has shown up now after so many years away other than to cause problems and she makes it known fairly quickly how little she wants him at the store.
Lucy and Grayson have an enemies (ish) relationship as they learn to work together in the store while Charles recovers and end up in a forced proximity situation which may just be the beginning of some new feelings for them... and they are not dislike.
But Grayson is going back to Ireland soon, would it really be wise for a relationship to start when it will be over due to distance before it really even begins?
Likes/Dislikes
I appreciated that Lucy cared for Charles so much he had lost his wife and she wasn't close to her parents it was really a found family.
I felt the narrators John Hartley and Maya Dhawan did a great job with telling the story and the voices making the characters clear and different from each other.
Lucy's magic seemed to be a back burner plot used to move the story along when it was necessary when it came to cleaning, changing clothes and helping people match to a book they would love and sending irritating hexes towards Grayson, might be a personal thing but I was hoping for a bit more with the magical parts to this book it kind of felt like an after thought. We don't get to see much of Charles magic or her parents magic but it was all for household chores for the most part. We really don't know much about the magical world or the community and the story didn't really need the magic part since it was such a small piece of the story.
I liked that the FMC had some small personal growth towards the end considering how prickly she was towards Grayson for a good majority of the book.
A big portion of this book focuses on miscommunication and no communication which was frustrating to me as even a small conversation at any of the points where there was tension would have been helpful to our couple, it's very repetitive when it comes to these issues.
Lucy and Grayson are in their 20's but their characters and their pranks and hexes read as much younger and immature. It really pulls from insta lust as Lucy and Grayson both discuss throughout how much they want the other one... even when they are at odds
I struggled to like Lucy throughout the book just because she was so mean/rude to Grayson for no good reason other than he was there trying to get to know his grandfather... she didn't bother to truly listen to him when he told her why he was there and she continued to try to get him to leave for the longest time.
The story had some cute and cozy moments that I did enjoy but I did spend a lot of time frustrated with all the misunderstandings from not talking and expecting the other person to be a mind reader.
Have you read this one? What did you think?
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