Review: Books & Bewitchment by Isla Jewell

Books & Bewitchment (Arcadia Falls #1)
by Isla Jewell

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Cozy Fantasy Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
In this warm-hearted, witchy rom-com a young woman works to create the bookstore of her dreams, only to discover a powerful magic that’s been lying dormant—and a forbidden love she can’t resist. Perfect for readers of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches and The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic.

Rhea Wolfe lives a simple, if mundane, life in small-town Alabama with her pet cockatoo, Doris. But when her estranged grandmother dies, leaving everything to her—including a magical heritage Rhea never knew she carried—she finds herself in Arcadia Falls, the quaint mountain town her mother made her swear never to set foot in. When she plans to turn the defunct video store she’s also inherited into a bookstore, Rhea’s lucky that resident handyman Hunter Blakely is more than happy to help—and more than easy on the eyes. It’s just too bad he’s the grandson of her grandmother’s sworn rival in witchcraft.

Yet as Rhea makes plans for the bookstore of her dreams, she learns that her grandmother made a terrible choice, one that could ruin her own chance at happiness. As she gets ever closer to solving the mystery of what exactly is happening, each clue points to Arcadia Falls’ magic hanging in the balance. To keep her new home safe, Rhea must step into her enchanted birthright and harness her newfound powers… before it’s too late.

My Review

I received a free copy from the publisher through Netgalley and voluntarily reviewed it.

Books & Bewitchment caught my eye when I saw it on Netgalley and it just sounded like a book I would enjoy. I love the cozy fantasy genre and this sounded like such a fun and cozy read. And that was exactly what I got. The book follows Rhea, she has been living her whole life in a small town doing a job she doesn’t enjoy and dating a guy whom she realizes she doesn’t want to marry. Then the grandmother she never knew dies and she inherits everything. So she goes to Arcadia Falls to learn more.

The first part of this story deals with Rhea going to Arcadia Falls and slowly finding out what the inheritance is and what the rules for it are, connecting with her dead grandmother, finding out magic is real and she can do magic and deciding whether she wants to stay. Then the second part of the story after she decides to stay is about changing the video store she inherited into a bookstore, settling into the town more, figuring out what happened to make so many people dislike her grandmother, deal with a poltergeist and fall in love with Hunter.

So there’s a lot going on, but mostly just feels like a cozy gentle read. I liked reading about Rhea and seeing her figure everything out. I liked her relationship with her sisters and I hope they both get their own story too. There are a whole bunch of fun side characters as well and I liked getting to know this quirky small town. And the magic was fascinating too with how it all worked with how exact the spells are and the involvement of their own blood and water from the falls. I did keep feeling bad about Dorris and what happens to her, but this whole thing makes more sense toward the end and made me feel more content with what happened. It does get a bit emotional toward the end and the wrap up was well done. I really liked how Rhea resolved things with the magic and grimoires, that was awesome.

I had a great time reading this one and I was invested in seeing Rhea find her home in this town and open the store of her dreams. I also loved seeing her character growth and how she really starts figuring out what she wants from her life. And Hunter is pretty much perfect for her, they have a few struggles to overcome, but I like how all their conflict is before they really get serious and once they get over that it’s smooth sailing. There are some really sweet scenes involving the two of them.

To summarize: This was such a fun and cozy read. I liked reading about Rhea and seeing her change her life when she moves to Acadia Falls and slowly figures out what she wants to do with her life and decides to transform the video store she inherited into the bookstore of her dreams. The small town setting was fun to read about and really came to live and there’s a bunch of fun and likable side characters too. I liked reading about the magic and I thought it was awesome how Rea resolves the grimoire plot line. The romance is pretty sweet and there’s some conflict before they really get serious, but it goes smoothly after that, which I liked. All in all I had a great time reading this one and I look forward to more books in this series.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.