A Letter to Three Witches

*2.5 rounded to 3
If you go into this with the simple goal of looking for a fun and nice read, this book will serve the purpose. It's cute and has some great moments, and I enjoyed the characters. There were issues with the plot and development that would've driven me mad if I'd taken an overly-serious approach to this book, but for a light weekend read where I just enjoy what's on the page, it did what it needed to.

I turned to this book because I wanted a lighthearted, low-stakes read. It was exactly that and I honestly loved it. I wasn't expecting to like it that much but it was an enjoyable read with lovable characters and an interesting plot line. 

What a fun read! I didn't expect to enjoy this one as much as I did. It's quick. It's witchy, humerous and it's perfectly spooktactular

⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Cute cover on this one!

So...I have kind of been putting reading this book off for a while now. The romance gene just holds zero interest for me at the moment and this one sounded very “romance like”. However, I needed something light after my last book, so I dived in. I ended up enjoying it quite a lot. Probably because, in fact, it is fairly low in the romance department. It was more a story about a group of siblings and the shenanigans they get up to when their (forbidden to use) magic makes itself known. It was cute. The characters were likable, and I hope the author plans on making it into a series!

ARC Via NetGalley

Taking the premise from a 1949 dramatic film (“A Letter to Three Wives”) and then turning it into a paranormal rom-com is a tricky proposition, and Elizabeth Bass doesn't quite pull it off.

Gwen, Trudy, and Milo are three witch cousins who are forbidden to practice magic due to their ancestor's unfortunate actions that caused the Great Dust Bowl of the 1930s (see, right there the problems start. I'm supposed to think that's funny, but the fact that the Dust Bowl killed, impoverished and ruined thousands of people's lives kept me from seeing the humor). When Gwen's adopted sister Tannith delivers a letter to each of the cousins saying that she is running off with one of their partners, she starts off a chain of events that leads to bewitched cupcakes, enchanted rabbits, theft of rare plants, and the realization that it's time for the cousins to use their powers, prohibition or not.

The book didn't work for me for several reasons. I couldn't feel very emotionally invested in the threat to the cousins' established relationships when there was so much slapstick humor thrown into the mix. The romance between Gwen and a nosy graduate student of Trudy's husband fell flat (the two characters had maybe one meaningful conversation, and the guy spent most of the story threatening to call the police on Trudy). It's not a good sign when the character I felt the strongest connection with was Tannith's feline familiar.

On the plus side, the plot developments were nicely unpredictable, and the cousins' interactions with each other were supportive even as they became increasingly frantic. The book's conclusion hints that we haven't seen the last of Tannith yet, but I'm not sure I will stick around for more of this weird mix of farce and melodrama.

ARC received from Net Galley in exchange for objective review.