Score: 3.25/5 Bookmarks
Steam Level: 2.5🍆/5

Thank you to St Martin's and Dreamscape Media for gifting me review copies of Not the Witch You Wed by April Asher. This is the first in the Supernatural Singles series, and my first by the author.

Violet Maxwell is the firstborn witch and should be next in line to be the Prima, but there's just one problem....she doesn't have any magic. Or does she? She's put on the spot by the magical council who want her to get herself hitched as her 'firstborn duty' but Violet has zero interest in that nonsense.

Wolf shifter and Alpha, Lincoln Thorne has also been given the 'get bonded or else' ultimatum and needs a way to buy himself more time.

Despite the fact that Linc broke Vi's heart when they were teenagers, and she hates him with the fire of one thousand suns, they end up agreeing to fake date to get the council off their backs. Of course, all that forced proximity and pretending for the cameras brings back their old feelings.

I wanted to love this one so badly. I love a witchy story, adore enemies-to-lovers and can't get enough of fake dating. Plus paranormal urban fantasy romance is right up my alley! But I just had a hard time really caring much about the story. The characters weren't bad, in fact, I found them rather likable. It had its moments, but the story was just so predictable. I didn't feel like there was enough conflict to actually make it interesting.

The audiobook narration by Zura Johnson was pretty good, but please, PLEASE, don't try to pass off a New Zealand accent as Australian. They sound SO different, and I was cringing every time the 'Australian' spoke! The audio comes in at 12 hours and 15 minutes.

Anyway, it wasn't terrible, I just had such high expectations for this book and had been really looking forward to it for months so was disappointed that it fell a bit flat for me.

Synopsis:

A fake relationship between a magic-less witch and a wolf shifter turns to more in the start of a bewitching new paranormal rom-com series.

Magic-less witch Violet Maxwell wants nothing to do with alpha wolf shifter Lincoln Thorne—the man who broke her fragile, teenage heart. But when the two of them are forced by arcane Supernatural Laws to find mates, Violet and Lincoln agree to fake-date their way to a fake-mating in order to conjure themselves some time.

The joke’s on them. When old feelings make a reappearance—along with Violet’s magic—they both realize there’s nothing fake about their feelings. But there are old secrets and looming threats that could snatch away their happily ever after, again. One thing’s for sure: magic doesn’t make dating and love any easier.