I received a copy of this book for an honest review.
Appropraitely-Hyped
Would I recommend - NO
Overall -3.14⭐️
Character - 4⭐️
Setting - 4⭐️
Plot - 3⭐️
Themes - 4⭐️
Writing - 2⭐️
Emotions - 2⭐️
Enjoyment - 3⭐️
My new mathematical approach to rating books has paid off. The numbers don’t lie, and they paint a great picture for my overall thoughts about An Amateur Witch’s Guide to Murder. I did want to like the book. I hate rating ARCs under 4 stars. But I always promised to tell you all the truth. So here goes…
The book was tough to get into at the beginning. I think this is partly due to the writing and the learning curve. There was a lot of ground to lay for the story. And here I was thinking that I had a romance book in my hands. An Amateur Witch’s Guide to Murder is not a romance. Yes, there’s some romance, but that’s not the plot.
Now, let’s start abbreviating the title AAWGTM. So much better.
Valentin kept abbreviating words – something that luckily fell off quickly.
The book put me in a slump. I forced myself to read for two hours straight to get over the worst of it. It’s not that the book is a slog; you just have to read each and every word with precision because the writing is disjointed and rough.
Nothing about the story sucks you in. I didn’t like anyone right away. I finally warmed up to Olphelia because I couldn’t ignore Mateo’s love for her. Olphelia was a fleshed-out character. Her backstory is intense and amazing. I love the details she was given. I wouldn’t mind a book about how her family died.
Could the writing be the only thing that brought the book down? I’m really struggling to find other reasons. The numbers don’t lie though.
Let’s talk about good things.
Seattle was perfectly represented.
I liked Mateo’s alt style.
Love was a real thing in the book. For the first time, I could maybe get behind polygamous relationships (not that that was the point of the story at all). Love is represented in many different forms in this story.
Range of characters. Topher is not typical. Mateo was likable and also annoying. Olphelia is well thought out.
Solid plotting. The plot is what carried the second half of the book. I ended up being as confused as the characters for a time, but I think this lent well to the overall story. Mateo and Olphelia aren’t supposed to be expert magic sleuths.
I love that we go back to old school magic. Spells and demons and spell books.
I could see a second book. There is a lot of information that wasn’t explored.
Even though I wasn’t the biggest fan, this book branches out and is different. I’m part of the problem, I guess. I want to inflate my rating so that the publisher can see that we want something different. It’s the writing and the initial learning curve that made me not want to continue. Thank god it picked up in the second half. And if we really do analyze it deeper, you could find a lot of similarities between this book and others, but it was still different and not another rinse and repeat. I’m still being pretty generous. AAWGTM got a few fours in there.
But what is this book? Romance isn’t the plot, even though the cover and pitch feel more romantic. It’s not entirely fantasy in the general sense. Romantasy doesn’t feel right either. Cross genre? What do you think? It feels weird to put this on my Fantasy shelf.
Can we talk about the cover? This is bad marketing. It’s pastel like the romance section. I almost thought it was YA from the cover alone. There is no way this is going to sit on the self with regular fantasy books.
Happy Reading.
Love,
Kait