Book 1 in the Heartwood Hollow Series | Reviewed by CJ | Rating: 4/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 📖
⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read Meet Cute Magic yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.
OPENING HOOK
A ghost warlock, a hurricane of a witch, and a grumpy comic shop owner who’s been quietly obsessed with her for three years. Add in a kiss bond and a quest for potion ingredients, and you’ve got the cosiest fall read I’ve picked up in a while.
THE FULL STORY: SPOILERS INCLUDED
Rosie Mayfield owns a little bookstore with an apartment upstairs. She’s a witch, her two younger sisters are witches, and her magic is helping people find their perfect match through her books. When her magic tells her that someone is ready to meet The One, she leads them to the right book, and when they finish reading it the next person that reader dates is their one. Meanwhile her own love life is a disaster, because as a teenager her mum told her there’s a curse on the women in the family: any relationship fails the minute she tells the guy she loves him. So when Rosie walks in on Michael cheating, shortly after telling him she loves him, she’s furious enough to go home and summon the ghost of the man who cursed her grandma against all warnings her mother ever gave her about summoning the dead.
That ghost is Philip, and he’s hilarious. He’s unreasonably obsessed with the taste of food, and he was a warlock in real life who hid it from his non-magical wife, his kids and his grandson. That grandson is Jack Haggerty, who owns the gaming and comic shop across the street. Philip agrees to help break the curse if Rosie brews a potion six weeks from now under the right moon phase (Halloween), so he can cross over. She’d forget every past heartbreak too, so none of it would hurt anymore. All she needs is a pile of ridiculous ingredients, and the old flask of his from Jack’s store that he can drink it from.
Rosie and Jack have been across the street from each other for three years, and Jack has been standoffish the entire time. In his defense, Rosie is a hurricane, and things fall apart whenever she’s near him. Asking nicely goes so badly she leaves without even mentioning the flask, so obviously the next best approach is a midnight ninja break-in, knocking things over, and getting caught. He can’t figure out why she’d want a dingy old flask when his shop is full of expensive collectibles, and he says he’ll call the police if she doesn’t explain. She finally breaks down, and tells him about the ghost. Of course, he doesn’t believe her and she has to drag him over to her apartment to see Philip. Jack has spent his whole life obsessed with magical worlds, so being the unsuspecting human who stumbles into one is basically his ultimate dream. Ghost Philip knows things nobody else could, so Jack has to believe. He agrees to hand over the flask on one condition: he’s coming along to collect everything.
Rosie doesn’t want him there, but they learn to work together fast. Jack’s inner thoughts show that Rosie has always made him tongue-tied, and she thought he was a weird, angry nerd. Turns out he’s confident and charming, and they become friends. Every ingredient hunt shows him a new side of her. There are flowers in a field at under the moon, a brawl in a biker bar, even tears of a vampire, which means gaining entrance to a supernatural club. A human only gets in if he’s bonded with someone through a kiss bond, or tagged as a free human, which means he’s up for whatever a supernatural wants, and that isn’t safe. So Rosie takes off her bond-blocking necklace and kisses him, and the bond hits instantly. They crave each other, want to touch each other, and it was an adjustment because neither of them saw it coming. And yes, they get the tears from a very emotional vampire who’s upset over a TV show.
The bond fades in about a week if you don’t feed it, so the necklace goes back on, and there are a few kisses and snuggles to scratch the itch. But Jack still just wants to be near her once it’s gone. Rosie is so focused on breaking the curse and meeting her one true love that she thinks they’re just biding time until Halloween. She’s falling for him too and refuses to believe it. Her sisters can see it, and so can everyone else. Eventually they start sleeping together, and then Jack, getting more desperate as the weeks go on, buys different flowers to swap in so the potion won’t work and she won’t forget him. Rosie is hurt, and her reaction is basically “how could I ever trust you again?”
At the last minute Jack has an epiphany: he’s going to help her break the curse and do everything he can to be the guy she dates after. In a frantic all-nighter he writes out the story of the two of them. He journals daily, so he has every meeting and every crossing of paths, and his side of it: he’s always been flustered and enamoured, and at some point he decided grumpy and snippy was safer than trying anything, so he made an ass of himself. He gives her the book, leaving himself a letter, notes, and a video confession, all so he can make sure he puts in the work to win her over again.
Then Rosie brews the potion, Philip drinks it, and he grins and starts eating all of Vi’s baked goods (Vi is Rosie’s sister, and she owns a bakery). It turns out Philip only wanted the potion so he could taste baked goods in the afterlife. The curse was never real. The three sisters and Jack summon their mum, who’s shocked that Rosie still believed the cautionary tale she was told as a teenager. Philip knew he hadn’t cursed anyone, but took advantage of the situation to play matchmaker because he knew they’d be great together: Jack couldn’t resist a quest like the ones in his favourite games, and Rosie would make the potion he needed to taste muffins again. No harm, and a happy couple, right?
BEST PART OF THIS BOOK
Jack. Once he realized that keeping his distance and staying irritable was a losing battle, he embraced how he felt about her. He was sweet and perfect, and I really liked the way he was written. I married a hot nerdy guy myself, so how could this kind of leading man not be a favourite of mine. Everybody loves a hot nerd in slutty little glasses.
WORST PART OF THIS BOOK
The repetition. Both of them (Rosie especially) kept saying “this is over soon” and “I don’t want this to be over,” and Rosie is so hung up on finding her true match that she laments nonstop about how much she’ll miss Jack and how awful it’ll be when it ends. You want to shake her for a good chunk of it. It went on far longer than I wanted, and it was starting to irritate me. Her serious reluctance to even consider that she and Jack might be the end game felt weird and frustrating, especially when her sisters were in awe that she couldn’t see it. That’s the only reason this lost a star from me, because I was otherwise happily entertained.
THE STEAM RATING BREAKDOWN: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
- Yes, there are sex scenes, and they’re explicit and frequent. And well written.
- They’re really well written. You can practically feel the love and tension between them.
- The romance is the center of the book.
- Content notes: Rosie walks in on her ex cheating, and both of her parents have passed.
THE ENDING EXPLAINED: SATISFIED OR DISAPPOINTED?
Satisfied. Rosie broke the curse herself, since it was never real, and she and Jack were never going to forget each other. A couple of months later they’re in love and heading into the Christmas season, together. They both decide to ditch her necklace for good, because they want that bond pulling them together. There’s a sneak peek of Vi’s story at the back, so book two looks like hers, and Poppy (who owns the flower shop) is probably book three. I loved meeting the Heartwood Hollow crew and am looking forward to the next installment.
WOULD WE REREAD IT?
Yes, I plan to. I read the paperback and finished it in a day.
WHO IS THIS FOR
Anyone who loves small towns, real-world magic, and sunshine/grumpy. It’s not really enemies to lovers, more dislike to like. It’s got fall vibes without being overly fall-ish, it’s sweet, cosy, and magical.
WHERE TO GET THIS BOOK
📖 Physical Book
Amazon US | Amazon CA | Bookshop.org
🎧 Audiobook
Audible US | Audible CA | Libro.fm
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🎁 New to Libro.fm? Get 2 free audiobooks
📚 More from the Heartwood Hollow Series
Book 1 — Meet Cute Magic | Reviewed by CJ | ⭐ 4/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥| You’re here now!
Book 2 — Coming Soon
Ready for more reviews from CJ? Find More Here
Plot Twisted. 🔥
📖 | Series: Heartwood Hollow Book 1 | Genre: Paranormal Romance | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
TAGS: Meet Cute Magic, Morgan Elizabeth, Heartwood Hollow, Paranormal Romance, Magical Realism, Urban Fantasy, Witch Romance, Small Town Romance, Grumpy Sunshine, Dislike to Like, Nerdy Hero, Spicy Romance, Explicit Romance, Cozy Romance, Fall Reads, Spoiler Review, Book Review, Series Starter