ARC Review: Witcha Gonna Do?

lapetitepritt

Oct 19

Hello, bookworms!

Happy Wednesday, what are you currently reading? I am trying to finish a lot of things before next week, because on Tuesday I will travel to Lucca and my last week of the month is going to be extra busy. I am bringing my Kindle with me, because I will need some alone time with a good book after having to be social all day, and I am also bringing my laptop because duh work, but I don't know if I will be able to write reviews and I am trying to pre-schedule all my posts until November 3rd.

Anyways, today I am here with a romance review. I know, who am I? I have willingly picked up a romance this month. During spooky season no less. However, as you may have gathered by the title, it's a witchy romance. Witcha Gonna Do? by Avery Flynn was in the latest Penguin Random House International blast of ARCs and I was totally cover baited into downloading this. This artist is the same illustrator of the cover for Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli and she is just so good. You can find her at @lenikauffman on Instagram. If I ever wrote a book I would want her to illustrate the cover.

Disclaimer
I received an e-ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley; this does not affect my rating nor my opinions in any way. Everything you'll find in this review is what I actually think and it wasn't influenced by anyone. Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book in advance.

About the book
Title: Witcha Gonna Do?
Series: Witchington #1
Author: Avery Flynn
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: 6 December 2022
Pages: 336

Plot, as stated on Goodreads
An unlucky witch and her know-it-all nemesis must team up in the first of a new, hot romantic comedy series from USA Today bestselling author Avery Flynn.

Could it possibly get any worse than having absolutely no magical abilities when you're a member of the most powerful family of witches ever? It used to be that I'd say no, but then I keep getting set up on dates with Gil Connolly whose hotness is only matched by his ego. Seriously. I can't stand him. Even if I also can't stop thinking about him (specifically kissing him) but we're going to pretend I never told you that part. So yeah, my life isn't the greatest right now, but then it goes straight to the absolute worst hell when I accidentally make my sister's spell glitch and curse my whole family. And the only person who can help non-magical me break the spell? You guessed it. Gil the super hot jerk. Now we have to work together to save my family and outmaneuver some evil-minded nefarious forces bent on world domination. Oh yeah, and we have to do all that while fighting against the attraction building between us because I may not be magical, but what's happening between Gil and I sure feels like it.

My rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Review
This book literally had the following sentence on the first page: "Hi. *Waves*. That's me". Yes, there was an honest to God action written as an online RPG and the main character introduced herself to the reader by saying hi. Like she was talking to us. Were it not an ARC I had to review, I would have closed the book and pretended I'd never started it. Unfortunately, I don't DNF, especially when it comes to ARCs, so here we are.

I understand informal writing, I do, but some things are okay when you are writing Twitter threads with your headcanons, not when you are publishing an adult romance book. Traditionally, I might add. So this book passed multiple copy edits and several people tought it was greatly written. It's one of the worst things I've ever read, as far as writing style is concerned, so I don't understand how anyone could find this okay.

The author was trying too hard in so many ways I'll just write this part as a bullet point list to make it easier for both me and you:

She was trying too hard to be funny. She wasn't, everything felt just so cringeworthy I actually wanted to scream and throw my Kindle at the wall;
She was trying too hard to shove it in our faces how sex positive she and her main character are; it's more than okay to be sex positive, but when you push it this much, you just make it feel like you want people to clap for you for being so progressive;
She was trying too hard to make us care for the romance. The chemistry wasn't there. Like, at all. I couldn't care less for Tilda and Gil as individuals, let alone as a couple.
She was trying too hard with the fantasy bits and failing spectacularly. The world building is not original, but I wouldn't have cared if this was mainly a romance book. I have overlooked wobbly world buildings before, if the characters and the romance were good enough to hold everything alone. In this case, they weren't.

Overall, the book felt extremely childish and unpolished. I don't know if any major changes are going to be made before this hits shelves, but as I read it, it was truly awful. I am going to make another bullet point list to enumerate the horrors of this book:

As I said, the writing style was atrocious. I don't want to read anything written like this ever again. Please put a warning somewhere on books written this badly.
The magic system and world building were basic and the two organisation Gil worked for were mentioned but never explained and at some point they just started to feel useless. It was like someone told the author she had to include some kind of uber villain and whatever to give this book a fantasy plot, when it would have been more than enough if it were a "basic" romance with a fantasy background.
The characters had zero personality. The author clearly missed the first class of Writing 101 when they tought the "Show, don't tell rule". She probably missed all the following classes, because my God was this book bad on every account.
The fantasy plot, as I said, was ridiculous and I don't understand why she had to add it. The romance plot was equally ridiculous and the relationship was built on literally nothing at all. Which is maybe why they added the fantasy plot, now that I think about it. It is what it is, nothing about this plot was good.

I would prefer to stab myself than ever reading book two in the series and I don't recommend this book at all. If you are looking for a cute witchy romance (why does this come out in December is another mystery), continue looking, this isn't it.

This is going to be all for today, I will talk to you soon with a new review, hopefully of a better book than this one, even if I am having bad luck in October.