Not Your Crush's Cauldron by April Asher

Olive loves her triplets. She does. And she's ecstatic that they've found the loves of their lives. But. Could she maybe catch a break? Chubby, with dirty blond hair that doesn't hold a curl or a color, Olive is generally happy about her life but she really could use a break. Or two. Moving into her crush's apartment isn't exactly the break she was hoping for. However, she's decided to take on the assignment she's given her students and try to stretch her wings. And now that her roommate seems happy to help...

Baxter Donovan is a Guardian Angel but he doesn't much like the position. He likes it even less now that he's been assigned to guard Olive. There are three rules to being a guardian angel: don't tell your Assignment you're their designated guardian, don't get your Assignment Killed, and don't fall in love with your Assignment. Bax has come a little too close for the Guardian Angel Affairs lately and his father isn't pleased. It's just too bad that this latest assignment might find him breaking more than one of the rules. 

Three and a half stars

Supernatural Singles #2

This book comes out February 13, 2024

Follows Not Your Ex's Hexes

ARC kindly provided by St. Martin's Press and NetGalley and Edelweiss

Opinions are my own

Not Your Ex's Hexes by April Asher

For most of her life, Rose Maxwell had been assumed to be following her grandmother to be the Prima Witch, a force in the supernatural world. In the first book of the series, it was discovered that her sister, Violet, is actually the most powerful of her triplets, it just came in late. And Rose... was relieved. Now, however, she's not really sure what she's supposed to be doing with her life. So she's trying to figure it out. Unfortunately, she misfires on her first foray and ends up neeeding to do some community service with the local veterinarian. Too bad he's her former one-night stand. The one she wouldn't mind repeating. 

Damian is a half-demon who tried to make his father proud until the night he accidentally broke a girl's heart and she hexed him. He wants to love Rose but is afraid of what will happen. And his old life still keeps calling and trying to drag him back in.

I didn't connect with Rose and Violet as much as I did with Violet and Lincoln and that's okay. I just didn't see her growing as much as Violet did and there were a few more glossings-over that were fine but could have been played out a little more. 

Three and a half stars
This book comes out February 7, 2023

Follows Not the Witch You Wed

Followed by Not Your Crush's Cauldron

ARC kindly provided by MacMillan and Edelweiss

Opinions are my own

Not the Witch You Wed by April Asher, April Hunt

Violet Maxwell is in town for her sister's Witch Bond Announcement weekend celebration (engagement party). Not just her sister, one of her triplet sisters. So when she tries to bow out of some of the celebration with slightly younger sister Olive and they are then caught by Rose, she does feel some guilt. And that compounds the guilt she feels by not picking up her grandmother's place as the Prima Witch. Luckily, Violet was born a dud. No magic whatsoever. She still decides to go skiing with her sisters, even though she's not very good. In fact, she encounters Lincoln Thorne as she's laying in the snow after having fallen over while standing in place (it's not that hard to do, really...) While she doesn't recognize him, he sure as heck recognizes her. He's happy to see her and his Wolf (Lincoln's the Alpha of NAP, the North American Pack) is even more so because he's had a lot of downs in his life recently. He's trying to make it so that all shifters are on more equal footing but there is one particular man, Rose's fiance in fact, who is trying to undo all of his work. He also has a limited time before his thirty-third birthday. If he doesn't have a mate by then, he either has to step down from the Supernatural Council or accept a mate chosen by the Elders. He's also trying to dissolve the Elders but that's a whole other story. He's not quite resigned to fate but the chance of finding a partner who satisfies both he AND his animal are practically nil. 

Through mistakes and a lot of accidental relationship building, Violet and and Lincoln do end up together.  

There is a LOT of world building and so the first couple of chapters really do read like an info dump and that doesn't really even out but I still enjoyed the read. I'm tracking some of the characters for my own benefit because... there are a lot. 

Adrian -- Lincoln's friend, lion shifter

Vi's best friends -- Bax, Guardian Angel -- Harper, succubus coworker at Potion's Up, magic themed bar, Vi brewmaster, virgin, host of radio show Sexy Talk with Savannah They also work together at the Kid Command Center (B&GC for supes?)

Four stars

This book came out February 8, 2022

Followed by Not Your Ex's Hexes

ARC kindly provided by St. Martin's Press and NetGalley

Opinions are my own