This Spells Love by Kate Robb

What if one little wish changed everything?

When Gemma gets dumped by her long-term boyfriend, she reacts the way any reasonable twenty-eight-year-old would: by getting drunk with her sister, kooky aunt, and best friend, Dax. After one too many margaritas, they decide to perform a love- cleansing spell, which promises to erase Gemma’s ex from her memory. They follow all the instructions, including a platonic kiss from Dax to seal the deal.

When Gemma wakes up, she realizes that this silly spell has worked. Not only does it seem that she never dated her ex, but the rest of her life is completely unrecognizable. The worst part: Dax has no idea who she is.

 

To reverse the spell and get back to her old life, Gemma must convince her once-best-friend-now-near-stranger to kiss her. But as she carries out her plans, she finds herself falling for him—hard. Soon, Gemma begins to wonder whether she even wants to go back to the way things once were. What if Dax was The One all along?

Publisher: The Dial Press |  Genre: Magical Realism/Romance  | Source: BOTM | Rating: 3.5 

It’s been a minute since I’ve picked up a romance book so when this popped up as one of the selections for Book of the Month, I thought I would give it a go.

 

After getting drunk and performing a love-cleansing spell with the help of her aunt, sister, and best friend, Gemma wakes up in a completely new version of her life, one where her best friend doesn’t remember her. While Gemma is okay with this version of her life—all of her dreams have come true—she’s not okay with Dax not knowing her and she’s willing to do anything to make sure she gets back to her old life. Although to do so, she must make Dax kiss her to reverse the spell. First, she has to get to know this new version of her best friend and soon she starts wondering if Dax has had her heart all along.

 

This was a quick read and I did have fun with it but I had a bit of trouble believing the romance. I was also a little disappointed because I was expecting more ‘witchy vibes’ and sadly, they were lacking.

 

Pre-spell, Gemma and Dax were the best of friends. They were extremely close and shared everything. Post-spell, they knew nothing about each other. While Gemma remembers the original version of Dax and their closeness, she doesn’t know this new, down-on-his-luck Dax and he knows nothing about Gemma. While they develop a relationship, Gemma is forming a majority of this new relationship based on the old version of Dax.

 

I struggled with the fact that 90% of this book took place in the alternate version of Gemma’s life. The romance between Dax and Gemma started in this new version of their lives then continued once they were back in their real lives. I needed to see more development of the romance in their actual lives. I feel like half the book should have been in this alternate version and the other half in real life. This book would have benefited from being a bit more balanced because I did enjoy watching the antics of the alternate version of Dax and Gemma.

 

What I really enjoyed was Kate Robb’s cozy writing style. While some attention to detail was lacking, she has this incredible ability to make her writing feel like the softest, coziest blanket you want to curl up with and it made for a fun, quick read. For a debut novel, it wasn’t the worst that I’ve read and I’m eager to read more from this author.

 

Overall, this suffered from a balance issue. The author should have either kept the characters in the alternate world or split the time evenly between the two. While I struggled with the believability of the romance in their ‘real’ world, I did enjoy the way the characters and the romance developed in their alternate world and the way they had fun together.