The Wedding Witch by Erin Sterling

Book Fort Rating: 3.5 stars, rounded down.
Is it building the Book Fort? Sure. It props up my mood with comedy.

Y'all ever start reading something, immediately fall in love with the writing style, premise, and characters, have a fantastic time, and then hit the 50-65% mark and watch as the book takes a sharp nosedive in the opposite direction of what you were expecting? Yeah. That happened to me with The Wedding Witch.

And that's not to discount its quality, because for me, a three-star rating is a solid read that I enjoyed, but damn, I was so ready to give this book five stars. I feel like I've been walked down the aisle, only for my intended partner to turn around and suddenly be 30 years older than the last time I saw them. Catfished, maybe?

Anyway, The Wedding Witch was a boatload of fun. I had a great time. I liked the characters. I enjoyed the premise. I had fun with this genre mash-up.

So why the three star rating, Kyles? I hear you asking. Well, fellow reader, it all boils down to one simple thing I just could not look past: I hated the way the couple got together. Or if we were going to more accurately describe my sentiments, I hated the lack of explanation for why the couple got together.

If you base the entire premise of your book on 'we can't be together because we are colleagues', have both of the leads follow this and reinforce this for chapters (and chapters and chapters....) and then suddenly, have them get together with zero explanation or conversation about what shifted to lead them to getting together, regrettably, you've lost me.

Also, fair warning: this isn't really a Christmas read. Christmas is kind of just... there in the background, I guess? It didn't feel particularly festive, beyond a couple of log burnings and mentions of the difference between Christmas and Yule. Oh, and a funny reindeer themed drink? It's just winter aesthetic. So if you're picking this one up for a festive time, I rate picking up a different book. You can read this at any time of the year without feeling weird (I read it during October, if that says anything). 

Anyway, have fun, pals. It's a good read. I liked it. You'll have a great time if you don't think too hard about it like I did. It's a solid junk food book. I'd recommend it to all of my friends. 

Thank you to Netgalley, Hachette Australia & New Zealand, and Erin Sterling for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.