Payback's A Witch
By Lana Harper

This story was delightful. I’ve been reading a lot of gloomier books because I love them but I needed a little break from the bleak and I’m so glad this one caught my eye. I thought it was the perfect mix of a developing romance, a character struggling to put aside past hurts and figure things out, a long-overdue revenge plan and also a fun witchy adventure. All great things. All done just right! This is one of those magical books featuring such a well-drawn warm and cozy setting you might want to move into the book and never leave.

Emmy fled her beloved magic-filled hometown of Thistle Grove after her heart was shattered by a callous man and she never looked back. But now she’s been called back to fulfill something called the Gauntlet, which is basically a magical-filled event that the four founding families participate in every fifty years. The winning family receives a LOT of power and of course, the same family has been winning for far too many years and is using their power to take control of the town as power-hungry villains will do. Villainous villains, all of them!

That’s the bones of the tale and I found it all enjoyable. There’s a good amount of time spent on friendships, family, new romances and the fun revenge plotline against the town heartbreaker Gareth Blackmoore. He of the power-hungry Blackmoore’s. The brazen fool has spurned not only Emmy but her best-friend and even one of the town’s darker magic badasses, Talia, and they are not suffering his bullshittery any longer. During their planning and researching and bonding over their mutual disdain for Gareth, Emmy and Talia become more than friends but they have a lot of things to figure out here. The romance is a little angsty but it never gets out of control.

I thought Payback’s A Witch was an amusing, breezy tale with a luscious fall atmosphere and just enough adventure for me. Admittedly I’m not a huge fan of too much action/adventure so if you have similar tastes you’ll likely enjoy this one as much as I did. I’m looking forward to the next one! Maybe I’ll even keep up with a series for once in my life 

Laurie is a long-time horror fan, book reviewer and a co-founder of Ladies of Horror Fiction. You can find Laurie on her blog Bark’s Book Nonsense, on Twitter as @barksbooks, on Instagram as @barksbooks, and on Goodreads. 

As part of our Pride Month celebrations, we asked those submitting guest posts to provide a link to a charity of their choice. Laurie chose LGBTQ mental health and suicide prevention | AFSP and we would ask, if you are able, if you could please consider a donation to support their work.