Merry Little Wishing Spritz

This story was all sorts of fun. Just everything that I expect from a quick rom-com. Cassie was hilarious and her bestie was awesome. Honestly, that girl needed much more page time. She was everything. Throw in a super sexy man, magic and Christmas and this was a recipe for success. I smiled. I laughed. I felt all the fun happy feels.

The plot was standard for this genre, but the wit and clever writing helped work around familiar tropes. But some things were too obvious. Like knowing what spell was actually cast. I just didn’t see Cassie not figuring it out especially when her friend flat out told her it wasn’t what she thought. Also, the ‘secret’ witch card would’ve been better not played because, again, it was unquestionable that Cassie’s assumption was right so the payoff didn’t land that well in the end.

Then, the biggest overused plot point in this genre, was the ending drama that wasn’t at all needed. It’s almost as if after an entire book the author just said let’s have our main characters be mad at something. Forced Cassie to jump to a conclusion instead of fight because, at the very least, arguing the point would’ve led to an explanation. It just felt so off. It was such a big assumption jump I couldn’t make it make sense. And it was resolved literally in two pages. So not only was the tension forced and hard to believe it didn’t even drum up enough of a problem to be considered important enough to care about. I honestly don’t know what the obligation is to have a smart capable adult woman always jump to instantaneous wrong conclusions that lead to impending doom for the relationship in romance novels. It’s definitely the most overdone trope and with life creating so much drama all on its own, there are so many other ways to do this that are more believable and infinitely more intense that will really get a reader on their toes.

Since this was at the end of the book it loses a star because even if this thing I don’t like happens there should at least be enough page time to sell it, and for such a short book a warmer and more cosy fit that matched all the fun stuff beforehand would’ve worked better.

And, lastly, the wiggling of noses did not have the desired effect on me. There is only one witch I can think of that does this and in all my decades of reading witch books, I have never come across it. To be fair it was odd and quirky for the original witch back before I was born in Bewitched as witches generally can cast small spells without being noticed, but it was unique to her character. In this book, it was probably meant to be a nod to the Bewitched character but every time it happened I could not think of Cassie as her own separate entity. Also, if I remember correctly, Sam was the only witch on the show who did this. Her aunt and other family members did magic without a single nose wiggle so I was always under the impression it was uniquely hers. This made it even more weird that Cassie did it.

The story altogether was a great read. Fun, warm and sweet. I definitely recommend it. Even with the problems I had with it, it’s still an easy four stars. For me, however, the usual tropes and the nose nod to Bewitched were enough to take me out of the story as I read it, but not so much that I didn’t enjoy this magical tale.