General fiction (adult)/Romance/Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Pub date: 10 September 2026
My rating: 3/5 ⭐️
Summary:
Sage Hemlock has no interest in embracing her witchy side. Magic has betrayed her before, bringing nothing but heartache, and she will not let something so foolish happen again.
Instead, Sage has thrown herself into her work and studies, running the local museum and largely preferring the company of her library and her cat to other humans. Her one goal is to fly under the coven’s radar so that she can finally shed her blasted powers forever.
But when a strange historical book accidentally triggers a curse, Sage’s quiet, small-town life is suddenly overrun and magic is running rife. A beanstalk grows in her garden, and her friend and co-worker Casimir starts to look an awful lot like a handsome prince. Fairy tales are coming true . . .
Now, with the threat of the coven on her tail, Sage must confront the magic she’s always denied to solve the mysteries of the book and save everyone she’s come to love from being lost to a fairy tale forever. The question is, can she finally learn to be her own happily ever after?
Review:
I have loved you in so many quiet ways, for such a long time.
I enjoyed Lucy’s previous books (with small gripes here and there), so I was pretty excited to return to the world of Selcouth. Unfortunately, it was a pretty disappointing trip. Which is upsetting because it definitely had my favourite plot of the three (there was so much potential there!), but I simply could not make myself like any of the characters. Especially Sage.
Character development is basically non-existent until the last 10-15% of the book, the reason for the curse stereotypical and revealed in a massive info dump section, Sage’s fixation with “not being hunted down by the coven” nonsensical considering her supposed expertise on the subject, and hers and Cas’ degrees (and published research????) confusing in the world of non-witches.
Sage’s background is also only hinted on until the very end with another massive info dump. I wish it was revealed bit by bit, perhaps with each charm changing?
I don’t know, this just felt like a very tedious read to get through.
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