In Charm’s Way by Lana Harper is a delightful rom-com with three awesome tropes. A small-town bookstore owner, a witch who casts a powerful spell that goes wrong, and a charming stranger who happens to be in town.
Delilah Harlow is used to being self-sufficient. Her sharp mind and memory are at the core of her job and identity. But, six months ago there was a terrible accident that obliterated her memory and no matter what the town witches have tried they cannot return her to her former self.
Now Delilah is forced to rely on her friends, her family, her raven familiar and even the woman who caused the damage to her mind. The toll on her is monumental and she eventually takes drastic measures to solve the problem.
The dark spell that she casts does restore her mind, but it also has some unforeseen consequences that puts her life in danger. Luckily a sexy stranger is in town and comes to her rescue, but can she trust Catriona Quinn?
Cat is an alluring half-human half-fey who saves Delilah’s life and pushes to figure out what happened with the spell to cause the problems.
Delilah is hesitant to rely on anyone though, she just spent the last six months needing people and she hated every moment of it. Now she is finally free of her mind fog and Cat is definitely a little more morally grey than she likes.
Will attraction and danger win or is Delilah stubborn enough to turn Cat away for good?
This romantic comedy is set in the delightful town of Thistle Grove and features a returning cast from previous books. But it is entirely stand-alone if you are like me and have not read the others.
Wring and Story
This story is easy to read and highly entertaining. I loved every moment of the journey and was sucked into the book so thoroughly that I found myself stealing moments to read.
The characters were compelling and I loved how grumpy Delilah was and how it took a dangerous stranger to break down her walls.
Pros
Harper nailed all the tropes in the book. The small town is a delight, the bookshop is exactly where I would want to go buy witchy books, the dark and mysterious stranger is delicious, and the grumpy main character is the perfect balance of grump and vulnerability.
Cons
My only con was that I had not read any of the other books in the series yet. But that’s something that I can easily fix, so yay.
The Conclusion
I absolutely loved this book.
This is the first of the series that I have read and it’s lovely. It’s a well-written, sweet and easy read with enough cool witchy things to make me want to bask in this world and enough angsty romantic drama to make my heart race just a little. I loved the grumpy protagonist and really enjoyed how the author tied up all the loose ends of the story.
It was a wholly satisfying read for anyone who likes a touch of light fantasy, witches and sapphic romance.
I would even say that this book will cast a spell on you.
Excerpt from In Charm’s Way by Lana Harper
I glanced up, brow furrowed with preemptive annoyance before I remembered that I was supposed to be projecting courtesy. “Can I help . . .”
The words ghosted away from me, and for once, their loss had nothing to do with the oblivion glamour.
The woman standing in front of the counter was easily one of the most striking people I’d ever seen—and I lived in a town teeming with Avramovs, who looked like they’d been genetically modified to beguile victims into untimely ends. She was even taller than me, an inch or two over six feet, with what appeared to be naturally white-blond hair buzzed close on one side and falling just shy of her cheekbone on the other. Her skin was dramatically tan against that shining pale hair, a deep and tawny amber—and even more startling, her eyebrows and lashes were inky black, framing the most arresting green eyes I’d ever seen. Long, narrow, and tilted up at the corners like a cat’s, they were nearly the color of verdigris, both vivid and pale. Such an unusual color that it tipped more toward uncanny than attractive.
Just in case I didn’t have enough reason to stare at her slack-jawed, she also had a tiny, intricate tattoo at the corner of her right eye that I couldn’t quite make out. And beneath an aquiline nose featuring a dainty septum piercing and two hoops in the left nostril, and cheekbones so sharp they cut an even harder line than her jaw, was a pair of breathtakingly delicate lips painted a deep, matte cerise.
Even if she hadn’t also been rocking the kind of hard shoulders and arms you usually saw on MMA fighters, I’d already have been a lost cause. Women like this were my ultimate undoing; vaguely rakish, stunning without being conventionally beautiful, a tantalizing touch androgynous. It was the reason I’d fallen so hard for Ivy years ago. She and this woman obviously looked nothing alike, but the striking aesthetic and the general aura of brash sexiness pretty much embodied my type.
Catriona Arachne Quinn smiled at me, slow and a little crooked, almost smirky. As if she was plenty used to eliciting this exact reaction from mortals unexpectedly graced by her attention.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt your reading,” she said, with a flash of white teeth behind those black-cherry lips, her gaze flickering down to the open Grimoire. Her voice sounded exactly like she looked. Low and distinctive and slightly husky, like incense smoke. There was the hint of an accent there, too, something that softened her consonants a little, but I couldn’t place it. “Must be a pretty compelling story, that. You looked completely engrossed. Practically worlds away.”
Get It Online
When you use the links in this review and buy within 24 hours of clicking then we get a small commission that helps us run the site and it costs you nothing extra
Series: The Witches of Thistle Grove
From Bad to Cursed
Back in a Spell
In Charm’s Way
Bits and Bobs
ISBN number: 978-0593637968
Publisher: Berkley
If you enjoyed In Charm’s Way by Lana Harper then you should also look at
Note: I received a free review copy of In Charm’s Way by Lana Harper No money was exchanged for this review. When you use our links to buy we get a small commission which supports the running of this site
