This Spells Love by Kate Robb
SYNOPSIS
When Gemma gets dumped by her long-term boyfriend, she reacts the way any reasonable twenty-eight-year-old would: by getting drunk with her sister, her kooky aunt, and her best friend, Dax. After one too many margaritas, they decide to perform a love-cleansing spell that promises to erase Gemma’s ex from her memory. They follow all the instructions, including a platonic kiss from Dax to seal the deal.
Waking up the next morning, Gemma realizes that the silly spell has worked far too well. Not only does it seem that she never dated her ex, but the rest of her life is completely unrecognizable. The worse part: Dax has no idea who she is.
To reverse the spell and get back to her old life, Gemma must convince her once-best-friend-now-total-stranger to kiss her. But as she carries out her plans, she finds herself falling for Dax - hard. Soon, Gemma begins to wonder whether she even wants to go back to the way things once were. What if Dax was The One all along?
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A whirlwind friends to lovers story with a sprinkle of magic showcases what it means to take risks and go after what, and who, you love, no matter the cost.
Magical realism mixed with contemporary romance? Say less. Kate Robb is an author I’ve never read before but will definitely be picking up again after this read. Bonus? She’s Canadian and sets her stories in Canada. I am LOVING the trend of Canadian romance authors finally getting their time to shine. In This Spells Love our main characters were a delight to follow along with. Gemma was extremely relatable being in her late 20’s and feeling lost. I found some hope in this fictional character completely revamping her life so close to 30. It was inspiring. Dax is also the prime example of why I’ve started to become a fan of friends to lovers tropes. What could be better than ending up with the one person who knows you inside and out? Who you can have the most fun with? The magical realism in this novel was also interesting. It wasn’t quite the witchy book I was expecting but I loved the parallel timeline, it gave a very wibbly wobbly timey wimey vibe and as a huge time travel fan, I loved it. If you’re looking for a quick and cute romance, this might be the book for you.
Our main character Gemma is living her best life. She works a job she doesn’t love but pays beautifully. Live in an apartment she loves but barely has time to spend in, and is dating a guy who is stable, but not exactly a catch. Until she isn’t. Losing her long-term boyfriend rocks her world and makes her realize she’s not TOTALLY happy with the life she’s leading. She’s let dreams rot on the shelf and made mistakes concerning her love life. After a spell gone wrong, she has her dream life. But she’s lost her best friend in the world. Dax is hopelessly in love with his best friend. He fell the first night she met but because of a rogue beer, she fell for the other guy instead. Now that she’s finally free of the man who didn’t deserve her, Dax isn’t sure how to act so he helps her with her hair-brained scheme of spelling Stuart to non-existence. The parallel world Dax, however, is in shambles. With Gemma changing the timeline, he never got the opportunities he did in their original life. His business is failing and he doesn’t even know his best friend to fall back on. Throughout the love story, there’s a very obvious thread of wrongness that permeates everything Gemma does.
I really liked the alt timeline, however, it felt like Gemma was falling in love with 2 different people. Past Dax and alternate timeline Dax didn’t feel the same and I couldn’t wrap my mind around it without it feeling almost like a betrayal. Gemma could never see her Dax as romantic but as soon as he’s a different Dax, she’s all for it? I didn’t LOVE that. I also feel alternate timeline Dax didn’t get an ending. What happens after things are fixed? Does he remember her? Cease to exist? It made me sad so the ending wasn’t as feel-good as it should have been. I also felt like Gemma was the kind of friend who benefits more from the friendship than she gives. She didn’t notice how much she leaned on Dax until things started going wrong for him and he couldn’t drop everything to be there for her. And she would get mad at him for not being able to drop everything and be there for her yet was really slow to return the favour…. That bugged me quite a bit.
Besides the slightly unbalanced friendship dynamic, I did think the romance was cute. It was so natural and low drama. It was, magic aside, one of the more realistic romances I’ve read. Finding joy in the small things like grocery shopping together and falling in love with the way someone smiles was such a nice break from some extremely dramatic miscommunication tropes that have taken over the genre recently.
Overall, I really enjoyed it, but I wish Gemma was a little more well-rounded. I gave this 3.75 stars because I did like it enough to recommend it, however, I did have some grievances that I think could have made it a better read.