This book by Rachel Harrison was an impulse download from my OverDrive app. The cover caught my eye when I was looking for something else to borrow from my library, and I just couldn’t resist checking it out.
I checked it out because it’s about witches and I’m a sucker for witches, but it took a really long time to get witchy. It’s pretty obvious who the witch is almost as soon as we meet her, but it takes a while before we meet her, and then the reveal of her power is a pretty slow burn. The description talked about the main character, Annie, discovering her own supernatural powers, but it took even longer for the book to get there.
That said, I did still enjoy the book. When we first meet Annie, she’s just been dumped by her boyfriend of 8 years and she’s devastated, compounded by the fact that she didn’t really have a life outside of him. They live in NYC, and to try to escape the situation and get over him, she takes a teaching job in a small town upstate (the apartment was in her boyfriend’s name, so he gets to stay put). But she keeps texting him, which is no way to get over someone.
Soon after arriving in town, Annie meets a gorgeous, charismatic woman named Sophie who takes an interest in Annie for reasons Annie doesn’t understand. But she’s not about to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially since it’s clear she doesn’t know what to do when she’s by herself.
Not only do mysterious things keep happening around Sophie, but it quickly becomes clear that all the townspeople are afraid of her. She never pays for anything, and although she always gets great service, it’s obviously out of fear rather than love.
The townspeople are initially warm and welcoming towards Annie, but when she starts spending time with Sophie and doesn’t listen when they try to warn her off, some of them become outright hostile.
As it turns out, Sophie is hundreds of years old and the ancestors of the townspeople tried to drown her for being a witch. I’d probably hold a grudge, too, if someone had tried to drown me.
One of the current townspeople thinks Sophie made his wife disappear. Sophie insists the woman left of her own free will and the man just doesn’t want to admit it, and for a while Annie doesn’t know whom to believe.
The book follows the typical rom com formula, but instead of a romance, the relationship at the heart of the book is the friendship between Annie and Sophie. They meet, they ”fall in love,” they have a falling out, they reconcile and live happily ever after. I loved it!