Bespelled

This book is excellent. I am so glad I got the opportunity to arc read Bespelled, and I cannot wait for it to come out!

We start off following the huge cliffhanger Laura left us with in book 1, and things just keep going from there. Selene's memories are back, Memnon has realized maybe he shouldn't be the worst person ever to the woman he loves, and the stakes are much higher. There is a darker take to Bespelled compared to Bewitched, and I really enjoyed it. We delve into dark magic, disappearing witches, and supernatural trafficking. It really added to the larger plotline and I am excited to see where it takes us in book 3. I think the author did a great job handling the supernatural trafficking, it was written very well.

In this book, Selene is having to adjust to life without losing her memories, and also trying to not fall in love with Memnon - although you can imagine how well that goes. She gets mixed up in some trouble, and our morally grey MC swoops in to support her and help however he can. It helps that his whole motto this book is 'grovel and worship her however much she lets me', because how can you resist that? His character arc as a whole was fantastic and I loved it.

That was my one thing in this book - how on earth did Selene resist him so much? I wanted her to accept him faster, but at the same time I understood where she was coming from. Also, the times she did give in like Samhein??? SPICE ALERT. So good!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and cannot wait for the next one in the series. I liked that we took a darker turn and raised the stakes, and I hope we get to see more in book 3 - although I would love to see Selene and Memnon united as a couple and figuring something out together. Also, I am curious if Selene's parents will play a larger role?

"You are a Sarmatian queen, made to roam the boundless, open plains of the steppe. Your soul is made of vaster stuff."

I might have loved this even more than the first book. Selene and Memnon are such fun characters to follow! The stakes feel ever higher as Selene's feelings for Memnon develop (return?), plus we got a ton of backstory in this installment that made me cherish their relationship so much more.

“There is one thing I hold holy in all this gods-forsaken world,” Memnon says. Goosebumps break out along my skin. His voice still has that unsettling otherness to it. “And you hurt her.”

4.5 stars

I buddy read this book with Destiny. We read the first book, Bewitched back in January. I did like that first book but by the end of that book I was hating a certain character so much and it made me hesitant to pick this one up but I'm glad I gave it a shot because I enjoyed it more than I was expecting to and more than the first book. I can't really say too much about this one because of spoilers but there are a couple of things I want to mention. First off, Selene kept making stupid decisions and getting herself into some not so fun situations and that really got old because she never learned. Also, I find it hard to believe that a bunch of teachers would be like oh there's a murder on the loose, but we will wait to enact curfew until tomorrow that way y'all can still celebrate this specific holiday or whatever it was. Because of how much I hated a certain character in the first book I was constantly waiting for them to do something that would make me hate them again in this book, but that moment never came. After the cliffhanger in book one I was expecting something else that shocking to happen but the cliffhanger in this one just left me feeling like “oh that's it? That's not really that big a deal.” I am looking forward to reading the next book whenever it is released.

Selene, girl... just talk about it with your soul-mate, your king, your forever and whatnot... problem solved. Also, decide, are you a badass super powerful queen, or a random silly witch and average powers?

I don't care about the characters: basic, inconsistent, overall meh.

I won't be reading the 3rd book.