Slouch Witch

I knew Helen Harper could write original, compelling, dark, angst-ridden Urban Fantasy, her Bo Blackman series proved that.

I didn't know that she could also write light, witty, laugh-out-loud, ever-so-slightly-RomCom Urban Fantasy.

I know it now.

"Slouch Witch" is a delightful piece of comedy that twists and tickles Urban Fantasy, odd-couple buddy movies and RomCom tropes until they collapse in a fit of giggles, while still managing to build a credible magical universe and deliver a satisfying whodunnit plot.

This is clever stuff that Helen Harper makes look completely effortless.

Ivy Wilde drives a taxi in Oxford, but it would be a mistake to think of her as a taxi driver. She's a witch. True, she's not in the Order like other witches, at show more least not anymore and her favourite occupation is watching "Enchantment" from the comfort of her sofa while eating food that has been delivered to her door, but she's still a witch who knows a thing or two.

A misunderstanding compels her to work with a senior witch in the investigative arm of the Order. He is everything Ivy is not. Although he is many things Ivy finds attractive.

As the two of them track down wrong-doers within the order, sparks fly, spells are cast, karaoke is performed and a great time is had by all (well, not the bad guys of course, but everybody else).

This is escapist fun at its best. I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Tanya Eby. She's a talented narrator and does a great job but I'm puzzled as to why Ivy seems to have an American accent when the story is set in Oxford, is laced with English vernacular and where the other characters are given some form of English accent. I forgave this after a while because Tanya Eby's comic timing is perfect. I'm happy to listen to her perform the next two books in the series. show less

Ivy isn’t a heroine. Ivy isn’t a solver of problems, she doesn’t fix things and if you’re in trouble she’s the last witch to call. She’s much happier driving her taxi and developing a deep and abiding relationship with her sofa.

Sadly when someone screws up the paperwork she finds herself drafted by the Magical Order’s Arcane branch and magically linked to way-too-energetic, way-too-serious over achiever Adeptus Exemptus Raphael Winter

They do not have compatible personalities.

This is a book that just makes me smile - no grin - through every page. Mainly because of Ivy, the protagonist, a witch and a woman after my own heart.

She’s lazy.

Y’know in a genre that occasionally flirts with portraying an show more “every-man/woman” a person all of us can identify with, we’re constantly shown somone who steps up and acts the hero, pulls out miraculous feels while being heroicly brave and amazingly virutous and impossible impressive.

And I’m sure we’d all love to say we identify with that person. But it’s a lie. It’s a dirty rotten lie. Here we have Ivy. The woman who needs to be dragged out of bed in a morning. The woman who would rather cut her own leg off than exercise. The woman who invented a rune to make things lighter because she was too lazy to carry heavy things. The witch who made a run to open her front door because she couldn’t be bothered to dig her keys out of her disorganised hand bag. A woman whose idea of a good time is spending some quality time with her sofa and television. A woman who uses the lift when she really should use the stairs.

There’s something so very real about her.

She’s also extremely snarky and I know we have a whole lot of snarky protagonists out there. But it really works with this character because she is so reluctantly involved in the plot line and that plot line itself, at least for most of the duration of the plot, isn’t that high stakes. Her history with the Order is painful and it hasn’t treated her well. She’s also only ever seen it at its worse - and then she’s magically, accidentally, drafted to help Winter (designated love interest and boring guy to be snarked at) which absolutely no-one wants but no-one can get out of. Naturally she’s not going to be favourably inclined to help anyone. And it’s not really massively selfish for her to be a colossal pain in the arse - and seeing her stomp through this stuffy, rigid hierarchy not giving a damn about any of it was glorious. She doesn’t owe these people anything. She doesn’t respect them. She doesn’t like them. She isn’t invested in her mission. So damn right she’s going to be awkward and snarky and disrespectful.

She’s dragged into this against her will and it works. If I have one complaint about the plot in this book it’s how quickly Ivy capitulates to the Order - honestly I would have been 10 times more awkward).

Despite all this Ivy is clearly super competent, very intelligent even when made easily bored (partly because she is so intelligent and talented) without being super woman. I really like her.

And I like that we do get a nuanced look at the Order as well - it’s not just a stereotypical evil/incompetent organisation. I love Ivy and Winter’s disagreement over the role of ambition and whether it’s a positive force or not and the awesome skewering of officer politics and how it can destroy an organisation. And when we found the antagonists? An excellent moment.

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This reader's personal opinion, ©2018, all rights reserved, not to be quoted, clipped or used in any way by goodreads, Google Play, amazon.com or other commercial booksellers*

Posts running across my booklikes dashboard made this one sound good. It was; I really enjoyed this Kindle Unlimited offering.

This is Bewitched and PNR type of witchcraft rather than horror, satanistic rituals, etc. Book synopsis is accurate.

I liked the snarky, lazy heroine. Not at all a grim anti-hero, but not eager to exert. Loved her cat. Even liked the building romance (not where it went at the end of this book in the series). Lazy or not, I do wish she had fought harder against the false accusation tanking her with the order and still tarnishing her show more reputation.

"He stared at me. Screw him. I wasn’t going to apologise for my clothes lying around my home."

Being kicked out of formal magic meant she developed some unique things herself. At least things she really wanted -- like bespelling her cat to actually speak. Made for fun worldbuilding.

" Scouts would be looking to hire me as their personal mascot – or better still, the fire brigade. I pictured myself on their annual calendar, surrounded by broad-chested firemen. Now there was an idea"

" ‘It might not be a drink, it might be an orgy. Well,’ I amended, ‘a threesome anyway.’

Winter looked faintly green. ‘Let’s hope not. Come on. There’s probably a back door.’ "

All in all a good read with even side characters and love interest developed nicely. Looking forward to reading the next in series.

*©2018. All rights reserved except permission is granted to author or publisher (except Penumbra Publishing) to reprint/quote in whole or in part. I may also have cross-posted on Libib, LibraryThing, and other sites including retailers like kobo and Barnes and Noble. Posting on any site does not grant that site permission to share with any third parties or indicate release of copyright.

Ratings scale used:

★★★★★ = All Time Favorite
★★★★½ = Extraordinary Book. Really Loved It.
★★★★☆ = Loved It.
★★★½☆ = Really Liked.
★★★☆☆ = Liked.
★★½☆☆ = Liked parts; parts only okay. Would read more by author.
★★☆☆☆ = Average. Okay.
★½☆☆☆ = Disliked or meh? but kept reading in hopes would improve.
★☆☆☆☆ = Loathed It. Possibly DNF and a torturous read.
½☆☆☆☆ = So vile was a DNF or should have been. Cannot imagine anyone liking. (Might also be just an "uploaded" word spew or collection that should not be dignified by calling itself a "published book." If author is going batshit crazy in the blogosphere over reviews -- I now know why they are getting bad reviews. Or maybe author should take remedial classes for language written in until basic concepts like using sentences sink in. Is author even old enough to sign a publishing contract or do they need a legal guardian to sign for them?) show less

Slouch Witch
4 Stars

A case of mistaken identity results in Ivy Wilde, the world's most indolent witch, being partnered with Raphael Winter, the very staid yet oh-so sexy investigator for the Holy Order of Magical Enlightenment. When a magical artifact is stolen from the Order's library, Ivy and Winter must overcome their differences to uncover a conspiracy with the potential to bring down the Order.

This is a surprisingly delightful read.

The heroine's laid-back charm and irreverent attitude are a perfect counter-balance for the hero's stoic seriousness. Their opposites-attract chemistry and snarky banter is reminiscent of some of the most iconic investigative partnerships - Mulder and Scully, Steed and Peel, Rogan and Nevada.

While the show more case itself is secondary to the characterization, it does have some intense and action-packed moments. The world building is an interesting mix of the Wizarding World meets the Dresden Files with magical herbs, spells, artifacts and bureaucrats.

Tanya Eby's narration of the audiobook is entertaining although it is strange that her voice for Ivy has an American accent when the book is set in the UK and all of the other characters have English accents.

All in all, an engaging beginning to the series and I look forward to more of Ivy and Rafe's adventures in witchcraft. show less

5 magic (and lazy) stars

After reading Wraith from the same author and absolutely adoring the stand-alone but wishing it was a series, I decided to go for a series from Helen Harper and boy was I not so happy of my choice!

Ivy is one of my favourite main characters of all times and it is certainly due to the fact that I identify to her so much as a fellow couch potato myself. But that's not all, no siree! She is brilliant and sassy, she made me laugh, which is what I'm often looking for in a novel. She perfectly knows where she stands, what she's willing to do and what she's capable of, which includes all her qualities as well as her faults. She's multidimensional and just so relatable that I just couldn't stop reading.

I read reviews show more stating the plot was meh, but I disagree as I found it rather well thought and quite entertaining. Sure, there are a few things I expected, but it turned out differently from what I thought, there are multiple things also happening at the same time and plenty of characters to follow, just enough to get to know them and remember who they are and not too many as to get completely lost. These characters are also all really realistic, and I'm in love with Iqbal and hate Tarquin so much I just totally get Ivy's pov. I like that we discover other sides of Raphael along with Ivy, to see him evolve a bit but not brutally change all of a sudden.
And let's not forget Brutus. Damn if that cat literally got my tongue in the last few pages!

It's urban fantasy, which is a genre I really love, especially when it involves witches. Those ones can use herbs and runes but that's about where the difference with mere humans stops so, while it is truly urban fantasy, it isn't that far from the world as we know it as other books.

Last but not least, the entire epilogue is from Winter's pov and that couldn't have made me happier, promise. I love dual pov stories so a bit more would have been great as well but, as I said, Ivy is kind of my hero so the way it's done is just the kind I love.

All in all, just a brilliant way to start a series, I would more than definitely recommend this book! show less

The title grabbed me, the description held on, and the book kept me entertained all the way through. The main character and the man she's forced to partner with (magical mixup, oops) have that "I hate you--You're so hot" thing happening and I like that. It's got a style of magic I haven't seen used often before and never in this particular way. The mystery was a little too easily solved (for people who read a lot of mysteries) but the motives behind it and the eventual reveal were funny and a great contrast to the usual save the world urban fantasy plot. This would be a good Summer read, I recommend it for that.

Now that was fun

I normal don't like the Urban Fantasy that seems snarky and clever. Too often the snark and clever repartee is used to mask a weak plot and poorly constructed characters. This is an exception.

While there is a hint of romance, it is kept to small doses and mostly confined to awkward moments when a witticism becomes sexual.

The magic is mostly a rune system with some herbs. No appearance of vampires or weres. While the system is ill-defined, it merely supports the story instead of altering it.

This is really a mystery in the mode of the tv show Moonlighting.

I am going to buy the second book immediately. Best recommendation I know how to make.