The Coven

Holy Cow...

I have been a fan of this author since the very first book that I read of hers. Her Mafia-style books are chef's kiss. When I first learned that she was going to be writing PNR, in addition to Mafia, I was on the fence. Not because I didn't think that she could do it but because PNR is not normally a subgenre that I read. However, I gave her a chance because she is that good at what she does. I am glad that I did because it is phenomenal. It takes skill to be able to do what she does and this book is a testament to that.

The world-building, the stylistic word choices, her cadence, and her tone proves that she is a masterclass. I am not going to give anything away about this book because I think that this is a book where even show more the blurb cannot do justice to all that this story entails and what is yet to come.

I adored Willow, but Gray? I don't even know how this author manages to keep creating leading male characters, that I would throat punch in real life, this damn delectable. Just take my money at this point. I don't need a synopsis or even a cover. I will just buy it because it is written by this master wordsmith.

The ending was brutal. It is going to be brutal to wait to get part two. I try not to read cliffhangers on books with months between books. However, I make an exception for this author. It just means that I will need to read this book again closer to the next book, which in all honesty is no hardship.

Highly recommend anything and everything from the author. show less

The Coven is a dark fantasy full of witches, secrets, and slow-burn tension. The world-building is rich and atmospheric, pulling you into a realm where power is dangerous and truths are buried deep.

The main character is fierce and easy to root for as she uncovers secrets and grapples with her identity. The romance brings heat, though at times it overshadows the plot. Some pacing issues and predictable twists held it back a bit, but overall, it kept me engaged.

I’ll definitely read the second one to see what happens next—there’s enough mystery and magic to keep me hooked. A solid start for fans of dark fantasy and enemies-to-lovers drama.

“That was rude” was said A LOT in this novel and I could never hear it without hearing all of the bad TikTok videos made using the same line. It’s like a Millennial reading a romance fantasy novel and Stephanie Tanner’s “How rude!” being the constant line used as something to arouse someone with. You just feel revolted instead of aroused.

I don’t recall Willow’s exact age being given — except for it being a constant reminder that she’s “not a child!” and “a woman”. That leaves a lot of wiggle room on her age.

Because I know when I was 18/19, I thought I was “an adult” and able to make my own decisions, I could see that being Willow’s argument as well — as well as the men that wanted to get into her show more pants. Because our brain doesn’t fully mature until we’re 25 (and if you’re older than 25 and remember the stupid decisions you made as a 19 year old into your early 20s you can definitely recognize that), I imagined Willow’s age at being mid-20s.

I was emotionally immature in my mid to late 20s, which allowed a much older man to groom me and make me trust him. With Willow’s upbringing, it seems the same happened to her in this novel. For being a pure virgin she sure knew a lot about sex and pleasure and wasn’t the least bit surprised by being touched or aroused by the touch of a man, which certainly made me imagine her as being older. Though, there is an indication that her father may have introduced her to what was expected from her without actually “taking that from her”. show less

I am super torn about it. A lot of that hinges on where the story actually goes because it is not clear from the completely open ending in this one.
Let me first get to a few general criticisms I have.
The insta-lust was just so extreme that it stretched credulity a lot.
Don't get me wrong I am all for an interesting and spicy conflict between mind and body and all that but it just feels like it went too far too quickly too often in this one. Even among the bodice rippers, this falls on the strong side.
Next is the academia setting. This feels tacked on and only seems to serve two purposes. First, the protagonists need some kind of environment to interact in, and being forced to go to some sort of magic college is as good an excuse as any. show more Well, among excuses. But how about a setting that isn't just an excuse? Nothing in this story actually requires or even uses the academia setting for anything really. Second, it seems to me like the choice of academia was primarily driven by an attempt at baiting the target audience. On the one hand, this comes across to me as cheap if attracting a certain audience is indeed the primary motivation, but on the other hand, it's a good bet that just putting academia into the book leads to a lot more people finding this book that might thoroughly enjoy it.

Now I want to talk about the story beyond the insta-lust and the unnecessary academia.
The book already warns about this but this is not one of these ambiguous romances where the ML is a domineering alpha-hole that crosses lines but is kinda repentant at the end and is more or less redeemed in the end.
The ending of this book very much gave me the impression this could simply not end in any kind of HEA. This book made it actually plausible for this to end in tragedy and I LOVE it.
There are so many possible bitter-sweet endings I could see here but this might be the biggest downfall of this series in the end because the author can't possibly write an ending that even half of the readers will be happy with.
Call me a sadist all you like but I honestly wouldn't mind the FMC making the ultimate sacrifice, leaving the ML alive but mortal in the process, and having the last chapter be just him being eaten up by regret and futilely trying to work for forgiveness for all he has done despite knowing she is already lost to him until he dies.

On a side note, my bullshit radar went off quite a bit because of the wonky world-building. It's all incredibly vague and the author is careful to not establish any hard and fast rules that might get in the way later but despite that, I frequently had this nagging in the back of my head that all this doesn't quite work in terms of world-building or even plot. But I was so deeply invested in the story and the MC in particular that I never got hung up on any of these so I couldn't honestly tell you what was fishy exactly and why. Just be aware that if the story doesn't capture you there might be quite a bit of frustrating bs waiting for you. show less

This fantasy romance made for a quick, intriguing read, although I had deeply mixed feelings about the romantic side of the plot. Willow is a witch with a unique heritage, and after the death of her mother, she finds herself (forcefully) recruited to the magical academy in Crystal Hollow, which is governed by undying witches. It also puts her in the path of Gray, a vessel she is both attracted to and at odds with. All that being said, with a cliffhanger ending like this novel has, I'm definitely reading the sequel.

I really wanted to enjoy this more than I did; the bones of it are SO good (no pun intended), but near the end it gets messy and unenjoyable. I think the author should have spent a -little- more time actually worldbuilding and making the characters feel like they existed on their own feet and NOT just as a collection of tropes, but that wasn't quite as noticeable in this book.

The academia aspect is barely touched on - and there's no real appeal in the "problematic" aspect of the MMC being a headmaster because that has LITERALLY NOTHING TO DO with anyone thinking this relationship is bad lmao. I constantly forgot this was supposed to be at a school!

Definitely a potato chip read. More fun than the sequel.

I found the first part of this story quite confusing, but it started to make sense as we learned more of the backstory.

With that said, by the end of this book, I was sitting on the edge of my chair waiting to find out what was going to happen, did not fully expect that ending and I cannot wait to read The Cursed to find out what the ramifications of the ending are!