The Trouble With Spells (Cauldrons and Kisses) by Raiven Matthews


The Trouble With Spells is part of the multi-author Cauldrons and Kisses collaboration. This go around we have a sweet witch who encounters his high school crush while he's down on his luck in a sweet low angst story.


From the blurb:

I swear I didn’t mean to bind my secret high school crush to me, it just happened.

I made a promise to my family that there would be no spell casting while they were away. It was well known in the Turner household that my spells tended to go a bit, shall we say, wonky. Like turning my ex-boyfriend into a frog when I’d been trying to conjure breakfast in bed. Complete accident, though my sister claimed he was better in frog form. She wasn’t wrong. So, for the next two weeks I would look after our family store, hang out with my cat, Hex, and enjoy having the house to myself for once. Peace and quiet and no hinky spell work business.

Then he blew into my store–literally. Michael Endicott the third. Or fourth? Maybe fifth? It didn’t matter. What did matter was that I was staring at my high school crush–who clearly did not remember me. Unfortunately, he still made me forget how to form words into a complete sentence. Seems a vengeful one-night stand had placed a bad luck spell on Michael, and he needed help. My help. I mean, what could go wrong? It was just an easy reversal spell. No problem. Only somehow instead of reversing the spell, I managed to bind us together.

The Trouble With Spells is an MM paranormal romance between Callum, a witch vexed with wonky magic and Michael, a nonbeliever human. Tropes include opposites attract, forced proximity, only one bed, tarot card readings, and an obligatory black cat.

TW & CW’s: While this book is mostly light and fluffy, it does contain brief instances that might be triggering to a reader. A severe allergic reaction resulting in a brief hospital stay, car accident, kidnapping, attempted murder and discussion of murder things.

Cauldrons & Kisses is a multi-author series of MM magical standalone stories. Each low angst read will feature a witch finding love.


Molly Otto's review:

Callum & Michael are everything I needed and wanted for this witchy series! You have a norm who grew up in Salem, who doesn't get the 'witch' lifestyle, who is the perfect match for a witch. Perfect, beautiful irony, and yeah, Callum is a precious soul who needs to be cherished by all, just not with spells. When Michael returns to Salem after some bad luck, he learns he needs to make real changes in his life to actually be happy. These two chemistry are adorably sweet and perfect just thst right breath of fresh air in a low angst fun story.


Jacqueleen the Reading Queen's review:

"๐…๐จ๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž, ๐ˆ ๐ฐ๐š๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฌ. ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐๐š๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ , ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฌ๐จ๐Ÿ๐ญ, ๐ญ๐ž๐š๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฃ๐จ๐ค๐ž๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ž๐ซ๐ž ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐›๐ž๐ญ๐ฐ๐ž๐ž๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฎ๐ฌ. ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐ก๐š๐ง๐ ๐ก๐จ๐ฅ๐๐ข๐ง๐ -๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐œ๐ค ๐ฒ๐ž๐ฌ, ๐€๐‹๐‹ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ก๐š๐ง๐ ๐ก๐จ๐ฅ๐๐ข๐ง๐ . ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ค๐ข๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ž ๐ฐ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐›๐จ๐ญ๐ก ๐ซ๐ž๐ฆ๐ž๐ฆ๐›๐ž๐ซ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฏ๐ž๐ฌ."

Well wasn't this just the sweetest witchy romance! Callum with his shy blushes and Michael just totally swooning over it every time it appeared on his cheeks. These two were just too cute! I don't think either of them expected their romance to blossom so quickly. I mean, Callum may have had a childhood crush on Michael mooning over him from afar, but Michael didn't even recognize him when they came face to face as adults. To be fair, it had been quite a long time since their school days and Michael rarely visited his hometown since leaving right after graduating. The point is, this wasn't a love at first sight situation, but their falling did follow soon after.

I liked the fact that Callum was a witch, yet his strength lay in tarot readings and not casting like a lot of other witch books. Each witch in his family had their own strengths and I also liked how they all seemed to practice witchcraft differently. It made things interesting, especially when we got to hear about the unfortunate outcomes of some of Callum's spellcasting. Michael himself got a front row seat to one of Callum's spells gone wrong, however I think that one turned out the way it was meant to in the end.

I do have to mention how much I enjoyed the scene where Michael meets Callum's family. His Gran is a scream and her commentary had me laughing out loud. It made Callum's meeting of Michael's parents look like a walk in the park! If you're looking for a fluffy, spellbinding *wink wink* romance, then The Trouble With Spells is the book for you.


Angel's review:

I've been very eager to read this book ever since I read the description. It just sounded so good! I mean, a witch who can't cast spells paired with a man who doesn't believe in magic? Sign me up!

I'll start off with what I thought of the writing itself. I thought the story flowed smoothly, it has excellent pacing, and the world building was terrific! I've never been to Salem myself but I loved all the details describing the scenery that was surrounding the characters. Especially when Michael and Callum were on the historical tour, that was quite cool to read about.

As for the characters themselves, they are both lovely. Well... Michael was a bit of a jerk in the beginning, he was very cocky and egotistical and that came back to hire him. Overtime though he realized his behavior and made a decision and an effort to change it, to do better and to treat people better. It was nice seeing his character grow and evolve throughout the course of the story. I adored Callum, he's so sweet and awkward, and just adorable!

The side characters were also terrific! Two of my favorite side characters are Daphne and Derek. Daphne is just so sassy, quirky, and bold that you can't help but love her. She also brings a lot of humor to the story when she's around. Derek is a genuine nice guy who cares for Michael's well being. I wish him the best of luck with Daphne cause I think he might need it.

The relationship that developed between Callum and Michael developed naturally and took things slow. Which I enjoyed a lot! They took the time to get to know one another; what they liked and disliked, what they were allergic to, what type of movies they enjoyed, what they had in common, etc. I loved that they developed such a strong connection and that it was such a prominent aspect of their relationship and of the story.

All in all this is an absolutely terrific story fill with mischief, shenanigans, magic going haywire, and of course, love.


The Trouble With Spells is currently available as an e-book and paperback and can be read as part of your Kindle Unlimited Subscription

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