Love and Other Wicked Things by Philline Harms

 
Love and Other Wicked Things by Philline Harms
My Rating: ★★★★

I received a copy from Wattpad Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Oakriver is a quiet town that secretly houses a magical community. Rhia is from the latest generation of Greenbrook witches in town, and she is one of the many who are gifted with Earth magic. When her grandma has a vision about a dangerous unfamiliar witch coming to town, Rhia doesn’t think much about her warnings. Why would she hang out with whoever this dangerous witch is anyway? Then she meets Valerie Morgan, a fire witch who is reading Tarot and using magic out in the open. She’s going against every rule Rhia has grown up with, and it’s getting on her last nerve, but she can’t help but feel a connection to this new witch in town. By the time Valarie gets caught up in a dangerous web of magic while trying to get closer to her mom, Rhia is too invested to let Valarie or Oakriver go down in flames.

I absolutely loved this book. We follow Rhia and Valerie, who are both witches, but they are witches with very different backgrounds. Rhia has grown up in a family who openly practices magic and is very loving and accepting while Valerie’s dad is not accepting of her fire magic. At all. In fact, he won’t even call it what it is! To top things off, she really just wants to learn more about her mom, but her dad has spent her life acting like her mom never existed. The only thing she knows about her mom is that she died in her hometown: Oakriver.

We have an excellent cast of characters. Other than Rhia and Valerie, we have Rhia’s family and Valarie’s roommate. We mainly get to know Rhia’s sister, Sage, and her cousin, Holly. I absolutely love them. They’re such fun and sweet characters that I wish they were members of my own family. There’s also her longtime friend, Tristan, who is hilarious and doesn’t possess any magic of his own. Plus, Valarie’s roommate, Quinn. I loved them from the start and I wish we got to see a little more of them, but I’m happy with how much they appeared in the story. I love that each of these characters are so realistic that they could easily walk in through the door, but they also have a touch of magic for the story.

The story itself is fun. It’s a slow burn kind of story that is mainly carried by the characters. For some reason, I thought it was building up to something way bigger than what it was actually building up to after I read the summary, but that was my own fault. It turns out I took the saving the town part of the summary and built it up in my head somewhere between reading the first page and getting to the halfway point of the book! However, even then, I was very happy with the book and enjoyed every minute of it. I do think what happens with Valarie toward the end of the book and how that’s resolved could’ve been much bigger, but otherwise, I’m happy with how the story turns out.

All in all, this is an excellent story with a wonderful cast of characters. There’s magic, a little bit of mystery, and a lot of platonic and romantic love. The overall story is cute and fun, but there is a little bit of trauma and confusion along with a big secret hiding just around the corner. All in all, it was an excellent read and I’m looking forward to checking out the author’s other works.