This was such a good solid cozy fall read. I do not understand the hate at all. This is a readable in one day type of read and I found it very cozy and funny if I’m being honest. I would definitely recommend as a quick palette cleanser. I will say more than “Charmed” vibes I was getting Halloweentown/Thistle Grove by Lana Harper vibes but I did really enjoy!

this book was such a good way to start fall off! it had the perfect amount of cozy fall vibes! if you’re looking for something super cute and witchy look no further! it’s giving gilmore girls, charmed, halloweentown- all the nostalgic cozy vibes we know and love! felt the ending was a little rushed but overall a really fun read!

thank you to netgalley for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review!

This book promised fall vibes and it certainly delivered! This is a cute, quick story where the FMC returns home after a decade away to join her family in fighting against a threat to their magic. The overall story line is a good one but the execution fell a little flat. The writing feels very YA, as do the relationships between the characters. The pacing felt off, especially towards the end where important events were sped along very quickly. I didn’t hate this book in the slightest but it felt underdeveloped.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for the ARC provided in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a fun book to get me into the spirit of fall. It has all the cozy vibes you want in a fall read and the slow burn grumpy x sunshine romance was exactly what you want during the fall. It reminds me a lot of books from Erin Sterling who also writes books perfect for the fall. I would definitely pick this one to kick off your fall TBR.


Perfect for fans of:

Grumpy x sunshine ☀️

Slow burn 🔥

Witchy aesthetic 🔮✨

Cosy small town 🍂☕

Sweet, funny and the perfect treat for autumn. This is a gorgeous little novel which will capture hearts and attention.

Scarlett hasn’t set foot in Oak Haven in a decade, but when her older sister asks for help, she reluctantly returns. Oak Haven is a magical town where women are witches, and anyone who leaves forgets it exists. Back in town, Scarlett quickly realizes that something is wrong with the magic, and no one seems to know how to fix it. Alongside her sisters and mother, she tries to unravel the mystery while rekindling unresolved feelings for Nate, her old flame. With its magical, small-town charm, family dynamics, and romance, this book makes a cozy fall read.

While this wasn't my favorite, I feel that the author has a lot of potential, and I would be willing to read more of her future books.

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Gilmore girls meets Halloweentown and makes a very cute and cosy fall read.

It was nice to have a magic system, where magic just existed and different communities accessed it differently, the minutiae of how the system worked wasn't important and I'm glad the story wasn't bogged down by it. I laughed at the little shoutouts to The Magicians and Harry Potter!

The setting was very reminiscent of Lana Harper's Thistle Grove and Erin Sterling's Graves Glenn, but for a younger audience. It was easy to read, but could still use some work, perfectly paced (except for one year at the end), and only frustrating at times because Scarlett being blamed for everything and never believed, hit a bit too close to home but the pay off was worth it.

I stan an unproblematic unconditionally supportive boyfriend, and Nate was just the cutest. So much was mentioned about his familial line I really expected something to come of it, but maybe that's for another time.

While the story works as a stand alone, there's still some mysteries unanswered. I look forward to reading more from Emily Grimoire, hopefully about Delilah and Luna's adventures, and maybe with Viz and Handsome Dan as the office bosses?? cough cough..

I was so excited to get this book because it looked like a cute, witchy, cozy fall book. I loved Charmed and Gilmore Girls growing up so this would be perfect for me. Unfortunately, this book did not live up to the hype. There are way too many pop culture references in this book. When I like to read I don’t wanna have to think about worldly things as much, but let the book be more of an escape. Also, the FMC was annoying and immature. Her relationship with her mother and older sister, wasn’t that great and hard to read and like her for because of it. The romance part was way too drawn out as well. This could have been a great book but needs a lot more editing.


Thank you AvonUK & NetGalley for advanced readers copy. This is my honest and voluntary opinion.

Impractical Magic takes place in the magical town of Oak Haven, when Scarlett returns from San Francisco and ten years avoiding magic. The town she returns to, though, is in chaos as the source of all their magic has been tainted. She and her sisters, and the town, come together to try and purge the poison and save their home and their magic.

Feeling really hit and miss with this one. I wasn’t anticipating the greatest book I’ve ever read and yet I still feel let down by it.

The long and the short of it is - I know this wasn’t for me, but it’s definitely for someone out there. For me, the stakes and the writing don’t align, which made the whole book confusing. I loved the quirks of the messy magic throughout the story, and I appreciated that Grimoire unabashedly made the story very 2024, with modern references and slang. PLUS, the Halloweentown vibes? That’s nostalgic for me.

But the overall story plotting and magic system didn’t make an awful lot of sense to me and made this book feel more like a slog than an enjoying read for me.

Thanks Net Galley and Avon Books UK for the Advanced Digital Reading Copy.

A great premise, and an enticing title, but the execution falls flat. It could've done with more rigorous editing, there were a lot of repetitive phrases, the pacing is off, and some of the references were a little cringeworthy.

thank you netgalley for the eARC of ‘impractical magic’!

this book has all the pieces to create a cozy fall read, but unfortunately the characters and plot fell flat for me. I could not get past the toxicity of scarlett’s family towards her, specifically her mother who was literally, a witch to her. it wasn’t until the end when scarlett has finally found her voice that her mother shows any sort of affection towards her, and that just rubbed me the wrong way. the relationship between the sisters had so much more potential, but took roughly ¾ of the book to develop into something meaningful. the romance element was there, but didn’t quite make sense in the overarching story. scarlett just had so much trauma (which is totally okay) that she was almost completely incapable of being happy in oak haven. the world itself was interesting, but the story just failed to capture my complete attention.

I received this as an ARC and I just want to say that I loved this book. It was so cozy and cute. It explored some difficult concepts when it came to Scarlett’s feelings of guilt and inadequacy.

Scarlett is a witch from the town of Oak Haven, who fled 10 years ago to San Francisco. She receives an urgent message from her older sister asking her to come home because the magic has gone haywire. Reluctantly, she makes the trek home to discover that not much has changed since she last left. Her mother is still harsh and her sister’s witty, but her almost love? He’s turned into a hunk! This story follows Scarlett’s time back home and she rediscovers her first love and faces the things that made her flee in the first place.

I love a good second chance romance. Nate and Scarlett were always meant to be. And the way he stayed in the grove for a whole year put the icing on the cake. He never rushed her, even though she was hot and cold. He literally followed her lead and would follow her anywhere.

The dynamic between the sisters is what you would expect from teenagers. That’s something that I didn’t quite like. Generally, the personalities would mature after 10 years, but it seemed the sisters literally picked up where they left off. Not the mention the way Scarlett immediately felt inadequate around her mom. Her mother has a terrible way of expressing her concern and love. But not everyone can be perfect, so I did find her mom to be relatable.

The plot was pretty easy to follow and the culprit was pretty easy to sus out. You didn’t quite know the depth of all the treachery and it left a lot of questions that could be answered in a second book, perhaps following the love story of a different sister?

I was really excited for the witchy/fall vibes of this book but unfortunately DNF’d at 40%. I liked the beginning and was curious to see what would transpire between Scarlett & Nate and how the sisters would save Oak Haven from the magic mishaps. About 15% in the book started to lose me. It was just not holding my attention. I felt like the writing was a little bit scattered and it was hard to follow the dialogues.

However, I did like how the author described the town. It was fun to picture the small town and envision the community/nosy townsfolk.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon Books UK for the eARC.

I received this book from Netgalley as an ARC. My first impressions was this was an unedited version of the story as the first 65% of the book felt very scattered. There was a coherent plot of the town's magic system being dictated by a grove of trees that were failing, magical sigils meant to keep the town safe from outsiders being disrupted, and a looming threat of losing the town, which I very much enjoyed but there were a lot of what felt like unnecessary tangents that distracted from the story line and were not fully fleshed out. These tangents left me questioning the direction of the story and unfortunately most of the tangents never ended up leading anywhere.

The relationship between the sisters seemed to fluctuate a lot between Scarletts' internal anguish and the reality of family bickering which never seemed to have a point, explanation, or resolution. The dynamics of the sisters and mother were laid out but there was very little tie in to how that dynamic came to be and why after 10 years of separation it still existed.

The story baseline of a small town in New England where the magic starts to fail and the town has to band together to figure out how to restore magic and grow as a better community had so much potential. However, the reader was left guessing on how the magic worked and why each magical community was different. It took a while to understand whether the Magicians in town were another magical community or just normal people intrigued by the concept of magic.

Overall, I really wanted to enjoy this whimsical witchy story but struggled to really follow the tangents and fully become immersed in the story. I appreciate the opportunity to read this advanced copy and would be interested to see if there is improved structure upon publishing.

The premise of this one was so great, I was eager to pick it up and devour a new fun witchy book. Unfortunately, the book itself was clunky with awkward dialogue, and it took me days and days to finish this one.

The story about magic going haywire in the town was a fun one, but it was so incredibly drawn out and the crazy amounts of pop culture references took me completely out of the story. I usually like a reference or two but there are just far too many here. By the time I got to the important parts of the story, I just didn’t really care anymore. I was irritated with the attitude of the main character, found all of the dialogue to not flow well, and didn’t even feel the romance.

Thank you for the arc. All opinions are my own,

Had to dnf at 25% unfortunately, the characters came across as immature considering their ages and the dialogue and set up for the plot was poor. It didn’t feel cosy it felt like it was trying too hard. I found it difficult to read and enjoy and I just didn’t care about the characters.

It took a while to get into this. Was almost a dnf, and felt like a bit of a chore to read initially. But I’m glad I persevered as it had me hooked towards the end.

It’s a shame the beginning is written so clunky and quite difficult to follow because it is an interesting premise and a good plot.

Scarlett returns home after 10 years to deal with magic gone wrong in her perfect magical home town. Her almost-boyfriend (they never dated) is still there (men can't leave or they'll forget the town exists) with unfinished feelings. Scarlett's sisters and mother are part of the town's history, adding weight onto "screw-up Scarlett's" shoulders, especially after the incident 10 years ago.

I started reading and was almost immediately put off by the number of pop culture references - not least "a wizard school in England". The references slowed down and the story was intriguing. Then it all went weird. This book seems to set up a series - who are the "bosses" and who is the woman tasked with keeping the evidence safe? Mama Melrose is right to question why they let one of the magicians escape when they could get more information. The book also says it takes 3 days to forget if you've been in the town long enough - he's gone a few hours and forgets, even after staying for months and figuring out how to get around the spell, where's the consistency? How did no one notice some magicians in top hats lurking in the background when the final spell took all day. Why did the magicians hang around so long?

The book ends happily but unconvincingly. The sister has been gone for a year after she's (partly) kidnapped - but there's no mention of anyone being bothered about finding out who attacked their magic (maybe it's Penn and Teller?! They have a throw away appearance if you're paying attention) or why.

The story idea has a great opportunity to create a world of magic and mystery. The pop culture references date this book immediately and it feels like more plot points were shoehorned for the sake of it. Nothing is really explained, there's no explanation of the magical systems or what the point is (or why everyone needs to forget the town really). The relationship between the sisters immediately reverts to childish and resentful (understandably for Delilah) and their mother is a "character". All their issues are eventually resolved with a sentence and a hug.

As I said, it seems to be setting up a series with the unresolved questions but I'm just not interested in finding out what happens. I'd read this concept again - if it was more focused and had less pop culture references.

I happened to spot the author biography (as the arc first page) part way into reading, which is a touch of whimsy and made me laugh, but in the context of everything else feels like another forced pop culture reference. Not everything needs to relate to the Gilmore Girls - the pen name and biography are a step too far for this story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced ebook copy in exchange for an honest review.

The premise had such potential, and the cover was really cute, but it didn't live up to it. It had no heart, and it felt as if the words were just a vessel for strange pop culture references that didn't fit the story. The whole thing was disjointed.

Impractical magic was a fun read, but it managed to tackle the subject of grief in a good, well researched way.
I liked the idea of magic needing the woodland to thrive.
The romance was nice but fairly slow going. I did really like the ending and I wanted the main characters to end up together.