Review: Enchanted to Meet You by Meg Cabot

Enchanted to Meet You

Meg Cabot

(Witches of West Harbor #1)

Publication Date: September 5, 2023

Paperback, 368 pages, Avon

Genres: Adult, Paranormal Romance

Goodreads

A witchy rom-com from New York Times bestseller Meg Cabot about a plus size witch who must team up with a handsome stranger to help protect her village from an otherworldly force—but will she be able to protect her heart?

 

It’s Magic When You Meet Your Match In her teenage years, lovelorn Jessica Gold cast a spell that went disastrously wrong, and brought her all the wrong kind of attention—as well as a lifetime ban from the World Council of Witches.

 

So no one is more surprised than Jess when, fifteen years later, tall, handsome WCW member Derrick Winters shows up in her quaint little village of West Harbor and claims that Jess is the Chosen One.

 

She’s the Chosen One Not chosen by West Harbor’s snobby elite to style them for the town’s tricentennial ball—though Jess owns the chicest clothing boutique in town. And not chosen finally to be on the WCW, either—not that Jess would have said yes, anyway, since she’s done with any organization that tries to dictate what makes a “true” witch. No, Jess has been chosen to help save West Harbor itself...

 

As Summer Ends, Her Power Grows But just when Jess is beginning to think that she and Derrick might have a certain magic of their own—and not of the supernatural variety—Jess learns he may not be who she thought he was. And suddenly Jess finds herself having to trust Derrick and work with him to combat the sinister force battling to bring down West Harbor, or use her gift as she always to keep herself, and her heart, safe. Can she work her magic in time?

My Review

Another witchy, paranormal book from Meg Cabot. This one is likely for fans of Erin Sterling's The Ex Hex or Sungu Mandanna's The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches.

While I am a huge fan of Meg Cabot's YA paranormal books, like the Mediator series, 1-800-Where-R-You books, and Jinx, this new adult book, Enchanted to Meet You, didn't quite hit the same for multiple reasons, though I think some people will still enjoy the story. I simply had some issues with it.

One of the smaller nitpicks I had is the main character's name. Why did Meg give Jessica the same name as Jessica from the 1-800 series? I find that a little odd. But that isn't really a big deal. The biggest and most obvious problem is one that I feel like many people will have an issue with: the love spell. 

 So the main character, Jessica, is a witch, and she uses a love spell on a boy in high school. This is shown through flashback chapters. The relationship between the boy and Jessica does get physical at some points; therefore, a big ick factor comes to play. I'm surprised Meg would write a main character who would do something like that. Suze and the other Jess would never! I had to knock two stars off for that early on, and I almost DNF-ed the entire book, but I thought I'd continue it because it's a quick read and I'm doing it for review purposes. Now, about 33% through the story, it's shown that Jessica wasn't as awful as previously thought. BUT, she still did the love spell with the intention to make a guy love her AND thought it had worked. So, still icky. Meg really should've made the full situation clearer up front. Yes, doing so would take away from a small bit of tension, but I think she's possibly going to lose some readers because of that plotline and the way it's laid out in the beginning.

Once that major revelation came to light, I actually enjoyed the book more. It started being a fun, paranormal rom-com instead of a lighter episode of Law & Order: SVU. Though Jessica isn't the most unique character, she's still charming and witty. And Derrick is the mysterious male lead with pretty crazy secrets. I honestly wasn't a fan of his big secret, however. It threw off the whole cozy, small-town vibe of the story and made it into something way bigger in scale. That was a bummer, in my opinion .

Overall, this story was kind of a mess. It was quick and easy to read once I got into it, but the main red flag of the book took a lot of enjoyment out of it and made it a chore to get through when I first started reading. The middle was a good time, but things just kind of fell off towards the very end. It was very anticlimactic. I guess I'm disappointed in this one.

*Note: I received a copy of this book to review from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way affected my opinion/review.