Review: The Bell Witches (Savannah Red #1)

The Bell Witches (Savannah Red #1) by Lindsey Kelk

Published By: Magpie Books
Publication Date: September 26. 2024
Date Read: November 2, 2024
Genre: YA – Paranormal Romance / Urban Fantasy
Source: eARC from Netgalley
Format: E-Book
Pages: 411

From Goodreads:
YOU’LL WANT TO BE ONE. UNTIL YOU KNOW THEIR SECRETS.

After Emily’s father tragically dies, she is forced to live with the only family she has left, an aunt and grandmother in the heart of Savannah, Georgia in a house as beautiful as it is mysterious.

But all is not what it seems with the Bell family; they’re hiding a magical secret.

When Emily meets the alluring Wyn, she forms a connection that feels like it was always meant to be. As the spark between them grows more powerful, her life takes an exhilarating and terrifying turn; but every step closer to him, takes her a step further away from her family.

Emily will find out that blood is always thicker than water…

THERE’S NO BOND GREATER THAN MAGIC.

“All my romantic experience came from my Kindle which meant that, theoretically, I would absolutely know what to do if I ever met a hot orc but had no idea what to do with an actual, real-life human boy.”

The Bell Witches was one of my most anticipated read of 2024. As someone who was already a big fan of Lindsey Kelk, having read a number of her adult romance books, I was so excited to dive into her fantasy debut. I had such high expectations for this book but unfortunately it fell a little bit flat for me.

The Bell Witches follows the story of Emily. A teen who after the sudden death of her father, find out that she has a family that she never knew about. Moving from Wales to Savannah she is suddenly thrust into the conservative lifestyle of her grandmother. But there are secrets threaded throughout the whole family, magical secrets… and Emily will not be the same again.

I really enjoyed the storyline of The Bell Witches. It was a great premise and I really enjoyed the first 40% or so of the book. It was slow going but enjoyable and intriguing. As you can probably guess by the title, Emily finds out she has magic and is a witch and when we get to the point that she finds out, I was ready for the plot to pick up… but it doesn’t. It just slows down even further and I found myself getting a bit bored and not really wanting to pick it up. It has a romance, that to me was just… not believable. It was the most instalove-y instalove I have ever read and I just couldn’t connect with the emotions of thier relationship at all. I kept waiting to feel something for their love and I just didn’t. When there were tribulations in terms of their relationship I was just a bit like ‘okay’ and just didn’t really care either way.

The pacing of the book did pick up significantly in the last 20/25% but even still I just felt like that then went way too fast. In terms of the twists and turns made no sense because there was no development between one thing happening and the next. It all seemed very sudden and to me at least, didn’t really make much sense. These pacing issues really affected my enjoyment of this book and I just didn’t feel like it was up to the level I was expecting from Lindsey. Her romance books are so fantastic, and I’ve loved them so much but this one just left me super disappointed.

I honestly don’t know if I am going to continue this series or not. I do think that things will be much better in the next book(s) but after feeling so deflated after finishing I’m just not sure if I’m invested enough to continue. Chance is that I am going to see what the reviews of the next book are like before deciding whether to continue or not. I have seen a lot of people love The Bell Witches so if you’re a big fan of witchy romance books, you may like this one. I feel like I’m definitely missing something, but this one was a miss for me unfortunately.

“Destiny is Destiny. Fate is Fate. We can make anything our fault if we want to but what’s meant to be will be and not one of us has any say in the matter.”