Non-Review: Rewitched

Rewitched by Lucy Jane Wood

Published By: Macmillan Publishing
Publication Date: September 19, 2024
Date Read: August 20, 2025
Genre: Adult – Urban Fantasy / Cosy Fantasy
Source: eARC from Netgalley
Format: E-Book
Pages: 432

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Belladonna Blackthorn hasn’t lost her magical spark . . . but she hasn’t seen it in a while, either.

Balancing work at her beloved Lunar Books with protecting it from her toxic boss, who’s running it into the ground, and all the while concealing her witchcraft from the non-wicches around her – Belle is burnt out. Perfecting the potential of her magic is the last thing on her mind.

But when her 30th birthday brings a summons from her coven, and a trial that tests her worthiness as a witch, Belle risks losing her magic forever. With the month of October to fix things, and signs that dark forces may be working against her, Belle will need all the help she can get – from the women in her life, from an unlikely mentor figure, and even an (infuriatingly handsome) watchman who’s sworn to protect her . . .

With found family, slow burn romance and an uplifting message about self-love, this is the cosy, autumnal read that you’ve been waiting for.

Rewitched was a book that I desperately wanted to read right from the moment that I heard about it. This led to me immediately requesting it via Netgalley. But after hearing some mixed things I was really apprehensive about reading it. Fast forward almost a year later, and I finally picked this one up. On paper this should be the perfect book for me. I adore all things witchy and cosy fantasy. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches is one of my all time favourite books, and so I really wanted this one to be as well. Unfortunately this was not the case. I really wanted to love this one, but it ended up being a DNF for me.

Rewitched had a really strong start and a great premise. I loved the idea of a witch working in a bookshop in the real world. I thought the premise of this book was fantastic and it honestly made me super excited to continue this book. However, I did feel like it went downhill from there. I don’t know what it is but I felt like there wasn’t really a good supporting cast of characters. I didn’t really feel like I connected to any of them and so didn’t really care what was happening to any of them. In addition to that last of supporting characters, I ended up finding the plot repetitive and boring. Once Bella starts going through her trials, it just felt a bit more all about her and a little bit too character focused. I didn’t feel there was much of a plot.

Another thing I really couldn’t get away with was the writing style. Unfortunately Lucy Jane Wood’s writing is just not for me. At times it felt like it was wrote by someone who had just found out what a thesaurus was and decided to just drop ‘fancy’ words and phrases in where they really didn’t fit. I am not against reading a book with more pretentious terminology when it fits well. I’ve read many books where it works really well but here is felt like this book was being written for a younger audience and then just dropping in random phrases and words that didn’t fit or feel like the character would say. This ended up irritating me and left me just not wanting to read any more.

I am so heartbroken that this one didn’t hit for me, as I wanted to love it so much. Unfortunately this one just wasn’t for me, and I think I’ll be very unlikely to pick up future works by this author.