2024 fantasy-romance, second of what may be an ongoing series. The
world is much like our own, only it has witches in it. Becca is one of
the ancient Ashworth family, and the ghost she summoned for advice on
a complicated magical problem has got loose; Connor is a strong-arm
man for the Witches' Council, who don't get on with the Ashworths… and
they will end up working together.
Apparently this is a sequel, but I didn't feel at all lost.
There's obviously a lot of hand-waving over how the world can look the
same even as some people have blatant operating magic, but it more or
less holds together. Apart from the romance, the story is about abuse
of power and trust, and it's an effective one even if the villain is a
bit blatant (well, to some extent that's the point.)
Then the romance tropes suddenly kick in: oh, she said they're a
honeymooning couple, so there's only one bed. Oh, someone thinks Mr
Glowery is being abusive, so they have to simulate sex noises. And so
on. It's a bit of a thudding change of pace at first, but this quickly
smooths out and the story elements end up very well-integrated. Of
course, each of them thinks the other won't want anything to do with
them once the job is over…
I was particularly glad to see no third-act breakup or Big
Misunderstanding; overall, this felt much more like a real and
plausible romance than some books manage, even if it is subtitled "the
cosy grumpy x sunshine witchy romcom". These characters are still
individual people, not just exemplars of their tropes, and even if
they do some tropey things.