A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon

Sadly, this book did not work for me. And if I'm completely honest, I'm not sure I can pinpoint a specific thing that bothered me, it was just average overall. 

I feel like the focus of the book was all over the place. It was trying to straddle the line of serious discussion on trauma while still having a happy unserious tone and it just didn't work for me. I felt like the magic was under-explained, the whole family situation was a mess and so awful that I have no words. The friends were there as plot devices when the FMC needed them to show up in the story. Arguments were happening so often, and it would all resolve in the next chapter despite them saying some awful stuff to each other or other side characters. 
Also, the whole conversation where she admitted who MMC was to one of her bff but let the other one believe an assumption without correcting her (for absolutely no reason) is just wild. Also, I can't be the only one who finds it weird when her friend makes her sleepover at her house to keep her from going home with MMC while drunk, but not even once tries to shield her from the abuse her mother is having on her every single day. All of the parent-child relationships in this book were pretty poorly handled tbh.

And despite all of this, I wouldn't say it was badly written or that nobody would be able to enjoy this, but I just don't think it handled any aspect of the story very well. If you are looking for a quick story for when you are in a specific mood with the right expectations, I could see people liking this more than I did. 

TL;DR Review: Cute, quirky, with a memorable and interesting cast of characters. Plot was pretty predictable, kept expecting the stakes to go higher but they never did. Added a full star for the excellent portrayal of a narcissistic mother and the personal growth required to set boundaries. Will continue with the next book in the series.

Audiobook Notes: Listened on 1.2x speed. I enjoyed most of the narrator's style. I wasn't a huge fan of the voice/accent she used for Oz, but got used to it after a bit. It just wasn't sexy, to me, and he was definitely supposed to be. She did an amazing job of Mom Spark's voice though. Grating, pushy, can't be ignored! Just like the character.

Longer Review: Mariel is an endearing character and I loved her cast of supportive girlfriends. Glimmer Falls itself is a campy sort of cozy paranormal town, and many of the other characters (like the mothers in this book) are very stereotypical of their type. I was immediately sympathetic with Mariel's feelings as the disappointing daughter, and wanted to see how she would deal with her “inability” to do magic – since it was obvious in the first chapter that would be the focus of the story. I do love the grumpy/sunshine trope so as soon as Oz was on the page I was at least somewhat invested.