The Curse of the Bruel Coven

I discovered that I had accidentally completed the Modern Mrs. Darcy reading challenge for 2020, except “read a local author” so I put my librarian skills to the test and searched for an NJ author who writes horror who is not a white, CIS male and ta-dah! found Sabrina Ramoth. The Curse was checked in at my library branch, so....fate?
Anyway, I really enjoyed this. It's like True Blood and Beautiful Creatures had a baby. A sad, grieving baby who just came into her witchy powers. Honestly, I'm not the world's biggest urban fantasy fan but I really like Vivienne and I love the Frech Quarter. This would have been fun to read while on our trip last year.
That said, is it perfect? No. I really like Ramoth's voice. I wasn't prepared to have a ton of characters thrown at me all at once, and many of them don't have time to be developed. Nemma, for example, is not the grandmother character one expects to find in a book, and I liked her immediately just for that. It's more like I can see the foundation of where this is going and I am all in.
What it always comes down to, with me, is whether or not I am in a race to get back to the story when I put the book down (because stupid life has not yet allowed me to just non-stop read) and I found myself speeding up my chores, etc to see where this was going next. That, for me, is the mark of a good read.