Small Town Big Magic
By: Hazel Beck
Published Year: 2022
Publisher: Graydon House
Pages: 411
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): A witchy rom-com in which a bookstore owner who is fighting to revitalize a small midwestern town clashes with her rival, the mayor, and uncovers not only a clandestine group that wields a dark magic to control the idyllic river hamlet, but hidden powers she never knew she possessed.
Witches aren't real. Right?
No one has civic pride quite like Emerson Wilde. As a local indie bookstore owner and youngest-ever Chamber of Commerce president, she’d do anything for her hometown of St. Cyprian, Missouri. After all, Midwest is best! She may be descended from a witch who was hanged in 1692 during the Salem Witch Trials, but there’s no sorcery in doing your best for the town you love.
Or is there?
As she preps Main Street for an annual festival, Emerson notices strange things happening around St. Cyprian. Strange things that culminate in a showdown with her lifelong arch-rival, Mayor Skip Simon. He seems to have sent impossible, paranormal creatures after her. Creatures that Emerson dispatches with ease, though she has no idea how she’s done it. Is Skip Simon…a witch? Is Emerson?
It turns out witches are real, and Emerson is one of them. She failed a coming-of-age test at age eighteen—the only test she’s ever failed!—and now, as an adult, her powers have come roaring back.
But she has little time to explore those powers, or her blossoming relationship with her childhood friend, cranky-yet-gorgeous local farmer Jacob North: an ancient evil has awakened in St. Cyprian, and it’s up to Emerson and her friends—maybe even Emerson herself—to save everything she loves.
First Impressions
I went into the library to pick up a few books I had on hold and decided to make a pass through the romance section. This book immediately caught my eye on the shelf, so obviously made a great first impression. I love the cover and the title is super cute. It helps that we’re entering into fall so I enjoy reading more magical novels and that probably caught my eye.
What I thought
This book was so fun! I don’t know if I would necessarily categorize it as a romance but it did have some romance within it.
Emerson has lived in the same small town her entire life. Now, at 28, she runs the business commerce and lives in her family home with one of her best friends. She and the mayor have always had a rivalry, but when he tries to kill her with magical creatures, it goes too far and awakens the power within her. With this power awoken, she discovers that the town she has loved is a town of witches (including her friends) and that her mind was wiped at 18 when she didn’t show enough power. Now she has to learn how to be a witch, navigate her life in secret, and save the town.
Like I said, the romance side of it was a bit meh for me. I didn’t feel the chemistry between Emerson and Jacob. There was a lot of history that their connection was supposed to have been built on so maybe not getting that in the story made it harder to feel it in the present day. I didn’t mind them getting together and I didn’t mind their love story as it progressed, but it wasn’t one that jumped off the page and definitely felt secondary to everything else going on.
The Witchlore on the other hand I loved. I loved learning about the town and the way their witch government worked. Emerson rediscovering magic was so fun. I also liked the mystery of why Skip, the mayor, was trying to kill Emerson in addition to whether or not they’d be able to save their town. It’s this storyline that has me jumping to read the next one which comes out in late August.
The only other thing that had me sometimes annoyed was Emerson and her feminist views/language. I loved that she believed in strong women and that was essential to her personality and her strength. However, sometimes it got to be a bit much. Like, every comment she would make would be like “because of the patriarchy” or “what you think women can’t do that?” I just wish it had been edited down a tiny bit.
This is a solid 3.5 stars for me. I loved the witchy storyline, felt a little meh about the romance story line. I also felt like it was simultaneously too long and too fast. I would’ve preferred if the final conflict had been given a little bit more time than some of the slower stuff in the middle. I immediately put the next book on hold at the library and am curious to see what happens next!