Book Review: A Letter to Three Witches (ARC)

Author: Elizabeth Bass

Bewitched meets Practical Magic in this sparkling and quirky rom-com with an enchanted twist. When romance problems cause their powers to go berserk, a trio of witches whose family was banned from practicing magic risk getting in serious trouble with the Grand Council. Can they get their magic—and their love lives—in order before it’s too late?

Nearly a century ago, Gwen Engel’s great-great-grandfather cast a spell with catastrophic side-effects. As a result, the Grand Council of Witches forbade his descendants from practicing witchcraft. The Council even planted anonymous snitches called Watchers in the community to report any errant spellcasting…

Yet magic may still be alive and not so well in Zenobia. Gwen and her cousins, Trudy and Milo, receive a letter from Gwen’s adopted sister, Tannith, informing them that she’s bewitched one of their partners and will run away with him at the end of the week. While Gwen frets about whether to trust her scientist boyfriend, currently out of town on a beetle-studying trip, she’s worried that local grad student Jeremy is secretly a Watcher doing his own research.

Cousin Trudy is so stressed that she accidentally enchants her cupcakes, creating havoc among her bakery customers—and in her marriage. Perhaps it’s time the family took back control and figured out how to harness their powers. How else can Gwen decide whether her growing feelings for Jeremy are real—or the result of too many of Trudy’s cupcakes?

A Letter to Three Witches is a fun paranormal romance featuring some entertaining witches from Zenobia, New York. A long time ago, the main character, Gwen Engel’s, great-great-grandfather set in motions events that led to a ban of magic in their town. Due to this magic is now hidden, even though it still exists. The main story begins with a letter arriving to Gwen and her two cousins, Trudy and Milo. The letter is from Gwen’s adopted sister, Tannith, and contains secrets that Gwen, Trudy, and Milo begin to investigate their family’s magic and history.

With the magic mishaps and the fact that they must hide their magic from the witch counsel, there is a nice bit of tension in the story. An additional layer of mystery comes from Tannith’s plans to run away from one of the partners’ for either Gwen, Trudy, or Milo. While Gwen is the main protagonist, it was very interesting to learn more about Trudy and Milo, too. One POV that was unexpected was Griz, which is a cat! It was a fun and humorous addition to the story and something that I have not read before. Trudy, Milo, and Gwen all deal with the aftermath in the letter in different ways, including accidentally enchanting some cupcakes!

Overall, this was a very entertaining and quick read. The hijinks were all fun as the three witches deal with the effects of Tennith’s letter. There are quirky secondary characters and many magical mishaps to make this a very amusing escape read. There is the mystery of Tannith’s threats in the letter, family bonding and searching for their history, some romance, and, of course, magic that combine to make an enjoyable tale. As a romance genre lover, I do wish there was a little more in terms of the development for the romance aspect, but it was still pleasant. The characters in this story have some development, but they were all enjoyable and I would love to continue to learn more about them. While this is not labeled as a series and the ending is satisfying, there does seem some potential to turn this into a series and I would be very curious to read it.

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Kensington Books, for the opportunity to read this entertaining novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**