Publication: 8th October 2024 – Headline Eternal
A wedding to witness. A brooch to poach. And a house that’s haunted as f**k . . .
Bowen Penhallow has always been a loner, but when his friend – who happens to be a ghost – invites him to a Yuletide wedding at a grand Welsh countryside estate, Bowen reluctantly agrees.
Tamsyn Bligh is not a witch, but she has managed to finagle an invite to the Witchy Wedding of the Century in the hopes of making the score of the century – just one priceless magical artifact from Tywyll House would set her up for life!
But Tamsyn isn’t the only one sneaking about in Tywyll House, and the combination of a very strong spell and a classic wedding mishap transports Bowen and Tamsyn back to Tywyll House’s 1958 Yuletide celebrations.
Bowen and Tamsyn must work together to get back to the present, but they first must reckon with the origins of Tywyll House’s haunting . . . and the fact that somewhere between the mistletoe and the bonfire, they might be falling in love.
Having previously read The Ex Hex and The Kiss Curse, the first two books in the series, I was intrigued by the character of Bowen, the third Penhallow brother. Grumpy and handsome, a man of very few words living in isolation in a repenting-kind-of way, I was curious about his story and, luckily, the author fulfilled those wishes. And I was also happy to see another interesting character from the previous books, as his love interest. Tamsyn Bligh could have been described as the villain of the first book, although she had her own redemption in the end, and now she is back as a procurer and seller of magical items, sometimes not in a very legal way.
I adored the characters of Bowen and Tamsyn. They are fun and adorable. I enjoyed their banter and the chemistry is off the charts. There is also a fantastic cast of secondary characters that make the story more entertaining and charming.
I think that The Wedding Witch is my favourite book of the series. We see the return of the previous characters and we meet new ones. There is ancient and powerful magic, a ghost, and a haunted house. There are witches, Yule festivities, and time-travelling. And, best of all, there is an immersive slow-burn romance and quite a few sexy and spicy scenes.
The Wedding Witch is bewitching, entertaining, and engrossing, the perfect read for the cozy season: it has Halloween vibes and gets you ready for Christmas!
A huge thank you to Headline and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel in exchange for my honest opinion.
Erin Sterling, who also writes as Rachel Hawkins, is the New York Times bestselling author of The Ex Hex and The Wife Upstairs, as well as multiple books for young readers. Her work has been translated in more than a dozen countries. She studied gender and sexuality in Victorian literature at Auburn University and currently lives in Alabama.
Follow Erin on Instagram and Twitter: @LadyHawkins.
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