Review: Bewitched by Laura Thalassa

From the publisher:
From bestselling indie author and TikTok favorite Laura Thalassa comes a witch fantasy set in the world of the Bargainer series.

At age twenty, Selene Bowers desperately hopes to be accepted into Henbane Coven, an academy for young witches. Since one of the requirements for entry is to connect with her powers via a quest through the wilderness, Selene books a trip to South America. When a nefarious supernatural force tries to drag her plane from the sky, Selene's magic awakens to save her life―at a cost. Using her powers devours her memories, one by one.

Worse, when Selene braves the jungle and discovers the source of the attack, she finds herself awakening an ancient evil, Memnon the Cursed, who mistakes Selene for his long-dead wife. The wife who betrayed him. Selene manages to escape and begin her studies at Henbane, but when Memnon turns up at the coven and witches are found dead across campus, Selene becomes entangled in a dangerous plot. Accused of the murders on the basis of her memory loss, Selene must rely on Memnon's help for answers―and his plans for her will change everything.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Oh. My. Gosh. First of all, this ends on a HUGE cliffhanger and I’m sitting here trying to piece together clues in the hopes that I can create an ending to tide me over until the next book is released.

This series takes place in the same world as two of Laura's other series—The Unearthly and The Bargainer—but you don't need to have read them to understand what's going on. Selene is a witch who loses memories when she uses her magic. Her dream is to be accepted into Henbane Coven, but they have rejected her in the past due to her memory issues. She reapplies and is told she needs to go on an epic magic quest and find her familiar and they will reevaluate her application status. While on her quest, she accidentally breaks a curse and releases Memnon, an incredibly sexy sorcerer who thinks she’s his long lost soulmate who cursed him to slumber for 2,000 years. He vows revenge and turns her life inside out all while she tries to explain she’s not his soulmate and they fight an insane attraction.

This story has magic, murder, mayhem, mystery and some spice. Selene’s inner monologue is hilarious and relatable. She is incredibly upbeat for someone who has to leave post-it’s all over just to be able to function through a day. It does get a little jarring to read an event and then have her forget it almost immediately, though. Her familiar is a true cat in every sense of the word and their interactions are really funny. Memnon is a pretty straightforward Alphahole who is torn between love and revenge. The rest of the cast of characters are decently written, but we don’t get a good sense of them in the story because it is very focused on Selene.

I devoured this book in a day—I could not put it down and I can not wait to read the next book!

My rating: 5/5 stars. This one does have some spice and violence and it is really great to see a FMC who is not ashamed of her sexuality.

Bewitched by Laura Thalassa will be released April 18, 2023 and will be available on Kindle Unlimited.