First of all, I would like to thank NetGalley for providing me an e-ARC of The Modern Girl’s Guide To Magic in exchange for an honest opinion.

Is it too controversial to say that I did not quite enjoy this? Witches are one of my favorite fantasy elements, and with a sprinkle of romance, I thought it would be everything that I wanted, but it was just not the book for me.

If you’ve read some of my reviews, you’ll know that I’m not a huge fan of the age gap trope. This novel had an icky age gap trope as Aria was only seventeen when she met Callan. As far as I could remember, the age gap was stated as a large one. So, that means Callan was already an adult (which is pretty obvious because by that time he was already a billionaire). Although nothing romantic happened with them during the first meet, Callan already described Aria as one of the most beautiful women he has ever met— and that fact alone unsettled me.

Their romance is supposed to be enemies to lovers, but again, it wasn’t. Callan already was infatuated with Aria when they met— only Aria hated Callan. And for an enemies to lovers romance, I thought their relationship was not angsty enough. Yeah, there were glances, and there was pining, walking away, but I really just didn’t feel the chemistry between the two characters. Sure, there was chemistry, but it wasn’t strong enough to make me root for them two.

For an adult novel, this felt very YA, which isn’t bad in any sort. I do love YA, so the writing style being a little YA? I didn’t mind at all. However, one trope that I noticed that this novel and almost a lot of YA novels have is the “male hero fixing the female main character” trope— and if you don’t know me, I detest that trope. I think that that trope is lazy characterization and writing in build up for a good romance. 

I know this book was supposed to be low stakes and cozy— and yeah, it was. But too low stake for my preference. I would forget that they have powers when it wasn’t mentioned. The author tried to make the ending dramatic, but it was a fail for me. Maybe the author could have added a little grain of drama before the ending (which I thought was too rushed). 

Overall, I think this book was just not for me, although it felt like a novel that BookTok will definitely adore. Although I did had a lot of critics for this novel, it wasn’t all bad. Personally, I thought that one of its strengths is its humor. I thought there were too many pop references, but it wasn’t thrown every three pages like other novels, which I appreciate.