Review: Bewitched & Bespelled By Laura Thalassa
***Spoilers at the bottom***
I’ve been on a trend of reviewing multiple books in one post if they’re in the same series, and I think these books also allow for it. I also read them back to back so fast that it honestly felt like one book with the exception of one thing that I will get into in this review.
First off, I should note that even though I am reviewing two books, this is still an open series, and the third book, The Curse that Binds comes out July 1, 2025. Taking that into account, I will say I have enjoyed the series so far to plan to keep on reading the series and probably pick up the third book right when it comes out.
I will admit though I have some weird hang ups, and honestly it's all in book one, Bewitched. I decided to listen to the audiobook and download it from Kindle Unlimited. I typically listen to my books, because I can listen/read while I do other things, but when I have time to sit and read listen along as I read on my Kindle since it helps me feel super focused on the book.
My main issue with the first book was actually how it was narrated. This was one of the few times where I have to be honest and say I didn’t enjoy the narration and probably would have enjoyed the book more if I never listened to it. The narrator voiced the FMC just fine (not great either, but she was at least satisfactory on a pass/fail option), but I did NOT enjoy how she narrated the MMC. It just didn’t sound right and a lot of what she was narrating didn’t match how I would think it should’ve been said and I felt ZERO connection or investment into the MMC. There were even times when listening to her voice the MMC where it felt cringe. I don’t necessarily think it was what was written but more of just how it was said. It happened too often that it was frustrating and distracting because it’s a fun story and has a decent plot in the first book but I kept getting hung up and annoyed at the voice. It kept me away from being immersed like I enjoy when listening to audiobooks. But all that being said, I still enjoyed the book’s plot enough to continue the series and pick up the second book, Bespelled.
Now don’t ask me why or how, but even though both books are narrated by the same person, the second book was far more enjoyable to listen to than the first. I don’t know if that’s because I just got used to the style of narration, or she tweaked her approach to voicing the MMC, but I didn’t get the cringy moments like I did in the first book, and I actually felt more connected and invested to the MMC in this book. She narrated his character with more emotions overall, not just because of the shift of enemies to lovers. I actually really enjoyed his character by the end of the second book and really glad that I kept going with the series.
I will warn you this is very much a read for the vibes kind of book. You can’t think too deep on things. There were times where the magic felt like it could literally do anything and everything, but then when there was a situation where one of the main characters were in danger, their magic all of a sudden wasn’t good enough or wouldn’t work or whatever. The swing of how the magic and how powerful the characters were went back and forth depending on however the author needed it to be for the scene. Personally, I like a little more consistency or clearer boundaries when it comes to magic in fantasy series. Once I realized the style of book this is, I stopped looking deep and just read for the vibes and when I didn’t overthink things, it became much more enjoyable.
This was also one of those situations where I will say the second book overall is better than the first, not just with narration, but with the plot, character development, pacing, etc. Even on different review sites, book two consistently gets rated better than the first. So if you decide to pick up this series and don’t enjoy the first book like me, I still recommend getting through it and reading the second. If you don’t like enough after the second book, then safe to say you can DNF it, but at least give the second book read. All that being said it’s worth noting that I read BOTH books in six days (that’s pretty fast for me.)
I’m going to expand on my typical ratings that I give so I can provide a better picture of how these books are:
Bewtiched
Format: Audiobook/eReader
Story: 3 ⭐️
Narration: 2.25 ⭐️
Spice: 3 🌶️
Bespelled
Format: Audiobook/eReader
Story: 4 ⭐️
Narration: 3.75 ⭐️
Spice: 4 🌶️
Have you read these books or listened to them? Let me know what you think! Would love to hear your thoughts :)
Now keep scrolling for my review with spoilers…
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SPOILERS BELOW
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Okay so now that I can end my rant about the narration, Memnon in book two will make a girl FERAL. I love a I will tear down the world and kill whoever hurt you MMC (I mean who doesn’t?). But ON TOP OF THAT, him binding himself to her to try to make it up to her after he realized she literally died to save him was just *chef’s kiss*.
The beginning of this book felt like a sprint and just throws everything at you really quick with not a lot of background set up. And her finding Memnon with a magical plane crash felt like a stretch for me (reading that scene actually felt longer than most of the beginning). Even after finishing the two books, how she got from trying to make it to school, to drunkenly buying random plane tickets while broke and then randomly surviving a magical plane crash and finding Memnon’s tomb within 64 pages (yes, I double checked), felt like it could’ve been better laid out to set the plot up. Thankfully once Selene finds Memnon and released him, the book’s pace settled down and leveled out to a medium/medium fast pace.
I’ll admit, I had guessed Eislyn would be the villain, but I actually thought she was Lia, and was surprised when Juliana was Lia instead. The Juliana reveal and scenes after felt too fast and cramped into the book. I would’ve actually liked to have seen Selene and Lia be bonded for a longer period of time to have a bigger impact in the story. I felt like that was a wasted moment and an opportunity that wasn’t taken full advantage of. It reminded me of Zodiac Academy (SPOILER) when Tory and Lionel became bonded and she was bonded to him for like a WHOLE DAMN BOOK. While I absolutely hated that she bonded to him, the way it built up the stakes for the characters and the plot was 100% worth it and it’s still one of the most wtf moments I’ve had while reading. I was hoping this would be a similar situation since it happened towards the end (about 75% through) but then Memnon goes and kills her off scene after he puts Selene to sleep (and us essentially) and we don’t get to experience her demise after doing something so drastic. It was just disappointing. I felt like there was a missed opportunity to have Eislyn somehow be behind Lia and/or have Selene bonded to her or just kept her bond to Lia longer. The scene with Sophia and Lucas at the end felt rushed since they focused on Lia for so long. And then Eislyn just gets throw in randomly at the end. The villain arcs were a little all over the place and would’ve just liked to focus on one or two tops rather than the three/four that fell flat at the end. Although I am intrigued to see what will happen now that Memnon inherited the Fortuna’s empire…
Also, I swear if anything happens to Nero, I will DNF this series so fast…
If you made it this far and have read it or enjoyed the spoilers let me know how you felt about the series so far!