Books & Bewitchment, Delilah S. Dawson's first novel under her pen name Isla Jewell, is a cozy rom-com with a witchy small-town locale and delightfully appealing bookish vibes sure to appeal to any lover of magical romance.
Rhea Wolfe's life is "dependable but monotonous, boring, and uninspiring"; if it were a book, she reckons, she'd "probably give it two stars." So when an envelope arrives declaring her the sole heir of her estranged grandmother's estate, she takes an out-of-character leap of faith and heads off to find out what, exactly, she's inherited. In Arcadia Falls, Ga., Rhea finds small-town Southern charm at its finest, but when her pet cockatoo channels the ghost of her ornery grandmother, she discovers she's a witch with magic innately tied to her love of books. She falls for the local carpenter as they work to build Rhea's dream bookstore--only to discover he's the grandson of her dead grandmother's archnemesis.
The Arcadia Falls setting is the real star of Books & Bewitchment, followed by a marvelously quirky cast of characters reminiscent of Gilmore Girls or Parks and Recreation. Decadent descriptions of the town and its surrounding mountain landscape provide a warm, sometimes whimsical context for the plot, which has a few twists and turns that can feel too convenient at times. But readers willing to suspend disbelief in favor of Rhea's happily-ever-after will find a endearingly bookish main character within a world where magic and romance coexist, and the promise of more Arcadia Falls in books to come. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer