An Ancient Witch's Guide to Modern Dating

by Cecilia Edward

Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 311
Rating:

Synopsis:

An ancient witch explores the thrills--and perils--of online dating with hilarity and heart in a charming rom-com perfect for fans of cozy fantasy and witchy romance.

Meet Thorn Scarhart, a thirty-nine-year-old witch who's having trouble finding love in the 17th century. Despite the local matchmaker's efforts and Thorn's arsenal of powerful love potions, she has yet to fall in love. After the disappearance of her sister and the loss of her mother, Thorn was too caught up in...well, life, to focus on dating. Now, she fears she may have missed her chance.

But, when one of her potion brews backfires spectacularly, Thorn is hurled 350 years into the future, landing in a bustling city where her once-isolated cottage is now a historical museum. While this unexpected leap through time may seem daunting, modern life does have its perks: indoor plumbing, electric kettles, and the world of online dating. At thirty-nine, the odds may not be perfect, but at least they're not impossible.

With the help of the museum's new curator--and her charming veterinarian brother--Thorn dives headfirst into the 21st-century dating scene. And as she searches for romance, she might also find herself along the way.

I didn’t get on very well with Cecilia Edward’s An Ancient Witch’s Guide to Modern Dating, and that’s partly just on me and what I like in fiction: it leans quite far to the “romcom” side rather than the fantasy side (there’s a potion for everything, without much cost and without explanation of the mechanics) and the comedy is often rather slapstick and/or about the main character (Thorn) not understanding the modern world. For me, that kind of humour palled quickly.

I really didn’t enjoy her continual insistence on a) needing a man to complete her and make her happy, and b) using love potions to try and achieve that. I didn’t feel like it was getting called out enough a lot of the time, it just felt like it was kinda taken for granted, so I was having difficulty really sympathising with Thorn. To be fair to the story, that aspect does get addressed to some degree, and there are clues it’s going to be — I just got cranky with it because of the other aspects I wasn’t enjoying, I think.

I thought the parts about Thorn’s mother and sister were pretty interesting, though I didn’t really catch on that it was going to be a thing at first (again, I think this is partly because I wasn’t reading with a lot of sympathy). The way it works out is… well, a bit neat, tidy and feel-good, as you’d expect from the genre.

The love interest is a sweet guy: that part (and the mystery about the cats) I did like, including the joke about him being an evil warlock in the cats’ eyes because of the catch-and-release program he participates in to help with stray cats, though I felt it was wrapped up kinda quickly, and like Lily was kinda shortchanged in terms of screen time!

Overall, not for me, though I can see the elements that other people enjoyed.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)