Elle ♡ [semi-hiatus]'s Reviews > To Tempt a Witch to Sin

3.5 stars

I definitely read this a lot slower than usual mostly because when I finally get a long awaited book I want to savor it, ya know? If you read it too fast it's just gone. In this case I waited 5 years haha so I definitely tried to savor. I should clarify also that it's not like I was rabid for this particular book/couple, I just enjoyed this series and wanted to see it continue so it's exciting that it finally did. That said I enjoyed this book a lot. I liked Hazel and Tallak as a couple, but it didn't totally fulfill all of my pent up dreams and expectations of which there were a lot due to the whole five year wait thing. Honestly I can't even tell you if my rating is fair or not because this series is so nostalgic for me at this point and I have a lot of fondness towards it.

Things I did enjoy: Tallak and Rhun's bromance. That has been brewing for a while and in this book they finally became besties and it was cute. That said I could've done with a few less scenes of them if I'm being honest and more scenes featuring parent/kid bonding (I'll get into that below). I also loved seeing Tallak's growth and him simping for Hazel. Aided by Rhun's sage advice Tallak became exactly who Hazel needed and was mindful of her trauma/went at her pace and only took what she could give at the time all while making sure his actions made it so she'd hopelessly fall in love with him. I also liked that both Tallak and Hazel are older/more mature characters. Hazel is a mom to 26 year old twins, has been married before and seen some shit. Tallak is also now finally able to be a father to Basil, his estranged son of 26 years. I wouldn't have expected to get a book about Hazel or even want one when this series began, but the way the author built up the tension between Hazel and Tallak slowly over a few books I'm definitely glad we did.

That said there were unfortunately a lot of things in this book that annoyed me or I was expecting to get more of and didn't so I'm gonna rant a bit. My biggest issue with this book was that I really wanted more interaction with Rose, Hazel's long lost changeling daughter who was raised in Faerie and basically enslaved from the ages of 6 to 26. As in book 1 where Merle and Rhun were trying to find Maeve but honestly taking their sweet time about it and romancing each other I feel like this author really has an "out of sight, out of mind" problem with these side characters and Rose was largely ignored in this book. If I were Lily, Rose's identical twin, I would be wracked with 'survivors guilt' (undeserved to be sure) or something approximate that Rose was the twin who got swapped and not me and chomping at the bit to make up for 26 missed years of sisterly connection and ease her into life in the human world. If I were Basil, the fae/demon changeling that got swapped with Rose, I would feel immense amounts of guilt that I was the reason she got swapped and lived a horrible life in Faerie while I was raised by her loving mother Hazel (the guilt would also be undeserved) and try to establish a brother/sister relationship. If I were Hazel I'd be a literal mess (which she was honestly) and desperate to connect with the daughter that was stolen from me by any means necessary. However, what the author showed was a fuck ton of ambivalence towards Rose. Neither Basil or Lily made any real effort to get to know Rose, it was always "we asked her to have breakfast and she said no" like BITCH, maybe pour your heart out to her and try fucking harder? Where's the emotion? Where's the desperation? Same with Hazel, they were all being so "respectful" that Rose hadn't been able to make any decisions for herself and that she's an "adult" and they need to let her make her own decisions and do whatever she wants...even at extreme detriment to herself. They saw her coming back at all hours of the night, no idea where she'd been, sometimes with blood on herself...like?!?!? I get giving her space and agency, but at the same time like stage a fucking intervention. Show her you care. Have a heart-to-heart and get through to her. This girl was abused and tortured for decades, by all accounts not properly socialized, had no friends, no agency, I don't think she would be a real 'adult' after that 'upbringing' and I certainly wouldn't send her out into the human world, of which she has no real knowledge, unprepared (doesn't have real knowledge of her witch powers to defend herself) and vulnerable to demons and humans who would AND DID take advantage of her. Like wtf is wrong with these people. Rose was out all night every night getting black out drunk and going home with demons that might hurt or kill her and at the very least 1000000% taking advantage of her sexually probably further traumatizing her and everyone just let it happen...make it make sense. *slight spoilers* Eventually Tallak gets through to her and she immediately cleans up her act...like one conversation...that's all it took 🙄 *slight spoilers over*

Next, I wanted more Basil/Tallak bonding. I love a single parent romance so even though these kids are all grown up I really wanted more interactions between the kids and parents. We know Basil and Tallak hang out, it was often mentioned in the background, but we never got a full scene or interaction between them just a passing sentence or two. I think that would've been sweet and maybe she could have cut out one Rhun scene and given Basil some page time? On that same vein, Basil's mate Isa is the fae bounty hunter that turned in Basil's mom/Tallak's lover and is therefore partially responsible for her death so I would have LOVED to see Tallak and Isa have ANY sort of interaction at all, either a conversation about that where they make amends or just maybe they're already past that so a little bonding, but nope. Nothing. So that was really annoying to me because that's a huge fucking thing for your son to mate the woman who facilitated the death of your lover/mother of your child and we don't get to see Tallak's emotions about it or anything. It was glossed over in Basil's book so I thought now would be a great time to get Tallak's POV on it all, but nope.

The witch community. My god I hate them all. The way they're described it seems like there's only a few families, but every book a billion of them die, but there are still more so like ??? Idk, but they're just endlessly dumb and stubborn. The author had a real opportunity here to make witches badass and instead I just think they're all the worst. Even the "good" ones are pig headed and slow to see common fucking sense. Only women are capable of being witches, they were given powers by gods and their purpose is to defend humanity...like pretty cool opportunity to have women save the world and defend what's right, but instead it's just a bunch of hoity-toity, stick up there ass, sabotauging, power hungry, catty, discriminatory, evil bitches. I have no idea how those losers can ever be redeemed, but whatever.

Plot-wise I felt like who the 'big bad' in this book was glaringly obvious and took way too long to parse out. Also, since this is a romance book Tallak and Hazel inevitably have a falling out and I felt like they blew that waaaay out of proportion. What he said wasn't that bad at all and something they could easily overcome he obviously just said something mean in the heat of the moment, everyone was acting like he decapitated her cat and called her a cunt, like chill.

This is a random thing that pissed me off, but Tallak said "Despite not being biologically related, Lily and Baz displayed an impressively realistic sibling relationship, good-natured bickering and all.".... "Impressively realistic"....the fuck? That rubs me the wrong way so hard. Have you ever heard of adoption? Those two grew up believing themselves twins that shared a womb. Even if they knew that wasn't true and were raised knowing Basil was 'adopted' I don't think their bond would be less "realistic" like wtf does that even mean. I know this is just like a slip of the tongue/author probably didn't mean to word it that way, but it just makes me rage-y 🤷🏼‍♀️ what can I say.

*Slight spoilers for the next two paragraphs*
Maeve and Arwan were conveniently on a trip the entire book so when the witch community is in dire straits at the end of the book Deimos, Arwan's second in command, refuses to help because the witch community has still refused to pledge allegiance to Arwan and apparently that would make Arwan look weak. Nevermind the fact that this conflict puts Merle's unborn baby and Rhun in direct threat of DEATH. So obviously if Arwan or Maeve were there they wouldn't have let Arwan's brother in law and niece DIE, but conveniently the author has them out of the country and had Deimos be the go between/bad guy even though Maeve and Arwan were reachable...like bffr. That was weak as fuck.

Okay, last thing and this will be a thing I liked haha so I mentioned that Hazel and Tallak are more "mature" characters, but luckily Hazel popped out her now 26 year old twins when she was 17 or 18 years old so while she's in her early forties (her age was never explicitly stated) apparently the author thinks she's still at prime baby making age and heavily hinted that they'll have a baby😫 which I love. I just think that would be the cutest addition to their tangled family web and really solidify everyone's relationships with each other. And actually one more negative, I would have LOVED to see Lily and Basil's reaction to their parents getting together...another real missed opportunity.
*spoilers over*

Now it may seem like that long ass rant means I hated the book, I didn't, I just have a lot more to say about things that annoy me than things I like 🤷🏼‍♀️ dunno why that is, but it is haha Truly Tallak and Hazel were cute and this book was definitely Nadine's steamiest to date which I appreciated. Overall, a good addition to this series and here's to hoping the next book doesn't take quite as long to come out 😅