Book Review: Payback’s a Witch by Lana Harper

Payback’s a Witch is the first installment of a five book series, The Witches of Thistle Grove, written by New York Times bestselling author Lana Harper. This book is wonderful blend of John Tucker Must Die and the Tri-Wizard Tournament from Harry Potter.

Payback’s a Witch by Lana Harper. Photo taken by Meena Green.

The book follows Emmy Harlow, the eldest daughter of one of the town’s four founding families, who left Thistle Grove nine years ago after getting her heart broken by Gareth Blackmoore, from the strongest founding family.

While she swore never to return to Thistle Grove, she has to. She’s the arbiter of the gauntlet where the founding families compete. Before she even has time to really settle back home, she finds out her best friend, Linden Thorn and the town’s most gorgeous witch, Talia Avramov, have also been scorned by her ex. They form a vengeance pact to get back at him and ruin his reputation, while Emmy and Talia develop feelings for each other and explore what that could mean.

Payback’s a Witch was well-written, the world and characters are described beautifully and clearly. It’s easy to imagine the settings and clothing. The pacing was nice, it didn’t feel too rushed and there wasn’t pages of filler, it was just what was needed for the story. The tournament was a lot of fun to read. It’s always great, and sometimes surprising, when the author can pull off an intense competition well and Lana Harper succeeded!

The characters were also written well. They were very well-rounded in ways they usually aren’t in vengeance pact stories with each girl or character just getting one part of a personality, but in this one, all were fully fleshed people. It’ll be nice to read how their journey progresses in the next four books in this series.