Payback's a Witch (The Witches of Thistle Grove #1)

by Lana Harper

For my mother, who took care of my baby so I could chase a dream.

That's really sweet and sad.. For you're mother who sacrificed her dreams for you and your child.. But allowed at least for you to keep dreaming. Though you lose out on motherhood in a way for chasing dreams instead

Made one of us, I guess.

Damn what the town do to you fam for you being so stiff

From the passenger seat, Jasper cast me a glinting, concerned glance from beneath his silvery fringe and shoved a clumsy paw onto my thigh.

Paw sooo not a man but animal cool cool

That was the thing about growing up with magic. Until you left it behind for good, you had no idea how incredible it felt just to be around it.

Don't know what you have till it's gone type deal

über-focus

über instead of uber is strange.. i've never seen it written down like this

Waning crescent,

Shrinking crescent soo the new moon is the next phase

A perpetual Halloween smell, the kind that gave you the good-creepy sort of tingles.

The crisp crunchy air and the beautiful colors of golds and warm hues against inky black is so comforting..

Galas, Honeycrisps, and Pink Ladies, sweet and cidery and indescribably like home.

Gods i love love LOVE honeycrisp apples <3

throb like first-love heartache.

.. That dull ache is the worst. I get it

demesnes

palatial

And we, the Harlows, had . . . lo, a house.

A bit underwhelming considering the competition of residential stylings of their homes..

As always, a candle burned in every window; thirteen flames, for prosperity and protection.

Oh is this why people have candles burning in thier front facing windows?

curlicued

cat-shaped clock on the wall with its swinging pendulum tail.

This sounds freaking adorable

insular

To consecrate the founding of the town below, Caelia Blackmoore conjured a spectacular lightning storm, Margarita Avramov summoned spirits from beyond the veil to serve as witnesses, Alastair Thorn called down the birds from the sky as his congregation, and Elias Harlow drew forth his mighty quill and . . . Took a bunch of notes.

Bruh truly a drosselmeyer type tale then a writer is the strongest as thier words last the longest of the 4 feats.

glib

The Thorns won once, back in 1921—but only because Evrain Blackmoore was such a roaring drunk he lit both himself and the Avramov combatant on fire while transforming a fishpond into a fountain of flaming spiced rum.

It's probably because it's hilarious that you remember that piece of trivia

sequestered

It really is so very lovely to have you back.”

It seems like emma just wanted a different life other than one tied to the town so far. I don't reall see any real grief stricken trauma honestly. well at least its cozy vibes so far i guess through the plot looks like it will just kinda resolve itself as soon as the month is over. No real stakes plot taking place at all so far.

After I tucked the very last set of I-probably-won’t-need-these-BUT-WHAT-IF-I-DO shoes away

Lmao we always gotta pack those shoes.. Cause you know, just in case

“Heeeeeey,” Gareth crooned at me, as if we ran into each other here on a regular basis, shooting me the lopsided grin that had once derailed my entire life.

I hope there's nothing traumatic between the two.. To cause her to have this sort of reaction

he went ahead and snapped his fingers in Morty’s general direction, like an Entitled Drunk Shithead caricature of himself. “Hey, man, a round of Don Julio Real for the crew!”

No way this shit just snap his fingers at someone!?

One simply did not fuck with a Blackmoore. Blackmoores were what passed for royalty in this town, and they did not take kindly to being fucked with. I was something of an object lesson in this regard, given that literally fucking a Blackmoore had driven me into self-imposed exile nine years ago.

You ran away from a rightful fight. Tell it as it is.

I stared at him, confusion warring with resentment at the fact that he’d gotten even more attractive with age.

No freaking be real rn he's gotten far more inhumane to look at let alone considering attraction to such a character

I found myself struck with one of the most tragic revelations of my life. Gareth Blackmoore—my first love, my most humiliating and heart-crushing breakup, and the reason I abandoned an entire life—genuinely did not remember me.

Sounds self inflicted pain is strong with this one. honestly wt actual f?? You mean to say that you left your family and town over a highschool ex-boyfriend .. Im disgusted by her.. I can't even joke "wow way to not overreact.." how embarrassing

Yet there was nothing in his eyes, beyond the generic glaze of a drunk and horny male who wanted into my pants. For a moment, I found myself struck speechless, so mortified I wished I could sink into the earth while a tsunami simultaneously closed over my head.

Im more embarrassed you left bc of that.. You coward. Immediately lost any respect for this crazy fl

That was what the Blackmoores did best—manipulating matter, turning one element into another with ease, breaking and unbreaking things at whim.

Ah i see..

“And one ‘no’ is enough for a gentleman, am I right?”

Gareth you best back tf off and be on your way without a scene

This tumbler was identical to the one I’d broken, but now its solid heft felt somehow surprising. It was made from glass so heavy and dense that I couldn’t imagine breaking it with my grip alone. Which meant I must have done it with a spurt of instinctive magic. Which meant my magic might already be coming back.

What type of magic does she have?

creamy skin with a subtle glow that I suspected did not derive from any K-Beauty mask,

The korean skincare mention is common in this generation .. The asian influence seeping into all aspects of like now

each pale iris that made her look like a tundra wolf. A really, really sexy tundra wolf, if this was, in fact, a thing.

.. Uh ok im betting this is her love interest

Then she picked up her drink and slid over the stools between us to sit next to me, with a languorous and long-limbed grace like some kind of sexy tai chi.

Sexy is one word that im already seen too often describing her

could smell her perfume, creamy sweetness with hints of sandalwood and cocoa.

Ok i go feral for sandalwood scents so one point to Natalie

“Haven’t we all been there?”

I'm pretty sure she just means loving someone and them not reciprocating

Talia and Gareth? This . . . did not compute. In high school, while I dated in equal opportunity fashion, Talia had almost exclusively pursued girls.

Uh yeah she meant feelings not being reciprocating not actually dating that idiot

ilk.

“It was not my finest hour. But I was coming out of a pretty terrible breakup, and he was around, and he can be, you know. Oddly charming when he’s not too far up his own ass to make an effort.”

Ugh ew

I could see her double helix piercing—a silver snake coiling around and through her ear—and

Ah my sibling wants this type of piercing

Kicked things off with a comparative lit degree at the U of Chicago, with a minor in business.”

Interesting choice..

And I had always been the kind of ambitious that demanded the culmination of becoming Someone. I craved the validation of high achievement, the sense of wielding control over your own life. The fulfillment you could find only through setting up lofty goals for yourself, then knocking them down one by one.

That's Depressing ASF and worse is that it looks like nothing has imprroved self-esteem wise since then

Before Gareth, I was still envisioning a place, a future for myself in Thistle Grove. After Gareth, I realized that if I stayed, I would never amount to anything more than a Harlow. The inconsequential no one he already thought I was.

Why is she placibg him as the central reasoning behind all her decisions?? Why isn't she doing things for herself?

vowed to never come back here again. Or, alternatively, only to return once I was accomplished as fuck, enough to make Gareth eat crow for not choosing me,” I finished. “As you saw, that backfired kind of spectacularly.”

..?? Has she not moved tf on from this man.. Cause she sounds like she desperately wants his affection and validation still

“The romance updates have grown alarmingly sparse of late. How am I supposed to keep my friendship card current without knowing who’s attending to my bestie’s carnal needs?”

That's Such a weird way to put this.. Then again fl wild and jumps to fatal conclusions ofteb like its any other tuesday..

“Morning, Harlow,” Talia said, nudging a reluctant Linden until she scooted over to make room, and flicking me a smile that immediately drew heat to my cheeks.

.. She just gonna crash your long awaited reunion with your bestie???

And it just kind of . . . happened, I guess?”

Eh ew ok.. Going after a girlfriend's ex isnt it and especially not that for that douchebag

“And you’d been gone so long,” Linden added, shoulders hunching, hopefully at the utter feebleness of this excuse. “I didn’t think it would even matter to you that much if he and I wound up together.”

... Sounds fake asf

But it hurt anyway, with the visceral intensity of a full-fledged betrayal.

This gal doesn't make sense at all.. How is she the fl here?? She has no grasp of her owl feelings or decision making skills since she's been a kid.. Nothing has improved since then she's still the same immature brat/selfish/prideful.

He and I were just having fun—though, yes, I was under the distinct impression that it was exclusive fun. Whereas you were in full-throttle love with the shithead.” “I was not in love with him!” Linden protested.

... Yeah naive as fuck. Fl is besties with someone exactly like her