Wild child Isidora Avramov is a thrill chaser, adept demon summoner, and—despite the whole sexy-evil-sorceress vibe—also a cuddly animal lover. When she’s not designing costumes and new storylines for the Arcane Emporium’s haunted house, Issa’s nursing a secret, conflicted dream of ditching her family’s witchy business to become an indie fashion designer in her own right. 

But when someone starts sabotaging the celebrations leading up to this year’s Beltane festival with dark, dangerous magic, a member of the rival Thorn family gets badly hurt—throwing immediate suspicion on the Avramovs. To clear the Avramov name and step up for her family when they need her the most, Issa agrees to serve as a co-investigator, helping none other than Rowan Thorn get to the bottom of things.

Rowan is the very definition of lawful good, so tragically noble and by-the-book he makes Issa’s teeth hurt. In accordance with their families’ complicated history, he and Issa have been archenemies for years and have grown to heartily loathe each other. But as the unlikely duo follow a perplexing trail of clues to a stunning conclusion, Issa and Rowan discover how little they really know each other…and stumble upon a maddening attraction that becomes harder to ignore by the day.

This sequel to Payback’s a Witch is as much fun as the first, maybe even more so. In this novel, Lana Harper continues with characters that we met in the first book, introducing a magical mystery, curses and a compelling romance. While this pair are complete opposites on the surface, they both find out they have much more in common than they thought as they’re forced to work together to figure out why the Thorn family is being targeted by curses. While the pair’s history is complicated, the romance isn’t as the author develops their relationship quickly. The author develops an opposites attract romance that is fun and intriguing with curses and a compelling mystery to keep readers hooked.

Both characters are complex but it is the dialogue and the story that shines a light on the characters. The dialogue is fun as the sparks fly between the two and the actual resolution is intriguing, with nothing as you expect. The mystery is intriguing, as the author gives the reader several possibilities but also enough hints to pick up on the truth before the end.

If you love mystery, magic, and romance, I absolutely recommend this book. There is a fun spark with it that made me read it even faster than my normal and I fell in love with the characters. Each romance by this author just gets better and better. As said in my introduction, this is fun and intriguing with a sexy romance and I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

5 out of 5 curses.