By Meghan Mazzaferro
Content warnings: emotional abuse, confinement, forced imprisonment
Witcha Gonna Do? is a fourth wall-breaking witchy romcom following Tilda, a woman from a powerful line of witches with no magic of her own, and Gil, a magical history scholar with dark secrets. After Gil and Tilda are set up on their fourth blind date in a row and Tilda humiliates herself and embarrasses her family one too many times, her insecurities are at an all-time high. Then, while trying to film a video for her family’s social media, Tilda accidentally ruins her sister’s spell and freezes her whole family. Now it’s up to Tilda, Gil, and a team of magical misfits to save her family. Oh, and there’s a secret shadow organization bent on Tilda’s family’s destruction that they have to watch out for too.
I’ll be honest, I really struggled with the beginning of this book. It’s told in first person, dual point of view, and is full of fourth wall breaks with the two main characters speaking directly to the reader. Because Gil’s character is a bit more reserved, I didn’t find his chapters quite so jarring, but Tilda is sassy and snarky, and her fourth wall breaks took some getting used to. I think this writing style will be really tough for anyone who isn’t a fan of this type of informal writing, but once the story got going, I was able to get used to it.
I really enjoyed Gil and Tilda’s characters, and I mostly enjoyed the progression of their romance. I definitely liked how this book handled communication—while the characters do keep secrets from each other, the book did a good job of avoiding any major miscommunication drama (which I appreciate). The side characters were interesting, particularly Tilda’s fellow magical misfits. I understand that this is the first book in the series, so I do wish we had gotten to know Tilda’s family and sisters more, because the book painted a bit of an inconsistent picture of her parents in particular. Overall, the book’s primary characters were fun to read about.
The description of the world in this book also felt a bit incomplete. I enjoyed how magic was so pervasive, but I have a hard time understanding where exactly the book is set—does it take place in a completely magical world, or in our world with a hidden magical community? Things like the Council and the Resistance, two major organizations that affect Gil’s actions within the book and supposedly pose major threats to Tilda and her family, are also vaguely explained. While I understand that this is at its core a romance, I found the idea of these two shadow organizations to be fascinating and was a bit disappointed not to see them explored in more detail. I wanted a more exciting climax as well, since the big bad was set up to be so, you guessed it, big and bad (did you like that? It’s a bit more informal than what I usually put in these reviews. If you didn’t, this book probably isn’t for you. If you did, hi, and also, I think you’d have fun with Witcha Gonna Do?).
Criticisms aside, overall, I did have fun with the book. The world felt magical, Tilda was a fun and relatable main character, Gil was an interesting and well fleshed out male lead, and the pacing of the book was pretty good. I was intrigued by each plot element even though I feel like certain things could have been explored better, and I enjoyed the development of Gil and Tilda’s relationship. Overall, the book is a fun, quick read, and while I may have wanted a bit more in the world-building department, I still had a good time reading it.
If you’re a fan of witchy romcoms, enjoy a really (like really really) informal writing style, and don’t need too much world-building, I think you’ll have fun with Witcha Gonna Do?.