Book: Rituals & Rivalry by Elle Lavendelle
Reviewed by Blair
Rating: 4/5
A small town witchy romance with lots of emotion, soul searching, healing, and finding oneself. If you love a spicy, sassy, and magic as part of every day life book, then Rituals and Rivalry is for you.
We get a grumpy and nerdy MMC, a sassy and lost FMC who moves to town, and a meet cute three years later after a one-night stand. Oh and let's add in a sentient cottage that is... incredibly temperamental. Elle Lavendelle brings these characters and the cottage to life in the best way, diving deep into their past trauma and heartbreak. This book doesn't pull punches on what people go through when they lose a loved one or make choices as teenagers that they aren't ready to face until they are older.
Sterling, our nerdy and dominant and down right FREAK of a MMC, is such a swoon worthy character. It was also nice to see Generalized Anxiety Disorder represented in a book the way Sterling's was shown. Fellow GAD here, baby! And Aurora being a curvy baddie made me love her even more, especially when she said "I'm just the good time girl, that's all I've ever been". My heart broke and I wanted to hug her.
I will say, for me personally, there was a lot of repetition for Aurora and some incredibly frustrating moments with Sterling. Both felt unnecessary to me and left me wanting more in the story to develop the characters and their relationship. That's the only reason it isn't a five star read for me. I definitely want to read the other books set in Starbrook and I NEED to know what in the chicken is going on with Leo.