*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review*
Playing the Witch Card is a novel exploring motherhood and starting a new life. However, when Flair’s past starts knocking – or rather decorating cookies in her sleep – she must make a choice to tame her past to create a future of her own making.
The novel explores themes of motherhood, relationships and taking ownership of ones choices – every actions has a reaction. Flair is a conflicted characters for wanting happiness for herself and her daughter Lucie, and the deciding what she thinks is best for Lucie rather than giving her daughter a choice. This is the main theme of the novel and what triggers Flair’s curse on her ex-husband David.
I struggled with the writing style and pace of the plot, by the 50% mark I was bored and really had to force myself to finish. The main problem was clarity of characters, context and general world building, I think the idea of tarot cards having their own agency was really interesting and had a lot of potential for a funny and action fuelled novel.
The idea of who had magic, who knew who had magic and how this magic system works was very confusing, I wasn’t sure, if as the reader, we were being told magic existed and the other characters weren’t aware. The curse on Flair’s husband, David, was very confusing, I wasn’t sure if this was a pre-existing curse Flair had created while she was married or one she created during the events of the novel. This plot point also fell flat and didn’t lead to a satisfying outcome. It would have been more enjoyable if Flair had to take David with her on her day to day errands and command him to act in a certain way – this would have created an opportunity for dialogue between the characters.
Flair’s character development was lacking and she was presented as a grumpy and unlikeable character who played the victim in every situation. She didn’t take ownership of her mistakes and how her actions caused a reaction. The introduction of her mother Cynthia was also incongruous to her development and Cynthia didn’t appear very motherly towards Flair or her granddaughter Lucie. The dialogue between many characters was more telling rather than showing, which made the pace slow.
Similarly, Flair’s rivalry with Renee was weak. The plot point of possession and Loretta as the villain was really out go the blue. This would have done better with more foreshadowing. I wasn’t suspicious of Loretta’s motives to help Flair nor did she present herself as a threat or potentially villainous character to suggest her as an important character. I think if Loretta was seen performing strange activities or appeared to show an interest in Lucie, her villainous plan would have more shocking. Lucie and Loretta don’t appear to have any connection aside from static bystanders.
Overall, the premise was interesting and the idea of tarot cards having agency and power of their own suggested a novel that would be full of magical hijinks and curses flying all over the place. The world building and magic systems needed development and context for the reader to feel immersed in this halloween eccentric town.
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