Thorn Scarhart is a 39-year-old witch who’s having trouble finding love in the 17th century. After the disappearance of her sister and the loss of her mother, Thorn was too caught up to focus on dating. Despite the local matchmaker’s efforts and Thorn’s arsenal of powerful love potions, she fears she may have missed her chance. But life gives Thorn a second chance at love when one of her potion brews backfires and sends her hurtling 350 years into the future, landing in the 21st century. Thorn finds her once-isolated cottage now a historical museum, left in-tact but updated with modern indoor plumbing and electric kettles. With the help of the museum’s new curator, and her charming veterinarian brother, Thorn dives headfirst into the chaos of modern dating.
Cecilia Edward’s debut novel, An Ancient Witch’s Guide to Modern Dating, is a cute and cosy romance perfect for fans of Sangu Mandanna’s The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches and Erin Sterling’s The Ex Hex. The writing is fun and accessible with humour unique to the author’s voice, which added a distinct flair to the book. Thorn is joined by her cat familiar, Bandit, and meets many other cats who she can talk to. Bandit in particular was fantastic, his wit and sarcasm reminiscent of Sabrina the Teenage Witch’s Salem Saberhagen. I could’ve read his and Thorn’s banter all day.
Thorn is a great protagonist. In the 21st century, she’s quirky and endearing. The references to the cat distribution system and ingredients for potions are entertaining and evoke strong witchy imagery. It’s a fun idea to see a witch from the late 1600s adjust to our chaotic, modern life. Edward fortunately skips over a lot of Thorn’s present day adjustments, which likely would’ve been tedious. But Thorn was left making odd and humorous comments about certain things, such as her thinking jeans are someone called Jean’s clothes, which was highly amusing.
The writing does occasionally dip into boring passages, particuarly during Thorn’s romantic quests, but the sense of found family and humour was enjoyable throughout. You learn more about Thorn as the story unravels, including her family history. Different kinds of love, good and bad, are highlighted. The book explores many themes, including modern dating, ageism, found family, and even childhood trauma, but its biggest is the exploration of grief due to the loss of Thorn’s sister and mother. Edward portrays how grief shows up in memory and emotion which added more depth to the story and Thorn as a character.
Unfortunately, some characters were underdeveloped, including the antagonist, whose arc didn’t feel very well-developed or tied up. Thorn’s character growth was also laid out mostly in dialogue-heavy exposition. The last chapters were the worst because of these factors, including dragging out the reveal of a twist that had been fairly obvious to readers for quite some time. Despite some heavy themes and dullness towards the end, An Ancient Witch’s Guide to Modern Dating remains a cosy romcom that I always wanted to return to. The main characters are extremely loveable.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy. An Ancient Witch’s Guide to modern Dating was released on 24th June.
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