Sweetwater and the Witch

 Sweetwater and the Witch (Harmony series)- Jayne Castle

Berkley/Penguin Random House

Release Date: September 20, 2022

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: If there’s something Ravenna Chastain knows, it’s when to end things. And after she almost winds up the victim of a cult that believes she’s a witch, it’s easy to walk away from her dead-end career, ready for a new start. But where to find a job that would allow her to use her very specialized skill set? The answer is clear: she becomes a matchmaker.

But even a successful matchmaker can’t find someone for everyone, and Ravenna considers Ethan Sweetwater her first professional failure. After nine failed dates, Ravenna knows it’s time to cut Ethan loose. But Ethan refuses to be fired as a client—he needs one final date to a business function. Since Ravenna needs a date herself to a family event, they agree to a deal: she will be his (business) date if he will be her (fake) date to her grandparents’ anniversary celebration.
 
What Ethan fails to mention is that attending the business function is a cover for some industrial espionage that he’s doing as a favor to the new Illusion Town Guild boss. Ravenna is happy to help, but their relationship gets even more complicated when things heat up—the chemistry between them is explosive, as explosive as the danger that’s stalking Ravenna. Lucky for her, Ethan isn’t just an engineer—he’s also a Sweetwater, and Sweetwaters are known for hunting down monsters…

_____________________________________________________________

Ravenna Chastain, criminal profiler turned matchmaker, has been put in the awkward position of having to fire her company's highest profile client as unmatchable. Ethan Sweetwater didn't make things easy at the start by not filling in most of his profile questionnaire and he doesn't make it easy to fire him as a client. He needs a date to a business function, she (with over 30 failed dates to her credit) needs a date to a big family function. What could go wrong? When Ethan arrives to pick up Ravenna for their date (which is also going to involve some clandestine spying for the Arcane Society) and finds her standing over the unconscious body of the man who just tried to kill her, he rolls with it. That freaks Ravenna out more than a past date trying to kill her. Is Ethan a mob connection? Who else knows just what to do with duct tape? Things heat up from there with more attempted assassinations, high drama family functions, and dust bunny shenanigans. 

This was definitely a fun book for me. You don't have to have read previous Harmony novels (Guild Boss, Illusion Town) to enjoy it, although being familiar with Harmony and the Krentz/Quick/Castle Arcane Society world helps you spot some fun Easter eggs along the way. Ravenna has enough FBPI training to handle herself as more than a matchmaker in the increasingly tense situations she winds up in as collateral to a much larger picture, but enough sense at the beginning to worry when her date is willing to help her disappear a body like its a normal thing. Most women would worry, even as they found it convenient. Ethan is the mild mannered engineer who is much more than he seems, and is stubborn enough to keep going for what he wants. I loved the declaration and "it's always been you" moment at the end! 

Sweetwater and the Witch was fast paced, full of fun, wry humor, danger and mystery, and everything a reader expects from Jayne Castle. Also, I loved Harriet the dust bunny! With her love for pens and popcorn, I think we may be soul mates. 

A book not to be missed for the Jayne Castle fans!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review