Payback's a Witch

Emmy Harlow is a witch with modest power, and she knows why: she has stayed away from Thistle Grove, the magical town where she grew up, for years. Her reasons are a tangled family history, a wish to make her own way, and, in a very small part, Gareth Blackmoore. He is heir to the town's most powerful magical family and has a record of breaking hearts.

A spellcasting tournament draws her home. Her family acts as its arbiters, and the pull of tradition, helped along by heavy parental guilt, proves too strong to refuse. Emmy plans to do her duty, spend time with her best friend Linden Thorn, and return to her life in Chicago.

On her first night back, she meets Talia Avramov, who is skilled in the darker magical arts and has just ended things with Gareth. Talia let him charm her, then learned he had also been seeing Linden, and neither of them knew about the other. Now the two want revenge and ask whether Emmy will join them.

Emmy also has a second problem: she cannot stop thinking about Talia. This is a romantic comedy with a queer love story, a witchy small-town setting and a light, flirtatious tone, built around a revenge plot and a magical competition.