Spellbound: Book One

by Kathryn James

One botched spell.
One unenchanted man.
One witch in way over her heart.

Witchy rom-com meets small-town trouble. Laughs, longing, and a dark wildcard who won’t play nice.
A Fall Paranormal Novella

Eliza Lakeland knows this better than anyone. She grew up in the crumbling Lakeland house, where every draft carried her grandmother’s warnings and every door remembered secrets. But grief and guilt left her clumsy with her inheritance—until one desperate night she whispered a love spell into the dark.

Now the men of Ciderbrooke can’t stop watching her. Neighbors linger too long, old friends arrive with hungry smiles, strangers whisper her name as if it belongs to them. And the worst part? The one man she meant the spell for—Simon Sterling, the brooding bookseller with quiet eyes—remains untouched.

As the town bends under the spell’s weight, something older stirs in the shadows: a figure beneath a streetlamp, a knock at the door that isn’t a knock at all, and whispers of the Council—the ancient body that decides which witches are allowed to endure. To undo what she’s done, Eliza must confront not only her family’s dangerous legacy but also the stranger who once stood on her grandmother’s porch…and never truly left.

With her sharp-tongued best friend at her side and the wrong man pressing closer by the night, Eliza walks a knife’s edge between desire and ruin. Because in Ciderbrooke, love spells are never harmless—and some doors, once opened, will not close again.

Spellbound is a witchy romcom with a gothic twist—perfect for fans of small-town magic, tangled hearts, and secrets that refuse to stay buried.

155 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 15, 2025

About the author

Spellbound Book Two is out now—and yes, Ginny and Eliza are back at it.

I write stories about complicated people doing their best—something Ginny would argue absolutely counts as character growth.

If you’ve met Ginny and Eliza, you already know they have opinions. If you haven’t yet, they’re waiting for you—along with found family, quiet (and not-so-quiet) magic, and moments of change that tend to arrive when no one feels ready for them.

I’m an indie author, which means every reader who shows up matters. Truly. So thank you—for taking a chance, for turning pages, for leaving reviews, and for choosing stories told outside the big, shiny publishing machine.

When I’m not writing, I’m usually at home in Minnesota with a cup of coffee, watching the snow fall, wandering cozy bookstores, gardening, painting, or consulting as a nurse.

If you’d like to follow along and see what Ginny, Eliza, and the rest of this world get up to next, you can find updates on my Amazon Author Page.

Thanks for being here. And thanks for reading indie.

Reviews

[Paige Lacker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would have easily gotten four stars if the plot would have been written a little more clearly from 40%-85%. The first portion and ending were fine, the middle just was bleh.

[Rose Crill · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing was awful. The book is full of short, choppy sentences, including many incomplete sentences. It would be fine if it was sometimes used for effect, but it was the whole book. The characters all talked the same way, too. There was no lyricism in the writing or dialogue.
The story was hard to follow and nothing was explained properly. I was constantly wondering who knew about the magic, who was supposed to know, and what the relationships between the characters are.
There is a plot buried in there somewhere, but it’s not very interesting.

[Heart DeCoupeville · Rating 1 out of 5]

Acquired Kindle edition when offered free on Amazon. Book shows a publication date of 14 September 2025. Offered free on Amazon a few days later. Read on 20 September 2025. Overall determination was that the author should have had a lot more -- and more competent -- feedback before publishing and handing out free copies.

CW: Cliffhanger ending.

Rating changed to one star after finishing Spellbound: Book Two and discovering there is an as yet unpublished (as of 26 December 2026) Book Three.

This preliminary review will be edited, amended, and/or revised . . . later. I'll let you know when it's finalized.

This could have been a five-star read. Instead, it came very close to being one-star dreck.

Lovely cover, but unimaginative title. +1, -1. A draw.

Block paragraphs don't belong in fiction. A strong indication the author doesn't read very much. -1

Cliffhanger ending as an enticement to read the sequel from a new author? -0.5 Wait two months for a sequel that may never be written? -0.5

This book is only 200 pages. Write the whole damn book however it ends, then make sure you have an ending before you ask readers to plunk out fat money for the rest of the story. Right now, there's nothing particularly compelling about this first installment. Kathryn James is not GRRM, and Spellbound is not GoT.

Looking at the two main issues: Content and Form.

Content: The structure of the story is amateurish. Plot too much like The Sorcerers Apprentice, and definitely not a romantic comedy. Yes, it starts off a little silly, but the silliness isn't sustained before it evolves into the source of potential catastrophe, for which there is some tiny bit of foreshadowing. The romance is bland, without conflict, tension, or even a reason for attraction. All emotion is superficial. Has the author ever read a romance? Where's the angst?

World-building is weak; characters are flat, barely two-dimensional and far from three. Antagonist lacks motivation. Protagonist's problems are self-inflicted, making her unsympathetic.

Form: The writing is worse than the structure. I highlighted over 300 passages in this 199-page novel, and most of those highlights were "like" similes. Edited to add after a later re-read: There are now over 500 highlighted passages, the vast majority for those "like" similes. For the love of all the goddesses, learn how to describe things without similes! I reached the point where I no longer was reading the story; I was just waiting for the next "like." Sometimes three -- or more -- in one paragraph?

Why is most of the book narrated in first person, past tense, but then a couple of chapters slip into present tense, and one chapter near the end is third person? Edited after a later re-read: It's actually the final chapter that switches to third person. None of those shifts appear to be dictated by any details in the plot.

How old is Eliza? Twenty? Thirty? She acts like she's twelve; no wonder Simon doesn't notice her! Does she have a job? As narrator, she says she doesn't have time to brew coffee before work, but that work is never mentioned again. She's worried about being a "Lakeland failure," but she seems to be doing magic all the time, failing at it all the time, and keeps right on trying without learning how to fix her mistakes. What's the matter with her? And if there are other witches in this Ciderbrooke town, why haven't they done an intervention on her?

And what about Ginny? Who is she? How old is she? What's her relationship to Eliza?

How does magic work in this town/world? Are there other witches besides Eliza? Is she the only one?

What is Agnes Fuller? Edited after a later re-read: Agnes Fuller is another witch, a kind of renegade, but there's no explanation as to why she hasn't helped Eliza more.

Why doesn't Eliza remember Daniel? What exactly is Daniel?

Everyone seems to know more about what's going on than Eliza does, but she's the one charged with saving the world -- or at least Ciderbrooke -- from the catastrophic destruction she's responsible for unleashing. Why does anyone or anything want to destroy Ciderbrooke? What's in it for them, whoever or whatever "they" are? Is it Eliza's grandmother's grimoire? Is it the house? After 200 pages -- okay, 199 -- I the reader should have some inkling about the overarching objective of the plot. I don't.

The story has potential, which is probably why I didn't one-star the book or just DNF it. (If I had known there was a cliffhanger ending, I'd never even have started it.) But it needs a whole lot of editing. The author needs to learn how to structure the novel, how to develop the plot and the characters. And, most of all, how to write decent prose fiction. There are so many places where the careful reader is abruptly pulled out of the story. For example: The first scene in Ginny's kitchen: Was it in Ginny's kitchen, or was it in Eliza's? I read the whole scene three times and this was never made clear. Was this just an example of bad, lazy writing, or a failure to get competent editing?

I could give more examples -- and possible fixes -- but I'm not a paid editor.

Two stars, one of which was generously but reluctantly given for unrealized potential.

[Kender · Rating 1 out of 5]

She said, she said, she said

Is this AI? Where are the adjectives? Where are the emotions? Where is the personality? There are too many incomplete sentences; it feels choppy. The author could make use of a thesaurus instead of continually starting dialog with, "she said." I won't suffer book two to learn how the story ends.

[Sheila Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sharing is caring

A really great ending place in the story. Clearly there is more to come. But I feel certain that our witches will win in the end. I'll pick up the next book because I enjoyed this one that much. And no cliffhanger ending.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange Cadance

The rhythm of this book is strange and often confusing. I found myself having to go back and reread numerous times. This as never happened before. Ending was unsatisfactory

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uh, I don't care? Maybe it's the overuse of spells. Where was the story going? We stalled and I frankly stopped caring about any of these characters.

[Kay Wathen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not that it’s a bad book. It’s just was not for me. I took a while for it to develop the storyline, and the characters were rather weak in my opinion.

[Rebeca · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75
I just needed more!!! I need an intro, I felt like I missed so much of the story. It felt rushed as well.

Ahh I hate giving indie authors anything under a 3⭐️ but this books wasn’t it.

[Shy Book Worm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read when I saw 2nd edition.

Excited for the next Coven of Three’s adventure.