So, maybe it wasn't the best idea to read Boss Witch right after reading Witch Please because it made certain character traits of Danica and Clem read completely different and I'm still struggling with how to really interpret that. On the one hand, excellent characterization because are we not all the Main Character in our own story and therefore inclined to see things from only our perspective? On the other hand, it's really hard to read book one where Clem seems so driven and focused on... Her idea of right vs. wrong, I suppose, and she comes across as harsh and unsupportive. Then in Boss Witch she doesn't really ever seem to reckon fully with that interpretation of her actions and almost doubles down, aside from when she has this two sentence realization that maybe grandma's thoughts and indoctrination had more of an impact on her than she realized. And so in Boss Witch we see Danica being careless and thoughtless about many of her actions, which makes sense from Clem's point of view, but is sort of hard to read about because you can't then see her grow because her book is already over. And obviously, people don't end a book and go from messy to perfect, but it's just sort of disconcerting.
Also, maybe the entirety of the above paragraph is not something that is actually that important to you or to the story and I can certainly see why it wouldn't bother anyone else besides me, so let's talk about some of the other aspects of Boss Witch. So, as indicated by the set up of this book in Witch Please, a witch hunter has come to town and he's clearly going to be Clem's love interest in Boss Witch. And in fact, we pick up a little back in time from where Witch Please ends and spend about half of the book covering the period of time we saw glimpses of in Witch Please. I don't always love books that cover similar ground as the prior book in the series, so that could have been part of my issue here. But I think more than that, it's the fact that this deception paired with the fact that (at least theoretically) a witch hunter is trying to, you know, HUNT witches and a witch is falling for him, should be a little more angsty than this was? I'm not sure I can really explain how I wish that this book had handled that plot line better, but for me, it just didn't quite give me the feelings I was hoping and thought that it would.
Turning now to the audio narration because I was lucky enough to receive an advanced listening copy via Netgalley... I liked the narration for this book a lot! I think I would have been tempted to DNF actually if I hadn't been listening to it, but it was a good time and it made me accomplish a lot of chores and just kept me company on a Saturday. So I would recommend picking up the audio if you're going to read this book!
And again, thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the audio review copy!