Reviews with content warning for Grief - White Trash Warlock

An absolutely fun urban fantasy, and it takes place in Denver! I really enjoyed the characters in this book, and the plot is a ton of fun. I love the magic, the spirit realm, and the overlaps between normal life and Adam’s magic one. This book has an excellent pace, an adorable romance, and perfectly placed hilarity to break up the serious. My husband stumbled on this Colorado local book and we both loved it.

📘The Gist 📘: One man’s hunt for a magical poacher is postponed when he is called to Denver to deal with an ancient spirit that’s causing havoc and killing his sister in law.

📒Representation📒: mlm mc, bi mc, Hispanic mc, poverty

💕 For readers looking for 💕: urban fantasy, queer romance, magic, charming all around good guy main character, Colorado setting, well-timed hilarity

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frantic_vampire's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Don’t mind my puddle of tears, because this book had my emotions in a vice grip the entire time I was reading it 😭. Like, dear lord. I don’t think I’ve ever had this many feelings over a book in a while.

Honestly, White Trash Warlock had me in tears from so many different things. But I think it was Adam’s abuse in the school/institution that really got to me. He was treated with such cruelty and yet he made it through and is still one of the sweetest and most caring people in this book! I also really liked the different layers to the family drama. It was so intense and real and just…so good.

The characters are so amazing in this book! Adam is just a sweetheart that deserves all the hugs in the world. Bobby might be a bit of an ass, but his heart is in the right spot. And Vic! I love him already. The world building in this book is also really great! I loved the switching between the spirit world and the real world. It’s a little triply and reminds me a little bit of Spirited Away.

I really loved White Trash Warlock. It was emotional in ways I didn’t expect. And honestly? I think I’ve found a new favorite series. This one is getting a solid five stars. I can’t wait to see what’s next. But first I have to go cry some more over this book.

Content Warnings

blynecessity's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Huh. This was actually pretty good. I didn't realize it was the first installment in a series, but I'll probably keep up with the series as the sequels come out.

The writing was a little disorienting because all the POV characters had a really similar tone and I'd sometimes forget who was narrating. Also, the flashbacks were not at all easy to read. I assume the author will improve his writing in time, so no hate on that front.

There were some problematic moments (listed in spoilers at bottom of review), but all in all I pushed through that and managed to still really enjoy the read.

I didn't really looove that there was basically no development or fleshing-out for any of the women in the story, but with such a small cast I'm willing to set that aside as (hopefully) a first-book quirk.

I liked that family was such a big part of the novel! Like, the MC and the plot both treated family as a v important topic, which helped me emotionally invest in the story. I def thought

the brother was the warlock

for a sec there, but I'm glad the twists and surprises weren't as predictable as all that.

All in all, I'd read the rest of the books and will probably recommend this to some people I think might like it!

So yeahhh, that romanticized pedophilia was hard to get past, but it's mostly glossed over in the story, and the abuser is not making more moves on the MC (now that the MC is an adult?), which is a relief. Still think the abuser should be shot in the head or something, but whatever.

And sure, there was a lot of pro-cop pandering (even though we only meet two cops in the story) but it wasn't as overt as I thought it would get with how the author seemed to be ramping up when the story was still getting started.

And yess, the love interest being magically insta-loved without his consent wasn't great and was def unethical, but the mind-control part lessens towards the end of the book which made it less squicky.

And okay, the main woman in the story was shown for, like, one chapter being defined by her ability to bear children which is reductive, and she then spent the rest of the novel in a coma and just generally being unloved and treated as a literal possession (haha, ghost pun) or property, but I can see how the story would have suffered had the brother been the one in the coma instead.

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