After the deaths of his parents, a witch returns to his spooky family manor and joins forces with his former crush when his parents’ spirits warn them of a sinister threat in this witty and lyrically unique rom-com in the vein of The Crescent Moon Tearoom and The Ex Hex.
Azrael Ashmedai Hart must be cursed. He’s a witch twice named for the devil. He’s making his way back to his family manor in Hallowcross after a failed screenwriting career. He’s adopted a cat he’s allergic to, and if all of that is not enough, he’s also forced to come face-to-face with his childhood best friend and former crush.
Victoria Starnberger, the bubbly girl-next-door Az lost touch with after an awkward incident in college, has just been disowned by her parents for quitting business school and buying Azrael’s late parents’ Hopelessly Teavoted tea shop against their wishes. Being cut off financially is one thing. But, now Vickie also owes a lesser devil for the souls her parents promised him in exchange for her gift to summon the dead by touching something they treasured in life, destroying the object in the process.
When spirits all over town, including Az’s parents, keeping warning her about a sinister threat, Vickie and Az are forced to combine their powers to save the Hallowcross. But to do so, they must prevent her magic from immolating him after Vickie’s devil places a curse on them to keep them from touching until she repays her debt. As they race against the clock to find clever ways around their curse, they find it increasingly harder to deny that they’ve been hopelessly devoted to each other all along.
Azrael Ashmedai Hart must be cursed. He’s a witch twice named for the devil. He’s making his way back to his family manor in Hallowcross after a failed screenwriting career. He’s adopted a cat he’s allergic to, and if all of that is not enough, he’s also forced to come face-to-face with his childhood best friend and former crush.
Victoria Starnberger, the bubbly girl-next-door Az lost touch with after an awkward incident in college, has just been disowned by her parents for quitting business school and buying Azrael’s late parents’ Hopelessly Teavoted tea shop against their wishes. Being cut off financially is one thing. But, now Vickie also owes a lesser devil for the souls her parents promised him in exchange for her gift to summon the dead by touching something they treasured in life, destroying the object in the process.
When spirits all over town, including Az’s parents, keeping warning her about a sinister threat, Vickie and Az are forced to combine their powers to save the Hallowcross. But to do so, they must prevent her magic from immolating him after Vickie’s devil places a curse on them to keep them from touching until she repays her debt. As they race against the clock to find clever ways around their curse, they find it increasingly harder to deny that they’ve been hopelessly devoted to each other all along.
Title: Hopelessly Teavoted
Author: Audrey Goldberg Ruoff
Publisher: Atria
Expected Publication Date: September 16, 2025
Review:
Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I really loved the idea of this cozy romantic fantasy book. I'm definitely in my cozy era. I'm all for second chance romance, or at least a second chance type romance. It's great to root for the characters and watch them get their HEA. But when all they do is pine for each other the entire book and every chapter focuses on that pining, it gets repetitive and annoying.
There were several times during this story I wanted to DNF this book. It just didn't move. The pacing was so very slow. And not in a slow burn building up to this huge relief slow. It was just boring. Nothing pushed the plot along. The characters didn't change and grow. And the miscommunication was super frustrating. The author put the attraction between the main characters out in the book right away, which would have been fine but then there was no mystery to how it would build and grow and show itself. It was just there, slogging along. I had zero investment in the romantic story line of this book because the chemistry that was talked about just didn't seem to truly be there. Every chapter was spent with them ruing their one college experience together.
I was annoyed with the Britishisms used by the characters who live in the United States and are American. While the MMC's mother was British, I just didn't see these words and statements making any sense coming out of the characters mouths.
And the inclusion of all things current events ideas really took me out of the the story so many times. I was frustrated and annoyed by their use. To the point that it was almost ridiculous because how many current events types things can you include in a book before it makes it seem you are using them just to touch on those ideas rather than use them for plot purposes.
And what was the point of the tea shop? It truly didn't play much of a role in the book and I feel like it needed to. And what about the church and the mystery. By 60% in I had no more information or idea about the mystery than I did at the beginning of the book when it was first mentioned.
I do see the author's writing can be good but most of the time it is too descriptive when there is truly no need. I felt like she was adding words to try and get her word count in, And rather than showing us the magical system
Finally, I actually felt like this was a book that was written in a series. The way things were referenced made me feel like I must have been missing something. I actually went to check and make sure it wasn't the second book in a series because I was a bit confused by what the author seemed to think we might know about the characters.
Overall the story line had its moments but I did not find myself invested in caring about what happened to or between the characters. I just wanted it to be over and ending up skimming the last 25% just to be done. I do see a lot of readers DNF'd this story, which makes me sad because the potential is there. But the execution absolutely fell flat.
Author:
Audrey Goldberg Ruoff writes contemporary and speculative romance and fantasy. She lives in a suburb of Washington, DC with her spouse, two children, a scrappy but loyal little dog, and a whimsical and witchy cat.
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