Hopelessly Teavoted by Audrey Goldberg Ruoff

Tracy’s Rating: 2/2.5 of 5 stars

Series: Standalone

Release Date: September 16, 2025

Victoria “Vicki” Starnberger has a gift, she can communicate with the dead via personal items they left behind and items that burn up when she contacts the ghost. She wasn’t born with the gift; it came to her when her parents made a deal with a demon. For years she has used the gift to help her parents build an empire, while attending college. But after 8 years, she still hasn’t graduated, and she has returns to Hallowcross with a plan. She wants to buy the tea shop that was owned by the deceased parents of her childhood friend and secret crush, Azreal “Az” Hart. Her parents are opposed to this and threaten to cut her off if she goes through with the sale. But it isn’t until she is disowned that she learns that she is beholden to the lesser devil Olexandre for the balance of 3 souls due on the contract by Halloween. She also learns that until she fulfills that contract, anything (or anyone) with a sentimental connection to a spirit will be incinerated by her touch.

Enter Az, who has finally returned to Hallowcross after a failed screenwriting career in California. This is the first time he has been home since his parents passed away during the COVID-19 pandemic. Az and his family are witches and have magical powers, but even that wasn’t enough to save his parents, and he is drowning in guilt and grief for not being able to be with them at the end. To make matters worse, he learns that Vicki is back and has bought his parent’s tea shop. He hasn’t seen Vicki since an “incident” 6 years ago when he went to visit her in college and tried to move out of the “friend zone”. Thanks to his parent’s spirits, he has a second chance, but nothing worth having is easy.

After reading the blurb, I was super excited for this book, but unfortunately it just didn’t work for me. There were just too many things that didn’t make sense and were never explained to my satisfaction, for example, the magic system, or why Vicki was responsible for a contract made by her parents, and most especially the “incident”. The story dragged and at times felt like a YA fantasy, but with lots of F-bombs and love scenes and if it is important to you, it did have LBGTQ+ representation, as both the main characters and several secondary characters identified as such. Overall, the story had good bones but lacked the depth and cohesiveness necessary to hold my attention. I do believe this author has promise and would consider reading future books.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher/author. All opinions in this review are my own. *