I picked up a copy of Kat Zaccard‘s The Finder Witch and the Small Favor as an Amazon Freebie. And I would like it noticed that it is January 19th and here I’ve already read a Z-book for my Author Alphabet Challenge. (I try to read a book from an author who’s last name starts with every letter of the alphabet each year.) I’m ridiculously proud of myself. Usually, I get to mid-December and scramble to find a Q, X, and Z book. Well, Z is taken care of early this year!

Natalie can’t catch a break.

After losing her job and her roommate on the same day, she’d say she was cursed… if she believed in that sort of thing.

Natalie gets a crash course in the paranormal after a first date turns into a magical crime spree. Now she has to find a job, a place to live and… oh yeah… convince the cops that she’s not an accomplice to murder.

Her luck starts to change when she realizes her knack for finding things may be more than coincidence.

Natalie thought she was cursed… turns out she may be charmed.

Soooo, this just isn’t particularly good. It’s shallow, everyone talks in exclamation points, it needs more editing (especially for homophones), it’s super cheesy at points, and the last chapter throws in a twist that has no relation to the rest of the book at all. But what really killed it for me was the boredom. Here we have a book theoretically about a woman being hunted by a half-demon for her magical potential (should be exciting), but that is about 5% of the book. The rest is meaningless day-to-day activities, internal monologue, and needless magical lessons.

I’ll grant that the characters are likeable and there is some cute humor. But for the most part this was a fail for me.