If you’re finding life stressful these days and you’re looking for a low angst, low stakes, funny, sexy, paranormal romance, look no further than April Asher’s Not Your Crush’s Cauldron. It’s the third book in the author’s Supernatural Singles series and the first one I’ve read. (The author also writes romantic suspense under the pen name April Hunt). Each book in this rom-com paranormal series can be read as a standalone though, of course, as the third entry, there are already two established couples from the first two books to play secondary roles here.

Bax Donovan is the least angelic guardian angel to work for Guardian Affairs. He’s a disappointment to his father Mikael, one of the Archangel’s Warriors of Peace, who had hoped Bax would follow more in his footsteps. Bax is a bad boy angel if there ever was one – a tattooed and pierced biker who happens to hate flying and heights. But there is one thing he is good at, and that’s being a loyal friend. When Olive Maxwell, a membee of his friendship circle is in need of a place to stay, Bax immediately offers up his spare room. He’s had a crush on her for ages but figures he can still keep it hidden even while she lives with him.

Olive is a witch and a college teacher of Supernatural Studies at NYU and is grateful for Bax’s offer of a place to stay. She’s not immune to Bax’s attractive, physical presence (including the nipple piercings faintly visible through his tight t-shirts) though she does a good job of pretending otherwise. When, in the course of one of her classes, she challenges her students to push outside of their comfort zones to learn more about themselves, she realizes that she should put her money where her mouth is and do the same thing. She creates a bucket list of tasks, including joining the circus (not really, but she does find aerial trapeze classes as a good substitute), doing something spontaneous, something socially frightening, etc. And naturally, this list puts her on Guardian Angel alert and Bax, to his consternation, suddenly finds himself assigned as a guardian angel for Olive.

There are three basic rules to being a guardian angel: 1) Don’t tell your protectee that you’re their guardian 2) Don’t get your procectee killed and 3) Don’t fall in love with your protectee. Since Bax can’t tell Olive she’s his new assignment, the only way to keep track of her and keep her safe is to offer to accompany her to her various tasks on her “dare docket”. Olive is glad of his company, and spending a lot of time together lets the mutual (if previously hidden) attraction they have for each other come to the surface, leading to some sexy times. But the more involved they get, the more Bax realizes that if Olive finds out about the assignment, she’ll think his romantic interest in her isn’t real. Will the trust and affection they’ve built come to a crashing end?

This is a fairly straightforward and predictable story but has lots of laughs and banter to carry it through. The secondary characters (Olive’s sibling witches, demon, succubus, animal shifters) are all really interesting (enough that I plan to read the other books in the series) and the friend scenes are quite enjoyable. Bax’s piercings include a genital jacob’s ladder (which, I confess, I did google on an incognito setting to be able to properly visualize the scene and for the purposes of this review!) and Olive is quite a fan. Sex in this story is steamy, lighthearted and fun, helped along by Olive’s friend, Harper, who is a succubus who happens to add some sex-related items to Olive’s list. Bax’s conflict with his father is brought up periodically (especially as his relationship with Olive gets more intense) and he eventually has to make some long-term career choices as a result. As for Olive, she has supportive sisters who are happily partnered up and are pleased to see her with Bax, once she spills the beans about their more intimate relationship.

As far as grading goes, the emotional stakes are never that high and as mentioned, Not Your Crush’s Cauldron is fairly predictable (no big surprises), which is what keeps it in the B range. The third act breakup scene is foreseeable but the happy ending is satisfying and overall, it’s a paranormal romance I’m happy to recommend. I’m hoping the next in the series will feature Harper the succubus, and Adrian, a lion shifter, as they seem to be always at odds, setting up a good enemies-to-lovers trope story.