witchbuns

Julie Hatcher, 2025

4.25 Stars for Independence and Pasta

This book was inspiring and swoony and uplifting, and I highly recommend reading in a book club setting with other women to talk through the themes and reactions, preferably over cake. Julie Hatcher sets up the plot perfectly in the first chapter, where we learn that Sophie hates her controlling husband and is supported by her ride or die best friend Alicia, as they continue to hatch a plot for her to be set free. We see Sophie building her baking business from the very destitute ground floor of her post-divorce life, and as she encounters set backs that felt very realistic, she kept driving forward and showing resilience. This is a book about mothers and daughters and how marriages and long-term relationships build and sustain cycles of behavior, and it was a very lovely pacing to let these themes almost gently find resolution in the third act.  

The tone of the novel was determination, but it also had a wonderfully calibrated slow burn with Lucas, a handsome, age-appropriate restauranteur who looks at Sophie like she hung the moon. I loved their interactions and how they built believably towards a deeper relationship. Extra points for centering this on a mature woman, giving her a mature man, and letting them find ways to communicate that were authentic to their experiences in love. Extra extra points for Sophie claiming what she deserves and finding strength to be herself, in full focus for others. This was my first Julie Hatcher novel and I’m going to devour her catalogue now, because I want more of these female friendships and stories of falling in love with the life that speaks most authentically to you. 

Thank you Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.