“You,” he said through gritted teeth, “are freaking impossible sometimes.”

Determined to release Mazzy from the bottle she’d been genied into when no one else seems interested in saving the other witch and catching the murderer of a local woman that comes to her for help unleashes more than Violet could have ever expected and it’s a journey you don’t want to miss! ( )

I received an advance copy of this book via NetGalley.

In this second book in a cozy mystery series, Violet is a crystal shop owner with recently-unveiled magical powers. When a troubled customer goes missing, she sets out to investigate, uncovering sordid secrets in her hometown--even as other witches investigate her for an incident that happened in the previous book.

I didn't read the first book, but that didn't make it difficult to get into this one. The plots are fairly straightforward. I was left with many frustrations and questions as I read, though. So much of the book's prolonged drama is because people aren't engaging in basic levels of communication, which is exasperating. The magic here doesn't seem to have any rules. Witches can teleport wherever. Violet is treated like she's incredibly powerful, but I saw no evidence of that whatsoever. She's willfully ignorant about magic in general, and that seems to largely be the case to drag out the magical subplot. I was mystified as to why she was serving on a local magical-governing board.

Genies and their powers seem to be set up to be the big bad guys in this world, and though they aren't described here as having an origin here, it made me uncomfortable that the one Arabian/Middle Eastern aspect was elevated to such a dark role. I hope that more nuance comes into play in future books.

The mundane mystery at the heart of the book is the best part, but I couldn't turn off my author/editor mode to relax and enjoy the loose magical worldbuilding. ( )