Madelyn Alt

Where There's a Witch is my second bewitching mystery. I'm afraid one of the Ouija messages kept going over my head, but I had an unfair advantage in guessing the killer anyway. The description of what must have been the murder weapon matches an item we have in our home.

I haven't read book four, but it seems that Maggie's self-centered sister, Mel, blabbed about Liss, Marcus, and the N.I.G.H.T.S (the Northeastern Indiana Ghost Hunting and Tracking Society) in the last book. What's worse, Mel show more did it after they'd done her a great service. The fallout from Mel's loose lips is a major subplot of this book.

Yes, things have been going wrong among the citizens of Stony Mill, Indiana for months now, but I'm more likely to attribute it to the darkness in the hearts of the self-righteous members of the First Evangelical Church of Light creating an opening for evil entities to move in. Sadly, Stony Mill is a conservative small town. Among the persons with false ideas about Wiccans are the mothers of Maggie and young Evie, much to their daughters' distress.

I haven't read books one or two, either, so I don't know for sure what Father Tom, the priest at the Catholic church Maggie has stopped attending, did. From the hints dropped here, he should have been ousted from his position. (I remember how our priest thundered that those pedophile priests were EVIL when the scandal first broke. I personally refused to watch televised Masses featuring he-never-deserved-to-be-the-Vicar-of-Christ-after-his-betrayal Benedict XVI. I had no respect for him then and none now.) What a pity that Maggie's mother defends Father Tom. I wish Maggie would tell her outright that she's not going to attend Mass at their church until they get a priest worthy of the office.

As for the Ouija messages, it's high school students Tara and Evie who are using it. Maggie doesn't want to, but they talk her into it. They do get some useful information, though. It might have been more useful if the ghost could spell better.

The finding of a forgotten room turned out not to be what I expected, but still interesting. I'll cut Maggie some slack for not putting some clues together sooner because she's got the anti-witch campaign, nagging mom, and jerk Deputy Fielding problems on her mind.

Pardon my chortle, but a phone conversation Liss has in this book makes me suspect that a possibility from book three will eventually come to pass.
(Same first initial, too, heh heh.)

Cat lovers, the black cat on the cover is no longer a cheat. Minnie is a dear little kitten.

Now that I've read the two books that came my way, I want to read the rest. show less

Margaret Mary-Catherine O’Neill (Maggie), disgruntled bookkeeper and ironic Hoosier, is not living her best life, trundling back and forth between her dismal collections job and her basement apartment in her small town in the middle of the Northern Bible Belt.

All of that changes when Maggie meets the mysterious Felicity Dow, owner of a curio shop called Enchantments, who is also a practicing witch. Maggie accepts a job at the shop, and almost immediately she is pulled into a murder show more investigation. As she works to exonerate the main suspect in the murder, Maggie is also dealing with the awakening of her latent psychic abilities. Of course. There are hints of romance, with two gorgeous men vying for her affection.

The Trouble With Magic isn’t perfect; there is some awkwardness as we meet Felicity and her friend Marcus, the pace is a bit uneven, and the cliffhanger at the end is just plopped into the last three or four paragraphs with no previous groundwork laid, but the book mostly improves as it moves forward. Felicity’s Mary Poppins speaking style smoothes out, the pace improves, and Maggie’s voice is authentic and relatable. It’s a solid 3-3.5 stars, but I awarded a fourth star because I didn’t guess the killer. I will be reading more of this series. show less

This is a series I like, but don't love, which would probably explain why two books from the Bewitching cozy mystery series have been setting on one of my TBR shelves for quite a while.

Maggie O'Neill is a fun, engaging protagonist living in a small town and trying to figure out her intuitive powers. She has a family who irritates her, but she is still always there for, and a new boyfriend who is pushing all the right buttons.

When she goes to visit her sister, Mel, in the hospital, who is due show more to give birth, Maggie overhears a seemingly sinister conversation, and finds out about a tragic death. Trying to balance her love life, powers, and familial obligations, Maggie must also solve the mystery before someone else gets hurt.

I think the reason I like but don't love this series is that it takes a long time to get to the mystery, and once the mystery starts, there's so much going on it almost feels like the mystery is a minor storyline. Because I'm going into these books wanting the mystery to be the focus, it can drag a little when that's not the case. The last few chapters, which focus on the mystery predominately, flew by for me, and the solution was really clever (even though I had called a bit of it, I still enjoyed it).

Eventually I will get to the other book from this series I own, but I suspect I will read the series that focus on the mystery first. show less

The fun subgenre of paranormal, cozy mysteries (double-sub really) usually dishes out cute situations, humorous pitfalls and of course a dash of magically-inclined charm. Maybe that’s why this failed? It just didn’t do enough of those traits.

Story isn’t too bad – an obnoxious teen gets killed, the small town finds it tragic, and our protagonist solves the crime. She works at a shop, Enchanted, under her employer, pro-witch type.

The start is semi-sluggish but needed to establish show more scene of crime. I didn’t feel enough enchantment to rush back to the book so it took me awhile to finish this one. The middle grows more interesting once some personal drama squirts some needed life into it. What really irked me was that the ending half got much better, only to have the last chapter or so result to stupidity.

Suddenly the heroine, a woman with her hand on her shoulders, starts acting stupid for the sake of the story. The whole trip for evidence was just hokey and unnecessary. The phone and picture convenient setup? Puh-leeze. Why steal a frame, who not just take a picture of it? Why wait almost the entire book for high res shots and then want them sent to your cellphone? And even if the person is recognized in the shot, how do you automatically know they are the killer because of that?

The heroine is likeable enough, although a bit too goody sometimes. Tom as her romantic interest is dull, have no idea why she cares. Instead of loving Felicity as a super sweet, supportive boss, she irritated me with her clicheness and wise woman persona. There is a clear cookie cutter formula used for characterization. And while I did feel bad for the grieving parents, the ‘victim’ was loathsome and I couldn’t care less about her.

Madeline Alt does write well. She keeps to the point, avoids over-elaborating, keeps pacing consistent, but needs to improve on unrealistic, staged dialogue, especially in the last quarter between her and her boss and best friend upstairs.

Romance is pretty much not there but there are some hints to come. I have to admit I’m curious on what’s going to happen in that department. The mystery isn’t complicated to solve; there weren’t enough players to strongly consider. I guessed before so it wasn’t a big surprise. On it being paranormal, sometimes it delves into that and other times it went so long without it I’d forget it was supposed to be a paranormal novel. I’m not impressed yet with the magic stuff but it has the potential to develop into something better later.

I may like the next book if I get my hands on it. The writer does her job well but there are some rough edges needing polishing. show less