The Good, the Bad, and the Witchy

Darcy Merriweather is still learning her craft. Up until a year ago, she didn’t even know she was a Wishcrafter. Now she’s learning the ropes from her Aunt Ve and adjusting to life in the Enchanted Village. Life here is simply magical.

Working at As You Wish, a personal concierge service, keeps the family busy. When Floracrafter Harriette Harkette decides to hire them to plan her 80th birthday celebration, the whole town is buzzing. It seems that Harriette is the envy of the town with her new creation, the midnight black Witching Hour rose.
Darcy is hard at work. Unfortunately, when a delivery boy is found dead, his ghost quickly attaches to Darcy. She’s stuck with him until she can solve the mystery of his untimely death. In an show more odd twist Harriette's stunning new roses have perished as well. How is that possible?

With help from her new friends, her misbehaving dog, and the handsome Police Chief, Darcy is on the case. She’ll need to crack both mysteries or else she’s stuck with a ghost forever. You’ll be on the edge of your seat as you root for Darcy to solve the mysteries in time.

The Bottom Line: The Enchanted Village is always entertaining, and the third installment of this series is simply a magical treat. With just the right combination of magic, gardening, and romance, this cozy is the perfect weekend read. Highly recommended for fans of cozy mysteries with a splash of the supernatural.

This review also appears at the Mini Book Bytes Book Review Blog. show less

The Good, the Bad, and the Witchy by Heather Blake is the third in the wishcraft mystery series and I am devouring them. I find that they are perfect cozy mysteries to snuggle up with and am already grabbing the next one from the store.

This series gets rave reviews from me. I've spoken before about my love for the characters. Each character living in the Enchanted Village has their own appeal. Eccentricity is the norm and in this installment, we get some new quirky characters to love (or hate). We still have our beloved Aunt Ve, Harper, and the delightful blooming (no pun intended) relationship between our main character Darcy and Nick, the police chief.

The main mystery in this book is finding out who killed Michael, the delivery boy. show more While it begins as a simple investigation, it becomes more complicated as we learn more about the events surrounding his death and we end up with a few other mysteries on top of the original. The story has just enough twists and turns to keep us guessing until the end and keeps us smiling with its snarky humor. And in this one, quite a wrench was thrown into the mix at the end which only makes me want to get to the next book faster! We can only wish that a place like the Enchanted Village really existed so we can move there ourselves and meet all of these personalities. (did you hear that, Darcy?)

This book, and the whole series as a matter of fact, is the perfect light, summer read. show less

Local florist Harriete Harkette is turning 80 and won't have anything less than a grand soiree planned by As You Wish, complete with a septuagenarian stripper. Well, the 70 year old part was going to be a surprise from Darcy, who doesn't want all the old ladies having coronaries. The party is interrupted by the discovery of the bakery deliveryman, Michael. Does his death have anything to do with Harriete's new black rose? The Enchanted Village, where witches live in plain sight, continues to be a favorite place of mine. Darcy does a great job sleuthing out clues and ruling out suspects. The secondary characters continue to grow, especially young Mimi. The side story about familiars and whether or not one resides in Aunt Ve's house show more continues and I will be waiting to read the next story right away. show less

The Good: Amusing, as the series always is. The introduction of the possibility of ghosts was interesting, though I'm glad it seems to not be a permanent addition. In this instance it was very helpful in giving emotion to the case Darcy found herself in the middle of, as well as giving her a very good reason to continue her involvement. With all cozy mystery series, the romance is slow going. But, what I especially like about this series is that there are real obstacles that come up that warrant the snail's pace. Issues that make sense and need to be dealt with.

The Bad: Flowers. Meh. I don't read gardening themed cozy mystery series, although there are a few out there, because I have no interest. The mix of magic made it tolerable, but show more I was lost for the most part whenever it came to the Floracrafters. show less

Darcy and her whole witchy crew just keep growing on me. In this one Darcy finds herself imprinted on by recently deceased Michael, a minor character we met in the first book, who died delivering a cake to the party Darcy, through her job at "As You Wish," had planned. We get a deeper look into the crafter world, including its prejudices. We also get traction, and competition, on Darcy and Nick's relationship. All in all, this is a good series with lots of potentional

Another fun installment in the A Wishcraft mystery series. I love how important Pepe and Archie are during this mystery. I thought the magic used on the flowers/plants was really cool, I could sit there and watch someone clip flowers and they immediately grow back, it would be peaceful.

Darcy is asked to put together the birthday party for Henriette, a formidable Floracrafter who is about to get married to an elusive fiancee. Darcy is also asked to find & hire a stripper, a task which is an embarrassment to her, so she hires an older man w/ a beer belly....

While waiting for Henriette & birthday cake to arrive, Darcy notices the bakery van outside sitting in the parking lot..... Darcy leaves the party in order to find the errant deliveryman & birthday cake, but what she finds is the body of the deliveryman and an odd light.

The deliveryman, Michael, was an Illumencrafter (bringer of light & joy) and his ghost has imprinted upon Darcy, urging her to find his murderer.

Henriette had been working w/ Michael developing a show more Black Rose (which she took all the credit for), which was the envy of other Floracrafters. The Black Roses inspired so much envy, that several had been stolen, which put Michael & Henriette in danger. After Michael is found dead, the roses he was working with also died, as it was his "spell" that was keeping them alive.

Just prior to Michael's death, he & his best friend were overheard arguing... After Michael's death is announced to be murder, his best friend (the grandson of Henriette) & Michael's sister immediately disappear.

With the help of Michael's ghost, Darcy works to bring the mystery of Michael's death to its conclusion.

That is the jist of the main story, but every other person is tied into to the story & each other via their relationships with Henriette & Michael, which make for interesting side stories all with threads back to the main.

This was a quick & easy read for me.... The characters are mostly likable and the magical references are pretty tame without extremes. show less