Goodreads Summary: Welcome to Starry Hollow, where spells were made to be broken.
Short on both cash and time, Ember Rose does her best as a single mom in New Jersey, serving up attitude along with repossession notices. When a repo job goes sideways, she and her daughter find themselves in imminent danger--until a visit from estranged relatives turns their world upside down. Ember, Marley, and their Yorkie are transported to Starry Hollow, a paranormal town where witches rule and magic is as normal as pizza. Where Ember goes, though, trouble seems to follow. When a member of the coven turns up dead, and the sexy werewolf sheriff identifies Ember as a suspect, she decides to take matters into her own hands like only a Jersey girl can.
Goodreads Rating: 4.31 stars with over 1200 ratings
Genre Listing: Cozy Mystery, Paranormal, Witches, Magic, Fantasy
Goodreads Challenge: 15/50 (woohoo! I'm catching up.)
2019 Reading Challenge: #10 a book with a title done in alliteration (find the full challenge here)
Book Review:
If anyone's wondering why the influx of reviews, it's because I'm avoiding real life responsibilities. I have a 30-page business plan to finish so I can graduate and need to pack up my apartment, so I can move out of state in August. The logical thing to do in this situation is to just ignore these things and read, obviously.
I was really struggling to find something with an alliterative title that I wanted to read. I found a couple of titles and started to read them, but lost interest quickly. I finally found one. Magic & Murder is a fun and short cozy paranormal mystery. Annabel Chase is the same author who put out the Spellbound series that I was obsessed with most of last year. Magic and Murder is very similar to the Spellbound series. A single woman in her mid to late 20s doesn't know she has magic, or that it even exists, and finds herself living in a paranormal town as a witch. There's a lot of similar humor like references to Harry Potter that no one in the Starry Hollow gets. Both main characters of the two series have to take some form of magic classes to get up to speed, and both also find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation. At one point and time, Spellbound even gets mentioned.
I was really struggling to find something with an alliterative title that I wanted to read. I found a couple of titles and started to read them, but lost interest quickly. I finally found one. Magic & Murder is a fun and short cozy paranormal mystery. Annabel Chase is the same author who put out the Spellbound series that I was obsessed with most of last year. Magic and Murder is very similar to the Spellbound series. A single woman in her mid to late 20s doesn't know she has magic, or that it even exists, and finds herself living in a paranormal town as a witch. There's a lot of similar humor like references to Harry Potter that no one in the Starry Hollow gets. Both main characters of the two series have to take some form of magic classes to get up to speed, and both also find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation. At one point and time, Spellbound even gets mentioned.
I don't mind the similarities, but I can see how it'd be a deal breaker for some readers. While I think the foundation is similar, the story its self is somewhat different. Ember ends up in Starry Hollow with her ten-year-old daughter after their lives are threatened by a complete psychopath. I thought this was a really well-done intro to Ember's story because it's highly dramatic and makes her interesting right away. She and her daughter Marley are then whisked away by three witchy relatives that Ember didn't even know existed.
Marley is probably my favorite character in the book. She's sassy and way too smart for her own good. Ember and Marley have a good dynamic that feels realistic. Ember ends up with an Aunt and three cousins (and their families). I can't remember any of their names, and aside from the Aunt they really didn't make an impression on me. The Aunt likes to throw her name around a lot to get her way, and that should be an interesting plot line throughout the series.
The thing I like the most about Magic & Murder (as well as the other Annabel Chase books I've read) is they're short. This one is only 193 pages. It's easy to get into the story, there's a bit of wit and humor, and it's a quick read. If you're trying to get some challenge fillers, this is a good one it'd fit for Fantasy, an M title, Alliteration, Free spaces, and if you're doing just a straight number's challenge, it only takes a couple of hours.
Marley is probably my favorite character in the book. She's sassy and way too smart for her own good. Ember and Marley have a good dynamic that feels realistic. Ember ends up with an Aunt and three cousins (and their families). I can't remember any of their names, and aside from the Aunt they really didn't make an impression on me. The Aunt likes to throw her name around a lot to get her way, and that should be an interesting plot line throughout the series.
The thing I like the most about Magic & Murder (as well as the other Annabel Chase books I've read) is they're short. This one is only 193 pages. It's easy to get into the story, there's a bit of wit and humor, and it's a quick read. If you're trying to get some challenge fillers, this is a good one it'd fit for Fantasy, an M title, Alliteration, Free spaces, and if you're doing just a straight number's challenge, it only takes a couple of hours.
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