Tag: paranormal

Review: First Time’s a Yarn

Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Paranormal (ghosts)

5*****

Blurb: Breezy Marston is almost 30 and doing her best to re-rail her derailed life plan. After losing the job she thought she would hold until she was old and decrepit, her best friend, Ammyleigh, throws out an idea for them to start their own business making homemade crochet items. As they are working on getting that off the ground, Breezy gets a phone call that she has to go pick up her youngest sibling, Oona, who is 15 and getting released early from juvie. Now, she is expected to be responsible for Oona in all areas of work, school, and home life. Then she also ends up with Juniper, Oona’s friend from juvie. More expectations. After they find Juniper’s ex-boyfriend and his older brother dead, Russian bad guys start chasing them, Breezy finds out she is some kind of “sleeper agent” for a government experiment, and, oh, she can talk with ghosts. Can she and her group figure out who killed the two boys before an angry Russian or ghost gets to her first?

THOUGHTS: I loved this story! I was expecting your standard cozy, but this is so much more. From the main character being part of a secret government experiment earlier in her life that lets her see ghosts, to the digital coding (and learning new words about it!) and the Russian mafia. She starts a business doing crochet and pulls in her best friend, juvie sister (Oona), sister’s friend (Jasmine), and the elderly Mary’s from the local church to help. Her brother is a cop and his partner is a hunk (of course). They find Jasmine’s boyfriend and his brother dead and the fun (not!) begins. There really is a lot going on in this story (loved the hidden basement!) and I can definitely see more books coming for Breezy and her “team”. This one has a satisfying ending with a surprise twist. Yes, it all may be a bit much for some people, but I really did enjoy this. And the crochet pattern at the end is a bonus. Definitely going to try that one.

Recommended.

Review: The Magic of Death

Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Paranormal

4****

Blurb: Witches, Murder, and Ghosts, oh my!
Welcome to Dead End, Texas, a tourist town where it’s spooky season all year long… Star Bell comes from a long line of witches originating all the way back to Salem—if her granny is to be believed. While the rest of her family employs their magical abilities in their assorted businesses on Main Street, Star flat out refuses to use her own because communicating with the dearly departed has never brought her anything but trouble. And the one spirit she wants to talk to—her sister Astra—has ghosted her. So why bother? And if that’s not enough for an almost forty-year-old to deal with, she’s living with three generations of Bells. Between her sixty-year-old aunt who is acting like a teenager and her teenage niece who isn’t acting much like herself, Star doesn’t have a moment of peace these days. But when her niece becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation, Star must embrace her power and enlist the spirits of Dead End to help find the real killer before she becomes a permanent resident of Dead End herself.

THOUGHTS: This was an intense, but fun paranormal cozy mystery. Star is the main character and she can see and talk to ghosts. Which can be both good and bad. She also gets visions – ones that, in this case, show events that happened years ago but lead to the recent killings in their small town of Dead End. There are a lot of corruptions and secrets abound throughout. Star’s family is quirky and interesting in that they are witches. Star uses her gift/curse to help her discover the killer(s), but nearly ends up being a victim herself.

The story plot was intriguing and had a satisfying end. The characters well done, and the scene setting fit the story. What the story needed though was better editing. There were quite a few glitches throughout, but that didn’t lower my enjoyment of the story.

Recommended.