Thursday 5 September 2013

Secondhand Spirits - Book Review


Secondhand Spirits (A Witchcraft Mystery #1)
by Juliet Blackwell


What is it about:
Lily Ivory is not your average witch. Her spell-casting powers tend to draw mischievous spirits while keeping normal humans at a distance. But now her vintage clothing store could give her a chance to make friends in San Francisco....

Lily hopes for a normal life when she opens Aunt Cora's Closet. With her magical knack for vintage fashion -she can sense vibrations of the past from clothing and jewelry—her store becomes a big hit.

But when a client is murdered and children start disappearing from the Bay Area, Lily may be the only one who can unravel the crime. She tries to keep her identity a secret while investigating, but it's not easy—especially under the spells of sexy "mythbuster" Max Carmichael and powerful witch Aidan Rhodes. Will Lily's witchy ways be forced out of the closet?


What did I think of it:
I will confess I totally picked up this book because I heard there was a pig in this series.

And indeed Lily gets a familiar at the start of the story: Oscar, a goblin who looks like a pig when normal people are around. And he's awesome! Just for Oscar alone I'd be tempted to read more books in this series.

Luckily Oscar isn't the only good thing about this book though. I really liked Lily and her friends as well. Add a fun story and an intriguing mystery to the mix and I was hooked. Some things were a bit obvious to me, but that didn't annoy me.

I liked how Blackwell used existing folklore and made it her own, and I look forward to learn more about Lily and her magic and about other witches in future books.

Overall this is a fast and enjoyable read and I will most certainly pick up the next book in this series.

Why should you read it:
It's a fun Paranormal Cozy Mystery


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2 comments:

Aurian said...

Great review Sullivan! It has been a while since I read the first two books in this series, I need to catch up with the rest!

JenM said...

I hardly ever read cozies, but this is my one exception. I picked it up because it was set in San Francisco, and featured a witch, and I've enjoyed all of the books. The only one I wasn't wild about was the third, Hexes and Hemlines. I thought it was a bit slow, but I just finished the fourth, In a Witch's Wardrobe, and it was really good.