Tag: Wishcraft

The Witch and the Dead – REVIEW

Valerie @ Valerie's Musings2 Comments

5 out of 5 stars.

I realized the other day when I started re-reading The Witch and the Dead, I never wrote a review for it when I read it in the fall. So I’m remedying that now!

Book Cover: The Witch and the Dead by Heather Blake - purple background on top and bottom of the cover where the text is - middle section shows an illustration of a young white lady with dark hair sitting on a tree stump under a willow tree with a black cat at her feet.

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Synopsis

When Darcy moved to Salem, Massachusetts, she never expected her life to change as drastically as it did. But within a short time, the Enchanted Village has become her home, its mystical residents have become her family, and As You Wish, the personal concierge business formerly run by her Aunt Ve, has become her calling. Still, the time has come for change—and for Darcy to move out of Aunt Ve’s house.

Darcy’s belongings are stashed in Aunt Ve’s garage, alongside a mess of memories, forgotten possessions, and, to both Ve and Darcy’s horror, a pile of old bones. It turns out they belong to Ve’s long missing second husband. Now Darcy must unpack old secrets to solve a cold case—and make sure her aunt isn’t looking at a spell behind bars.

Review

This is a wonderful, delightful read!

We learn so much about the villagers and their pasts in this book! It’s amazing how many connections there are between the villagers. I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised. If your Craft has been hunted for thousands of years and misunderstood as evil, it’s probably a small gene pool that exists, but nonetheless, I was surprised. 🙂 I won’t spoil it for you tho’. You’ll have to find out all the connections yourself!

The plot line in this book moves along at a steady to quick pace. The prose flows well and there wasn’t a single time where I felt pulled out of the book by the wording or description of something. That’s not easy to do and Ms. Blake does it wonderfully in the majority of her books. I wondered about the villain, but I wasn’t sure until the end when he was revealed.

I really enjoy this series. I’ve enjoyed watching the characters grow over the course of the seven (7) current books. It appears that the series will continue under a different publisher so #8 should be out in Spring 2018! 🙂

If you’re going to read the series, I highly suggest you start with the first title in the series, It Takes a Witch. This is one of those series that you really should read in order to get the full experience of it. And I highly recommend reading it!

 

 

Some Like it Witchy – REVIEW

Valerie @ Valerie's MusingsLeave a comment

5 out of 5 stars.

Some Like it Witchy by Heather Blake book cover - Yellow background for text areas - teal house in background of cover with Darcy (young adult woman with black hair, wearing a tank top & jeans, with a small dog

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Synopsis

The Enchanted Village is abuzz when the old Tavistock house finally goes up for sale. Darcy’s friend Curecrafter Cherise Goodwin is hoping she will have the winning bid on the home, but Darcy can’t shake the feeling that something bad is about to happen—and her magical instincts are usually right.

Sure enough, while Darcy and Cherise are looking at the property, they discover real estate agent Raina Gallagher stone-cold dead on the floor. Clutched in her hand is a gemstone amulet and, on the wall above her, a large red A. While Raina had no shortage of enemies, there’s also a dark legend about the house itself. To track down the killer, Darcy must unlock the secrets of both the deceased and the estate—and she’ll need to act fast, because revenge is a deal that never closes.…

Review

Some Like it Witchy by Heather Blake is the fifth book in the Wishcraft series and I absolutely loved it. For those not familiar with the series, it’s a cozy mystery series set in a neighborhood in Salem, Massachusetts called The Enchanted Village. Most of the folks who live and work there are non-crafters, but the crafters live there and utilize their crafts (different areas of magical knowledge) to earn their living.

I was riveted to the book the whole time and almost finished it in one sitting. In this series, I usually have some idea of who the villain is, but I’m never 100% sure until it’s revealed at the end. In this particular installment, I had no inkling of who the villain was until the end. The twists and turns in the plot are enough to keep anyone guessing!

Our heroine has been away from the village for most of her life and I like the way Ms. Blake has us learning about the customs/practices right along with Darcy. In every book, we learn a little more about it. This book gives us more clues as to who the Elder might be, but it’s not completely revealed to us.

The supporting characters in this series add so much to the story line and enrich the tales greatly. In this one, we see Mrs. P. in her new role in the series.  I highly recommend the whole series, but this one was absolutely wonderful.  Of course, the sad part is waiting for the next installment in the series.