title: A Drop in the Potionauthor: Constance Barker
series: Happy Blendings Witch #3
published: 11 November 2019
publisher: self-published
genre(s): cozy mystery, paranormal
pages: 107
source: Kindle Unlimited
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | StoryGraph | Goodreads
rating:
| series rating: 
the blurb
What's with the snow in the deep south? Every morning Sam, earth witch, wakes up to a fresh blanket of snow. Does the new water witch have a thing for the white stuff? Sam doesn't have time to ponder as the new owner of Windemere Manor has invited half the town to a welcoming party at the mansion itself. But could there still be black magic left at the Manor. Mara, wind witch, has already had her bout with black magic. She doesn't want to go through that again.
However, someone isn't going to make it out of the party alive. Is it the lingering black magic or something even worse? Now the town's rumor mill is ramping up. Could the murder be caused by something supernatural? It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities. There's also a revelation in store for the twin detectives. And will David ever come up with a smoothie that's drinkable?
a few notes
cover notes: eye-catching, pretty
keywords/phrases: witchy, magic, good versus evil
mood reading: in the mood for something light and fun
bonus point: locked room
anti-bonus points: the handling of suspects
my review
This book brought in new characters and new mysteries to solve! The coven is struggling to fix the accidental fallout to a spell cast by their new water witch. That witch is new to the coven and new to magic, and she’s inadvertently created a nightly snowfall. And that is a novelty in Georgia. At first, the townspeople delight in it, but it quickly loses its appeal. On top of it, the older witches are trying to make sure the dark magic that infiltrated their town is truly gone. Enter a new resident of Windemere Manor who throws a party… and plays host to a murder.
bonus point
I love a good locked-room mystery! The absence of evidence and/or witnesses, the impossibility of it. The author used it to the story’s advantage, creating several suspects and some surprising twists.
anti-bonus points
Maybe it’s the lawyer’s daughter and true-crime buff in me, but the way the suspects were (or were not) handled seemed odd to me. In reality, those who find the body are almost always suspects. That wasn’t so here. I get that the detectives are friends with them, but it seemed odd that it wasn’t at least acknowledged. Of course, I could be reading far too much into it!
book flights & matchmaking
| Rating Report | |
|---|---|
| plot | |
| characters | |
| writing | |
| pacing | |
| Overall: | |
reading challenges:
Leave a Reply