Book 9, 2019

[chez_jae]

The Case of the Power Spell by Amorette Anderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I stayed up fifteen minutes past bedtime last night to finish my current book, The Case of the Power Spell, by Amorette Anderson. It's billed as the first book in the "Hillcrest Witch" mystery series, but apparently there's a prequel that I had not yet read. Am annoyed about that. The story features main character Penny Banks, along with her friends and fellow wannabe-witches Cora, Annie, and Marley. There was also Penny's boyfriend, Chris, and her cat, Turkey. She's a fledgling private investigator and knitting enthusiast.

Penny and her friends are studying to become witches, based on the teachings of a book that was given to Penny (in the prequel, grr). They have been tasked with guarding the portal between worlds that is just outside of their small hometown of Hillcrest. Now that Penny is studying witchcraft, she can communicate telepathically with her cat. Turkey was a fun character, in and of himself. Her PI business isn't going so well, until the mayor hires her to keep an eye on his wife. It seems that Melanie had booked a one-way ticket to Hawaii, that she never used, and now she's been crying non-stop for two weeks. Penny takes the case, and she wonders if Melanie's malcontent stems from the fact that an employee of her husband's restaurant was found dead in their walk-in freezer. However, the more Penny delves into her case, the more she begins to speculate that Joe's death was no accident.

In the meantime, her relationship with Chris is becoming strained. He broke her heart once before, and Penny is afraid of going all-in with him again. She still has bills to pay, which is why she takes on a sideline job of dogsitting a hyper Chihuahua named Blueberry Muffin. Factor in the sexy vampire in town, along with Penny's enemy Azure, who is an accomplished witch (and bitch!), and it's no wonder Penny is being pulled in so many different directions.

The story was cute and lively. Characters could have been fleshed out a bit better. It pained me that the author indicates that Turkey is a male cat, and calico. While male calicos are not unheard of, they are extremely rare, and it just sort of...threw me.

Favorite line: Though my fridge certainly isn't packed with fruits and veggies, at least I bought bananas. Go me!

Fun story, and a good, light read. However, there was nothing remarkable about it, which earns it an average score.