Book 18, 2024

Magical Blend by Kennedy Layne

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Juuuuuust before midnight last night, I completed the ebook Magical Blend by Kennedy Layne. It's the first part of her "Paramour Bay" series of cozy, paranormal mysteries. The main character is Raven Marigold, and the story is in her first-person pov.

Having inherited her grandmother's tea shop and cottage in Paramour Bay, Raven packs up and moves there, at least temporarily. The will stipulated she needed to live in Paramour Bay for twelve months before she could sell either the shop or the cottage. Raven's BFF, Heidi, accompanies her to help her get settled, and it's Heidi who discovers a dead guy in the back of the tea shop. Compounding Raven's confusion and stress is the talking cat, who tells her she's a witch, just like her Nan and her mother. Raven learns her mother tried to keep her magical heritage from her, but now it just may come in useful as she tries to figure out who committed murder in her new, quaint little town.

I enjoyed this story, but I swear I double-checked who wrote it, because it seemed like something straight out of a Mara Webb book:

-Young woman uproots and moves/returns to small town
-Finds out she's a witch
-Is thrust into an immediate murder investigation
-Feline familiar that can talk

Is there a hard and fast rule that cozy witch mysteries must follow this formula? Moving on. Raven is likable, as are most of the characters. Of course, there's the neighborhood witch (as in, her personality, not her abilities), and Raven's mother needed a backhand for trying to order her adult daughter to leave Paramour Bay immediately and return home. There wasn't much investigating going on. Raven would occasionally be convinced that this character or that one did the deed and run to Sheriff McDreamy with her theory. Um, that wasn't his name, but this being a cozy mystery, of course he was handsome and dreamy. Yawn. Two things aggravated me: ( Spoilers! )

Favorite lines:
♦ "It wasn't like you killed Fake Larry."
♦ I didn't have the heart to tell her that I'd left the keys in the door. It was better for her not to know and die thinking we stood half a chance of survival.
♦ "You are not Daphne, Ted is not Fred, and I am certainly not Scooby Doo."

Despite the drawbacks, I did find the story delightful. Four stars.