Book 18, 2019

[chez_jae]

Basic Witch: Witches of Salem by Harmony Hart

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Last night, I finished reading Basic Witch by Harmony Hart. It's the first book in the "Gemma Bradbury" magical mysteries series.

Gemma's life takes a turn for the weird when she accidentally stumbles from Salem, Oregon, into a magical Salem, which is populated by paranormals. As if that wasn't unsettling enough, Gemma also stumbles (literally) over a dead body. She learns she's a witch, and that she is now stuck in Salem forever. Things aren't all bad, however. Her cat can now talk to her, the men in town are all drop-dead gorgeous, and she makes friends with a real fairy princess.

The magical Coven assigns Gemma a tutor to teach her to wield her magic. Professor Beauregard Bacchus seems to be the dreamiest of the available men. The bad news is, the Coven also insists she run the magical shop of the dead man, as well as live in his apartment above the shop. That puts Gemma squarely on top of the list of suspects who may have murdered the man. Now she has to pass a wand exam, learn how to assimilate in a magical town, and find out who really killed her predecessor before she ends up in jail.

I enjoyed the story; it was light and fun, if not altogether original. Characters weren't as three-dimensional as I'd like, but Gemma was plucky and engaging. My largest complaint is that some "pages" (this was an ebook) seemed to be missing. I would tap my screen to turn the page, only to get a blank screen! I know I missed some important information, and that made me terribly unhappy.

Favorite lines:
♦ He probably dropped dead from the sheer frustration of living.
♦ "Can werewolves smell fear? Asking for a friend."
♦ "...you'll be granted a license to purchase a full-power wand, which, as I said before, the Coven will reimburse you for. There is the background check and three-day waiting period, unless of course we happen to have a wand show in town. In that case, you can bypass the background check entirely."
I loved the tongue-in-cheek sarcasm of this line!
♦ I didn't even want to think about a world without Hogwarts.
♦ "Every single woman in Salem wants to ride that man's broomstick."

Very amusing story, and I liked it a lot, However, what would have gotten a solid four stars is only getting three, due to the egregious formatting errors. Hmpf.