Book 21, 2019

[chez_jae]

Death's a Witch (A Paranormal Cozy Mystery): The Mystic Shallows Book 1 by Sabrina Sams

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Stayed up a tad bit late again last night to finish Death's a Witch by Sabrina Sams. It's the first in the author's "Mystic Shallows" paranormal mystery series, featuring young witch, Victoria...did we ever learn her last name? Huh.

After Victoria's mother died, it's just her and her father. On the eve of her 18th birthday, Victoria is set to join her father's coven. There, she learns that her father has become engaged to a woman whom Victoria doesn't care for. She also can't help but think there's something off with the coven meeting. The magic seems dark to her. Victoria refuses to join the coven, causing her father to disown her.

Flash forward a few years. Victoria now runs her mother's old herbal apothecary, but when she finds out her father intends to destroy the building, she goes to confront him. They get into an argument, and shortly thereafter, her father falls into a coma. His new wife, Ann, along with her daughter, Alice, accuse Victoria of poisoning him, and since she had access to the herbs, she's now suspect number one. Victoria intends to prove her innocence and save her father's life. She has help in the form of her bff, Red, her familiar, Calypso, and a forensic scientist named Jenson. Victoria gets more help than she bargained for when her mother, whom she believed to be dead, returns.

The stage is now set for a battle between light magic and dark, and for Victoria, everything hangs in the balance.

Sigh. The concept was interesting, but the plot lacked cohesion. Characters were two-dimensional, and there was an annoying repetitiveness of certain word usage.

- How did Victoria's father go from a loving person to a hate-filled ogre?
- Her mother's reasoning for faking her own death and then disappearing would have made more sense, had she not left Victoria behind. Who does that?!
- Her mother got angry and mean-spirited when Victoria refused to join up with HER coven. WTF?
- Same with Calypso, who took human form and tried to convince Victoria she was needed with her mother's coven. She also proceeded to get ugly-angry when Victoria refused. And these are the "light" witches?!
- Red's real name was Renee, which is fine..for a girl! But, he was a guy. Should have been "Rene". I can live with that, but then it's revealed (late in the book) that his last name is Red?! Really?
- The climactic showdown with the wicked witch was...anti-climactic. It was easy; too easy.
- Jenson was asked to join the police force, and weeks later he's in uniform. Uh, one would think he'd need some training to transition from forensics to actual police work, but maybe that's just me.

Too many questions, not enough answers.

Favorite line: "It's hard to turn a good man evil, but men are weak."

Eh, two stars.