Book 31, 2025

[chez_jae]

Impurrfect Magic by Paula Lester

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


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Last night I finished an ebook. It was Impurrfect Magic by Paula Lester. It’s the first book in the “Unfamiliar Magic” series of paranormal cozies. The main character is Ivy Patterson.

Ivy has ditched her old life in favor of moving back to her hometown, where she works in her uncle’s produce store. Uncle Vincent is training Ivy to take over the business, with an eye on retiring once she’s ready. Things are going well until Ivy finds her uncle dead in the store. While his death appears from natural causes, Ivy can’t help but wonder. When a black kitten emerges into the shop from a secret, back room, Ivy stumbles upon her uncle’s secret. He’s been running a side-hustle—using his magic to do odd jobs for people. It forces Ivy to confront her painful past—her mother once declared that Ivy’s magic was dark and that she must never use it. However, Vince also had dark magic, and Ivy doesn’t believe he ever used it to cause harm. At the kitten’s unspoken urging, Ivy begins to piece together the last few days of her uncle’s life in an effort to find who may have wanted to kill him...and why.

A fun story. Ivy is likable, as were other characters in her “orbit”. Of course, she encountered some unsavory characters over the course of her investigation, but they were only transient. The kitten, Tabby, had magic of her own, but she was not a talking cat. That was refreshing. The narrative unfolded at a sensible pace, although the majority of it was consumed with Ivy’s sleuthing. There were some minor editing errors, such as one character whose name was alternately spelled either Shye or Skye

Favorite lines:
♦ I changed my jeans because the first pair got too tight in the dryer. I swear it was the dryer.
♦ “Hey, didn’t you die yesterday?”

Enjoyable—four stars.


1. Does the mc work at/as one of the following: baker/bakery/sweet shop/tea shop/coffee shop, library/librarian, antique/vintage shop, book store, fashion/boutique, bed & breakfast? No, she works at a food store
2. Does the mc live at her (or his) place of occupation? No
3. Is the love interest involved in law enforcement? (Police officer, sheriff, detective, PI, FBI) NA (there was no love interest introduced)
4. Does the mc have a dog/cat as a pet? Yes, she has a kitten familiar
5. Is the mc's BFF either a gay guy or a ditzy/zany woman? No
6. Did the mc find the body? Yes
7. Did the mc wind up in mortal danger at the end of the book? Yes
8. Is the mc's mother either: dead, absent, far removed, ditzy and dithering, or overbearing/disapproving/meddling? No
9. If mother is dead/absent, does the mc have another mother-figure (grandmother, aunt, mom's friend, or an older friend)? NA
10. Is the mc child-free? (Either no children or else grown children--i.e. no small children to look after) Yes