Lilly is up to her nose in trouble when a student from the San Fransisco School of Fine Arts enters her store asking for a talisman to remove a ghost in the bell tower. Curious, Lilly and Maya visit the school to investigate and are promised a closet full of old vintage clothes. Beside old clothes, they also find a fresh murdered corspe. The students are convinced the ghost is to blame, but Lilly is sure the murderer is of the human persuasion. However what she discovers is much much worse.
This was a really good installment, and the ending left me hungry for more. It seems the author was nice enough to leave us with a little cliffhanger.
I don't know the exact defintion of a "cozy mystery," but this might qualify for one -- with a little Wiccan magick thrown in to set it apart from others of the same genre. Don't be thrown by the cartoony artwork on the cover... It's got a "little" more depth than the cover might imply, but you're not going to get bogged down in a heavy read.
I like the author's writing style -- clever without being cutesy -- and the characters are likeable.
I've already put the third one in the series on my wishlist. Thumbs up.
A Cast-Off Coven by Juliet Blackwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
If you have read any of my previous reviews, you might already have figured out that Juliet Blackwell is one of my favorite authors. Not only do I love her books, but I think she is a pretty cool person too, as I follow her on Facebook and hear about the new books as she is writing and they are published. It is alot of fun to be able to keep up with your favorite authors!
This is the Vintage clothing, witch series and this particular book happens to be the second in the series, with the book Secondhand Spirits being the first book.
I really enjoy Lily Ivory, the title character. She is a little afraid of people and making friendships, and her history is hinted at each time she explains that. Not much is told, that he father left when she was a toddler, her mother couldn't cope with a child that was a witch and so her "grandmother" rasied her and tried to teach her about her magik. Now weather Graciela is actually her grandmother by blood or not, I am still not sure about, she kinda hints that she might not be, but Graciela also raised her father before her, so she is counted as a relative. Little is really told about her past, although I am finding that with each book, we find just a hint or two more about her.
Lily has only been in San Fransico for a few months, and she was drawn into a child abduction and a murder in the first book withing weeks of being in town. Now it seems like the local Art College is having a problem with a ghost that is scaring the students, and since one of those students is Maya, who works for Lily, she gets involved in finding out what is going on. The day they decide to visit the school, they don't find any ghosts, but a murder and once again Lily is sucked in and the local police are none too happy.
Lily is still investigation a relationship with Max, and weather there is any chance of one occuring or not, especially since he believes that witchcraft is a bunch of hooey and Lily is a witch. They continue to dance around each other and try to figure out what to do, until Max's family gets drawn into this particular event because his younger brother is a profressor at the Art School where Lily is investigating the haunting or rather what turns out to be more serious and scary, a demon on the lose. Max doesn't want to believe any of it, and yet it is right there in front of his faced, but he thinks he can solve everything with science, and this is going to take alot for him to figure out in his mind. He may never be able to deal with it and there goes a relationship out the window.
I really enjoyed this series, and continue to look forward to what Juliet puts out in the written word.
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