Where There's a Witch by Madelyn Alt

Where There's a Witch by Madelyn Alt


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Overall, I really like this series a lot. There were some really good things happening in this particular installment, especially in the romance department. If there's one thing I hate about the Stephanie Plum series, it's that Stephanie doesn't progress with either of the men in her life. I find that so irritating, that I no longer look forward to reading the series. However, I'm pleased to see that this series isn't following that same pattern. It appears as though Maggie is making a little more headway in her love life and I'm glad to see it. I can only take so much waffling between men before I lose sympathy for your situation.

The biggest negative? It has to be the clues for the reveal and how the main characters never seem to figure things out until it's too late. I figured out who did the crime long before all of the clues made sense. But, they made sense to me a LONG time before they made sense to the characters, which I found a little disappointing. However, I did enjoy the ending a lot more than I thought I would. So, even though the main characters seemed a little dense at times, I felt more than satisfied with how it all went down. I look forward to reading more in this series and I hope the author continues to let Maggie's love life develop. :)

Don of the Dead by Casey Daniels

Number 69: Don of the Dead by Casey Daniels

I do believe this is the first in a new series featuring Pepper Martin. Publisher's Weekly described it as a cozy mystery mixed with a bit of paranormal romance, which seems fitting enough for me. Basically, Pepper hits her head on a mausoleum and begins seeing the ghost of Gus Scarpetti, a Mob boss that was murdered 30 years ago. He asks Pepper to solve the crime and she agrees to help the spirit. (Ugh. Great! Now I have that Fall Out Boy song stuck in my head. "Lie in the grass next to the mausoleum/I'm just a notch in your bedpost but you're just a line in a song". Honestly, how many songs have the word mausoleum in them?)

Okay, here's my one big issue with the book. We are introduced to a character, Dan the brain man, and we NEVER learn anything important about him. We learn he has a serious lack of fashion sense and that he's fascinated with Pepper's brain, but not why he's so interested in Pepper or what he's doing in the story. I hope that he is in the next installment and that we learn a little more about him and why he's so fascinated with Pepper. He seems interesting, but I don't like how little we know of him given how often he is involved in the story. That just irritated me, especially when I got to the last page and found the set up for the next book without the kind of resolution I was looking for. I really wanted the author to explain him in more detail before ending the book, but I did not get my wish.

Overall, though, I liked it a lot. I've become a big fan of cozy mysteries recently and I love trying out a new series. I'm very adventurous in my reading tastes, even if that sense of adventure doesn't carry over into my real life. :) The premise intrigues me and I'm looking forward to reading more about Pepper in the future. Generally speaking, I find the first book in a new cozy series to be the weakest and I hope that book 2 will be even better than this one.