Carole´s Monday: Murderer´s a witch

Author: Danielle Garrett

Title: Murder's a Witch

Series: Beechwood Harbor Magic Mystery #1

Genre: Cozy mystery, Paranormal

Format: ebook

Pages: 332

Published: August 9, 2016

Where I got It: Kindle Unlimited

Summary: 

I’m a witch with a problem. Okay, make that lots of problems.

Following a slight misunderstanding with magical law enforcement, I wind up expelled from the hidden supernatural community known as the Seattle Haven. My parole office dumps me in a tiny beach town with nothing but my collection of worldly possessions and a warning that this is my last shot.

I don’t think I’m cut out for the human world, but when stuck between a prison cell and a haunted halfway house, I suppose I’ll take option B.

Things start out better than expected, I even manage to make a few friends, but when my boss at the local coffee house is found dead in an alley, I get tangled up in the investigation, and might have to blow my cover to prove my friend’s innocence.

Add to that a fussy ghost landlady, warring vampire and shifter roommates, and my rapidly dwindling savings, and I’m beginning to wonder if I might have been better off serving that prison sentence after all.

It’s too late now. I’m in the thick of it and come hex or high water, I’ll get to the bottom of this murder, even if it means permanent banishment from the magical world.

Review:

Been meaning to read more by this author, especially since I finished a different series. I picked up this one. I believe the two are in the same world. I could be wrong. My poor brain can't remember anything lately. 

Here we follow Holly, who has landed in this small town. This is her last chance to reform. She is determined to find happiness and be done. She likes this town and some of the people. Things seem to have found a lovely pace until her grumpy boss is found murdered and her bestie is accused. She will need to figure out the truth! On top of this murder mystery, she has to keep a snoopy PI away from her home and figure out if the flirty shifter is actually interested or playing games. Lots to do. Not a lot of time to do it. 

Oh no.

Eeeek!

I'll just spit it out!

I wasn't a fan of this one. *hides*

Holly was meh. 

The shifter was annoying. 

I did like some of the side characters, like Cass. And some of the banter was cute. 

There is a whiff of a love triangle, and I don't care for any of the angles of the triangle. Meh.

The mystery really wasn't a mystery. Either the cops in this town don't care, or they flat out suck. C'mon. 

I did hold on and finished it because I had hope in my heart, but alas...the hope was let down.

Eeee. Maybe I'll try book 2 because I do like this author a lot. Sighs.

I'll give this 2 stars JUST because some of the side characters and the town. Some cute banter can be found in this tale. 

Audio: I love you like it's 1999

By: A. J. Pine

Narrated by: Helen Laser, J.F. Harding

Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins

Release date: 08-21-25

Publisher: Audible Originals

Categories: Romance

Kendra is 40+ and suddenly finds herself in 1999 and being 19 again. Luckily for her someone spots her in Block Buster and realises that she is a fellow time traveller. See Jordan, also 40+, is 20 now and the thing is it is always -99, he has been there for quite some time and the year never changes, things never move forward. Life sort of just goes on in a longer time loop.

But how are they in -99? Kendra wants back home, Jordan is settled. And romance blossoms between them.

They both have things to learn.

I liked it. I wanted to know how they got there and if they could get back home? Or was it limbo? Were they dead? Maybe not since it is a romance.

Good narration too

Kate Kendrick is having an epically bad day when a glowing Blockbuster catches her eye on the commute home. She could have sworn there was an abandoned building there just yesterday, and didn't Blockbuster go out of business years ago? Curiosity piqued, she steps inside the bustling store and whoosh! She's transported back to the year 1999 with no idea how to get back to her old life.

Jordan Dale works at the One Hour Photo Processing Shop next to Blockbuster, and he can't believe it when their paths cross. A time traveler himself, he's been living in the '90s for a while now, and this is the first time he's met anyone else from the future he's been all too happy to escape. As he helps Kate adjust to their new reality, sparks fly. Trouble is, Kate desperately wants to go back to her time while Jordan wants to stay. Will they find their happily ever after in the past or the present, and what if the choice isn't theirs to make?

An offer of marriage by Amy D'Orazio

By: Amy D'Orazio

Narrated by: Elizabeth Grace

Series: The Engaged to Mr Darcy Series

Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins

Release date: 09-24-25

Publisher: Quills & Quartos Publishing

Pride and prejudice variation/audible

Another PP variation, yes please!

Darcy thinks Lizzy accepted him and he is over the moon. But at Rosings things happen, Anne is a monster in this one! Damn she is mad. So Darcy takes Lizzy to London to get away. And she has not told him yet. And there is not really time for it as more and more learn that they are engaged. Also, isnt he kind of nice! The more she learns the harder she falls.

But the drama! Ack the drama, well all know things can not last. So we are left with a mad Anne, a upset Darcy and Lizzy just trying.

Danger too. I wanted to scream at them. Wake up!!

I really like this one. They have to fight for it.

Great narration too

A finer punishment does not exist than if I were to accept him. Elizabeth Bennet—shocked, dismayed, and emotional following Mr Darcy’s offensive proposal in Hunsford parsonage—makes a flippant remark to her friend Charlotte Collins. She observes that, given Mr Darcy’s disdain for her family, accepting him would be the worst punishment imaginable for him, for then he would be forever connected to the very people he so despised. She speaks in jest…but Mrs Collins fears she might be serious.

Mr Darcy leaves Hunsford parsonage following his proposal feeling a measure of joy at his beloved’s acceptance of his proposal. Alas, his news is received less than joyously at Rosings Park and he fears Elizabeth might be in some danger. With the help of his cousin, he hurries her out of Kent and to the safety of her relations in London.

Caught in a grave misunderstanding, whereby Mr Darcy thinks she has accepted him, Elizabeth soon finds that Mr Darcy is a vastly different man than she had previously understood him to be. A man that she likes…a man that she might perhaps come to love.

As the days of happy courtship pass in London, the secret of how she really felt the night of his proposal lingers. When the truth comes out, Mr Darcy feels he has been made an object of ridicule, and Elizabeth fears she might have lost him for good.

Audio. Cocktails and chloroform by Kelley Armstrong

Narrated by: Kate Handford

Series: Book 2.5, A Rip Through Time Novella Duo

Release date: 10-21-24

Length:3 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher: K.L.A. Fricke Inc

Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense /Own

I had to check out the novellas too. I also kind of felt it worked well on its own. Yes I have read the two previous books, but there was a nice explanation. But obviously you should start at book 1 because it is so good.

This one takes place under one night as Mallory spies on Alice, the young maid as she disappears into the night and Mallory is sure something is wrong. And then she has a whole adventure as something really sinister is going on.

Drama and danger promised.

But, you call Molotov cocktails Russian?!! Excuse me, we named them after a Russian to kill  Russians with them. Because he was an ass. The end.

A short listen too! I love those

For modern-day detective Mallory Atkinson, being trapped in the body of a Victorian housemaid means overcoming endless obstacles. Her current challenge is winning over the suspicious young parlormaid, Alice. Mallory’s plan starts with teaching the girl to make Molotov cocktails, which is a perfectly valid science experiment and not at all a desperate ploy to gain Alice’s attention. Before the lesson can begin, though, Alice receives a letter that has her slipping off in the night. Concerned for her safety—and naturally curious—Mallory follows.

Mallory finds Alice at what seems like a simple dance hall, watching young men and women flirting and whirling in pretty dresses and dapper suit-coats. But nothing here is what is seems, and what starts as a simple surveillance exercise turns into a full-scale spy mission with Mallory’s boss, Dr. Duncan Gray, at her side. Before the evening is done, those Molotov cocktails are probably going to come in handy.