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Book Review: Sleigh Spells, by Bella Falls

I borrowed an auido copy of Bella FallsSleigh Spells through Hoopla (narrated by Johanna Parker) . I listened to it as part of my Christmas Reading Challenge.

sleigh spells audiobook

Have yourself a very Merry Witchmas in Holiday Haven, where the magic and mystery of Christmas is snow joke!

Aurora Hart hates everything Christmas, but how could she turn down the opportunity to serve one year of probation in Holiday Haven versus a full sentence for her crimes? Saddled with a talking squirrel roommate, Aurora is doing her best to keep a low profile as she bides her time. Everything is going fine…until Santa’s sleigh gets stolen.

Now, all eyes are on her and the other town Humbugs, and it’s up to Aurora to keep her behind from ending up back in jail. With the help of a very important person from the North Pole, she finds herself hot on the trail of the real culprit. But it will take her having to do something she’s never done before—accepting new friends and their assistance. Only then will Aurora be able to turn not only her own life around but also Christmas for the entire world!

Will Aurora be able to solve the mystery of who stole Santa’s sleigh in time? Or will the culprit get the final sleigh?

 my review

You know all of those Christmas cartoons we watched on TV every year as a kid? This book is like those, but with jobs, drinking, and flirting grown ups. It’s utterly ridiculous— with elves, yetis, trolls, paranormals, and talking squirrels all living in the north pole and assisting Mrs. Clause find Santa’s missing sleigh. Somehow, though, it manages not to feel eye-roll worthy and is still somehow amusing. The villain is absolutely obvious (and fairly cliched). So, the mystery isn’t the point. The characters are sweet (though I didn’t feel I got to know them particularly deeply) and I had a good time spending a little time with them.

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Other Reviews:

Sleigh Spells by Bella Falls

Sleigh Spells

Come back tomorrow. I’ll be reviewing A Christmas Date, by Camilla Isley.

Murder in the Locked Library

Book Review of Murder in the Locked Library (Book Retreat Mysteries #4), by Ellery Adams

I won a paperback copy of Ellery AdamsMurder in the Locked Library through Goodreads.

Description:

Welcome to Storyton Hall, Virginia, where book lovers travel from near and far to enjoy the singular comforts of the Agatha Christie Tea Room, where they can discuss the merits of their favorite authors no matter how deadly the topic . . . 

With her twins, Fitzgerald and Hemingway, back in school, Jane Steward can finally focus on her work again—managing Storyton Hall, and breaking ground on the resort’s latest attraction: a luxurious, relaxing spa named in honor of Walt Whitman. But when the earth is dug up to start laying the spa’s foundation, something else comes to the surface—a collection of unusual bones and the ragged remnants of a very old book. The attendees of the Rare Book Conference are eager to assist Jane with this unexpected historical mystery—until a visitor meets an untimely end in the Henry James Library. As the questions—and suspects—start stacking up, Jane will have to uncover a killer before more unhappy endings ensue . . .

Review:

A book-themed murder mystery, heck yeah, I expected to love this. But honestly I just didn’t. It wasn’t bad, but I also wasn’t impressed. Jane is supposed to be the guardian of a trove of dangerous books and the leader of a secret society, complete with martial guards and lifelong legacies, etc. But I never felt the gravitas of it AT ALL. This is very much a cozy mystery and that just doesn’t fit what the author was trying to create. 

What’s more, there are A LOT of descriptions. In fact, I think if you took all the superfluous descriptions out, this would be about a 60 page book. Not a lot actually happens. And honestly, since so many of the descriptions are about book-themed decorations, or cakes, or food, it all just eventually felt like author wish fulfillment. I’m very much a bibliophile, but eventually it started to just feel pretentious. These descriptions did a lot more to stall the plot, than progress it, in my opinion. 

It is also one of those mysteries where the characters spend 75% of the book trying to solve it, and then the villain does something drastic and gives themselves away (with a bit of monologuing along the way), such that the heroine doesn’t actually solve the mystery. It solves itself. 

This is book four in a series. So, I’m guessing some people must like this style of story telling a lot more than me. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a whole series. This one is readable, even if you haven’t read the first three (like me). You feel the lack of those first books, a few things aren’t explained (such as what exactly a Fin is), but you figure them out. And there is a subplot about a missing boyfriend that is obviously a carryover from a previous book and lead-in to a next. But none of it prevents you understanding the events of this one. 

It’s not all bad. I did like the characters and the writing is perfectly readable. I think it’s just a little too Dan Brown meets Mrs. Marple for my tastes.

Wisteria Witches

Book Review of Wisteria Witches, by Angela Pepper

I received an Audible credit from Angela Pepper to get the box set of the first three Wisteria Witches books. However, I’m choosing to review only the first here on the blog.

Description from Goodreads:

Zara Riddle moves to the town of Wisteria for a dream job as a librarian. She hasn’t even unpacked her moving boxes when she and her teen daughter, Zoey, are swept up in a murder mystery.

With all the ghosts and supernatural creatures around (Including a real hunk of a wolf shifter! Meow!) it’s a good thing the Riddle women are tougher than they look. Now, if only they could handle their new witch powers as well as they’ve mastered their sarcastic wit!

Review:

This didn’t work for me. Though, I suspect it is a matter of taste over quality. There are some consistency issues, people knowing things they haven’t been told and such, and I thought the dialogue got too formal at times (especially considering how informal Zara is in general). But for the most part what bothered me wasn’t a matter of the book being bad, but of it being everything I dislike. 

I found Zara intensely annoying! Yes, I see that we’re supposed to think her Gilmore Girl cute. But I found her endless blather like nails on a chalkboard, all her constant media references trite, and her naiveté insincere. I felt like even the author thought her immature, often excusing the things she says by calling them juvenile, long-standing jokes between her and her daughter. The book falls short of calling anyone a poopy-head, but not by much, and only because it’s so committed to “ding-dong.” 

Calling Zara and her crew Mary-Sues would be an understatement. On the upside, the book is 100% clean, not even a curse word is uttered. On the downside, it means the book lacks any sort of grit. So much so that there is barely any tension. I was just this side of bored for all of it.

Plus, the book takes a long time to pick up any kind of speed, spending far too much time on dinners and descriptions. (Hope you like adjectives.) Then, once it does, the mystery essentially solves itself off-page, leaving the reader out of the action. 

Lastly, I disliked Tiffany Williams’ narration style. It fit the book really well, actually. And again, the quality is fine. But the places she emphasizes words and her tone, etc, just highlights the overly-sensitive, overtly clean aspect of the book, making all my annoyances stand out even more. 

Please don’t take the last few paragraphs as my having an issue with clean stories. I just don’t know a better way to describe the feel of it, like it’s been scrubbed of anything interesting and real. I guess that’s my base issue, why people complain about Mary-Sues in general, they don’t feel real. They’re too idealized to relate to and thus feel fake. 

I actually have the audio box set of the first three books. I went into them with really high hopes. I’m all about cozy paranormal mysteries right now, and the main character even has my same name. When you’re named Zarah, that’s not something you encounter often. I will challenge myself to give the next book a try. Maybe with the world-building done, the next book will be better for me. I was disappointed with this. But I can 100% see all the things that irritated me, so being exactly what another reader will love. To each their own.