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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While at the school, a man falls--or is pushed--down the bell tower steps on the exact site of a suicide several decades earlier. The natural conclusion drawn by many is that the ghost killed Jerry Becker--a rich big-wig with lots of money invested in the school, as well as a daughter, Andromeda, who attends there. Lily is pretty sure that Becker's killer was human, and since he wasn't well-liked and had lots of money, there are plenty of people with motive. Further investigation leads her to believe there is indeed an evil presence at the school, but not from a ghost--rather, from a demon that someone has summoned.
Along the way, Lily has to deal once again with Aidan Rhodes, a powerful witch who makes her uncomfortable on several levels, and Max Carmichael, a journalist whom she went out with once and who definitely interests her (and vice versa) but who is a bit of an enigma and who finds her whole witchiness very discomfiting. She also encounters several other men who briefly caught Lily's attention as the story progressed.
I enjoyed the book for the most part, although at times I'm not sure if the author is trying to pass Lily off as a witch...I mean, a real witch, or if she's got her living in some type of a paranormal world. I suppose given that she has a goblin familiar who disguises himself as her pet potbellied pig, I really shouldn't take any of it too seriously, right? LOL This should probably be classified as light urban fantasy rather than mystery. There are things that were semi-accurate, though--and some of it just accurate enough to perhaps confuse people who aren't familiar with *actual* witch/Pagan practice and belief.
The one other gripe I have is that the author's propensity to make every man Lily met or came across a potential love interest, however briefly, was really annoying. And of course there are at least a couple of permanent romantic interests to keep Lily pulled in two directions, which is one thing that has put me off many so-called mystery series that started with promise and then devolve into romantic baloney, with the mysteries taking a back seat--no, more like being hogtied in the trunk while the romance and sexual tension steer the series.
The whodunit in this one was sort of a no-brainer. That said, I like the writing style, I like Lily and her shop and her circle of friends for the most part, and Blackwell really is able to provide a wonderful sense of place, making the city of San Francisco one of the main characters in the book. I also love Oscar to pieces! LOL I'll give the series one more read, and if the next book is obviously continuing down the romance road, as much as I like the other parts of the book, I'll probably stop there.
