Review: Love, Lies and Hocus Pocus: Beginnings by Lydia Sherrer – Audiobook

Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Beginnings (The Lily Singer Adventures #1)
by Lydia Sherrer
Narrated by Amy McFadden

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: MF

Blurb:
Saving the world is such a bother when it makes you late for tea.

Wizard Lily Singer is kept busy managing library archives, studying magic, and trying to keep her witch friend Sebastian from dragging her into trouble. Unfortunately, he loves adventure even more than she loves being left alone.

She doesn’t want to investigate a malignant spell in a haunted house, but Sebastian is promising rare books as the reward. She also doesn’t want to hurt her family but is tired of being lied to about her past. And she definitely doesn’t want to get stuck in a dangerously unstable time loop, but Sebastian is in trouble – again….

Strangling her friend, as satisfying as it would be, won’t fix her problems. If she wants answers and to not miss tea, she had best find the right spell for the job – before everything goes to hell and takes them all with it.

My Review

Audiobook review

A few years ago I read this book and immediately feel in love with this series. Now this series is 5 books long already, I recently read book 5 and when the audiobook was released I couldn’t resists going back for a re-read. And I am so glad I did as I really enjoyed the audiobook version too.

I loved listening to the audiobook version of this story. I got pulled into the story immediately and the narrator was perfect for this story. I hadn’t realized how many details I had forgotten already and it was great to see how Lily’s adventures started and so many mentions that made me think of what’s coming next and how Lily doesn’t see any of it coming yet in this book. With everything that’s happening in this series it was wonderful to go back were it all started.

Lily is a great character, this time around I did notice how she could be a bit judging and strict at times, but I think her flaws just add to her character. And no matter how much she complains about Sebastian dragging her into adventures, it’s clear she loves the thrill of the adventure. And there are these scenes when it’s clear how much she cares about Sebastian, even tough she doesn’t admit it yet. Sebastian is also great and I like the interlude from his point of view. I had totally forgotten all about some of the side characters, like Pearl, so it was great to re-read it and get reminded about everything that happened.

I also was surprised at how small a role Sir Kipling played in this story, which totally makes sense as given certain events he only gets more involved since book 2. But as he’s such a big part of later books it was almost weird to not see him as much in this book. And I can’t wait to hear how the narrator will do his voice in book 2.

I also liked seeing how Lily is still so new to magic in this book in a sense or maybe a better way to put it is that she grows a lot when it comes to magic throughout the series. And it’s just exciting to be see again how it all started and it also makes me realize even more how much everyone changes throughout the series.

I think the narrator did a fabulous job with this book. Her style fit this book perfectly and it just meshed well with the story. It took me no time at all to get used to her narration style. I liked how she did Lily’s voice, it was so spot on for her. And she does some great southerns accents in the book a few times as well. I also liked how she brought Sebastian’s personality across. And all the characters had different voices. I also liked how much emotion she brought to the book, not that it’s a very emotional book, but there were a few scenes that felt more emotional now with the way she narrated it than in the ebook. She really brought part of the characters personality and feelings across in how they sounded and that’s something I love about audiobooks when done well.

To summarize: Whether you pick up this series in audiobook or not, you’re in for a treat. I was delighted to be able to re-read this book in audio format. It’s such a great series and the narrator really brought Lily, Sebastian and the side character to live. It took me no time at all to get used to the narrator’s style and I think her style worked perfect for this book. Her Lily voice is spot on and she does a great southern accent too. It also was a lot of fun for me to re0read this book and get reminded again of how it all started and it made me realize even more how much everyone grows and changes throughout the series so far. I liked experiencing these early adventures again. All in all I can’t wait to listen to the rest of the books in audiobook too and will keep an eye out for those.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Amazon
– Audible

You can also read my review on Goodreads.

What’s a narrator who does great accents in your opinion?