Review: Murder’s A Witch by Danielle Garrett – Audiobook

Posted April 4, 2019 by Lola in Fantasy, Mystery, Review / 4 Comments

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Murder's a WitchMurder’s a Witch (Beechwood Harbor Magic Mystery #1)
by Danielle Garrett

Narrated by Amanda Ronconi

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Paranormal Cozy Mystery
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: MF

Blurb:
Holly Boldt has a secret.

Well, technically, she has lots of them. After a scandal uproots her entire life, she is forced to relocate to a halfway house for displaced paranormals. It’s her last shot for a fresh start. But keeping secrets isn’t easy in a town that goes through gossip faster than tissue paper, even for a powerful witch.

When a grisly murder rocks the small town of Beechwood Harbor, Holly finds herself unwillingly entangled in the investigation. With everyone watching, Holly must solve the case before she’s forced to abandon her new-found home and live life as a witch on the run. But with a paranormal investigator tailing her every move, a civil war brewing between her vampire and shifter roommates, and her ghostly landlord on the edge of a breakdown, she can barely think in complete sentences. How is she supposed to track down a murderer?

Holly has to make it work, or risk losing everything … again.

Murder’s a Witch is a cozy witch mystery with a spunky twist. Come see what’s brewing in Beechwood Harbor in this first installment of The Beechwood Harbor Magic Mysteries Series.

My Review

Audiobook review

I was determined to finally read an audiobook with another narrator, as all the ones I had listened to so far were narrated by Nicole Poole. I love her style, but I wanted to broaden my audiobook horizons. One of my blogging friends recommended this one. Murder’s Witch is a fun paranormal cozy mystery book. And after a rocky start I found myself quite enjoying it.

Having only listened to one narrator so far I had a bit of trouble getting used to the different style of this narrator. I think this problem will get less when I listen to more audiobooks, but for now it was quite the challenge to get used to a different narrator. I think I also started reading it in the wrong mood. Besides needing to get sued to the narrator, the story wasn’t fully gripping me at first and Nick and Adam both got on my nerves. I struggled through the first few hours, but then suddenly I had a different mood and had listened enough to get used to the narrator, the mystery was in full swing and from then onward I was into the story and had fun listening.

The mystery was quite interesting and I liked how it got resolved. Peg, the owner of the coffee shop where main character Holly works gets murdered and it shakes up the whole town. Holly’s best friend Cassie is the main suspect so ofcourse Holly gets involved to clear her friend. I liked how Holly was such a good friend to Cassie and was there for her. It made sense for Holly to get involved in the mystery and I liked for the most part how she handled it. I also liked how there was a bit of an unique progression the mystery made toward the end and it deviated a bit from most cozy mysteries, which worked here. I wans’t too surprised at the murderer, but the mystery was still a good one. I like how the paranormal aspect was light when it came to the mystery, but the magic did play a role in how she solved it.

Holly was a nice character. I didn’t like her interactions with Nick and Adam at first as she seemed a bit rude to them. But I did appreciate how she changed her behavior when she realizes she was wrong. She is also a great friend to Cassie. And I liked getting a feel for her character and how she’s finally finding a place for herself here in Beechwood Manor. There are some hints about trouble in her past which is the reason why she is here, but we don’t get the details. I think/ hope that will play a role in future books. I also liked Boots (I think that’s how you spell it?), her familiar. He seemed like a typical cat and then there’s the scene he shows his true familiar powers, which was great.

There is hint of possible romance and a love triangle in this book. Both Nick and Adam seem possible love interest and her relationship with both grows quite a bit over the course of this book. I actually disliked both of them at the start of the book, but by the end I had changed my opinion and they seemed nice enough now that they adjusted their attitude’s toward Holly a bit. I don’t have a strong preference for either yet and both seem like they would be a good fit for Holly, but both in a different way.

I liked the paranormal aspect. It was quite present throughout the course of the book, with holly being a witch and the manor being full of paranormal creatures that she interacts with. I liked how it was a part of the book and quite present, but there are also enough non magical scenes. It was blended well into the story. I also liked the fact that Holly was a potion witch, it was quite interesting and not something I see often in books.

It took me some time to get used to the narrator’s style, but by the end of the book I was quite enjoying the narration. I liked how she did Holly’s voice and most of the side characters were well done too. Although I think she did the female voices better than the male ones.

To summarize: While I had some trouble getting into the book at first, as the story progressed I got more into it and had fun listening. The mystery was done well, I especially liked the slightly unique twist at the end as it was different from most cozies. Although I wasn’t too surprised by who the murderer was. I liked Holly as main character and how much she cared about her friend Cassie. I liked how she is finding her place here in Beechwood Harbor. I also liked her familiar Boots. There is a bit of a romance set-up with two potential love interests. I didn’t like Nick or Adam at first, but they grew on me as the story progressed and they grew more likable. The paranormal aspect was well done and nicely balanced with the other elements of the story. I liked the narrator, although it took me some time to get used to her style, which made the start of the book a bit of a struggle. I liked how she did Holly’s voice. I thought she handled the female voices better than the male voices. All in all this was a fun paranormal cozy mystery series and I plan to continue this series.

3 Stars

Links:
Goodreads
Amazon
Audible

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

Do you like reading about witches?

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4 responses to “Review: Murder’s A Witch by Danielle Garrett – Audiobook

  1. I started with the spinoff series, but I do plan to go back for this series with Holly. People who act mean are tough for me to care one way or the other about, too. Glad that all settled down. I’m not keen on the love triangle, but if it stays background and doesn’t get up to too much drama, I can deal with it.
    Haha, I know what you mean about taking a bit to adjust to narration styles. I happen to like Amanda Ronconi, but there are a few that I’ve never adjusted to no matter how long I try. 🙂

    Hope the rest of the series goes better now that the early troubles and adjustment to the narrator are past you. 🙂
    Sophia Rose recently posted…Review: Consumed by J.R. WardMy Profile

    • I saw that the spin-off series just launched, I plan to get to that after I finish this series. I wans’t too happy with how mean they acted to one another at first, but their behavior changes and they all became more likable after that. I am not a fan of the love triangle, but we’ll see how that develops.

      I ended up liking her style, but as I mostly was used to only one narrator when I picked this one up I had some trouble adjusting to another narrator. I am doing a bit better now that I listed to a few different narrators, although a new one can still take me some time to adjust too.

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