Review: Sparks and Marks by Laura Greenwood and Arizona Tape

Sparks and Marks (Amethyst’s Wand Shop Mysteries #4)
by Laura Greenwood and Arizona Tape

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Paranormal Mystery
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
As if catching murders wasn’t hard enough, now Amy and Ambrose have to work with the Vampire Court to close their case.

When an open and shut case crosses the Paranormal Police Department’s desk, Amy is a little disappointed that her consultant talents aren’t needed.

But after a shocking discovery leads to Amy and Ambrose working closely with a liaison from the Vampire Court, they uncover a conspiracy that stretches far further than they ever imagined.

Can they stop the culprit before there are more bodies?
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Sparks and Marks is book four of Amethyst’s Wand Shop Mysteries, an urban fantasy murder mystery series featuring a quirky witch, a serious detective, a slow burn m/f romantic subplot and a standalone crime.

If you love quirky main characters, the murder of the week format, light-hearted back-and-forth, magic, and murder mystery, start the Amethyst’s Wand Shop Mysteries series today!

My Review

I recently decided I wanted to get back to this series as I remembered I enjoyed the first 3 books and had bought a few more and by now the series is 15 books long. So I picked up Sparks and Marks and struggled through it a bit. It was tough to get back in the series, I hadn’t realized quite how long ago it was since I read book 3. Turns out the last book I read was back in 2022, so it has been a while. The further I got the easier it became as I slowly got back into the series and started to enjoy it more.

Another thing I struggled with is how gruesome these murders can be, luckily not a lot of explicit details, but a lot is implied and the murder in this one was quite horrifying when Amy realizes what happened. This is a stark contrast to the more cozy reads I usually stick to. And I am worried my reading tastes have changed as at least in my current mood I much prefer the cozier books.

Besides that there was plenty I enjoyed. I liked reading about Amy and Ambrose, they make for such a great couple and I like seeing them work together as well as how they are together outside of work. I really like them together and was delighted to read about them as a couple now, I think they only got together in the last book, but don’t fully remember if that’s true.

I also like the paranormal aspect to the murders. This one involves vampires and a vampire even comes to help with the investigation and I eventually realized Lucy is the main character from another series I have yet still to read. So I am excited to get to that one eventually too. There wasn’t a lot of magic they use in solving this crime.

To summarize: I struggled a bit getting back into this series as it turns out I read book 3 back in 2022. It got better the further I got into the book. I also struggled a bit with the more gruesome nature of the murders, a lot of it implied and not shown on page, but these are a lot more gruesome than the cozies I usually read. And in my current mood I rather stick to the cozies. There were parts I did enjoy like seeing Amy and Ambrose as a couple and I really like reading about them and seeing them work together to solve the crime and have some nice time together outside of the crime solving as well. The paranormal elements to the crimes are interesting and this one involved vampires and a cameo appearance of a main character from another series that I still have to read and am excited to pick up.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.