Review: Spells and Subterfuge by Beth Dolgner

Spells and Subterfuge (Crones of a Feather #1)
by Beth Dolgner

My Rating: 4 stars

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

Blurb:
A reluctant witch, a haunted funeral home, and a dead body. Welcome home, Hazel.

Hazel Underwood has returned to her magical hometown of Foxfire Haven, Washington, with her tail between her legs.

A metaphorical tail, of course. Witches don’t have tails.

While renovating the old funeral home she inherited from her uncle, Hazel stumbles on a dead body stashed underneath the hearse. Who wanted the delivery-truck driver dead, and how did he wind up in Hazel’s garage? Chief Constable Hightower thinks Hazel might have killed Steve with her magic, and she’s determined to prove the handsome old curmudgeon wrong.

Suspects range from a beautiful vampire with a passion for potions to the garden store gnome, but as Hazel closes in on solving the murder, she learns there’s another mystery to unravel. What happened to Hazel’s uncle in his final years to turn him into an obsessed treasure-hunter? And does his story tie into Steve’s murder?

Hazel will have to team up with her witchy new roommates to catch a killer, stand up to judgmental small-town locals, and get her magic back on track. Who knew midlife could be so complicated?

The Crones of a Feather paranormal cozy mystery series is about starting over at midlife, magic, and building a sisterhood with strong, inspiring women. Practical Magic meets The Golden Girls in this fun, lighthearted series.

My Review

I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

I really enjoyed this author’s Nightmare, Arizona series and I was excited to hear about this new series she’s writing and jumped on the chance to read and review it. I started it shortly after receiving it as I was excited to start this new series. Spell and Subterfuge follows Hazel as she returns to her magical hometown. The book starts after she’s been back for a little bit and she’s searching for roommates to help her pay the rent of the old funeral home she inherited.

I have to admit it took me some time to get into this book, but that makes sense given that’s it’s the first book in a new series. This first book does have a very introductory feel and it took some time to get a feel for the town and the characters and start to remember who was who as the book progresses. The further I got the more I enjoyed it and got more into the story. I like this introduction to this series and am excited to see were it goes next and reading the next books as that means I get to see more of this town and the characters will start becoming more familiar.

The mystery didn’t grip me as much, but I think that’s because there’s a lot going with this being the first book and it took some attention to remember who was who and how they were connected with the mystery as well as all the side characters this book introduces you to. I did like how hazel got involved and how she figured out what business she wanted to start as she learns more about the dead guy Steve. I did enjoy seeing the mystery play out and find out who had done it and why.

Hazel is a witch and she meets other witches as well as other paranormal species in this magical town. I liked how the magical element was part of the world as well as the mystery. Hazel is slowly getting back in the habit of using her magic and I liked learning a bit about how her magic worked and what being a witch entails in this world. I look forward to learning more about that in future books.

I think my favorite part so far is seeing Hazel slowly collect her coven around her, she finds her roommates throughout the book and I liked getting to know them and see them form a coven together and be there for each other. They are a fun to read about and I look forward to getting to know more about them.

To summarize: I enjoyed this first book in a new series. This first book does have a very introductory vibe as it sets the stage for the series and introduces the town and characters. It took me some effort to remember who was who, but I enjoyed getting to know the characters and town. I look forward to future books in the series and exploring everything more. I liked reading about Hazel and the 3 roommates she finds throughout the book and how they form a coven. And I liked learning about the magic and supernatural creatures in this book and a bit about how it all worked. All in all this is a promising start to a new series and I am excited to see what happens next.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.