Review: Stitches and Witches by Nancy Warren

Stitches and Witches (Vampire Knitting Club #2)
by Nancy Warren
Narrated by Sarah Zimmerman

My Rating: 4 stars

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

Blurb:
Dropping stitches and catching killers

When an older gentleman keels over in his scones and tea at the Elderflower Tea Shop in Oxford—a victim of poison—Lucy Swift and her band of undead amateur detectives are on the case.

Elderflower Tea Shop is next door to Cardinal Woolsey’s, the yarn shop Lucy runs and home to the late-night Vampire Knitting Club. The tea shop owners are a pair of octogenarian spinsters and old family friends, so Lucy wants to help clear up the mystery that’s keeping their shop closed. But murder isn’t the only issue troubling the Miss Watts. A man has come between them. Miss Florence Watt is being romanced by an old flame, one Mary Watt distrusts.

In between figuring out who, among his many enemies, might have poisoned the unpleasant Colonel Montague, Lucy’s trying to brush up on her magic spells before the Wiccan potluck dinner her witchy cousin insists she attend.

However, she’s still settling into being a witch and since she botched a spell and blew up her kitchen, she’s taking the magic slowly.

Her knitting endeavors aren’t much better. Between purling when she should knit and dropping so many stitches her hand-knit scarf looks like it was attacked by giant moths, there are days Lucy thinks she’ll pack it all in and move back to Boston. She might, except she’d miss her beloved undead grandmother, her new friends, one very sexy vampire and a local detective who is very much alive.

Stitches and Witches is Book 2 in the Vampire Knitting Club series of paranormal cozy mysteries. It is a standalone novel with no sex or gore, just humor, knitting, magic and a touch of romance.

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My Review

While book 1 didn’t fully hook me, when I saw that book 2 was available in audiobook I decided to give the series another try. I am happy to say I enjoyed book 2 a lot more than book 1. Not sure whether it’s because of the audio version or because this book has less introduction than book 1, but I had a great time listening to this book.

Stitches and Witches is the second book in the Vampire Knitting Club Series. When Lucy is over next door in the tea shop to see how the developing romance goes between Florence and an older gentlemen who is new in town, a colonel drops dead after eating and drinking there. Soon she finds herself in the middle of another mystery.

I liked this mystery, it had a bit of a slow start and took a while before the murder took place and even then it took a while before clues became clearer. I liked following Lucy around and she with the help of her vampire friends tired to figure out what had happened. There are some interesting twists and by the end I had the motive sort of right, but was thinking in a completely different direction for the murderer.

Just like the first book the book is pretty light on the paranormal elements. I would like to see a bit more of it, but as I now expected it to not be as big of a part I found myself able to enjoy it more. I liked the scenes where Lucy used her magic or figured something out. There also are some fun scenes with the vampires and I like how they help with the mystery.

I thought Lucy made for a nice main character. There are a few instances like at the end where she doesn’t make the smartest or safest choice, but I liked how she wanted to solve the murder. She’s also quite loyal to her friends and really seems to care about those she considers friends. It was clear how much she struggled with the two Miss Watts being on odds as she liked them both. There also were some interesting scenes with her new shop assistant.

Picking up the audiobook versions for this series was a good idea, something about it made me more immersed in the story and the narrator did a great job with these. I liked her style and voice, although some of the male voices could sound a bit similar. She also did the different accept really well, everything from a Polish, British, Scottish and Australian accent was in this book if I remember them all correctly. I liked hearing the different accent and how the accent was well done, but I could still follow her words easily as well. I liked how she did the different voices and almost every character sounded unique. I’ll be listening to the rest of the series as well.

To summarize: While book 1 didn’t fully pull me in, I am glad I gave book 2 a try in audiobook as I had a great time listening to this one. Now that the introduction to the series is done it was easier to get in the story. The start is a bit slow, but still fun to read, it takes a while for the murder to take place. And even then it takes a bit for clues to start piling up. I enjoyed trying to figure the mystery out and while I was thinking in the right direction for the motive, I guessed the murderer wrong. There were some interesting twists int he mystery. I liked Lucy more in this book. She’s a nice main character who really cares about her friends. I liked how the vampires helped her with the mystery. The paranormal element is quite mild so far in these books, but as long as you know that going in I don’t think it’s an issue. I liked how the narrator handled this book, she did the different voices well and her voice was pleasant to listen to. I also liked how she did the different accents. All in all I had fun listening to this one and will be listening to the rest of the series as well.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– Audible
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads, Bookbub and Amazon.

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