Header image with four cats and the text: Pussreboots, a book review nearly every day. Online since 1997
Now 2025 Previous Articles Road Essays Road Reviews Author Black Authors Title Source Age Genre Series Format Inclusivity LGBTA+ Art Portfolio Purchase Art WIP

Recent posts


Month in review

Reviews
Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust by Mindy Quigley and Holly Adams (Narrator)
Cloche and Dagger by Jenn McKinlay and Karyn O'Bryant (Narrator)
Come Shell or High Water by Molly MacRae and Callie Beaulieu (Narrator)
Coyote Lost and Found by Dan Gemeinhart
Emily Windsnap and the Monster from the Deep by Liz Kessler (2004)
The Friendly Book by Margaret Wise Brown, Garth Williams (Illustrator)
Future Tense: How We Made Artificial Intelligence—and How It Will Change Everything by Martha Brockenbrough
Happy Place by Emily Henry
How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin, Alexandra Dowling and Jaye Jacobs (Narrators)
Icarus by K. Ancrum
Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo
James by Percival Everett
Murder in a Cape Cottage by Maddie Day and Rachel Dulude (Narrator)
The Mysterious Tadpole by Steven Kellogg
The Rock from the Sky by Jon Klassen
Running in Flip-Flops From the End of the World by Justin A. Reynolds
The T in LGBT by Jamie Raines
The Tatami Time Machine Blues by Tomihiko Morimi and Emily Balistrieri (translator)
Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum and John R. Neill
Time After Time by Sarah Mlynowski and Christina Soontornvat
The Twelve Books of Christmas by Kate Carlisle and Kimberly M. Wetherell (Narrator)
The Villa by Rachel Hawkins
Witch Hunt by Cate Conte and Amy Melissa Bentley (Narrator)
Woe: A Housecat's Story of Despair by Lucy Knisley
The Yellow Bus by Loren Long


Miscellaneous
June 2024 Sources

June 2024 Summary

Previous month


Rating System

5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish


Privacy policy

This blog does not collect personal data. It doesn't set cookies. Email addresses are used to respond to comments or "contact us" messages and then deleted.


Witch Hunt: 07/20/24

Witch Hunt

Witch Hunt by Cate Conte and Amy Melissa Bentley (Narrator) (2020) is the start of the Full Moon mystery series. Violet Mooney runs the Full Moon crystal shop in North Harbor, Connecticut. Shortly after she's accused by Councilwoman Carla Fernandez of voodoo and running seances in her shop, the councilwoman is murdered. Violet, of course, is the main suspect.

Carla's murder is just the start of Violet's trouble. After a pendant she always wears breaks, she's suddenly able to do supernatural things. To make things even weirder, her estranged mother and a sister she's never met are back in her life with the news that she, like them, is a witch.

The series has a similar vibe to the Magical Bakery mystery series by Bailey Cates. Both series imagine a world where witches live and work in both mundane and magical societies. Both main characters come into their powers as adults because they were shielded from them by older adult women in their lives. They have an entire culture and rules to learn.

Unfortunately this opening mystery has some major pacing issues. Some of the pacing stems from Violet being absolutely unwilling to accept the magic around her despite teleporting herself and doing other obviously magical things.

Second, Violet's magical relatives are there with their own agenda which is at a complete tangent to the murder of Carla. In other cozy mystery series where there's a magical element, the magical characters are usually willing to help solve the murder. Here, though, it was like reading two divergent books haphazardly stitched together.

The second book is Witch Trial (2021)

Three stars

Comments (0)


Lab puppy
Name:
Email (won't be posted):
Blog URL:
Comment:

Tumblr Mastadon Flickr Facebook Facebook Contact me

1997-2025 Sarah Sammis