Secondhand Spirits

A Witchcraft Mystery, Book 1

By: Juliet Blackwell

Narrated by: Xe Sands

Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Lily Ivory hopes for a normal life when she opens Aunt Cora's Closet. With her magical knack for vintage fashion - she can sense vibrations of the past from clothing and jewelry - her store becomes a big hit. But when a client is murdered and children start disappearing from the Bay Area, Lily may be the only one who can unravel the crime.

She tries to keep her identity a secret while investigating, but it's not easy - especially under the spells of sexy "mythbuster" Max Carmichael and powerful witch Aidan Rhodes. Will Lily's witchy ways be forced out of the closet?

©2009 Juliet Blackwell (P)2012 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Lily Ivory is a 21st-century Samantha Stevens, minus the nose wriggling. The story combines fun and seriousness for an entertaining read." ( Romantic Times)

Narrator eh

The overall story was okay..nothing too exciting and definitely never kept me on the edge of my seat wanting more. It took about 3/4 way into the book for it to finally start keeping my attention. I wanted to not listen to everyone else's reviews on the narrator and make a decision for myself but wow....the narrator for this story did notttttt fit. A tad bit annoying. I would read another book if there was a different narrator but they are all this lady and I don't think that I could sit through 7 hours of her talking again....no offense. Just did not fit this story or character in my mind.

Lily Ivory cast's a spell.

Juliet Blackwell introduces the reader to a wonderful, but slightly out of her element, character named Lily Ivory. Without trying she stumbles into everything, no matter how hard she keeps tries to avoid the situations. Her kind heart won't let her do otherwise.


Secondhand Spirits is written with a wonderful sense of humor, and enough intrigue to keep you from putting the book down.

Witches fighting Demons

The main plot of witches fighting demons is great. But the other side plots of love interests, spying and friendships makes me ready to read the next book.

A Spiritual Experience

Found it very entertaining and well done...the narration was also very well done, loved the story line and loved how she was into vintage clothing..

Adorable story

Not a romance but a story about a witch, who leads a fairly regular life (with very little crush over some men in her life without anything actually happening).
Easy listen not overly exciting but keeps things light and interesting.
The narration was alright, was a bit hard to tell the characters apart at times.

Not sure I would buy the next book in this series (bought this one at a sale)

Saved me on a long boring drive

I found myself on a five hour ride in a shared cab in Greece, with three other people who did not speak a word of English. While this book is not great literature, it kept me entertained and made the time pass pleasantly. In other word, it's a "beach read" - honestly I would not go out of my way to read a second book by the same author, though. It's pretty predictable.

Fast and easy

A fun and light listen. The perfect summer series for driving, running or lounging poolside.

thoroughly loved it

Great characters and story. Amazing narration. Not the same old thing.
One of my new favorites.

Really good, but the narrator

I think in another story Ms. Sands's narration would be perfect, but it just doesn't work with this kind of story. Her voice is whispery and borderline seductive, making it very difficult to hear her at times no matter how loud the volume is. As far as characters go, I was super fond of the unwanted/unneeded “Oscar” the familiar. He eats everything, which is just adorable and sleeps on top of the refrigerator. The one thing I would say about Lily Ivory is that her character is that of a person that belies they are owed something because hundreds of years ago, no direct relation of their own was treated poorly. That kind of attitude is frustrating for me. As for the story, I struggled with some things, like somehow the sister of the old lady’s daughter died, but she was never really gone. I did recognize and sympathize with the idea of the memory of someone carrying so weight and taking up so much space in someone’s life that there's no room for anyone else.

Subtly Magical Mysterious & Perfect

This was such a lovely take on the modern witch trope; the story is magical but not over the top; the pace is slow, steady and utterly engrossing; and the characters were so fun and diverse. Overall, it was exactly what I wanted from this book.

Xe Sands narrates the audio book and she does such a lovely job at adding to the mysterious atmosphere. She differentiates characters with subtle changes in her delivery, which makes for a lovely fluid listen. Highly recommend.