A Witch's Handbook of Kisses and Curses

Half-Moon Hollow, Book 7

By: Molly Harper

Narrated by: Amanda Ronconi

Length: 9 hrs

Publisher's summary

Nola Leary would have been content to stay in Kilcairy, Ireland, healing villagers at her family’s clinic with a mix of magic and modern medicine. But a series of ill-timed omens and a deathbed promise to her grandmother have sent her on a quest to Half-Moon Hollow, Kentucky, to secure her family’s magical potency for the next generation. Her supernatural task? To unearth four artifacts hidden by her grandfather before a rival magical family beats her to it.

Complication One: The artifacts are lost somewhere in vampire Jane Jameson’s occult bookshop. Complication Two: Her new neighbor, Jed Trudeau, keeps turning up half-naked at the strangest times, a distraction Nola doesn’t need. And teaming up with a real-life Adonis is as dangerous as it sounds, especially since Jed’s got the face of an angel and the abs of a washboard. Can Nola complete her mission before falling completely under his spell?

©2013 Molly Harper White (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Bad accent, good story. . .

I really enjoy the Half Moon Hollow spin offs! Molly Harper is hilarious. I like Amanda Ronconi but this might have been too much for her. She did the HMH cast of characters (Jane, Gabriel, Dick, Andrea, etc. . .) well, and even the Irish accents weren't that bad. It was Nola's Boston/Irish that was inconsistent- not a deal breaker but sort of annoying. You should not let it prevent you from listening though, it's a great book!

Oh so entertaining!

Molly Harper does it again. Loved this book! It takes us back to Half Moon Hollow and its now-familiar inhabitants, and also introduces some great new characters. I'm hoping we'll see Nola and Jeb in future books, as I really enjoyed their story and getting to know them.

Amanda Ronconi does an amazing job, as always, of narrating. Her accents and voices are right on and Jeb's voice with that slow, Cajun accent, was terrific (and sexy!).

Enjoyed it but not Harper’s best

This was a decent story but not as clever as some of her other Half Moon Hollow books. I agree that the narrator was a bit tricky to listen to in the beginning, but once the main character’s back story was revealed, it made sense.

Another awesome story

I love how much character development we had in this one, I genuinely got emotional a few times on the more sentimental parts. As someone who recently lost a parent suddenly and unexpectedly, I could relate to the main character with her feelings of loss. And the romance was well written

Really funny Harper book

Totally enjoyed except the mother
A nasty piece of work
Hope I can find these characters again soon

One of the best spin offs I have read!

Amanda Ronconi is amazing reading Molly Harper's words. I have to say I have already read the book in paperback and just got the audiobook today and as soon as I heard the way Amanda does Nola's Boston/Irish accent it made me so very happy that she was doing the narrating. Being someone who lives near Boston I laughed a lot at the accent because I hear it all the time. I also love how she can just flow from this off beat Boston/Irish accent to a smooth Tennessee twang when the Characters of Nola the main witch on a mission and Jed the neighbor are talking to each other. I already really liked the book because I love a good scavenger hunt and that is pretty much what Nola has to do throughout the book. I also love when there is a sexy next door neighbor that has trouble keeping his shirt on and funny vampire friends who if you have read the Nice Girl books you know their history already and it just makes certain situations that much funnier. This is again another outstanding Molly Harper book that I will read and listen to again and again.

Great listen...Give the accent a chance

First off, yes, a combination Irish/Boston accent is difficult to imagine and must've been a nightmare to perform. I like to imagine Molly Harper came up with that because Amanda Ronconi lost a bet or she just wanted to mess with her. It is weird, and distracting, at first, but if you can stick with it for a little while, it's worth the first few minutes of furrowed brow. Truthfully, in a situation where the author creates a crazy accent, I would have preferred it to be performed without any accent at all because, while the main character is likeable, the accent is rather off putting, and I can't imagine wanting to spend much time in her company, but that is in no way AR's fault. She did it how it was written, and again, you do get used to it.

As for the rest, it was great to visit Half Moon Hollow again and see how everyone is doing. As usual, this was hysterical and entertaining like all of MH's books, and I actually did laugh out loud (as much as I despise the overuse of that description and it's irritating abbreviation). Mama Ginger cracks me up. I also loved the references about reading a romance about werewolves in Alaska and that creepy, stalking Edward guy in Twilight. Every one of her books is loaded with entertainment and fun, and this one does not disappoint....much....at least not enough to matter.

Cute and sweet!

STORY (fantasy/romance) - This is the usual clever story I've come to expect from Molly. It isn't my favorite, but it's still really good. The Publisher's Summary pretty much covers what I have to say about the story, and to add more would be giving something away. There are
some unexpected twists in the story, and the ending is adorable.

PERFORMANCE - As other reviewers have commented, Amanda is totally off on this performance. Some kind of Boston/Irish accent that she does sporadically. It's a bit distracting but doesn't ruin the cute story.

OVERALL - Recommended for females only. Contains a sprinkling of F-words and a couple sex scenes which are short but not very explicit. This is Book 2 of the series, but the story stands alone. Some of the characters will be familiar, however, if you've listened to Book 1.

Doesn't sound like Ronconi

Amanda Ronconi makes the Molly Harper books, but this doesn't sound like her. I don't know if they did some auto-tuning or what but it's just not the same. I still love all of Molly Harper's books, but missed the Ronconi effect on the audio.

Love Molly Harper

I loved this book. I'm really glad I relistened to Undead Sublet, Driving Mr. Dead, and the Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires before I listened to this because all those characters show up again if only in a mention and it was useful to remember exactly who they were. It was nice to see Jane, Gabriel, Andrea, Dick and company again and I liked the characters of Nola and Jed. The journey of Nola's search was fun and it was great to see so much of the bookshop. One thing I didn't really care for was the accent that Amanda Ronconi used for most of the book. I usually like her narrations but the accent for the main character was very distracting. All the rest of her voices were wonderful though.