Seashells, Spells & Caramels

A Cozy Witch Mystery

De: Erin Johnson

Narrado por: Hannah Somerville

A magical French island. A dead contestant. An aspiring baker must clear her name before she gets burned.

Imogen Banks has dreamed her entire life of opening her own bakery in Seattle. But when she accidentally sets fire to her apartment and loses all her possessions, her dreams get toasted. Still coping with her loss, she receives a cryptic invitation she can't possibly refuse: entry into a mysterious baking competition on a beautiful French island.

When Imogen realizes the island village is magical and the Bake-Off’s participants are witches and wizards, she’s not sure her fledgling powers will be enough to win the coveted contest. In the midst of trying to cast her very first spell, a competitor drops dead, and Imogen finds the psychic judges' mystical fingers all pointing at her.

Can Imogen unlock her own magic and stop the killer from coming back for seconds, or will she jump straight from the frying pan and into the fire?

Seashells, Spells & Caramels is the first audiobook in a charming paranormal cozy mystery series. If you like funny heroines, mysterious magical communities, and quirky conspiracies, then you’ll love Erin Johnson’s perfectly witchy recipe.

©2017 Erin Johnson (P)2019 Erin Johnson

Really Cute story!

So much fun to listen to! Love the unique take on magic and the main character is super identifiable! Also, the performance is brilliant as well.

Entertaining

Seashells, Spells, and Caramels is the first in the series. A dream goal, a fire, and a bakery contest along with interesting support characters make make this story interesting and entertaining as a mystery unfolds. The narrator did a good job! I received a free copy of this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Full of magic and fun!

I thoroughly enjoyed this listen!! It was so much fun, and Imogen is such a real personable character and so well portrayed by the narrator. The magical world is so engrossing, I want to go live there. I am super excited to start the next one and hope there are many more in this series !

Cozy Mystery At It's Best

The second I started listening to this audiobook you could tell it was going to be a good one! The narrator is perfect for this title. Her voice is very soft and bubbly and made the whole story that much better!

I was pulled into this audiobook and noticed myself all too often not paying attention to work and fixating on Immogen's disasters and her trying to win the baking contest all while solving a murder mystery. I did not see the twists at the end coming!

I can't wait to dive into the second book in this series and see what all the characters are up to! I. was given this audiobook review copy at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Delicious! Who will win this magical bake-off?

What a fun story! I felt like I was immersed in a Netflix movie. This story has all the great elements to keep the modern day listener engaged- work versus passion, baking competition, travel, friendship and a royal family!
The narrator is excellent with great inflection and voices for different characters.
I cannot wait to listen to more of these books! So fun and entertaining!

Promising starts/debuts

Full disclosure: I received a promo code for both this and Black Arts, Tarts, and Gypsy Carts (book 2 of the series) from the narrator as part of publicity for the book.

When the narrator extended her offer, my initial response to her read, "Cozy mystery crossed with urban fantasy should be up my alley." Overall, I was not wrong.

Strengths first: Imogen's introduction to Bijoux Mer and corresponding magic makes an excellent and realistic gateway for the audience. The assorted relationships are believable, and there's at least one well executed fake-out on the question of who and how the actual culprit is. It's a nice, light popcorn mystery that doesn't pretend to be anything else. The narrator does a nice job in making distinct voices for what is, as best I can tell, her debut voice work, and none of the voices are grating over long periods of time.

Weaknesses come in two categories. There are a couple of structural weaknesses in the story that are perhaps an issue of being very familiar with cozy mysteries and urban fantasy as separate fields, which let me predict a couple of plot developments well in advance of their happening. And in this particular book, there are places where the narrator's pace feels very rushed, with words nearly tumbling out of her mouth. (I did double-check my settings, and I was not playing the book at 1.25x.) This latter weakness is better in book 2 of the series, which I'm about halfway through as I write this review.

Will this be to your taste? It's definitely more in the vein of a cozy mystery than urban fantasy, with a similar feel to the coffee shop series by Cleo Coyle or the bakery series whose author escapes me at the moment than to any notable work of urban fantasy. If you've enjoyed those and don't mind the fantastic setting, it's worth checking out.

Worth the price of admission

I decided to try listening this after reading 18 months ago. I found it even more enjoyable than just reading it. Hannah Somerville did a wonderful job with the reading. It brought the story even more to life.

The author describes the setting and you are transported to a scene off the coast of France.
I enjoyed that it was a clean cozy- no really violent scenes, some romance, and the Harry Potter feel to it. Imogen is 29 and saving for a bakery. Her boss has a wedding coming up and the baker has backed out at the last minute. Imogen steps forward to help out. This act changes her life.

Imogen was adopted and raised in Seattle. The day after her big delivery of baked goods, she enters a baking contest off the coast of France, her apartment building burns, she must pay all of her savings to the insurance company. She finds the check for the catering event in her apron pocket and is on her way to the finals. She learns she has magical powers but does not know how to use it. Throughout the contest, she must of sort her way through the magical world.

There is a death of a baker and there are plenty of suspects.

Looking forward to more episodes since this appears to lay the ground work for future episodes.

Magical & Fun

This was a really fun cozy mystery starter! Imogen was such a fun, quirky, and realistic character with a dream of owning a bakery. Strange and unfortunate things start to happen and she’s stuck in the middle of it all. I really liked that Imogen accepted that she was a witch and didn’t act like the world was ending. The world building of Bijou Mer and it’s community was magical and I felt like I was transported there from my couch! This book was whimsical and lighthearted with many twists, turns, adventure, new friends, hilarious moments, and some romance. I can’t wait to see what happens next!
Hannah did an excellent job with this narration! She used different voices and accents for each character and it was a flawless flow between them. I also loved her sound effects and singing that she did and her vocal range for the book. She put so much enthusiasm into her performance that I was smiling and entertained the whole time!
*I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Double, double, boil & trouble

Erin Johnson is a new author to me and I have no idea why that is. I loved this book from start to finish. It’s a cozy mystery and one that I found thoroughly entertaining. In fact I listened to this one in almost one go as I kept saying, just one more chapter.
This was a a book filled with secrets, miss communication and clues to satisfy my detective spirit. The intrigue and suspense kept me on the edge of my seat as I listened to this story.
There are many twists, turns and surprises in Seashells, Spells & Caramels as Imogen Banks fights to clear her name and follow the clues and I have to say that I was taken by surprise on a couple of occasions. I cannot wait for more in this series.
The narrator Hannah Somerville was also new to me but I thoroughly enjoyed the voices she used and she brought the story to life for me and enhanced my enjoyment of the story.

Fun story with great narration

The story is light hearted and enjoyable. It starts off with a gradual introduction to the world and a mystery and the pacing is really even. It's a quick listen, but it really feels longer. In a good way!

The narrator has a great voice, and does extraordinarily well making each character sound different and distinct. She makes the material more engaging, and overall does a great job of making them come to life.