A Ghoulish Midlife

Witching After Forty Series, Book 1

By: Lia Davis, L.A. Boruff

Narrated by: Coleen Marlo

Length: 4 hrs

Publisher's summary

Widow and empty nester Ava Harper never dreamed of turning 40 without the love of her life. Nor did she know she would bury her favorite aunt, who raised her after the death of her mother, a few years later. Then again, she doesn't have the power of foresight. No, her powers are much darker. Powers she has kept behind lock and key.

With her only son off to college and her life savings depleted, Ava returns home to Shipton Harbor, Maine. She's only there to clean out, fix up, and sell the family home. But like everything in her life in the last five years, things change.

Arriving in Shipton Harbor is like stepping into another world. Her high school rival is married to her best friend and is set on making up for every devious thing she did when they were teens. The magic in the house reawakens, making it impossible to sell. And to top it all, the sheriff looks like he belongs on the cover of a romance novel.

When an old friend of the family turns up dead, Ava must delve deep into the powers she's repressed all her adult life to find the killer.

Now she must open up to her own wells of dark magic to find the murderer while working with the hottie sheriff she's sure has his own secrets.

©2020 Lia Davis, L. A. Boruff (P)2021 Tantor

Felt too rushed.

I found that it did not seem like there were full descriptions or explanations. The story felt rushed, like someone had condensed it and left out vital information.

Picks up in chapter 9

I hate books that have the MFC thinking her life is over at 40 and then the grieving for her loss capped it off. As an older woman, I have yet to encounter this way of thinking in any other woman. The book improved once that line of thinking disappeared. I started to enjoy it more by Chapter 9.

Fun and Interesting

A fun take a ghouls. I need one to clean my house. Fun and light listen.

Cute!

Cute, funny, and entertaining. I originally bought the ebook because I liked the cool cover art. Didn’t expect much from the story so was quite pleasantly surprised at how good it actually was! Well done, quite funny, and well narrated. A good light listen.

life doesn't end at 40 and over or does it?

The story was written well. only a few aspects bothered me. sometimes i felt like the MC acted oddly immature in regards to her son. was just an odd thing to me. may characters all were interesting but some weren't fleshed out completely...yet! short book but good

Funny and a good read.

Light-hearted story with a paranormal slant. Interesting enough to look forward to the next book.

Another first time author for me.....

This was another first time author for me. Huh? Something must be in the water. I think that when I went crazy during Audible's $1.00 and $2.00 sale recently, I'm going to be finding several new authors........Can't wait. :)

Anyway, this reminded me of the new genre that started last year (or was it the year before?)focusing on middle age women coming into supernatural powers while at the same time discovering that love can still happen later in life.

I enjoyed this story...to a point. For some reason though, it never really "hooked" me in. The story felt a bit superficial. Like we (the readers/listeners) were skimming on the top of a lake, but were never allowed to dive a little deeper to see if we could find...something......... something.....more.

I actually started and restarted this story about 4 times. For me, that is almost unheard of. The only reason that I didn't give up was because it was a relatively short story and I really WAS interested in finding out what was going on.

Since I've finished, I went and looked up the author and realized that she has an entire series of several books in this category - Witching After 40. Once I got farther in the book, it held my interest so I just might come back and see what happens to our female MC Ava, her son Wally and the rest of the gang.

Cute storyline who knew ghouls

Interesting take on the whole line. Ghouls, necromancy, witchy powers.
Some subjects to grow with.

Funny, well-written, and original ... buy it

This is a good one. There are a whole lot of authors jumping on the mid-life theme, and I've read quite a few of them. This one is original, fun, and doesn't really rely on the past-forty trope at all. This is actually a well thought out, clever paranormal story, that doesn't push the boundaries of any particular theme -- there's nothing over-used, dull or excessive here. This is really a clever, satisfying story. There are twists and turns, there's a satisfying ending. There's no sex, there is a very very light scent of romance at the end, but the story does not rely on romance to be interesting. There's a lot of wholesome here, there's a lot of witch trouble, there are murders (but no grossly described violence). The murders get solved, the perp gets karma'd and the sun shines on a satisfying ending. The narration was excellent -- there were no adenoidal tendencies, and no shrieking ... just lovely tones from a clearly well experienced, well educated narrator, who knows how to modulate her voice so that it flows like honey. And to top it off, the artwork on the cover is clever, unusual, and very professional. This is the real deal. I'm off to buy the next book in the series.

Loved

So cute. The characters are adorable. I look forward to reading more of this series.