Bat out of Spell

Elemental Witches of Eternal Springs Cozy Mystery Series, Book 1

By: Amanda M. Lee

Narrated by: Angel Clark

Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Welcome to Eternal Springs, home to more than a 1,000 “normal” people and four feisty witches. Just a tip, the witches are more fun.

Especially Skye Thornton, an air witch about town who would rather be on the mainland than a touristy island that’s home to four climate zones and a gaping hole under the local school that allows monsters to creep through and wreak havoc on the community.

A reporter, Skye likes to be in the thick of things - she’s a busybody and proud of it - until she quite literally trips over a dead body at the island resort. In quick order, she finds herself fighting off monsters while trying to discover one of the human variety.

Since she can’t keep clear of trouble, Skye is determined to track down a murderer, fight off a wishing well beast, and stay away from a local security chief who she’s always hated… or has she?

It’s a full slate of activity for Skye and her witchy friends. The laughs and insults will be flying fast and furious. Of course, so will the danger.

Look out world, here come four witches with attitude, and they’re not taking any prisoners.

©2018 Amanda M. Lee (P)2018 Amanda M. Lee

Don't do it

Immature main character who dislikes everyone, including her Familiar. Not worth the read. The narrator doesn't help the story, either. Her petulant tone adds to the main character's bratiness.

Narrator so bad I couldn't finish

I have no idea whether the story is okay or not. The narrator was so annoying, I quit in the middle of the first chapter. The writing also bothered me, e.g. major malapropisms, unintelligible sentences, repetition of phrases, overuse of cliches are just the beginning of the problems.

Don't waste a credit.

Pretty awful

The author desperately wants to be funny snarky but just doesn't know how. Dialog is stilted and stiff and awkward. The narrator doesn't help smooth it out. Perhaps the story is interesting, but it's too much trouble.

Annoying Narrator

The story is good, but the narrator’s voice made it hard to get into. It was very sharp and almost like a snotty teenager reading in front of a class of her peers.

Teenage whine Witch

Nails on chalkboard whine & Robo Operator voice. Book is more mature without this audio.

A fun summer read

I enjoyed this story. The characters are fun and Ms. Lee is a favorite author of mine.

I so need a familiar !

Need a summer escape ? Choose this fast paced, fun storyline, laugh out loud audio book !

Fun read

The beginning of the story was a little slow, but once you got into the story with the characters and the descriptions, it was great. The twist ending was a surprise. If you like a good fun, clean read you’ll love this book.

Snark isn't everything

I usually enjoy a snarky main character and usally enjoy an Amanda M. Lee book, but this is poorly written. The snark would be fun if it even made sense. But there's nothing admirable about the main character or her "I hate you all" attitude towards everyone else around her. I don't get why she is like she is - nor do I care. I enjoyed the narrator, but she didn't have much to work with.

Read the book and throw the Audible away!

I first read this book and adored it. I laughed and enjoyed it so much. Then I listened to the Audible. I had to stop listening as I couldn't handle how shrill the reader was. It was, literally, painful to listen to. I walked away with the headache.

My recommendation is to bypass the Audible and just read the book.

Promising Setup but Recycled Heroine

Anyone familiar with the author's Avery Shaw books will recognize Skye as Avery Shaw - she even has the same job.

Adding magical powers, a different setting, and giving her a different name doesn't disguise her.

The overal concept has promise - a Paranormal Mystery series where four women, sentenced to remain and secretly protect a resort island from potential incursions of Evil Magical Nasties due to an incident they didn't prevent when they were at school there. Murders happen and are investgated... sounds good to me.

I suspect, however, this is the start of one of THOSE series where each of the four main characters has the Exact Same Thing happen to them because the four authors sat down and agreed a strict formula that each of the books must stick to. I could be wrong but...

If this first book is any indication, that bane of the Paranormal Mystery genre is included in the series formula, so will feature heavily in all the books - Romance with an UNBELIEVABLY HOT MAN... {gack!}. If the romance in this book is anything to go by, it's a big element of the series, treated without subtlety, and in danger of overwealming the Mystery element.

I'd be very happy to be proved wrong, but don't have any expectation that I will be.

Teddy