Bobbles and Broomsticks

Vampire Knitting Club Series, Book 8

By: Nancy Warren

Narrated by: Sarah Zimmerman

Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Who invited Death to the wedding?

When an ancient beam falls on one of the guests at Charlie and Alice's wedding, it looks like the work of the death watch beetle, an insect that eats old timbers. But fledgling witch Lucy and the vampire knitting club aren't so sure. Could there be a murderer casting blame on the wood-chomping insects?

Meanwhile, the old broom that's always stood in the corner of Cardinal Woolsey's knitting and yarn shop seems to have a mind of its own, and Lucy's cat is ready to hop aboard and take the broom for a spin. With or without Lucy.

Between learning a new knitting stitch and keeping her broom and cat earthbound, Lucy hasn't got time to solve a murder - until it turns out the next victim is someone she loves.

Join Lucy and her eccentric band of amateur sleuths in Oxford as they attempt to unravel a twisted skein of clues and catch a killer without dropping a stitch.

©2019 Nancy Warren (P)2020 Tantor

Matrimony and Murder

We return to be with Lucy as she prepares to celebrate the marriage of Charlie and Alice. A cast of characters is brought forward some old and new in the engaging way listeners have come to enjoy with these stories. The one major difference with this tale is that unlike stumbling upon a dead body or coming to a scene after the fact the murder in this story occurs in front of the audience. It was quite intense and a shift from the typical telling. The mystery unfolds at a wonderful pace and Lucy throws caution and safety to the wind just enough that the audience feels nervous without turning on the protagonist for poor decision making. There continues to be light ongoing development for Lucy romantically without taking away from the main thread of the story. There was also more magical development of Lucy and her powers which was very enjoyable and the ongoing growth of the series main cast of characters is also delightful. Nancy continues to impress me with the consistent quality of her storytelling and Sarah does a magnificent job bringing the tales to life with her voices. This is not my absolute favorite in the series but a welcome edition that fans of these books are sure to enjoy.

Lucy is flying into action on this one!

Lucy is back in action as everyone gears up to celebrate Alice and Charlie's wedding, but someone definitely doesn't want it to go off without mayhem and a bit of murder! The characters in this series are so delightfully well fleshed out that you feel as if you actually know them rather than enjoy reading about them. I so look forward to each book as I get to visit with old friends while we go on the hunt for a villain! I absolutely can't wait to see what happens in the next book! The first 8 books are on audio so if you enjoy audio, this series needs to be on your must listen list! I can't wait for the next audio book to come out so I'm going to forage ahead in print, but I must say the narrator does a magnificent job of helping to flesh out the personalities of the characters that the author has developed so carefully and artfully!

great book great series

I love this series itsfunneh its twists and turns and it makes me laugh. a definite must read

LESS KNITTING BUT NO LESS FUN

WHILE NOT SOLO, LUCY TAKES A MUCH MIRE SINGULAR LEAD IN THIS ONE. I TRULY ENJOYED IT AND CANNOT WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE, BUT I HOPE TO SEE MORE OF RAFE AND THE KNITTING CLUB IN THE NEXT BOOK.

Flying lessons and a wedding.

Lucy and Violet are bridesmaids for Alice and Charlie’s upcoming wedding, there’s so much to do including a hen party. Charlie’s ex fiancé comes out of the wood, then there’s a murder.
Lucy goes sleuthing and uncovers a lot of secrets, and a murderer.

Good, clean fun

Like a witchy Nancy Drew series. Fun listen to sleuthing stories while crocheting or knitting.

Not Happy

Really didn't like this plot ruining a very special day for 2 characters that have overcome so much to get to this point. It should have been timed at their departure for their tour. I don't listen to these usually wonderful stories to be aggravated.

Fun and Entertaining

Bobbles and Broomsticks is a fun and entertaining cozy mystery. The characters are engaging and the mystery is well developed. I really enjoy this series and look forward to the next book.

not the norm

idk what the difference was but Lucy was slightly more annoying in this book than in others. I liked that the bad guy wasn't expected and that the twist was actually pretty twisty. but it was a little slow and didn't have as much of the investigation as I like

Meh...

This is my least favorite of the series to this point. Bobbles and Broomsticks is book 8 of the Vampire Knitting Club series. In this book, Alice and Charlie (we got to know them in book 5 when the love potion Lucy made for Alice went awry) get married. As they were heading back down the aisle after being wed, a beam fell, narrowly missing the bride and instead hitting a killing the father of one of the groom's friends. As it turned out, it wasn't a horrible accident. Someone made that beam fall. I really didn't like the themes of betrayal and jealousy in this book. I thought the scene where we find the "bad guy" was really overdone and contrived and I thought that the reasons were over the top.

One thing that I really had a problem with was that this is book 8 and Lucy has had plenty of time to get to know Rafe over the past 8 books and she should know him to be a good man and have some sort of loyalty to him as a friend, if nothing more. Instead, Lucy was being judgmental about Rafe's house manager, speaking on things she doesn’t even understand, and trying to convince him that Rafe is taking advantage of him because he pledged to serve Rafe for life and continue the tradition with his sons, just as he did with his father and grandfathers have all done. The man tried to explain that working for Rafe has been a wonderful thing for his family and Rafe has taken wonderful care of all of them but she keeps telling him he should leave.

I have been binging this series and haven’t been reviewing them in between each book. Some overall observations from the series so far (I have finished through book 8.5 and am partway through book 9) are that the stories are always cute and good for a short escape. I really enjoy the characters and have a vested interest in them. Something I have noticed, though, is that there isn’t continuity between books and the books really could have benefited from a proofreader. For example, in book 1, Lucy is 27 but in book 6, she has her 26th birthday. In one of the books, Rafe is at least 600 years old, but in the next book, he is only 500 years old. Occasionally there is an incorrect name used but I always know what was meant so it doesn’t confuse me or make it so that I can’t continue. Another thing that is missing, at least to the point I am at now, is any real information about the vampires. We don’t get to know anything about their abilities, only that they are vampires who feed via a blood bank. Even with the inconsistencies, I am hooked on the series and enjoy these easy-going, clean, cozy mysteries. It is a nice palette cleanser from the smutty stuff I typically enjoy.

The narrator is the same throughout the series and she does a great job.