Charming Blend

Paramour Bay Cozy Paranormal Mystery Series, Book 5

De: Kennedy Layne

Narrado por: Hollie Jackson

Compelling love spells are used to brew up one charmingly delightful whodunit as USA Today best-selling author Kennedy Layne continues her cozy paranormal-mystery series....

Boxes of delicious chocolates and roses by the dozen are aplenty in the small town of Paramour Bay as Valentine's Day approaches, but all is not so rosy in Raven Marigold's life when a simple love enchantment goes horribly awry. You see, the affection spell is only meant to affect one recipient...not the entire town!

Things for Raven go from bad to worse when small fires begin to break out all around town, causing damages to the local shops and homes alike. What's a witch to do when she believes her attempt at evocation magic might be responsible for sparking these crimes? Why, she must grab her trusty familiar and investigate, of course!

Open your hearts to this spellbinding Valentine's Day tale by falling in love with this charming adventure of mischief, tea, and magic!

©2019 Kennedy Layne (P)2021 Tantor

Good cozy mystery

Great cozy mystery. Both the author and the narrator kept me invested from the first chapter. With a number of twists and turns and a result I didn’t see coming, I was hooked.

Wow

This series seems to get better and better… I LOVE Leo.

Oh, and what a CLIFFHANGER.

Loved this book of Charming Blend::

This book was so enjoyable :: I do love the relationship with Raven and the lovable cat Mr Leo :: I’m definitely into the series I”m enjoying them all so far :: Thank you :: Darcie from CA

Cute & Cozy

An adorable, magical story of a 30 year old new witch and her cat familiar solving small town mysteries. I’ve enjoyed each book in the series as much as the last

First 3 books were okay....4 and 5, not so much.

I really enjoyed the first three books, the characters are fresh and the plots were good. But when book four came out, it felt like the relationship between Leo and Raven went into high toxicity! Leo shows narcissistic tendencies and is really quite abusive to Raven and she puts up with it. Needless to say, that ticks me off!

Book five was marginally better--marginally.

Holly Jackson is a favorite reader for me, but the the inflection she uses for Leo's dialog just really makes it feel toxic. And I cringe for Raven.

Book six has a different reader and it doesn't feel quite so bad. Jury is still out....

Stays Steady But I Keep Hoping for More

I had mixed feelings about the last volume due in large part to this being an Audible and the confusion as an audience around the dialogue and the 4th wall break style of writing (where the protagonist and her cat randomly talk to the reader). This was less confusing in this edition, but still not my favorite aspect of the stories. I feel like despite having listened to 5 volumes I still don't have a good sense of the town. Some of the characters continue to be delightful and I appreciate some of the humor, but for such a limited cast of characters I wish some more time was spent helping the audience feel more grounded in Paramour Bay. It also felt odd that despite an arsonist being on the run torching buildings throughout the town I never felt a real sense of tension, like there was no weight to this threat. This is in sharp contrast to some of the tension in the last book where it did feel touch and go for our leading lady. I also don't appreciate the very obvious cliff hanger hook at the end of the book either. I like Raven, I enjoy Leo (even though I was so tired of the ongoing jokes about Leo being stoned on Catnip), Raven's romance with Liam is sweet but honestly I could take it or leave it. What I love in this book that many paranormal cozies don't do is the discussion, explanation, and exploration of magic and how it is used. That is something that feels so alive in this book that I do keep going to the next volume, but many other aspects of the story feel incredibly rinse and repeat. Also the method for gaining a confession had me eye rolling at how utterly circumstantial and hardly damning it was. For listeners who have been over the moon about all prior volumes you should be fine because you are getting the same. For those who are really hoping to see this story deepen and expand on this world and the characters I think you might feel as I did a little disappointed.