Enchantments and Escape Rooms

A Spooky Games Club Mystery, Book 2

By: Amy McNulty

Narrated by: Danielle Daly

Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's Summary

After the disaster of the month before, Dahlia Poplar, cursed witch and helper extraordinaire, is ready for her serene, supernatural small-town life to return to normal. However, her hopes for a more peaceful existence don’t last when a childhood friend moves back to Luna Lane to open up an escape room. 

With the Spooky Games Club thriving, Dahlia decides to help her friend by using her magic to quickly get his business up and running. Dahlia’s enchantments accomplish the task, but before the Games Club has a chance to enjoy the new attraction, a test of the escape room results in a freak, fatal accident. Riddled with guilt, Dahlia wonders where her enchantments went wrong - or if there’s something more to the disaster. 

The only way to divine whether or not the death was her fault, the result of an accident, or murder, is to investigate - and perhaps even play the dangerous game herself. In this one-hour escape room, failure to escape could mean death, not just for Dahlia, but for those she holds most dear.

©2020 Amy McNulty (P)2021 Amy McNulty

Cute PNR Cozy

Memorable characters, unique take on the supernatural and interesting mystery. Worth the buy but know its part of a series and isn't as enjoyable as a stand alone.

Fun mystery

This is a fun, quirky mystery about a magicial town that I can’t get enough of. Great read! I received a free copy and left my honest review

Sinister mystery with great characters

Enchantments and Escape Rooms brings the reader back to the magical town of Luna Lane, where more than a few sinister secrets linger. Dahlia agrees to do a favor for an old friend and magically construct the new escape room he plans to open. But when a dead body turns up during a test-run, Dahlia must figure out if it was her magic or someone else's that caused the death. This series creates an immersive world full of vibrant characters. The layers, secrets, and twists make for a satisfying mystery. The audiobook is well-done and very entertaining.

Disclaimer: I received an audio copy for free and am voluntarily leaving a review. All opinions are my own.

Its' Great to be Back at the Spooky Games Club!

Peace seems to have fallen on this quaint little town of monsters and ghouls since the cursed boardgame mystery was solved, but life never stays easy in this place! An outsider is here to build an escape room that will draw tourists, and no sooner are the renovations complete when things start going horribly wrong and this poor little town once again has a body on its hands. Can Dahlia solve this mystery and save her friends?

If you love cozy mysteries and anything paranormal, you need to read this series! I was fortunate enough to be included on the review tour for the first installment, Broomsticks and Board Games, when it first got an audiobook, and I rated that one a 5 too. These mysteries are fun, just complex enough to keep you guessing, and wrap you up in the messed up personal lives of a very compelling cast of characters along the way. I want to keep coming back to this little town and the Spooky Games Club for along time yet!

There's enough backstory and world-building details built into this book here and there that I don't think reading these books in order is an absolute necessity. You might spoil the mystery of prior books if you read later ones first, but you're not going to be lost jumping in late.

Both author Amy and narrator Danielle did an amazing job of making me vehemently hate early antagonist Fred, and I think that made it even more fun! I also love how regular life still goes on. Dahlia still has to perform her daily good deed or stuffy the consequences. Faen still has kids to look after. Draven still have a business to run, and still grumbles about his nocturnal nature meaning he's the last to hear what happened. Broomhilda is still the most adorably catlike animate broom I've ever met. (Forgive me if I've misspelled names as I've only listened to the audio.)

In terms of the narrative performance, this is the same narrator returning as book one, and overall I do think Danielle Daly does a good job. She puts in maximum effort to vary every character's voice in pitch, cadence, accent, etc. so it's always easy to tell who's talking, even if you're terrible with remembering character names. My only negative comment is that some of the down-pitched voices sounded a little too forced and occasionally grated on me. I looked back at my review of the previous book and I didn't mention it then, so I'm not sure now if there was less of that done in book one or if I just noticed it more in this one. I do listen fast, 2x these days, and that tends to pitch things up if it's going to cause notable alterations, so it's also possible that those voices are a bit lower at regular speed and it all sounded fine at 1x and I just found the wrong speed to play it back for those voices. Every time I started the audio again and it defaulted to 1x it felt far too slow for me, though, so I didn't do enough 1x listening to tell.

Thanks again Amy McNulty for the review copy! I highly recommend this series to all cozy mystery lovers with an interest in paranormal fiction.

I was granted complimentary audio ARC access by author Amy McNulty via Audible promo code in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much to Amy and her team! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

A close knit town, wouldn't that be wonderful

This book move a lot faster than bok 1 having already been laid out. the group is different but care deeply for each other. the story line and plot were well thought out and delivered. I enjoyed this paranormal work, though its not my favorite genre. good job!

A cute story

A cute addition to the series. Escape Rooms are all the rage right now so it was fun to see one put into a book.

Good narration

Dahlia Poplar wants quiet and serene. Instead a friends moves back to open a business, then it’s mayhem
Given audio for my voluntary review .

Enjoyable mystery

The gangs all here for another paranormal mystery, with a twist you won't see coming. Great listen, Excellent narration.

Amazing

Loved this audiobook very much
The only way to divine whether or not the death was her fault,
Worth a credit on this book

It's great to escape with a good book

I loved this book. I enjoy paranormal cozy mysteries but this series is so unusual and original in the story line that it is up there as one of my favourites and book two doesn't disappoint. I love the idea of the curse, as a plot line for the character not to curse anyone. The main character has to preform a spontaneous good deed everyday or slowly turn to stone, this is a long running thread throughout the series as is the witch who cursed her, the book does work well as a standalone but I think maybe it works better if you start with book one because we learn a little bit more with each book. The main mystery it's self is good and does get solved, I had no idea who the killer was of why. I really liked the way it is all set around an escape room and games club (another original idea that works). But it is the characters that really make the series, they are quirky . I especially like Broomhilda the playful broom with an attitude. I look forward to the next book in the series, to see what the author has in store for the characters next.
When an old friend moves back to town, Dahlia finds herself getting talked into helping him and his business partner. Using her witch magic to turn the old falling down bowling hall into an escape room. so they can quickly get the business up and running and attract visitors to the sleep town. Dahlia and her games club want to be the first to try it out but something goes wrong with the test run and the obnoxious business partner gets killed. Could Dahlia's fear of opening up the town to humans have caused her to make a mistake when reading the blue prints? Or is something more sinister going on and the death was actually murder?
I liked the narrator and thought she used some good voices to give the characters accents.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.