How Witch It Is

Wicked Witches of the Midwest, Books 1-3

By: Amanda M. Lee

Narrated by: Aris

Welcome to Hemlock Cove, where the town is magically rebranded - but real witches aren't necessarily welcome.

That makes things hard for the Winchester witches - including local newspaper reporter Bay. She's got a persnickety family - wait until you met Aunt Tillie - and a penchant for stumbling across trouble.

Thankfully for Bay, she's got loyal cousins and the ability to talk to ghosts as she tries to solve mysteries and put souls to rest.

Follow Bay as she meets a man who is more than he seems and tries to hide a history that is centuries in the making.

This is the first three books in the Wicked Witches of the Midwest cozy mystery series. It includes: Any Witch Way You Can, Every Witch Way But Wicked, and Witching You Were Here.

©2012 Amanda M. Lee (P)2015 Amanda M. Lee

Mixed

These books are basically murder mysteries with witches. The magic in the book is pretty light handed and, sadly, is far more believable than the rest of the book. Maybe "believable" is not the correct word, but these books are nothing but a string of contradictions. The girls are semi professional woman in their twenties yet act like they are 16. The supposed federal agent and love interest acts like an 18 year old and in three books he has not done anything at all that would actually indicate he is an agent other than occasionally stating it. The girls, also, seem to be smart sometimes and then other times to suit the plot are as dumb as a sack of rocks. I realize this is done to make the book lighthearted and fun, but it doesn't really work.

The books are also very repetitive. I felt like I just listened to the same book three times. luckily, 80% of each book is filled with funny family squabbles so at least you get some entertainment, until the repetitive plot points make you roll your eyes, and the annoying, beefcake love interests come into the picture to share their cringy, completely awkward dialogue with you.

Believe it or not, as harsh as I'm being, I'm not all that bothered by the narrator. I will say that she is not a professional voice actress, but probably simply someone the author knew and hired to read the books. I hope to God she doesn't actually try to make a living doing this. However, she wasn't actually bad. I was happy that she read quickly. I hate the really slow readers you often get on audible, so much so that many books I have to listen to at 125% speed. This girl at least had a good pace and did a reasonable job for an amateur. I would suggest that maybe she listen to some advanced books herself, or just talk to people older than 16 so she can learn how to pronounce big words. At least that was funny.

At any rate, f you listen to this as the silly, lighthearted set of books it was intended to be, it is not a bad passive set of books to keep on in the background while you do something else. But, unfortunately, it is just lacking in too many areas to actually be considered "good." It is solidly average with a little charm that could be worth your time if you aren't a picky old grouch like me.

I like this series despite the narration.

While the narration is better than some I've heard, that isn't saying much. She talks too fast and too high pitched, almost whiny even when the story line doesn't call for it. While the writing makes the young women sound immature, the narration makes them seem elementary age. Despite all of these negatives, there is a cute story line and strongish characters. Aunt Tillie and Landon are my favorites. I intend to finish the series and possibly read/listen to this author's other series with other narrators. Hopefully they won't be as annoyingly shrill.

Hilarious

Great, easy read / listen. Fun characters, engaging story, & plenty of humor. Definitely a recommend for those looking to be entertained.

Annoyingly cute

The story series is very cute, with some excellent humor points, but mostly juvenile silliness.
The narration could be better. There are points in the story when I couldn't tell if the issue was the reading or the editing.
I would pay for a story from this author, but not from this narrator.

Mixed bag

It's sort of hard to judge the writing, which - aside from needing some serious editing - seems pretty good.

The narration is another story. Read at break-neck speed, with little differentiation between the main characters (I know it's got to be hard, three cousins and their three mothers, but still, that's your job). Some line readings are just so off it's painful - and worse, certain words are constantly mispronounced (vehemently is not read as vee-HEM-ently, e.g.). Also, the three cousins are supposed to be in their twenties but come off sounding like 16yo Valley girls.

Can't totally blame the narrator: what were the director or producer doing?