Jolly Jinxes

Winter Witches of Holiday Haven Series, Book 8

De: J.L. Collins

Narrado por: Amanda Ronconi

Time for some fun under the North Pole sun!

Star Clearwater has everything she's always wanted. Her business is soaring, her relationship with her mother is on the mend, and she and her cute, bookish boyfriend Everett are gearing up to attend the big Summer Solstice celebration that promises to be a party like no other.

But instead of throwing on the sunscreen and relaxing with her toes in the sand, Star's off to hunt down two powerful chaos magic spell books that have been stolen from Everett's bookstore. Not only is this magic dangerous in the wrong hands, but Everett's in danger of losing his bookstore if they don't hurry to find the books in time . . .

This mystery contains Christmas magic, hot cocoa, some romance, and plenty of mischievous puppy-sitting!

©2021 J.L. Collins (P)2022 Tantor

I love Holiday Haven!

Another great addition to this series. I was skeptical about it focusing on the summer solstice but this story is still heavily winter themed. Another excellent collaboration between this writer and narrator!

(Spoilers) Although I love this series, Star is likely my least favorite character. She is least relatable to me and I feel like she uses the least amount or perhaps just less interesting magic. I feel like the author tried too hard to make her a “boss queen” and she just comes off boring and unpleasant sometimes. She is very business like which is off putting to me and that’s coming from a business woman lol. Perhaps that was intended to be part of the conflict, that she needed to evolve to be less pragmatic and more whimsical and free. Even the narrator seems less enthused when talking in Star’s voice, like she doesn’t want to tap into her true talent for this lesser protagonist.

The husky puppies were all kinds of adorable and I wish we had spied their antics more. I absolutely LOVED Oz the Christmas demon, what a bizarre yet delightful turn. I felt like I was hallucinating when he was first introduced lol. I daresay he is the most entertaining character/part of the series yet and the narrator did a phenomenal job with his voice and tone. This was the only mystery so far that seemed obvious to me, I knew all along the husky pups had the chaos books. But I was not expecting that great twist with the book guy. His voice and character were also very well done.

I really enjoyed seeing more of Star and Everett’s relationship bc it really seemed like an afterthought in their first book. The chaos magic was very detailed and impressive. The aggressive, gelatin tree was my fav part and thus kept the Christmasy theme. I did not like some of the brash things Star said to Everett and I especially disliked her pushing him off the high dive in the end and then showing off with her own magic. I hope to see more of Star’s rough edges smoothed out in the coming books.

Again, can’t say enough good things about this series. I’m going to save the rest until next Christmas and will def reread the others! 🎄🎁❄️💚♥️

Chaos is fun

How does a nerd book store owner deal with chaos? This story gives us all details including a 10 inch demon tossed in for some fun. Add in the talk with some puppies and one twist we have a great story.

Fan

Love it and Star and Everett is such a lovely couple. Can’t wait to see what Star will do if Everett ask her to marry him and what they have to undercover in the next mishap in Holiday Haven.
Love the author and narrator.

Lead character is an abusive partner

Lead character is a stereotypical abusive partner. Making “jokes” at the expense of her boyfriend. Pushing him off a high dive? Slamming his business as not worth enough for someone to sue him over. She talks down to him regularly and he just takes it. Everett is a stereotypical abuse victim. He needs to run. No more from this writer for me.

Uneven Storytelling, Tricksters, Chaos, & Puppies

This is the 8th volume of Winter Witches of Holiday Haven (WWOHH) series and the second volume done by JL Collins. Their first was volume 3 Holiday Hexes which I enjoyed. Actually after listening to that one I decided to check JL out and began the Witch Hazel Lane Mysteries Series which I recommend. This story was not as good as Holiday Hexes but better than the worst story in this series. It is short and as always excellently narrated by Amanda who does a fantastic job infusing characters with emotional depth and fleshing them out. This story does a good job of keeping a very tight cast of characters so you don't get lost. The story is pretty obvious and predictable but the romance dynamic felt awkward and forced and some of the interactions feel super cringe. Many of the moments that were rough seemed to be awkward attempts to inject humanness into characters by showing their idiosyncratic behaviors but they felt clunky. For instance there seemed an awkward amount of time in the early section of the book of Star helping Everett to brainstorm how to organize a reading event for kids--and I do mean like listening to Star talk about details step by step of how to plan such an event and Everett being mystified that town wide store events require planning. Or a moment later in the story where Everett is panicking and in attempt to console him Star just begins to unintentionally name insults about Everett exclaiming she just isn't good at comforting people. It just felt odd. These details didn't make these characters more relatable but made me feel less interested in them. There is also a demon character who initially feels like a riff on a Beetlejuice style trickster but without any of the Michael Keaton charm or comedic timing, so just annoying and childish. There are also action sequences that feel like they could rival any Marvel movie, and then amidst town destroying action and panic attack fears about career futures 180 turns to take a break and skate and get hot cocoa. Definitely confusing moments of emotional yo-yoing and difficulty for the audience to take the emotions of the characters seriously when they can change so quickly. The end of the story wraps up as all these do with happy endings and all crises resolved. The bumpy ride in the early part of the story felt smoother by the end but this was definitely not as good as JL's first in this series and definitely not as well done as her other series I have listened to. This was a quick listen and what one expects from a Hallmark level fluff story, though I will say this would be a Hallmark I tick off that I watched but will not return to again.