Murder's a Witch

Beechwood Harbor Magic Mysteries Series, Book 1

By: Danielle Garrett

Narrated by: Amanda Ronconi

Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Holly Boldt has a secret....

Well, technically, she has lots of them. After a scandal uproots her entire life, she is forced to relocate to a halfway house for displaced paranormals. It's her last shot for a fresh start. But keeping secrets isn't easy in a town that goes through gossip faster than tissue paper, even for a powerful witch.

When a grisly murder rocks the small town of Beechwood Harbor, Holly finds herself unwillingly entangled in the investigation. With everyone watching, Holly must solve the case before she's forced to abandon her new-found home. But with a paranormal investigator tailing her every move, a civil war brewing between her vampire and shifter roommates, and her ghostly landlord on the edge of a breakdown, she can barely think in complete sentences. How is she supposed to track down a murderer?

Holly has to make it work, or risk losing everything...again.

©2016 Danielle Garrett (P)2018 Tantor

For Molly Harper Fans

This is one of those cozy mysteries where some of the main characters are supernatural. Very similar to Molly Harper - particularly since Amanda Ronconi is narrating. She can always take a good book to the next level.

It's a fun listen and a nice beginning to a new series, but we do get the feeling we've been dropped in the middle of something that we don't quite understand. Usually, when this happens, there's a slow or eventual reveal. I don't want to spoil anything so I'm just saying that we're left with nearly as many questions as we had in the beginning. (we do find out whodunnit, so don't worry about that) I suppose we'll learn more when we get book 2, which isn't out yet.

Ms. Ronconi did a nice job with the different characters. It feels as if she's doing a bit more with tone and accents than she has in the past. That's all to the good.

As for the story itself, I didn't have any problem keeping the characters straight, which is sometimes hard with audiobooks and I certainly didn't guess who did it. I did keep expecting to find out that some people who are introduced to us as 'normal' might turn out to be not quite normal after all. As I said, the book prompted a lot more questions than it answered.

Finally, a technical note. My download had a few (maybe three?) speed glitches in it. Quite noticeable and disappointing. This is an audible production and I know audible has some pretty stringent guidelines, so how did these glitches make their way past Quality Control?

I certainly do recommend this book. I'm looking forward to book 2.

Loved it!

cozy-mystery, witches, urban-fantasy, friendship, supernatural, amateur-sleuth -----
I really enjoyed this book in spite of the publisher's blurb. Holly lives in a large old rooming house with other supernaturals in a small town on the coast and works with locals in the only coffee shop in town. Her coworkers are her good friends, so it gets really hairy when one of them becomes the prime suspect in the murder of the shop's owner. The rest is fun and well done, but no spoilers here. A good read!
I have the audio, and Amanda Ronconi gives a great audio performance.

BORING!

it was confusing and i got lost. there were too many characters to follow.
at the half of the book i didn't even know what it was about.
and it was boring. all the "the supernaturals this and the supernaturals that"
if you are a witch and have been all your life, STOP TALKING AND ACTING AS IF YOU HAVE TURNED IN ONE YESTERDAY! that was pretty annoying. there wan't any cool spell. she could barely use magic.
it was disappointing overall.

It's okay.

I am a fan of Amanda Ronconi. She is the reason I was able to listen to this boring story.

Light murder mystery

As always, Ronconi does an awesome job reading the book; however, I found the book rather predictable, making it one which will end this series for me.

Comfort read

I have listened to this audiobook 6 times, it’s the first book I found of Danielle’s books and love having it on while I do chores or crafts. I love having books on here that I can listen to over and over

oh Bawings

cute little who done it with some witchcraft thrown in for good measure. overall an enjoyable read.

good but not great

I don't mind having questions about originations in the story so not having history for the main premise of this story is all right, but I just couldn't feel for any of the characters. The humour seemed forced, almost cliche. it was just okay for me, the narrator did an okay job, but I'm not running out to buy anything

meh

It was ok but not for me. It was too light and a bit flaky. I won't get another in this series.

Meh

I'm not impressed with this cozy paranormal mystery. The story isn't very interesting and neither or the characters. I did manage to finish the book, but, probably won't get the next one.

Murder

The Narrator did a great job with a less than stellar story. I will listen to anything Amanda Ronconi reads.