WITCHY RESERVATIONS

The first installment in Damore’s Mystic Inn Mystery saga follows a nonpracticing witch as she returns to her hometown after 13 years away.

A successful events planner living in Chicago, Angelica Nightingale seems to be living a life gone right. Her career is taking off, and she’s dating a well-to-do (albeit boring) accountant. But when she gets notified that her beloved aunt Thelma is close to death, she’s compelled to return to Silverlake, Georgia, a community of magical beings located in the Deep South where Angelica grew up, fell in love for the first time, and got her heart broken (“Silverlake was enchanted. No, really. You wouldn’t find the town on a map or listed on any tourist website. That is, unless you were a witch”). Returning to Silverlake dredges up memories she would rather not revisit—particularly those surrounding Vance, her ex-boyfriend. It turns out that her manipulative aunt isn’t gravely ill at all—her hotel is struggling to stay afloat, as are most of the businesses in Silverlake, and she needs her niece’s expertise to help save the magical place. As Angelica plans a fall festival to kick-start the town’s economy, her aunt becomes entangled in a murder mystery, and the young witch—who hasn’t used her powers since she left home—is forced to work with Vance, now a lawyer, to clear Thelma’s name. Blending elements of paranormal fantasy, cozy mystery, and a hint of romance, the novel is light in tone and often humorous. The mystery and romance elements are adeptly deployed, and Angelica makes for an effortlessly endearing Everywoman hero. The flaws lie in the fantasy elements, particularly the flimsy worldbuilding—if “normal folk” can’t enter Silverlake, who is supposed to attend the fall festival?

A flawed but fun narrative that will appeal to fans of Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse saga.