The Trouble With Magic

The Trouble With Magic looked like a light, fluffy, magical mystery. That really appealed to me. I like my mysteries light but not overtly stupid. I sometimes like when they have a bit of a gimmick (see Knit One Kill Two). Unfortunately many of them are fairly insipid, thankfully that was not the case this time.

Maggie O'Neill lives in the same small town where she grew up. She's always been a bit of an outsider, not fitting in to school cliques, nor living her life the way her mother wants her to. At the start of the book she's in a boring job with a jerk for a boss and pretty miserable in general. A chance encounter in a rain storm brings her a new job in a store called Enchantments run by the town witch, Felicity. Unfortunately Felicity is soon accused of murdering her estranged sister so Maggie sets out to prove her innocent.

I loved, loved, loved this book. Silly? Sure. Fluffy? Absolutely, but fun and not insipid. The mystery was a bit meatier than you usually find in this kind of genre mystery and I wasn't sure who did it for quite awhile. I loved Maggie as a character as well as Felicity. The magical stuff totally appealed to that witchy side of me. This was the first challenge to my Off the Shelf challenge. I really wanted to run right out to buy the second title in the series.