Review: Secondhand Spirits (Witchcraft Mystery #1) by Juliet Blackwell ★★★

Lily Ivory is not your average witch. Her spell-casting powers tend to draw mischievous spirits while keeping normal humans at a distance. But now her vintage clothing store could give her a chance to make friends in San Francisco....

Lily hopes for a normal life when she opens Aunt Cora's Closet. With her magical knack for vintage fashion -she can sense vibrations of the past from clothing and jewelry—her store becomes a big hit.

But when a client is murdered and children start disappearing from the Bay Area, Lily may be the only one who can unravel the crime. She tries to keep her identity a secret while investigating, but it's not easy—especially under the spells of sexy "mythbuster" Max Carmichael and powerful witch Aidan Rhodes. Will Lily's witchy ways be forced out of the closet?

Review:

Cute paranormal mystery.

I enjoyed this. I listened to it as an audiobook and it's narrated by Xe Sands who has the most wonderful, easy-to-listen-to voice.

The story introduces us to Lily Ivory. A twenty-something witch and vintage clothing expert and store owner. Funnily enough, I actually have a bit of a thing for vintage clothing and period costumery myself. There's this wonderful Facebook page I follow called Au fil des passions to get my daily fix. It has photos of dresses, accessories and corsetry, etc from various history museums (honestly, the attention to detail when you consider so much of it was done by hand is astonishing) as well as elaborate modern day designs and famous Hollywood movie costumes. If you have any interest in clothing as art, as I do, you should check it out!

Anyway, I digress (sorry). Lily not only sells the clothes and has a keen eye for recommending and obtaining them, but I loved the fact that she also wears them herself in her day-to-day life. From 1960s polka dot wiggle dresses to 1940s shirt dresses. She reminded me an awful lot of the character Melinda Gordon from the T.V show Ghost Whisperer, actually. Just swap antique shop for vintage clothing and Ghost whisperer for Witch, and you've pretty much got Lily Ivory. She also has that same quiet yet strangely endearing personality. She sweet. She's likeable. She's intelligent. She's attractive. And I think she might turn out to be quite a talented witch too once we get to know her more.

A lot of this book was introduction. There's obviously more to come in terms of why Lily is not with a witch Coven and what happened in her past, etc. She meets a couple of interesting male characters in this book that make me intrigued about future romantic subplots. Although, I'm not certain either one of them is ideal for Lily. Both could lead to heartache for different reasons...

The plot follows a missing girl who is believed to have been taken by a water demon called La Llorona. The mystery plot wasn't exactly fast-paced; it was perhaps a little sedate for my tastes, but I understand a lot of time had to be devoted to set up and establishing characters.

I did love Oscar her new goblin familiar/pig. He was adorable! I love it when they have an animal or some kind of small supernatural creature as a sidekick!

I'll definitely check out the next one the next time I want a relaxing, enjoyable audio experience.

3 Stars ★★★