Joyce and Jim Lavene

Typically, I haven’t read the first installments of this series (something I intend to fix ASAP), so I was a bit adrift in the opening chapter. That didn’t keep me from being sucked in to the story immediately. The story centers around Molly, Elsie and Olivia, three witches who were hoping to retire and pass on their coven and spell book to a new generation of witches. Of course things don’t always work out as planned. Having made their lives in the non magic community through marriage, the witches had lost their edge on magic. Along the way to this book, they had had also had their spell book stolen and Olivia had been killed, leaving her a ghostly apparition, that is just as frowned upon in the witch community as is non magic users knowing about real magic. The books picks up with Dorothy, Olivia’s daughter, meeting her powerful witch father for the first time. He seems intent only on knowing the daughter her mother had never told him about, however we soon find out that having magical powers doesn’t make it any easier to know when things aren’t always what they seem and this very powerful, renegade witch could be at the heart of all that is wrong. This story takes the reader on a journey exploring the darkest parts of witch history where we see that powerful magic is not immune to fluctuating alliances, political infighting and maneuvering for more power and anyone can get caught in webs of deceit.

The strength of this book as with all the books by these authors, lies in the depth of each character. There are no small parts from the lowliest of servants to the most rich and powerful. The main characters, those of the Wilmington Coven, are delightful. The three retired witches squabble like they must have been doing since they were teens. Each is a strong ego with a colorful story. Olivia’s ghostly handicap doesn’t stop her from getting her own way, to her own detriment at times, death hasn’t mellowed her at all. Molly finds herself the focal point of a murder investigation that could have a profound impact on the magic community and Elsie is realizing that she can finally have all that she wants, even if it isn’t exactly what she thought that would be. Even without reading the previous books, it obvious that each of the women has gone on her own journey and have grown as women and witches. Younger witches Dorothy and Brian seem a bit minor at first, but both manage to make their mark on the story and leave the reader with hope for their future. The true color is reserved for Brian’s rich powerful family and the witch council they serve. The Ewings and The Carringtons got nothing on this back biting conniving group.

This is not typical paranormal or not typical cozy and definitely not typical paranormal cozy. I found it to be loads of fun with plenty of suspense, hilarious humor, and clever plot twists. You won’t know until the last page where all the details settle, but you will be sorry to not be spending more time with these witches when you get there.



5 stars

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.… (mer)

This is one of those series: I can't say it's at all well-written, but I can't stop reading it either. I read Sweet Pepper Hero with the intent of figuring out what it is that keeps me coming back even though the writing drives me just short of crazy.

The writing is choppy, with short sentences and color commentary added in awkwardly; in many ways, it reads more like a middle school or maybe early ESL level of writing. This is probably my biggest complaint. I've always chalked it up to J.J. Cook being a pseudonym for a husband/wife writing team, Joyce and Jim Lavene; I figured something got lost in the team effort. Sadly, Joyce Lavene passed away a few months ago; if the series continues at all it will be just Jim Lavene's voice and it will be interesting to see if that changes the narrative.

The story starts off oddly: I get the impression that this book was meant to have a different plot when they wrote the cliffhanger into the last book, so the first few chapters of Sweet Pepper Hero were spent rapidly "solving" that mystery. It was anti-climatic and again...awkward.

There's also some woeful editing/copyediting, including missing words and sentences that just don't make sense.

It should by all rights go in the big black box, but no, it's staying. In spite of the awkward writing, the Lavene's can create a great story and some solid mystery plotting, although Stella pulls such an insanely off-the-charts TSTL stunt at the end she honestly deserved to get pushed off the side of a mountain. That move was contrary to the intelligent, stubborn and responsible persona the authors had, up until that moment, built for Stella. Then there's Eric. He's a ghost, but if a ghost has to haunt your house, this is the one you want doing the haunting. He cooks, he cleans, he makes sure the light is on and the door open when you come home at night and he's a strapping 6'5" tall blonde. Yes please.

The mystery plotting was really well done and some very nice slight of hand was done that lead me off in a different direction entirely. The ending was quite dramatic for a cozy too, but it's the characters and the setting that are going to keep these books on the shelf and me buying the fifth book, if a fifth book is coming. But mostly, it's going to be Eric. ;)… (mer)

Singularly most frustrating series I've read.

Written in the third person POV by a husband and wife team and unfortunately, it reads like it's written by a husband and wife team - with a bad editor. I'm sorry, but they suck at third person POV; it's all "Stella did this, then Stella said 'x' then Stella went here". It reads like a Dick and Jane book. A good editor could have smoothed this out, made it flow better, but they don't have a good editor as is evident by the number of grammatical errors (of the missing word type - mostly 'a', 'an', 'the' etc.), a lack of clarity, and a few continuity issues. Finally, I don't know who told them ending the books on artificial cliffhangers was a good idea, but it just makes me roll my eyes; it ends a good story on a silly, melodramatic note.

But I like the stories in this series, dammit! I like the characters, I like the relationships the authors have created, I like the back drop of a volunteer fire department; it's not cutesy or frivolous like so many recent cozies. And I really, really like Eric the ghost. The mysteries, too, are decently plotted although this one could have used a lot of polishing. The authors took care not to make the solution obvious, but the journey was a little clunky and ultimately the unmasking wasn't shocking.

I am absolutely going to read the next book because I love the characters and setting in spite of how badly the authors treat both. And if I ever have to be haunted, may I be haunted by a ghost just like Eric.


[PopSugar 2015 Reading Challenge: A book published this year.]… (mer)

I won't continue with this series; it's not working for me.

I rounded up to 3 stars because the characters are good, the setting is solid and the premise is moderately interesting. The thing is, and I've said this before about this writing collaboration (J.J. Cook is a husband/wife team), they don't write well together. The whole thing feels disjointed and lacking both a common voice and cohesive story flow.

Zoe is participating in a food network's food truck race through the southern states. She and her team have to compete over a week long period with other food trucks, meeting challenges and competing for the ultimate prize of 50k. One of the contestants is murdered while they're at their first stop, and her lawyer/romantic interest/team member is suspected of killing the man.

I admit I didn't see the murderer until the reveal - but mostly this was because it was the most ludicrous murder plot I think I've read yet. It just felt so loosely thrown together without any thought to plausibility.

I'm making the book sound worse than it is, but I just want more from my mysteries than what I'm getting here. It had a lot of potential to be fun and interesting, but ultimately it just didn't work for me.… (mer)