Olivia Limoges and the Bayside Book Writers are excited about Oyster Bay's newest resident: bestselling novelist Nick Plumley, who's come to work on his next book. But when Olivia stops by Plumley's rental she finds that he's been strangled to death. Her instincts tell her that something from the past came back to haunt him, but she never expects that the investigation could spell doom for one of her dearest friends...

Review

Spells & Stitches weaves a merry chase that doesn’t impress…

The fourth novel in the Sugar Maples chronicles. Chloe Hobbs, sorceress and knitting extraordinaire, and her chief of police boyfriend Luke are expecting a little buddle of joy. Everything looks on the up and up, until Chloe’s birth doesn’t go exactly as planned. Baby Laria is cute and cuddly, but full of surprises in the sorcery department. Add in Luke’s human family invading the quiet, paranormal village of Sugar Maple, and a nanny troll weaving strange magic—chaos is bound to ensue.

This was my first foray into the world of Sugar Maple, where magic runs rampant and werewolves own the local hardware store. The story is easy to get involved in, and Bretton did a good job of filling me in on all the excitement I missed in the previous books. 

While descriptions and the character personalities are well crafted I thought the book fell short in the plot department. This book was easy to predict and at times I felt that the characters reacted in unrealistic ways. The story wraps up a little too nice and neat, with conflict being very limited. Most of the main conflict seemed manufactured to me, and made the main characters act adverse to their nature.

Luke gets a little overbearing, especially towards the nanny troll, and for a cop doesn’t seem to be too quick at picking up on things that would normally get an eyebrow raise from me. I liked Luke when he was the caring, loving husband and father. Outside of his interactions with Chloe and his family he didn’t seem like a nice guy. Chloe and Luke’s family interactions are probably the most enjoyable part of the story. They’re funny and personable.  Chloe is easy to relate to, and though she fell in the same category as Luke when it came to not paying attention to the right things, I could forgive her a little better because she’s naturally aloof. 

Overall, it was an easy and quick read that left me wanting. If you’re looking for something cute with plenty of snappy one-liners then this book may be one for you. I honestly couldn’t get behind this one completely, but enjoyed it enough to finish. 

Reviewed by Landra

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