Rating:
Amelia is dumped by her boyfriend, fired from her job and kicked out of her apartment, all in the same day. Then, she inherits a house and a cake shop from her estranged aunt, who turns out to have been a witch. To make things even stranger, a man dies in the store and Amelia isn’t convinced it was an accident.
This book starts with a long list of Australian expressions that people form other English speaking countries apparently think are mistakes so the author, who is Australian, took the time to point out how that’s not really the case. As a non-native Englsih speaker I appreciated some of the explanations, but this was the first time I’ve seen something like that.
Though cheezy at times, this book is still fun. I don’t know why, but I laughed when Amelia tried to suffocate her boyfriend with a stuffed koala while he was in the hospital.
After the silly setup, the book becomes really good and the uthor is great at introducing magic and creating atmosphere. Amelia finds new rooms in the house that were not there before, she finds a spell book. She senses someone is watching her, pulls the curtains on aside and it turns out she is right – there is a figure standing in the shadows across the street.
The magic itselfis creative though a little convenient. The characters actually use magic at multiple points in the story and it feels like a genuine part of the world, not a gimmick.
The villain and the reason for murder are kind of funny given the current political situation in Australia.
There were many elements of this book that I liked, however the mystery wasn’t very good. After a man died in her store, Amelia continuosly insisted that it was a murder even though there was nothing to suggest that. It’s not clear why she was so obsessed with the event. An explanation was offered but it just didn’t seem realistic. The main characters conducted an investigation of sort, but the answer kind of fell into their lap. It was all just so unsatisfying.
This was a cozy, magic book and I thought the author could write a cozy fantasy, but I didn’t particularly care for the mystery here.