Book Review: In a Witch's Wardrobe

Book: In a Witch's Wardrobe (A Witchcraft Mystery book #4) by Juliet Blackwell

Edition: Paperback

Description:

Lily Ivory is living her dream of owning a vintage clothing store — and practicing magic on the side. But when she encounters a sinister sleeping, Lily comes face-to-face with a nightmarish evil...

Taking a night off from running her successful San Francisco clothing store, Lily attends a local Art Deco Ball, where vintage fashions steal the show. But when a young woman at the event falls under a mysterious sleeping sickness, Lily senses that a curse was placed on the woman's corsage.

Before Lily can solve the woman's magical ailment, she's asked to assist in investigating a string of poisonings in the Bay Area witchcraft community. She's gained the trust of the local covens by supporting women's charities through her clothing store. But soon Lily suspects that one of her new acquaintances might not be so well-intentioned and could be dabbling in dark magic and deadly botany...



Rating: 5 stars

Review:

In a Witch's Wardrobe has witch and vintage clothing store owner Lily Ivory in an intriguing mystery.

Attending the Art Deco Ball with the mysterious witch Aidan Rhodes should have been a wonderful night out for Lily. However, Lily's evening quickly became strange when a young woman named Miriam bumped into her. Miriam seemed out of sorts and Lily noticed a strange vibration emanating from the young woman. Lily thought perhaps there was something wrong and she should have trusted her intuition because later in the evening Miriam was found passed out on a chaise lounge in the ladies restroom. Trying to check on the unconscious young woman, Lily noticed the corsage that Miriam was wearing and that something wasn't right about it.

She noticed something weird about it and before she could further investigate, the paramedics arrived and took Miriam to the hospital. From what she could gather, she believed a witch may have put a hex on Miriam. Despite Aidan warning her not to get involved, Lily was going to figure out what happened to Miriam and who put a spell on her. After going back to the ladies restroom to get her purse, she saw Miriam's image in the mirror. Somehow Miriam's spirit was trapped in the mirror and was desperately trying to communicate with her. It made no sense that Miriam's spirit should be trapped in the mirror since she's not dead. This new addition to the mystery made her even more determined to solve it.

The curse on Miriam wasn't Lily's only concern, her friend Police Detective Carlos Romero was looking into the suspicious death of Tanya Kolchek, a wiccan who went by the name Tarragon Dark Moon. Since Lily is a witch, he asked if she could find out some information about Tarra because he figured that the people in the wiccan community would most likely speak with her than with the police. However, Lily wasn't so sure about that.

Lily's investigation led her towards plenty of potential suspects from Tarra's boyfriend to a unique coven that has connections to both Miriam and Tarra. There is also the possibility that the Defenders of Morality, a group that has been terrorizing people and businesses they believe to be part of the occult, could be behind both incidents.

This had a very interesting mystery that's filled with magic, humor, drama, ghosts and a little bit of romance. As Lily was trying to find out who was behind both incidents, someone who has magical abilities was working against her nearly every step of the way. While investigating, she received a little help from the grouchy psychic Sailor but their usual reluctant friendship turned to romance. However, Sailor abruptly leaves town makes her wonder if it was really romance at all. Lily really doesn't have the best luck with meeting guys and that's mainly because she's looking for a "normal non-magical" guy but they don't tend to understand the supernatural world she lives in and perhaps a romance with Sailor would have been exactly what she needed. But with him leaving she'll never know. I wonder what made him leave, perhaps the threat of something or someone caused him to have to unexpectedly leave. Maybe this will be followed up in the next book or at some other point in the series.

Even though it's been four years since I've read the third book, thanks to the great writing I found it easy to jump back into this series again. Lily is an interesting character, she can't stand by and not help if she knows someone needs it even if it puts her in danger. I forgot how much I enjoyed this series, the author knows how to create an interesting mystery that centers around the supernatural. I can't wait to read the next book and this time it won't take me another four years before I do.