Scandal & Gretel is the first book in a new paranormal cozy mystery series. If you like adventure, fabled stories, and secret societies, then one-click this book today for a mixed dose of magic and macabre.Turns out there’s a lot at stake for the literary witches of Bohemian Lake, like being tied to one.Bohemian Lake’s bookstore regularly spotlights a 19th-century author. This month it just … This month it just happens to be a duo—the Brothers Grimm—and the adventure book club is off to explore the medieval magic of the Black Forest in South Western Germany. Part witch and part witch-hunter, Sera Popescu whose conflicting ancestry stems from Europe, is excited to see the half-timbered homes, hear the cuckoo clocks and travel over the narrow cobblestone streets. But the fairy tale scenario gets a little too real when one of the book club members opens up the cottage oven during the tours first Black Forest stop.
Could the charred remains belong to the Gingerbread Hag or is this just a prank for the tourists? As if things weren’t grim enough, when they return to town, they discover two children are missing and their host has been arrested for murder.
Now, holed up in a small German village full of riled up witch-haters, it’s up to Sera to find the story’s happy ending—or wind up over the pyre.
“Fairytale fans get ready to hear the cuckoo clocks, taste the gingerbread and experience murder most Grimm—first of the Bookish Adventures in the new Witch-Lit mystery set.”
For those of you who are new to my books, the world of Bohemian Lake series is comprised of multiple sets. Each series focuses on a different Bohemian resident(s), although all of the books intersect. Characters cross books all the time.
Bookish Adventures in Witch-Lit Series
Book 1: Scandal & Gretel
Book 2: Hyde & Seek
Book 3: Night of the Living Well-Read
Recommended Reading Order by Date Published:
A Penning Trouble Mystery: Murder, She Floats
Haunted House Flippers Cookies, Corpses & the Deadly Haunt
A Penning Trouble Mystery: Murder, She Slopes
Haunted House Flippers: Candy Canes, Corpses & the Gothic Haunt
Bohemian Murder Manor: Gypsies, Traps & Missing Thieves
Bohemian Murder Manor: Make-Believes & Lost Memories
Haunted House Flippers: Crumb Cake, Corpses & the Run-of-the-Mill
A Penning Trouble Mystery: Murder, Ye Bones
Bohemian Festival Fiasco: Nuttier than Pecan Pie
Bohemian Murder Manor: Ouija, Death & Wicked Witchery
Haunted House Flippers: Crème Eggs, Corpses & the Farmhouse Fixer
Bookish Adventures in Witch-Lit: Scandal & Gretel
Hexing Holidays in Bohemian Lake: Mistletoe and Hauntings (12 Cozy Mystery Carols Anthology)
Bookish Adventures in Witch-Lit: Scandal & Gretel
A Penning Trouble Mystery: Murder in the Catacombs
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Scandal & Gretel (Bohemian Lake Book 12), my teth read from author Rachel Stapleton and it won’t be my last. Extremely well written, the characters, well developed. I’m a character reader, I get into the characters. Who and what they are. Why they do the things they do. The things that make a reader get invested into the characters and thereby the book and this book has it all! No matter the genre you can always count on a good read, I will be reading more by prolific author Rachel Stapleton. (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 – July 24, 2018).
When new Bohemian Lake resident, Sera Popescu, begins her new job at the local bookstore, Ye Olde Gas Lamp Literary, the book club is just finishing up their reading of Hansel & Gretel. However, the Bohemian Adventure book club is not your run-of-the-mill club. After the members read and discuss their selections, the entire group packs up and travels to the setting of their readings. So, no study of Hansel & Gretel would be complete for this group without a trip to the famed Black Forest!
Sera is to accompany the group acting as the personal assistant to bookstore owner and writer, Nelle Story. Among the group is Sera’s co-worker, Hansen Dressler and his sister, Dr. Gretchen Dressler who were born and reared in this fabled destination. And with the variety of personalities in the traveling book club, the trip promises to be interesting. But things get more than interesting when on the group’s first tour (of the infamous witch’s Gingerbread House), they discover a dead body stuffed into the cottage’s huge oven.
As with all the books in the Bohemian Lake series, the plot is interesting and different, the characters charming, and the dialogue pretty snappy. This one is also spooky with thrills, mystery, and even some romance. I enjoyed getting to know more about the new witch in town (who originally appeared in Book 10 of the series “Ouija, Death, and Wicked Witchery,” and look forward to getting even better acquainted with her in the future.
Scandal & Gretel is the first Lit Witch book, but the twelfth book in the Bohemian Lake series. This book was very interesting. It presents a totally different tale of Hansel and Gretel. I really like the character of Sera. Her adventures in the Black Forest were quite creepy. Is anyone in the book who they seem to be? This book really captured my interest and I could not put it down. If you enjoy well written, magical mysteries, you should read this book!
First in the Bookish Adventures in Witch-Lit series.
I just love this author’s stories! She has several series that cross into each other but follow different residents of the Bohemian Lake community. I haven’t read all of them yet, but I’m trying! I think this is my favorite so far. It’s a bit darker than some of the others but still a cozy. This particular one is set in the Black Forest region of Germany which sounds fascinating and a little creepy rather than in Bohemian Lake. I really like Sera our main character and can’t wait to see how her powers develop.
I received an ARC. This is my honest review.
Only with a group from Bohemian Lake would a visit to the Black Forest be so wild, wacky, lethal and exciting!
No small children nibbling gingerbread like mice here, no plague or famine, but certainly a few folks who are a little to wild with burning things up- like books and little old women. Echoes of a different much darker period of time or two in history- hysteria lurks in the broken darkness of too many hearts and minds.
A valiant, but confusing, group from Bohemian Lake works hard to enjoy their trip – and later works hard just to stay alive! Bohemian Lake folks seem to be infused with a wide variety of gifts: fun, supernatural and other- but their habits collectively of getting in trouble would seem to make them much more fun to read about from afar, than to visit or travel with!
More adventures surely lie ahead! I can hardly wait to read them!
Sera Popescu is a half-witch who is new to the Bohemian Lake area. She has a job at the bookstore and is joining the Bohemian Lake’s Adventure Book club. The book of the month is Hansel and Gretel and the club is visiting the Black Forest. In a convoluted tale of Hansel and Gretel the group is waylaid in their trip investigating missing young women, missing children, and a search for a special book.
I enjoyed this book and look forward to more of the Bookish Adventures. The Bohemian Lake series encompasses the citizens of Bohemian Lake and their adventures and the Bookish Adventures are just a new part of this series.
Suspenseful!
The blurb made me SO excited! Sera goes to the Black Forest and what she finds / sees / experiences there! I love the fact the story is set in the Black Forest. I’ve been there and it’s so charming! So that made this book extra special for me. But the Black Forest is not only charming, but also very, very creepy!!! Hansel and Gretel, just not as you know it! And there’s a cat. A black cat. Mysterious…
The book was really suspenseful! I really liked it! And I was wrong about the culprit, which I always like very much; I like being surprised in a mystery! At times, a little more of Sera’s thoughts and feelings would have been nice, I think Sera would come alive more. For example when she finds the burnt body. That would freak me out! Yet Sera’s feelings about it weren’t described at all. That would lift this story even more, but I really enjoyed it as is! And it was a very interesting case! I would’ve liked to have seen a bit more magic, but I’m sure there’s more magic in Sera’s future. Because it’s very clear at the end: Sera has a lot of unanswered questions still and there’s definitely more to come!