Welcome to Everlasting, Maine, where there’s no such thing as normal.Anna Crawford is well aware her town is filled with supernaturals, but she isn’t exactly willing to embrace her paranormal gifts. Her aunt says she’s a witch-in-denial. All Anna wants is to live a quiet “normal” life and run her business, Witch’s Brew Coffee Shop and Bakery. But everything is about to be turned upside down the … down the moment Jackson Argent walks into her life.
Jackson isn’t sure why he agreed to come back to his boyhood home of Everlasting. It’s like a spell was cast and he couldn’t say no. Covering the Cranberry Festival isn’t exactly the hard-hitting news this reporter is used to. But when a local death is ruled an accident, and the police aren’t interested in investigating, he takes it upon himself to get to the bottom of the mystery. To do that, he’ll need to enlist the help of the beautiful coffee shop owner.
It soon becomes apparent things are not what they seem and more than coffee is brewing in Everlasting.
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4 Star review of Fooled Around and Spelled (The Happily Everlasting Series #3) by Michelle M Pillow
Audio Review:
Michelle M Pillow is a new author to me as is the narrator B.J. Harrison and I have no idea why that is. It’s a cozy mystery set in Everlasting, Maine (love the name) and one that I found enjoyable.
There are twists, turns and surprises in Fooled Around and Spelled as Anna Crawford buries her head in the sand as she tries to deny her paranormal abilities and focus on running Witch’s Brew Coffee Shop and Bakery (again I just love the name).
All that changes when Jackson Argent, a reporter returns home to Everlasting to report on the local festival. When a a body turns up, he isn’t satisfied with the findings and decides to investigate and asks Anna to help him. What follows is a story filled with romance, mystery, humour, secrets and danger, with enough clues to satisfy my inner detective spirit.
The narrator BJ Harrison was also new to me but I thoroughly enjoyed the voices that were used and they brought the story to life for me and enhanced my enjoyment of the story.
Fooled Around and Spelled In Love is book 3 in The Happily Everlasting Series of cozy mysteries and the first by Michelle Pillow in the series. If you’ve ever read a book by Mrs. Pillow, you know she tends toward the fun and funny. She did not disappoint with this one.
As with Once Hunted Twice Shy, this book balances mystery with romance and adventure pretty evenly. I’ve seen a few reviews that criticized these two for being less than the first in the series, but my guess it’s people who don’t actually like romance writing those. That being said, there IS definitely romance in this book. That also being said, I enjoyed it thoroughly and loved getting to know Anna and Jackson. Their path to each other and to solving the mystery was a lot of fun. The mystery itself had a rather interesting twist.
All in all, if you like your mystery with a good dose of romance and some fun paranormal tidbits, this is totally for you!
Love Michelle Pillow’s books.
This story pulls you in and won’t let go until the end. The characters are well written, likable and believable! Excellent book!
I’ve enjoyed this series so far, and this book is no exception. This is the third book in the Happily Everlasting series, a set of cozy paranormal mysteries, each written by a different author with the same town and many of the same characters in common. The town is full of supernaturals who try to shield who they are from the outside world. This book centers around Anna Crawford; ‘witch-in-denial’, owner of a coffee shop and bakery called the Witch’s Brew, her Aunt Polly (loved Polly!) and an investigative reporter, Jackson Argent. mysteriously assigned to cover the towns annual, month-long cranberry festival. The story is good, the characters are likeable, and now I really want a cup of coffee and some cranberry orange scones! If you like stories with paranormal themes, humor, well-done characters and a good mystery, you’ll enjoy this book.
Anna Crawford, baker extraordinaire and long suffering niece, is a witch in denial. She’d rather people fell in love with her cooking than subject them to her magic. Having been under the thrall of a spell herself, she never wants anyone to feel that out of control.
Jackson Argent, former Everlasting resident, has returned to cover the Cranberry festival. He has fond memories of the town, well…at least until his dad used the family “talent” to steal. Jackson can also make his consciousness leave his body but he uses it to get the scoop rather than rob people!
But bodies are being found at an alarming rate and one of the towns deputies believes Anna is involved! Anna’s Aunt Polly is still causing mayhem in the background and I love this woman. She is a breath of fresh air but the way she is oblivious to poor Peteys crush on her is brilliant!
With lots of red herrings, I did not have a clue who did it until they were unmasked. Brilliant characters, snappy dialogue and suitably small town setting!