Bats, hats, and talking cats abound!
Are you ready for your annual dose of Halloween hijinx, magic, and mystery? Then brew up a cuppa, give your cauldron a stir, and carve out the time for some witchy fun in this holiday anthology.Featuring loads of spooky tales brewed up by 16 of your favorite paranormal cozy mystery authors, including:Tegan Maher, Misty Bane, Regina Welling and Erin Lynn, … including:
Tegan Maher, Misty Bane, Regina Welling and Erin Lynn, Leighann Dobbs, Ava Mallory, Stephanie Damore, Constance Barker, M.Z. Andrews, Mona Marple, Elle Adams, April Aasheim, Jenna St. James, Nikki Haverstock, K.M. Waller, and Amorette Anderson.
more
What an EXCELLENT collection!
I have read 4 of the 15 stories so far. And they were, all 4 of them, amazing!
Mona Marple’s Apple Bobbing Murder – 5 stars
Excellent story!
I SO LOVE Connie and Sage together! It just spoke to me, this story. Connie, all kind and smart and relatable, and Sage, all outgoing and flirty and fun. This story reads perfectly well as a standalone. A well-written and engaging story, a great short murder mystery!
Amorette Anderson’s Gone with the Grimoire – 5 stars
Imaginative!
Marley, together with Penny and their familiars owl Skili and cat Turkey, investigate a break-in at the chocolate factory. They find out some unexpected things! I loved it! Lighthearted, fun! Imaginative magical things.
Leighann Dobbs’ The Case of the Purloined Pumpkin – 5 stars
Such fun!
From Cat P.I. Earl’s POV, I loved that! He is the brains, of course, and his human Ray the brawn. I loved this story so much! Such fun! This story has great series potential.
K.M. Waller’s All’s Fairy on Halloween – 5 stars
Mayhem!
This is the prequel to one of my favorite books ever. I love Juniper to bits. Obsessed with the human world, she can’t resist the Halloween temptation. Funny because this human (me!) is obsessed with fairies, so this was the perfect story for me. And what do witches have to do with it all? Just read this cute, fun story and find out!
This was a blast! So many fun writers I really enjoyed even though I got this because Amorette Anderson has a story in it. Her quirky characters and talking cat will entertain you. Recommended for a break from reality.
This anthology contains the following stories:
An Enchanted Halloween by Tegan Maher
Old Ghost with New Tricks by Elle Adams
Secrets, Soul Cakes, and Murder by Jenna St. James
Beswitched by Ava Mallory
The Pumpkin Problem by April Aasheim
All’s Fairy on Halloween by K.M. Waller
Semisweet Surprise by Stephanie Damore
The Case of The Purloined Pumpkin by Leighann Dobbs
The Case of the Foretold Fatality by Nikki Haverstock
We Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts! by M.Z. Andrews
Scaring the Potion Off Her by Samantha Silver
Gone with the Grimoire by Amoretto Anderson
Halloween Hanky Panky by Constance Barker
The Curse of the Headless Horseman by Misty Bane
Apple Bobbing Horror by Mona Marple
I enjoyed most of these stories. While they are Halloween stories, they are definitely of the spooky variety and not horror, which is why I recommend this anthology.
Really enjoyed this collection of short paranormal Halloween cozy mysteries. Each story left me wanting to check out more of the series they were part of. Very good.
The averaged-out star rating of all 15 stories is 3.3 stars. Considering that I enjoyed 9 of the stories well enough to want to try reading more by those authors, I was tempted to bump it up to 4 stars. But since the editing was appalling throughout (especially in the second to last story) I decided to round down to 3 stars.
An Enchanted Halloween by Tegan Maher
This one had me at “fox familiar”. I enjoyed the fun of this story and the characters enough to want to read the rest of the books in this series.
Old Ghost with New Tricks by Elle Adams
I liked that this one was a bit scary! It ended up being the scariest story in this book. A perfect read for the Halloween season.
Secrets, Soul Cakes, and Murder by Jenna St. James
Just like with the first story in this anthology, this one hooked me enough to want to hunt down more books by this author.
Beswitched by Ava Mallory
The writing in this one was choppy and I often couldn’t picture what was even happening in a scene.
The Pumpkin Problem by April Aasheim
This story STUCK with me. For several days afterward, I just kept thinking “man that was GOOD!” Absolutely going to read more by this author.
All’s Fairy on Halloween by K.M. Waller
SUCH FUN!! This was a bundle of joy wrapped in fairy magic. I didn’t want it to end.
Semisweet Surprise by Stephanie Damore
The storyline in this was very clever and got me excited to pick up the next story in this series.
The Case of the Purloined Pumpkin by Leighann Dobbs
I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy while reading anything in my life. The entire time I was reading I had a big goofy smile on my face. You will wish for a cat to snuggle after reading. My favourite story in the book.
The Case of the Foretold Fatality by Nikki Haverstock
Completely enjoyed this one. It felt like a proper mystery.
We Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts! by M.Z. Andrews
I liked how different each member of the friend group was, and I enjoyed parts of this, but it kind of felt too long and most of it was just bickering.
Scaring the Potion off Her by Samantha Silver
I will definitely be diving into the rest of this series whenever I can. I’m hooked. Also, this may be my first time seeing a goat familiar.
Gone with the Grimoire by Amorette Anderson
This was cute, and I loved all of the mentions of chocolate, but it all fell a bit flat.
Halloween Hanky Panky by Constance Barker
I didn’t really like this one much. Not a fan of the writing style. I did love Pokey and Charlotte though. Also, I was very sad that the theme of mentioning pumpkin punch in each short story wasn’t done in this one.
The Curse of the Headless Horseman by Misty Bane
This was a fun enough story but there were so many mistakes in it that it honestly took away from the enjoyment. Incorrect spelling/words, letters missing, extra words inserted, rogue periods… it was too much. This can’t have been edited at all.
That being said, the author has a fun writing style, and I’m willing to give the rest of the series a try and hope the editing is better.
Apple Bobbing Horror by Mona Marple
It was fine but also a bit boring.
Secrets, Soul Cakes, and Murder by Jenna St. James
What a great start to a new series. Wonderful characters and a good mystery with a couple of suspects. It’s fun to watch Serena the witch explain about magic to Grant the human. Can’t wait to read more about everyone in this town, along with Shayla.
All’s Fairy on Halloween: A Fairy Godmother Mystery Prequel by K.M. Waller
Juniper has the best of intentions but she’s put too much trust in a 12-year old wood nymph. The humans are celebrating Halloween and Juniper and Iris decide to put on their version of a human Halloween party. Princess Leaf has mischief on her mind though and it’s up to Juniper to use her wits to fix things before her parents return. Charming characters in this fun story from one of my favorite series.
Semisweet Surprise by Stephanie Damore
Charming prequel to another favorite series. We learn the time when Claire acquired her special abilities and her connection to Nick and other ghosts. Wonderful prequel.
The Case of the Purloined Pumpkin by Leighann Dobbs
Cute story about a Private Investigating cat who gets his human to cooperate to solve the case. Mystery with some fun twists.
The Case of the Foretold Fatality by Nikki Haverstock
Interesting story that takes place at an 80th high school reunion where one will die and one will be the murderer. There are only 5 people left attending so it’s up to Ella to figure out who did it. A very interesting group of suspects. Bittersweet ending. Great descriptions. I felt like I was right there with Ella.
Scaring the Potion Off Her – Samatha Silver
Ali is a PI witch trying to find who stole a potion punch. Very clever. Her grandmother Rosie is very clever, as well, handling another problem. Looking forward to reading more of this series.
Gone with the Grimoire – Amorette Anderson
I really enjoyed this story and characters. Marley and Penny and their familiars work well together to solve the mystery. Looking forward to reading more about them.
The Curse of the Headless Horseman – Misty Bane
Quick short read with Granny, the ghost, telling how she met the Headless Horseman
Apple Bobbing Murder – Mona Marple
Great little Halloween mystery. Love Connie and Sage. These are new characters for me and I would definitely read more about them.
I loved reading this anthology! It certainly put me in the mood for Halloween. The stories in this were all excellent! I’m not going to lie. I did read favorite authors first. I knew I was guaranteed to enjoy their stories and I did! I fell asleep several times with the idea of just going to read this one story. I had the plan that I would read one a day as a treat in anticipation of Halloween. That plan quickly went sideways. I was having too much fun! I thought after I finished reading those authors, (they know who they are), I would slow down and do the one a day. I was trying hard to make this book last a long time. That did not happen. I was having just as much fun with the rest of the stories. This anthology is one you definitely want to have in your collection. They are cozy mysteries so you might expect dead bodies and scares. What I loved most about this anthology was that each story captured the fun and anticipation of Halloween perfectly! I was not let down in a single story. That can be difficult to achieve with so many different authors. Do I recommend this book for Halloween anytime of the year reading? You bet I do!
*This anthology started out with a hiccup. One of the stories was accidentally left out. That has been corrected. I actually waited a few days to read the book so I could start with that story. As you can tell, it was worth the wait. The collection is complete at the time of this review.*
GONE WITH THE GRIMOIRE: A MARLEY THE WITCH SPECIAL” by Amorette Anderson is part of The Pumpkins & Potions – A Paranormal Cozy Mystery Halloween Anthology …It is a WONDERFUL Tale of Marley Greene…( and her Familiar Owl ..Skili) and Penny Banks Shire ( and her Familiar Feline …Turkey) as together They investigate a local mysterious break-in at a Chocolate Factory in the nearby town of Melrose….not far from their hometown of Hillcrest. And as the story is set in late Autumn close to Halloween…there’s a distinctly festive air to the mystery. Be sure to have your favorite beverage & plenty of tasty chocolates at hand to read this short story of witching..
sleuthing…
magic …
and caloric indulgence!
Ms.Anderson is an extremely talented writer…and this tale is particularly delightful!
Read and see. Much enjoyed and Highly Recommended. I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced Copy of this book.
I love every author in this anthology. They each have contributed a short story from one of their series. If you’ve never read their books, this is a great way to treat yourself to the fun series they each have. They’re all unique!
Review for Gone With the Grimoire
This was a fun little mystery in which Marley and Penny join together to solve! It was so much fun to read! I still love Turkey!
Gone with the Grimoire
This is a short Halloween story with Marley and Penny. Annie asks them to visit a chocolate factory in an adjacent town which has been burglarized. The owner Nikki is the daughter of an old friend of Annie’s who made the best chocolate. Unfortunately, Nikki’s chocolate doesn’t stand up to her mom’s standards. Marley and Penny along with their familiars solve this witchy mystery.
For lovers of Amorette Anderson’s Hillcrest mysteries, you won’t want to miss this short story. For readers new to the series, you’ll want to read more!
I received an ARC copy of this book for an honest review.
This short story is really fun and entertaining to read.
Annie asks Penny and Marley to investigate a break in at her friends chocolate factory, obviously as sleuths they jump at the chance.
That’s all I’m going to say about the book apart from it’s a nice quick and easy read
Gone With the Grimore by Amorette Anderson is a short and sweet cozy with Amorette Anderson’s wonderful characters of Hillcrest Witches Coven. Marley is the MC in this, along with her familiar Skilli. She, Penny and Turkey went to Edna’s at Annie’s request, to figure out who broke into her factory and trashed it. I cant give away all of the book, you will need to read it!