SPELLBOUND BY MURDER

Summoned to help her grandmother’s crumbling bookshop, a single mother and her snappy daughter discover small-town charm that holds both opportunity and a touch of danger.

Hitting the road with her quippy daughter, 17-year-old Phoebe, aspiring author Veronica Blackthorne isn’t sure how she feels about moving all the way from the southern tip of Florida to Mystic Hollow, Connecticut. But she knows that she couldn’t refuse when her grandmother—who might as well be her parent since her father died and her mother moved to Paris—calls to ask for help running Mystic Hollow Books after a fall. Gran has assured Veronica that the store basically runs itself, but when Veronica arrives, it turns out that the store has more accurately been running itself into the ground. The good news is that Gran’s injuries have been greatly exaggerated—is it so wrong that she just wanted a little company?—and that Phoebe takes to the new environs quickly, just like her mother. The bad news is that vultures are circling the business. Well, if not vultures, then leeches: specifically, Almira Leach, store manager of Fox N Sox Books in nearby Hartford. Rather than just give up, Veronica’s spurred by the interest of potential buyers into trying to monetize all that is good in Mystic Hollow Books, showcasing the store through a literary festival. Veronica’s even secured the services of Adam Whitford, it-boy author of the fantasy world and her sort-of crush. When the festival is soured by murder, Veronica must try to find the culprit before police officer Mack decides that she’s guilty of the crime. Magic is sprinkled throughout—though, like fairy dust, it’s more a topping than a main ingredient.

A competent cozy whose magic itself feels more like a dusting than a spell.