Bubble... Bubble...
June Heal has nothing to lose when she relocates her homeopathic cure shop, A Dose of Darla, from the flea market booth in her home town, to a quaint shop in the cozy but unusual little town of Whispering Falls, Kentucky. Or so it seems.
Cures and trouble...
Whispering Falls has a lot of secrets. From talking snow globes to whispering animals not to mention a few sprinkles of fairy dust, June realizes Whispering Falls is more magical than she thought. . .literally.
Magic stirs...
June discovers she was born into a family of psychics, and her homeopathic cures truly are magical. Unfortunately, they are not magical enough to save her from being the number one murder suspect when a member of the community that she had just had a disagreement with shows up face down in the lake with June’s lucky charm in the victim’s grasp.
And troubles double...
Add to that an attraction to her high school best friend, Sheriff Oscar Park and Mr. Prince Charming, her cat, is stealing charms from Belle’s Baubles, June is forced to clear her name in more ways than murder. After all, they don’t have cauldrons in jail.
My Thoughts :
A cute cover and a very promising blurb led me to add this book to my Amazon wishlist when it was recommended to me by the site. I like a good cozy mystery and love them if there is something paranormal involved and this one seemed to be just the thing for me. However within a few chapters, despite a great concept, I felt like giving up on this book. Why did I want to give up? Not because of the characters. They were nice enough and I wanted to get to know them more. They storyline was not bad and the conept was new and inviting.
So what was the problem? The writing style and editing was horrible. Now I know I am not perfect and know that I make a lot of mistakes but I am not writing a book and selling it. Just posting my views for anyone who wants to read them. However it seems this book was never read or edited before it was published because I can't believe anyone would have given it the go ahead otherwise.
Gaps in the story, jumps in the dialogue and just all round confusion. Most of the time I could follow the story but sometimes I wondered if I had missed a page or at least a few sentences. Back tracking and re-reading sections was a waste of time because it didn't help bring any relief from the muddled writing that really let this book down.
Despite leaving me disoriented I did like the characters and concept. It was a quick read as soon as I realised that going back over the pieces I thought I had missed was a waste of time. It has a lot going for it and the magicial elements while slightly forced and sometimes taken for granted, were interesting enough to keep me going till the end.
I do have the second part in this series (both books were a gift) and I am really torn about wether I want to read the sequel or not. I am worried that the mistakes made in this book will also be found inside the next installment but on the other hand I am very curious about Whispering Falls and June. What else will she find out about her family and her gifts. It is all quite addictive but at the same time the first book has put me off.
Only time will tell...maybe the author read some of the feedback before writing the second part.
2 comments:
I felt the exact same way about this book! I really wanted to enjoy it but it drove me crazy instead. I did go on to read the second one and while there was some improvement, it was marginal at best. I'm not sure I can bring myself to read the third one in this series.
I did want to read this series as soon as I found out about it, but as it is self published and not available in paperback, I could not buy it. And reading your review makes me very happy I did not, as I really cannot cope with books as badly written as you tell me.
Thanks for the review Amber.
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