A Potion to Die For: A Magic Potion Mystery

Carly Bell Hartwell owns and operates the Little Shop of Potions in Hitching Post, Alabama. Hitching Post is the number one spot for couples to get married (and sometimes divorced) and her love potions certainly keep her in business. That is until the day that she discovers Nelson Winston, the town's lawyer, dead in her shop, holding one of her potions. The problem is that Carly didn't kill Nelson and she never sold him a potion, so Carly must find the person who framed her and wanted Nelson dead. I've really enjoyed Heather Blake's other series, the Witchcraft Mysteries, and when I heard she was writing another witchy series, I was excited. Finally release day rolled around and I couldn't wait to immediately start A Potion to Die For. I'm happy to report that A Potion to Die For lived up to all my expectations of a really interesting and tantalizing debut in a new series! Carly is a fun character. She's nursing a broken heart from local police office, Dylan Johnston, and after two failed attempts to get married to Dylan, she's trying to heal and move on with her life. Unfortunately with the murder of Nelson Winston she literally comes face to face with Dylan again and the results are hotter and more sparkly than fireworks!! Carly and Dylan certainly still have chemistry and Heather Blake provides us readers with lots of toe-curling moments between the two of them!! Carly and Dylan aside there is a lot to love about the occupants of Hitching Post. There are her crazy aunts, triplet sisters - one that wields a shotgun at anyone that tries to enter her property. Like crazy mama's? Well Carly has one that you're not going to forget in a hurry!! And you can't miss Delia, Carly's cousin who has the misfortune to be born just minutes after Carly, meaning she doesn't control the family "secret potion", the infamous Leilara. Since Delia runs a shop of hexes she sure would like to get her hands on it!! This mystery was really well plotted out and left me stumped. Even when the murderer is presented to Carly, I still couldn't believe it!! Hitching Post is a beautiful town full of southern charm, ladies and gents that sip ice tea and magic oozing from every corner. I was absolutely charmed by the occupants, the town and the mystery and I can't wait for another chance to experience murder and mayhem with Carly and her family.

It was a fun little book. It is really more cute Southern than witchcraft, but as mystery is was worth the read. There is a nice assortment of quirky characters, twists in who is really in with whom, and some fun scenes. There are enough clues to point you in several wrong directions and the end, while not perfect, is logical and fits with the clues. That is one of my pet peeves in a mystery, the reader should be able to figure it out along with the hero. Throw the killer in in the last three pages and expect to see a 1 star from me. Some downsides: If you are looking for oddly skin tinted, hooked nosed, spell casting, Disney/Oz/Harry Potter witches, this ain't them. The regular townspeople of Hitching Post seem to not be bothered at all by the witches down the block. Magic actually plays a small part in solving the mystery. If you are looking for a 'reveal the killer' spell, it isn't here. The mystery is solved by reasoning and discovery. There are some of the other crutches of modern mystery writing, like conveniently poor cell reception. So it goes. I would buy another Heather Blake.

This was so good! I like a good witchy cozy sometimes and I've been wanting to read this author's series for quite sometime now. Luckily, this is an online book discussion group book for next week, or I might not have started with this exact series. It's a bit older, but I would call it a hidden gem. The characters in this small Southern town were awesome and so funny sometimes! I got the biggest kick out of Carly's aunt Marjie chasing people away from her property with a shotgun. She ran an inn, but it was old and dilapidated that if someone came along in a suit, she immediately figured they were up to no good aka wanting to buy her out. It was a really twisty mystery with a lot of great red herrings. Carly was a known healing witch and I enjoyed how she made her potions, but there was someone out to get her or get revenge on her by framing her with a body planted in her shop. I definitely hadn't thought of the person who ended up being the killer. The showdown was really good and a little bit funny. I didn't really want to like Delia, Carly's cousin who is the complete opposite of a healer witch, but there was just something about her that was actually likable. I'm hoping that the cousins can learn to get along better, and it sounded like things were looking up by the end of the book. I'll definitely be reading the next two books!

Great characters, love the small town, the interaction between the characters is believable you leArn to care about what happens to them.

What a lovely start to this series. I really do like all the characters and, oh my, Carly and Dylan - what a love story.

When I am cleaning house exercising on my Exercycle I want something light airy and comical and this fits the bill

A fun and refreshing quirky story. I really enjoyed it, looking forward to see the sequel "One Potion in the Grave".

My mum has been enjoying her previous series & she says this new one is really well written & fun,a good cozy read