This is the 1st of 6 books in The Wicked Witches of the Midwest Fantasy Series. Note that I listened to the book rather than reading it. On Audible, it's rated 4.4 stars, but the written book on Amazon is rated 4.6 stars. On Audible, books 2-6 of this series are all rated 4.6 - 4.8 stars, so I expect to enjoy them more.
The Audible version is 5 hrs. and 18 min. and the linked paperback is 230 pages.

This book is rated 13+ because Aunt Tillie needs some time to sell her homemade wine at a local Renaissance faire. There are mild references to alcohol and there are men and women in bed with each other, but there's no funny business. They are just sleeping or innocently cuddling.

Because no one is in agreement with Aunt Tillie's plans to sell her homemade wine, mostly because it's illegal for her to do so, she decided to get rid of her family for the weekend. The main focus characters are zapped into her twisted version of a fairy tale book that Aunt Tillie used to read to them as children. They have to learn lessons to move on to the next chapter in order to finish the book and go home.

People who enjoy twists on fairy tale stories or stories where people need to learn a lesson.

The idea that they had to learn something to move on and I liked the relationship between Bay and Landon.

That I didn't realize that while this is book 1 in a series, it actually comes 9th in the timeline order for this universe, which also includes shorts and the Wicked Witches of the Midwest Mystery Series. That explains why there were references to things that occurred previously, even in the description of the book. The description starts with, "Look out Hemlock Cove, Aunt Tillie is on a rampage. What else is new, right?" That already indicates that there was a history that readers of this book wouldn't be aware of. Too bad I didn't pick up on that.

I also didn't like the narration. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe it's because the book is written in 1st person, but when the narrator is reading, she would read, "What do you think, Bay?" in Landon's voice, but then, "Landon said" in Bay's voice because Bay is the narrator. While I admit that it took some mental flexibility to be able to do that, but still, it bugged me. Is this how all 1st person novels read? I feel like they don't, but perhaps. All I know is it annoyed me when the voice changed in what seemed to be the middle of 1 person's experience, though officially I guess it isn't.

I also felt like it was weird when the author didn't use large or unusual words most of the time, but then would throw in words like "flummoxed" and "nonplussed." They just seemed out of place among the rest of the typical words.

Move on to the next, better rated book. A Witch in Time is book 2 and rating 4.6 stars, so I expect to like it better.

Like it was probably a young adult novel. I felt like it was a bit basic for my taste. It wasn't poorly written, but I sort of wish I hadn't gotten this series. Hopefully, I'll enjoy the rest of it better, but since there are large pockets of time between books, I may be frustrated throughout the series.

I can't say I fully recommend this book, but if one reads the books from this universe in the correct order, as it is listed on Amanda M. Lee's author website, it might be more enjoyable.

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Created Apr 21, 2022 at 10:54pm • Submit your own review...