"Witch at Heart" by Juliette Harper

My apologies in the delay of posting a new review, but my daughter recently wound up in the hospital Emergency Room and needed to have her appendix removed. This unexpected emergency put me behind on my reading/reviewing (hopefully for reasons you can understand and respect.) She is much better now though and I am back to reading and reviewing books to share with all of you.

Today’s book is the first book in the Jinx Hamilton series. I hope to post reviews of the six book box set that I am currently reading, but since I wanted to have something at least remotely related to a Halloween theme up here in time for the holiday, I decided to go ahead and post my review of book 1 in the series “Witch at Heart.”

In the beginning of this book, Jinx’ “Crazy Aunt Fiona” has recently died, leaving Jinx as the new owner of her store in Briar Hollow as well as the apartment above the store. Jinx immediately moves into the apartment and begins the process of finding out what inventory is in the store. She also discovers that although her aunt may be dead, she is not entirely gone for good. While Aunt Fiona is not haunting either Jinx or the store, her ghost is still around... just not necessarily when Jinx wants her to be.

It soon becomes obvious that Jinx is now also in possession of her aunt’s abilities as a witch, though those powers are still growing and developing in Jinx. Feeling more than a little overwhelmed, Jinx calls her best friend Tori to come and help her settle into her new home and life. Before long the two have come up with a plan to renovate the building and run the store together. It is also important to note that the store, who goes by the name of Myrtle, seems to possess an intelligence of her own and used to help Aunt Fiona out with finding whatever she needed in the jumble of a storage room.

Jinx and Tori soon find themselves involved in the mystery of who killed a young girl a number of years ago and why, as well as trying to discover who the young girl really was. Jinx’ ability to see and talk to spirits really helps with this mystery, but are they in over their heads? It is a great deal for the two girls to take on, but it is also something that they feel they must do.

This book was a nice, easy read and very interesting. I enjoyed watching as Jinx begins to discover her emerging new abilities and how to use them. Tori is the perfect business partner for Jinx and they work well together. What may be a weakness in one is appropriately balanced with a strength in the other. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot and am ready to start reading book 2 in the series/box set.