Book 122, 2023
Pumpkin Spice and All Things Nice by Laura Greenwood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Knocked back the rest of an ebook last night. It was Pumpkin Spice and All Things Nice by Laura Greenwood, and it's the first in the "Cauldron Coffee Shop" series. I confess I'm not entirely certain if it was meant to be a romance or a mystery. We'll call it paranormal lite.
Willow is a witch who owns and operates the Cauldron Coffee Shop. She enjoys her job, but it's becoming too much for one person to handle. Willow is also stymied by the calico cat, which she calls Spooky, that keeps appearing in her shop. Her life is further complicated when her best friend, Sabine, sends her an odd teapot from an archeological dig. Willow soon learns that a wizard has been bound to the teapot, but he can materialize in the real world. Now she has a new employee to train, a random cat to sort out, and an ancient wizard hanging around. At least life is never dull at the coffee shop.
I was enjoying this story, rocking through it, and then it just ended. I can't even say it ended on a cliffhanger. It simply ended. What the...? I am not pleased by this. Things were making sense, I was learning more as the story went on, and I was eager to see how it played out. Instead it petered out. In addition, the author seems to have forgotten all about the cat, as no mention was made of her in the second half of the book.
Favorite line: "Cats will do what cats are going to do."
I would have given this a rating of four stars, but it loses one point for that aggravating ending. Three stars.