I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

This is book one in the "Grumpy Old Wizards" series. Josephine and her best friends, Helen and Alice, live in a retirement community near Siesta Key, Florida. They spend their days, well most of them, drinking coffee, playing cards and playing enchanted pranks on their annoying neighbor Dale. Life seems great until a serial killer comes to town and, Josephine, a level six wizard is called in to consult on the case. Will Josephine be able to solve the case before it's too late? What part does the vortex in Siesta Key play?

"Grumpy Old Wizards" is a funny page turning mystery. Even though I was able to solve the case long before the end of the story, I kept reading to see what prank these three women would play next. I loved Josephine spirited attitude, she was quite a woman to reckon with. If you like cozy mysteries or mysteries with good humor mixed, in then this is the book for you. ( )

Not for me.
Inept Writing.
Clean
YA
No Sex

This is really a 1 1/2 star story. I didn't exactly dislike it, but I didn't really like it either. I'm exasperated by and disappointed in it.

It has an really interesting basic premise and I was hoping to like it, because there are far too few urban fantasy books that feature older central characters. But unfortunately that alone cannot hold up a story.

The characters are one dimensional, terribly written and the writing, dialogue and plotting are flat and feel amateurish. It's as if the author has never met a person over the age of 30, but even his younger characters are unconvincing, flat and stilted. It's hard to explain, but it feels as if the writer needs to get out and read more. And watch a whole lot of Golden Girls episodes, sure they act immature and silly, but in the way that an older woman who doesn't give a damn what you think would do.

There are the germs of a good, perhaps great story there, possibly with a couple of rewrites and a strict editor this could have been just that, unfortunately it isn't.

Hopefully the author will gain the experience (and editor) to do his ideas justice.

ED added some more thoughts. ( )

Good story premise.
Dialog was often stilted or very abbreviated and didn't feel... organic. ( )

Great concept. Not so great delivery. Flat, wooden conversations by flat characters will kill even the cleverest idea. The writing had to be endured rather than enjoyed. I give it one and one half stars just for the concept and amazon blurb - and because I'm feeling generous today. Remember in high school when students were called upon to read their essays in class. And you had to sit through them all and just endure it. Well, not any more. Do yourself a favor. Skip this one. I'm deleting it from my kindle. ( )