Belinda White

This one dragged and I had a few other problems with it as well.
The MC constantly spins in circles around the same thoughts, conflicts and problems.
Every step of the plot is being recapped constantly. It feels like the memory game "Mother went shopping and she bought...".
The dialogue in some casual conversations is weirdly formal and sometimes people painfully spell out their inner thoughts and feelings in this incredibly stilted and overly self-aware way.
The author constantly tries to justify the thoughts and actions of characters in subordinate clauses even if there really is no reason for it.
Sometimes it can save face to explain a leap in logic or an obscure detail this way to not leave the reader behind because the necessary setup just didn't fit anywhere else but there is a limit before this becomes really irritating and this book goes far beyond it.

Basically, this book could've been a third the length and lose no information whatsoever.

The final plot twist of the mystery was well done and surprising but an attentive reader could've picked up on it earlier just as it should be. But everything beyond the mystery was so painfully obvious that I couldn't stop eye-rolling. An incredible level of stupidity is necessary to justify their inability to discover the mystery around the MC's magic. The reader just hadn't had the necessary information at first but the characters had it the whole time. It's baffling to me that the author was able to craft a decent main mystery plot narrative and at the same time fail so utterly at the same task in a different context.

Even tho I didn't really like this book I was somewhat intrigued by the very end of it but I won't be baited into buying another volume after such a sloppy second book.… (más)

There’s a specific sort of witchiness I crave when October rolls around, more small towns and humor than darkness and intricate world-building, and happily, All Too Familiar fit my parameters really well.

Technically, there is some darkness since there is a murder, but it’s handled along the lines of a cozy murder mystery, not so much about blood, gore, or grief, the focus mainly on the who done it. There are several suspects to choose from and the heroine, Amie, is given solid reasoning for getting involved in this case, this isn’t one of those books where someone’s just nosing into a mystery/other people’s business for no reason. Also, even though this is the first book in a series and there are some aspects that will carry over into the next books, this murder mystery is resolved by the end of the book, you’re not left with a cliffhanger.

Everyone in town knows about the witchcraft, it isn’t a secret as is often the situation in these sorts of books, so that felt refreshing. I also liked the twist with Amie’s newfound familiar and how that connection didn’t go in the direction I thought it might.

Impossible to decide which relationship here that I preferred, the supportive cousin and the way she and Amie totally have each others backs is female friendship at its best, and then there’s Opie (his nickname a nod to The Andy Griffith Show, his dad is Sheriff Taylor), my favorite love interest option, the lifelong friend who’s clearly (and sweetly) carrying a massive torch for Amie.

I really enjoyed the writing style, it moves along at a zippy yet comfortable pace, the author’s voice is as engaging as it is easy to read and the tone is entertaining, serious when it should be but inflected with a sense of fun throughout. So glad I gave this a try.… (más)