A dead body, a vampire with a dad bod, a beauty pageant, a blizzard, and getting back into the dating pool after 20 years? Just a typical week in Widow’s Bay.
After a judge for the inaugural Miss (or Mister) Vernal Equinox Pageant is found murdered, town reporter Marzie Nowak is pressed into service to judge the event. It’s the last place she wants to be, not only is the murder unsolved, but there’s also a vampire with a dad bod trying to suck the life out of patrons of the local microbrewery. Marzie’s magic plate is spilling over. It seems Marzie and the Widow’s Bay Witches have to figure out how to use wands, fast, if they want to protect their town from evil.
Then there’s the ancient undead but still handsome-as-sin billionaire with a crush on her. Dating a supernatural being at her age? What would she even wear for that? Marzie just wants to do her job and report the news of Widow’s Bay. And now there’s trouble on that front, too; Marzie’s getting scooped on every story she covers. With a blizzard bearing down on the town, an unsolved murder, and wand-making 101, Marzie just might melt down. Thank goodness her cat, Agnes, and her sister witches in the coven are there to pick up the pieces!

How can a three-hour and forty-minute audiobook feel like it’s gone on forever and still end so abruptly that I found myself checking that I hadn’t missed a chapter?

‘Resting Witch Face‘ the first book in the Widow’s Bay series was fast, fresh and fun. ‘Coven Mitt‘ wasn’t quite as good but did a lot to move the story and the characters on. ‘Late Broomers‘ was harmless fun – the kind of thing that, if it was on TV I’d watch it but wouldn’t look for it and would probably pause in the middle to make a pot of tea. So I downloaded ‘Wands Have More Fun‘ expecting nothing more of it than a little amusement to keep my mind occupied during a long, boring drive.

I didn’t expect to be turning to my wife after the first hour and going, “Is it just me or does this plot have no forward momentum?” and then, an hour later for her to say “When did the main witch get to be so smug?” We were most of the way through the book by the end of the journey we debated whether it was worth listening to rest.

We did and it wasn’t.

I’m done with this series now. The plots have become more absurd. The main witch has become less likeable. The author doesn’t seem to know what to do with the lead Vampire and he becomes more boring with each encounter. There was a lot going on in this story and some of it could have been good fun. I liked the bits where the witches were learning about wands. Sadly, the pacing was off, there was no tension and nothing to hook my curiosity.

So, now I’m looking for a replacement set of comfort-read audiobooks. If only the Mr Monk series was available in audiobook format.