Never let your brother date a witch, lest they get turned into a talking cat.
Morgan Winters wants an ordinary life:
A job at a bookstore, an apartment she can barely afford, and a healthy amount of existential dread. Her brother (AKA “The Ruiner”) ruins that when he shows up on her bedroom windowsill, transformed into a talking cat.
He claims it’s due to a date gone horribly wrong, but Morgan’s not buying it. Still, when he begs her to take him to a witch who can change him back into a human, she reluctantly agrees. Family is family.
When they arrive in Hollowbeck—a suspiciously small and suspiciously magical town—they find the witch.
Only she’s dead.
And there’s a letter left behind—with Morgan’s name on it.
Even though no one knew she was coming.
Morgan could run. She could hide. But she’s not the type. She’s determined to stick her nose into the middle of the supernatural, figure out who left her the letter, find the murderer—and hopefully sort out Ruiner’s cat problem before he leaves another hairball on the rug.

IN A NUTSHELL
Light, fun, cosy fantasy with magic, a talking cat, blackmail, secrets, a murder mystery, and a heroine who has no idea how much trouble she’s in. 
The beginning was strong, 
The middle sagged a little, leaving me waiting for something to happen. 
The ending was exciting (for a cosy paranormal).
The mystery that drove the plot was solved, and the stage was set for the next book in the series.

‘Witch Slap‘ is the start of a cosy paranormal series set in a strange little village of Hollowbeck in Cumbria, where most of the inhabitants are magic users, and familiars are taken for granted. 

This was a fun read. It made me laugh several times. Much of the humour came from the bemusement of the main character, Morgan Winters, who does not believe in magic but keeps bumping into it. I loved Morgan’s robust humour. My favourite example is that she calls her always-getting-into-trouble-and-dragging-her-in-after-him brother “Ruiner”. His given name is Rainier, but Ruiner seems the perfect name for someone who has managed to get himself turned into a cat.

The humour works. It’s part snark, part creative similes that made me smile and part amusement at the fact that our heroine has no idea how much trouble she’s in, but we do.

The book started well, establishing her relationship with her troublesome brother and setting both of them up to discover a witch who has been murdered in her own shop. It was fun coming to understand that Hollowbeck is a very strange place, populated with colourful characters, almost all of whom are magic users and not all of whom are human and some of whom may no longer be among the living. 

The pace sagged a little once the setup was in place, and for a while, I thought the story was going to stall. Then Morgan became more proactive, the mystery got twistier, tension rose, violence was used, and pretty soon I was having a lot of fun. 

‘Witch Slap‘ entertained me well enough to want to read ‘One Smart Witch’, the next book in the series, so that I can see what Morgan does next. I’ll be sticking with the audiobook format as I enjoyed Tamsin Kennard’s narration.