Southern Sorcery

Book 4 in the Sweet Tea With Mysteries. This review is of the Audiobook.

This one is a bit hard to rate. There were some solid 5* moments and some solid 1-2* moments.

Overall, this one had a fun and less cliche plot. At the start we're introduced to Pepper and Rufus standing the the Familiar store. Rufus casts a spell intertwining their magic and oof it's a race against time to break the connection. There were some additional things like new shops and magical abilities, and cousin Cordelia has her own fun little plotlines. Strip the book to its core and it would have been a solid 5 of fun.

Now for the 1-2* reason... . Most prominently, Pepper and Axel need to full on hook up already (or maybe the author needs some) because the drooling and convenient half naked (and full naked) plotlines for the sake of “better magic”?? Come on! It was just awkward on all fronts. The characters were awkward, the writing was awkward and it felt like it was fulfilling some deep fantasy of the author. The most these characters have done is a little kissing, then all of a sudden they're naked for the sake of magic? No I'm not a prude. It was just too far fetched and felt unnecessary. It added nothing to the plot and actually took away from the fun.

The other issue was the murder. This book would have been absolutely fine without the murderer. Plus the motive was meh at best. It was like the publisher said “this is a mystery, we need a murderer!”. Once again, it added nothing to the story.

Still looking forward to the next book in the series. After that, I saw that the audiobook narrator changes. Hoping the series will wrap up nicely because the narrator is what helped draw me into the series and keep me going.

p.s. FINALLY someone else who understands how I feel about tomatoes.