Reviews

A Potion to Die For by Heather Blake

leasummer's review against another edition

3.0

A fun magical cozy mystery, centered around family - the good and the bad and the muddled middle. It was entertaining and kept a good pace.

Read for Cozy Mystery Book Club

brookiebridge's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

mystery_jem's review against another edition

3.0

As the owner of Little Shop of Potions, a magic potion shop specializing in love potions, Carly Bell Hartwell finds her product more in demand than ever. But when Carly finds a dead man in her shop, clutching one of her potion bottles, she goes from the most popular potion person to public enemy number one.
ღ✻✻ღ
A cozy mystery that kept my interest. A light read.

librarianinperiwinkle's review against another edition

4.0

Carly Bell Hartwell's love potions are never more popular than when Mr. Dunwoody predicts someone will be getting divorced soon. His occasional prognostications are never wrong and inevitably lead to Carly being chased to her potion shop by a mob of panicked spouses worried that their marriages might be less solid than they thought. That all changes the morning Carly and her hex-selling cousin Delia discover a body in Carly's break room--a body clutching one of Carly's potion bottles. The fact that the potion wasn't the cause of death doesn't seem to matter to the spooked crowd, which evaporates as quickly as it gathered. The investigation, led by Carly's delicious ex-fiance, Sergeant Dylan Jackson, doesn't progress fast enough to suit Carly's dwindling bank account, and when her falling down house demands immediate repairs, Carly decides to ferret out the truth of who killed local lawyer Nelson Winston, and why she's being framed for it.

Quirky characters fill the pages of the first book in this fun new cozy contemporary mystery series from the author of the Wishcraft Mysteries. Blake does a good job of bringing the small town of Hitching Post, Alabama, wedding capital of the South, to life.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character and setting are secondary. I'm marking it "clean reads" because I can't remember any bad language, and there are no sex scenes or on-screen violence.

feyley's review against another edition

4.0

The ending was a little rushed. And relationships progressed in too camping of a manner. Otherwise, it was a great story.

rebeccasreadingrambles's review against another edition

4.0

I really enjoyed this first installment in a new series. I have read a book from this author before and I was not disappointed this time around either. Heather Blake hits the cozy writing style perfectly and I could easily have read this book in one sitting if I had the time. The characters were fun and interested and I loved the small wedding town feel. There were many comedic moments (especially thanks to Carly's mother) that made it even more endearing. I thought I had everything figured out a couple different times, but was surprised by the ending. Anything magical is usually a hit with me and this was no exception. I found myself really wanting to try one of the potions and loved that the magic part wasn't too over the top. I can't wait to read another in this series.

atlantiareads's review against another edition

3.0

It was an alright story, but I had hopes of liking it a lot more than I actually did. Probably will read the second book to see if it gets better.

cabbage_patch's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

qu33nofbookz's review against another edition

5.0

This could have been as good as the wishcrafter series but it falls short of great into just okay. All the characters here are just a bit too eccentric or all their odd qualities are medium not little which can get a bit irksome and it tries a bit to hard with the this is the south and we are just a bunch of friendly helpful good old time but gossipy people. Also the main character and her 'love' interest got on my nerves. If I saw someone always clutching at a necklace every time they have to be around someone I'd think that they had a compulsive disorder or are just so anxious around people that they need a security item to keep them sane and focused. She does this to keep others emotions from affecting her every time she has to talk to someone even though the necklace is supposed to do that just be wearing it, there is no need to clutch it constantly. Also the she bites her thumbnail almost every time she interacts with someone or has to think. After the day I would think she wouldn't have any thumbnail left to bite and she'd be working on biting and eating her thumb off. Her relationship with her love interest who is a cop like in the wishcrafter series doesn't work her. He insists on calling her an annoying nickname (Care Bear) even after she tells him not to and notes how annoying it is to her, and makes her angry every time. It does to us too after the first two or three times. Also instead of sharing her information with him, and thus helping to clear her name faster, she keeps everything to herself thinking that only she can solve what's going on becasue she has to clear her good name. Yet she also states, several times, that it won't matter because everyone already has made up their minds and it will take forever for anyone to believe her even after she presents the proof. At least she isn't a gossip and tells everyone every thing she knows even when they don't need to know it.

read2menow's review against another edition

3.0

This is not a terrible book, I will read the second one to this series. But I did feel lacking in supernatural elements. I felt like it was a storyline to get things started, but was not much of a focus. I will also say I did NOT like the over-sexualized relationship between the main character and her past lover. it felt irrelevant and disrupted the flow of the story.

The lack of technology in this book felt kind of ridiculous. I felt like if you did not want cell phones and the internet to appear in this book, then set the book to the 1980s or older. I think it is difficult to write a book that is set in the 2000s and not have any of that or use it. But that is just my opinion.