Spells & Shelves

Rory Hawthorn works in a bookshop, answers to a boss who watches her every move, and prefers fiction to real life. Then a group of frightening strangers corners her and demands a journal that belonged to her late father.

The journal leads to a secret: her father was a wizard, and Rory has a magical family she has never met. Her witchy relatives invite her to move into their enchanted library, which feels to her like a dream made real.

The dream sours when she finds a dead body hidden behind a bookshelf. Rory now has a new family to get to know, a new job to learn, and a murder to untangle. Cranky familiars complicate matters, and so does the local reaper, who also happens to be the best-looking man in town.

This is a cozy paranormal mystery with a light, humorous tone and a romantic thread. The setting is bookish and magical, and the pace is driven by the whodunit. Rory has to draw on her own newly awakened powers to catch the killer, and if she fails she loses the life she did not know she wanted.