A Review of Where There's A Witch by Madelyn Alt

I just love Madelyn Alt's Bewitching Mysteries. They remind me of the Nancy Drew type books I read as a child. Fun, quirky, sweet female characters thrown into a "wholesome storyline" with a dash of mystery and hints of romance thrown in.

And in Alt's case a dash of the supernatural tossed in, too. I like to call her and Shirley Damsgaard's books witchy chic lit or maybe witch lit.

There's a little bit of romance, a hint of sexiness but no hot sex scenes and definitely nothing "objectionable" as far as sexuality goes. These are books I can share with my mom and my ten year old daughter.

In book 5 of the Bewitching Mysteries, Where There's a Witch, Maggie attends a church carnival with two fellow N.I.G.H.T.S members, the teenagers Evie and Tara.

There she encounters a strange and angry woman arguing with a young man. Then comes a across her again after hearing an argument in the church and the young woman runs out crying.
The church carnival is cut short soon after when the construction groundbreaking ceremony digs up a secret room buried on the church grounds.

The whole thing leaves the girls feeling a little creeped out and they all go back to Maggie's place.
Later that night while hanging out at Maggie's, Marcus shows up. Marcus is another member of the N.I.G.H.T.S (the local ghosthunting, Wiccan, paranormal group), Tara's cousin, and the man of Maggie's dreams (even if she refuses to accept that yet). After eating pizza and playing with the homemade Ouija board Tara discovers she is missing her cell phone the last place she had it was at the carnival.

So they head back to the carnival grounds and discover...a dead body in the hole of the unearthed secret room. And not just any dead body but the body of the young woman involved in not just one but two arguments at the church earlier that day.

Every thing seems to be tied together somehow and the spirit that was released from the room is trying to Maggie what's going on but she can't figure out the cryptic messages plus a newspaper article and op-ed piece out Liss and Marcus as witches and Maggie along with the rest of the N.I.G.H.T.S as ghost hunters which is a very bad thing in a small conservative Indiana town. This leaves the whole crew feeling agitated and uneasy and Liss's store empty.

It also upsets Tom, Maggie's kinda sorta boyfriend, the Officer in charge of the new task force to control all the unseemly behavior that's been going on in the once quiet small town.

I don't think Tom has ever been the right guy for Maggie, he has never accepted her and is such a tight ass jerk. Honestly Marcus has always been the one.

Will Maggie ever realize that? You'll get the answer in this book.

And of course Maggie will unravel the mystery of who killed the woman at the church. With a little help from a spirit.

I am glad a few things were finally (sorta) settled in this book however I feel this book didn't go into as much character development as the other books. It really focused on Maggie and just Maggie. We didn't get a lot from anyone else. Liss didn't even figure predominately in this book nor did Marcus though he was there and a few important things happen for his and Maggie's relationship.

I missed the character interaction and learning more about the characters that have made this series so wonderful and thoroughly enchanting.

I was also disappointed that it ended so quick, but mainly that's because it was such a quick read. I devoured it in just two nights. (My mom read it in one.) I can't wait for book 6. When? Sometime in 2010, January maybe? I heard it will be released in hardcover for the first time then in paperback later in the year. I can't wait to see where Alt takes Maggie in the next story. Will Maggie finally have a love life?