Book Review – Ophelia and Abby Mysteries

I did enjoy these books.  They were an easy read and a good mix of genres.  They are pretty much simple Paranormal Mystery Fantasy Fiction.

These are about a 30ish year old witch (Ophelia) being trained by her grandmother (Abby).  They get caught up in various murder investigations throughout the novels, they have to use mundane and magical means to solve these mysteries, usually with the complete disapproval of the authorities (including threats of arrest).

I was very happy about the fact that these books include very little in the way of romance.  I was almost pulling my hair out trying to find good Witchy paranormal books that lack romance.  These fit what I wanted perfectly!  They do include some romance of course, not many stories of length can go well without natural human desire and romance.  But at no time is the romance a central part of the story, it rarely distracts from the storylines, and it is only a very small part of the entire series, a chapter at most in the entire 7 books.

I liked the simplicity of these stories.  They are just like any light mystery novel, with the added extra of witches and magic, ghosts and psychics.  At no time is the magic overwhelming, it is all written to be understood by almost anyone, it is simple and natural and it develops as time goes on.  And it is nice to have Appalachian magic, rather than the more common types, though there seems to be little difference.  As the books go one, so does the amount of magic used, so that by the time we reach the last book, there is a bit more magic than there is mystery.  I think the balance throughout is very well done.  These books are written in the first person, from Ophelia’s point of view.  Generally I have a little trouble with first person stories, but this is one of those rare ones where it didn’t bother me, in fact I barely noticed.

Obviously these are not the most epic novels in the world, they are not ones that will change your life, they don’t have major philosophical ramblings that make you consider the nature of the universe (though you may be more interested in nature and magic).  They are not the most original novels either, mystery and psychics isn’t that new, all the information in the novels is pretty basic.  And sometimes you really do wish you could slap the main characters for how dense they can be in the face of the obvious.  But these are good novels that, if you enjoy them as I do, it is likely you will read them again in the future, just because they are so easy and light to read.  And I think that they are not forgettable either, these are the type that you should remember because of their lack of crap.

So, these are not my favourite books of all time, but I suggest them to anyone who is after a good basic witchy/paranormal read.  I will certainly read them again, this I am sure of.