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A review by raemelle
Bells, Spells, and Murders by Carol J. Perry
3.0
Lee is the quintessential Mary Sue: Too perfect, with “faults” like her “too curly” hair and penchant for sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. That’s it. Otherwise, she’s constantly talking about how well off she is financially, and finding ways to show how generous she is with her money by donating $5 to every bell-ringing Santa she sees.
She’s also been 32 for well over a year now. She was 32 during Halloween in book #5, Grave Errors, and 32 in June in book #6, It Takes a Coven. And now in book #7, set at Christmas. Time to update that copy and paste character intro that’s in every book! (“I’m Lee Barrett, née Maralee Kowalski, thirty-two, red-haired, Salem born, orphaned early, married once, and widowed young...”)
She takes really obvious clues and then acts like it’s because she’s an investigative reporter that she was able to figure them out (like mentioning her “reporter hat” being on as she decided that Eldridge was dead, when she was the one who found his body, and that “minimum rigor” means rigor mortis had begun - um, duh?) Then she misses super obvious ones, like recognizing a scene from A Christmas Carol, and which just goes right over her head.
The chapter endings are awkward, and end in the middle of a scene, but not during any sort of mysterious or dramatic moment. It’s like the chapter markers were just randomly dropped between paragraphs.
Regarding a pet peeve of mine in a scene early in the book (“All I could think of was one of those UNICEF Christmas card illustrations showing happy kids of every color playing together. That’s how those beautiful little ones looked to me. “): I hate it when people go overboard with how “beautiful” they find children who are poor or who are of other races. The people I hear talk like this are the same people who are okay with children of immigrants being locked in camps while their parents get sent to jail or back out of the country. Those who actually perform actions like they care about other races don’t feel the need to talk in this hollow, high and mighty manner. She does it again later: “I watched the rough cut of the shelter piece on a small camera-mounted monitor and marveled again at the beauty of those multihued children.” That’s cringe-worthy.
The Kindle edition I read was rife with typos and editing mistakes. These books are feeling like very cookie-cutter and slap-dashed. The only thing I like about them is they take place in Salem, Massachusetts.
She’s also been 32 for well over a year now. She was 32 during Halloween in book #5, Grave Errors, and 32 in June in book #6, It Takes a Coven. And now in book #7, set at Christmas. Time to update that copy and paste character intro that’s in every book! (“I’m Lee Barrett, née Maralee Kowalski, thirty-two, red-haired, Salem born, orphaned early, married once, and widowed young...”)
She takes really obvious clues and then acts like it’s because she’s an investigative reporter that she was able to figure them out (like mentioning her “reporter hat” being on as she decided that Eldridge was dead, when she was the one who found his body, and that “minimum rigor” means rigor mortis had begun - um, duh?) Then she misses super obvious ones, like recognizing a scene from A Christmas Carol, and which just goes right over her head.
The chapter endings are awkward, and end in the middle of a scene, but not during any sort of mysterious or dramatic moment. It’s like the chapter markers were just randomly dropped between paragraphs.
Regarding a pet peeve of mine in a scene early in the book (“All I could think of was one of those UNICEF Christmas card illustrations showing happy kids of every color playing together. That’s how those beautiful little ones looked to me. “): I hate it when people go overboard with how “beautiful” they find children who are poor or who are of other races. The people I hear talk like this are the same people who are okay with children of immigrants being locked in camps while their parents get sent to jail or back out of the country. Those who actually perform actions like they care about other races don’t feel the need to talk in this hollow, high and mighty manner. She does it again later: “I watched the rough cut of the shelter piece on a small camera-mounted monitor and marveled again at the beauty of those multihued children.” That’s cringe-worthy.
The Kindle edition I read was rife with typos and editing mistakes. These books are feeling like very cookie-cutter and slap-dashed. The only thing I like about them is they take place in Salem, Massachusetts.