Shift in Tone and Pace but Still Solidly Wisteria

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
This is the 6th book in the Wisteria Witch Mysteries by Angela Pepper and the first book about Zara’s aunt Zinnia.
The story takes place almost entirely before Zara and Zoey arrive in Wisteria. As such it has a different tone and cast than the first 5 books.
Zinnia is more responsible and less zany than Zara. She is more experienced with witchcraft so there is less joy of discovery and exploration of the world and wonders of this quirky, charming suburbia.
The format of the story is more about office life and the ole of your coworkers as a pseudo family as they discover that one of their co-workers was murdered. This down put a bit of a downer on the book. Although Zara deals with ghosts, more are completely unknown to her to here we have people grieving and dealing with how you carry on after losing an acquaintance.
In a meta twist, the co-worker in question was a writer in her spare time and fashioned a fantastic fan fic where each of her co-workers possessed magical powers or properties. How much did she know and how much was a fun story? There are also plenty of jokes about writing including how some series decide to split off with a side character.
Angela Pepper gets to flex some different muscles with this series but there are plenty of connections and call forwards to the main series – including relatives of and cameos from town residents we know and love.
This story had a few scenes that were more intense than I’ve come to expect from the author and frequent flashbacks made the real slightly more challenging than previous installments.
By the time you get to the end everything falls into place. I’m glad the next volume is already available and ready to launch into.
Rosemary Benson has the unenviable task of being the second narrator of the series after Tiffany Williams has narrated the first five. It makes sense that Zara and Zinnia have different voices and so while I did need to adjust my expectations, she did an excellent job managing the voices of the new cast of characters and making known characters recognizable while still giving her own performance rather than try to mimic Williams. She is a wonderful narrator in her own right.

2 people found this helpful

Loved it!

After listening to Wisteria Witches I had to pick this one up. I love thats it is a backstory on Zinnia, which takes place before Zara arrives in town and finishes up in the same timeframe. It certainly helped me understand Zinnias thoughts and actions throughout the other book. This is an excellent companion with its own magical murder mystery! I cant wait to grab more in the series! Great cozy with great narration! I received a free review copy of this book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

2 people found this helpful

Slow beginning/better ending

I had to force myself to continue to read in the beginning. It was very slow moving and not really interesting. Maybe 2/4 of the way through it started to get good but not the greatest. The ending was way better and kind of put the rest of the books together. I will continue to read the series hopefully the next one will be better.

1 person found this helpful

Wolves of Wisteria

Getting to step back and get Zinnia's story was such a delight. I really enjoyed her quirky character in book 1 and this book gives so much insight into her and how she became how she is. It was also so eye opening to the wonderful little town. My heart really went out to her as the story unfolded and the ending kinda broke my heart for her. Zinnia still has may mysteries to share that I hope will come out in future books and I so look forward to those. This series is turning out to be a blast! The narration was very nice as well.

1 person found this helpful

Love it!

I'm a big fan of both series and happy to have the audio books! Looking forward to more! Thanks Ms. Pepper!

1 person found this helpful

Outstanding book/ series!

This book is book 6/15 in the Wisteria Witches Mysteries series, and book 1/2 in the Wisteria Witches Mysteries: City Hall Books.
I have thoroughly enjoyed all of these books so far! They are witty and funny, to where I’m laughing out loud and people are looking at me in public places! 😂
They have great mysteries to solve.
They have a great family of characters one grows to love more with each book!
I recommend everything related to Wisteria by this author to everyone!
You won’t want to stop listening like me, and you will be put in a great mood as well!

Great story… horrible narration

I loved the story. Gave some insight into Zinia and other characters but the narrator chosen was awful. Made it hard to listen to.

Great story!

The book started out a little slow and it was a different narrator than her other books but the longer it went the better it got. Great story and I'm ready to listen to the next one.

It couldn’t keep my attention.

The person reading the book to us really showed no emotion. She was more monotone. I kept falling asleep.
I am not sure about the story itself as it was difficult to pay attention.

BORING !

Don’t waste your time. I loved the first five books in this series, but this one is completely lack-luster.
The characters are mundane, there’s no fun and suspense, and the reader is monotone.
Are you sure Angela Pepper wrote this??
Suffered through three hours.