Bookish introvert Morgen Keller never thought she would have a midlife crisis. That was before her husband divorced her, her boss let her go, and her grandmother died.
Forty wasn’t supposed to look like this.
When Morgen inherits Grandma’s old farmhouse in the small town of Bellrock, Washington, it could be a chance for a fresh start.
There are just a few problems…
A fearsome werewolf has claimed the property for himself, Grandma didn’t die of natural causes, and, oh, she was a witch.
Embroiled in a mystery, and heir to powers she knew nothing about, Morgen must turn to the only person who might be able to help: the werewolf who threatened to rip her throat out for trespassing.
This isn’t the fresh start on life that Morgen had in mind.
A middle-aged woman, divorced and laid off from her job, moves to a small town where she's inherited property from a recently-deceased relative, and discovers that magic is real and she has also inherited supernatural powers. There's a hot guy and some crimes, and she starts a small business and has to clean up an unpromising location for it.
There are (it sometimes feels like) hundreds of books with some minor variation on this exact premise, and the number much more than doubles if you substitute "young woman with no ties and limited job prospects" for "middle-aged woman, divorced and laid off". I usually avoid them, because of the sameness, and because they're rarely well executed. But this one is by Lindsay Buroker, who I know to be reliably entertaining and to have a much higher than average commitment to quality, so I picked it up when Amazon recommended it to me.
She's known for slow-burn romance, but in this case the burn is a little faster than some of her previous books, though the laconic, violent but somehow still appealing love interest is much the same. Also similar is the banter (it's good banter, though).
I spotted five vocabulary glitches and five punctuation glitches, an average of one of each per book in the box set, which lands this on my Well-Edited shelf; I often see dozens of both in just a single book. The author can also use the past tense without error, an increasingly rare skill these days.
It's solid entertainment, light and enjoyable, and I recommend it for anyone who likes urban fantasy/paranormal romance but is tired of the low-quality cookie-cutter stuff. In good hands, even a well-worn premise can feel fresh, and this does, though it's not setting out to break any remarkable new ground.
This was a refreshingly fun read. First, it is only $.99 for the whole book bundle. I listened to text-to-speech. If you need to see what pulled me to read it:
Bookish introvert Morgen Keller never thought she would have a midlife crisis. That was before her husband divorced her, her boss let her go, and her grandmother died.
Forty wasn't supposed to look like this.
When Morgen inherits Grandma's old farmhouse in the small town of Bellrock, Washington, it could be a chance for a fresh start.
There are just a few problems…
A fearsome werewolf has claimed the property for himself, Grandma didn't die of natural causes, and, oh, she was a witch.
Embroiled in a mystery, and heir to powers she knew nothing about, Morgen must turn to the only person who might be able to help: the werewolf who threatened to rip her throat out for trespassing.
This isn't the fresh start on life that Morgen had in mind.
~~~ Lindsay Buroker has become a new favorite author. She doesn't take herself too seriously. There were times in the book when she made the main character laugh at the author. I laughed out loud and woke my husband. Sorry.
I'd love to meet up with the characters later. I'd love to watch how the story unfolds after the end.
Meanwhile, I have picked up a couple of other book deals by the author to read in the future. I can hardly wait.
No complaints other than wanting more to the series. The writing flowed without anything really pulling you out of the books emersion. A decent take on a small town with out-in-the-open supernatural population and closed minded people from outside the area. It was surprising enjoyable to read about a middle aged woman and her first step into the supernatural world after she endured regular human life upheaval. The romantic partner was also suitable aged as well. While I love a well written sarcastic heroine, it was refreshing to read one that is such an introvert that her wit isn’t always intended to be sarcasm just simple social failing. The slow burn romance was well placed and I loved that the male partner was not a pushy alpha as*ho** that often gets portrayed in books (he does still have that strong werewolf behaviour and claiming action which was amusing in the context of the book), and they trust and respect each other in their relationship (while still having normal human issues they work on).
5 stars on Goodreads on account of not having decimals, it was amusing and easy to read with no writing complaints. 4.6 stars otherwise as the world was not as engaging, and I wasn’t as invested in the characters as other books I love.
Morgen inherits her grandmother's house only to learn her grandmother was a witch, and that Morgen also has witchy abilities. While trying to save her new property from land developers she also learns about her heritage, befriends the hunky werewolf who rents the barn, banishes demons, solves murders, deals with her siblings, and tries to start a new life.
This series had amazing cozy vibes and would make a perfect spooky season read. Bonus points for the main characters and love interests all being above the age of 19. I really enjoyed reading these books they were light and fun. The banter is witty and charming and makes the character relationships really stand out. If cozy mystery and sweet romance is what you are after these should do the trick.
I'm amazed that this author can write so many fantastic novels, I hope that She never stops writing. Her books are some of the best Entertainment I have read and worth the time to read them. Thank you for a very fun entertaining read.
Good story, lots of conflict and interesting resolutions
I enjoyed this series... Morgen, the main character, comes into a new town, having inherited much coveted property per her grandmother's will. She is thrown into a chaotic life, finding out that her grandmother was murdered because she refused to sell her property to one several groups who wanted to control the magical woods on the land. Now those people are after het... Although she is a good hearted person, she has a very hard time getting the town's people to accept her. Her character is so strong that she doesn't give up. As she learns of powers she has, and never knew they had even existed, she forges on to try and help the different factions that make up the town, even as some of them are trying to destroy her. Her love story with a lone werewolf is a main theme, and for a change, was a story where both characters were strong (not having a weak willed female who chases the male, or tries to dominate him), and both respected and cared for the other deeply. As I said, it's a nice change of pace from most of books in this genre.
It took awhile for my Aspie/ADHD brain, but worth it
The first book was difficult for me to really get into. It seemed to drag on, then jumped from fantasy to murder mystery to romance to characters committing petty crimes to murder. Ridiculously long pauses while the main character thought about her responses to other characters' questions before replying drove me a bit batty, until I realized her speech process is very similar to my form of verbal communication. I am a rambling fool. *sigh* I really enjoyed watching her sister's character unfold (also very relatable)
The characters were fun and quirky and Lindsay Buroker has left plenty of room for more books with different characters as the leads on their own stories, or even a bit of overlapping with the same characters as she has done in other "worlds".
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the series... and how much I and treat witch app. <;-) Thank you, Lindsay!
So initially I thought Amar was fun, then in book 3 he got yucky and I didn't like him because he wanted to keep her a secret and then he got better especially through 4 and 5.
Book 1 was amazing. I loved it. zoe is it hilarious. Book 2 is fun. I really liked the characters, and even the enemies were fun. Book 3 I didn't like, as I said, keeping her a secret had turned me off. Book 4 got spicy with the bigger, badder werewolf. though I thought there would be more action. Book 5 was funny and cool, and I like the ghost and the vision conversation with Grandma.... There needs to be a book 6, though, to get olivia in jail, and I'd be happy.
I'm sad to be leaving these characters behind.... I grew to love Sian. She's like me but I'm less sciencey. I guess maybe more like Morgan but less touchy feely....
All in all, it was a great bundle. Overall 4.5 out of 5.... But since it can't have half, I'll give it a whole star!!
Overall, a solid series. A friend recommended this series to me. It's still $0.99 even without Kindle Unlimited and The free sample of the first book is long, like 14 chapters for an ebook. One's first impression of Amar isn't great, but it isn't intended to be. The whole alpha male/female and "Luna" with werewolf lore isn't really played into so that's nice. Werewolves of course are possessive of their mates but it didn't feel obnoxious in this series. liked the interactions between Morgan and her sister a lot, especially when they were in person. Sian slightly reminds me of Sheldon from the Big Bang theory. I think the 3rd and 4th books were my favorite in terms of content and pacing. Some of the stuff in the 5th book was nice and needed to tie up loose ends but I felt like too many big things were happening at much and it felt chaotic. I kinda wish Zoe would have chosen someone else to mainly stick too and the ambush of Morgan's brothers and wives to Morgan's place and all the unfortunate misunderstandings were maybe supposed to be funny but the second hand cringe was too much. Overall the series was solid, I felt like the bad witches who didn't die should have had life in prison instead of just being excommunicated from the coven and blacklisted along the WA coast but I'm not sure how that would have been enforced. Edit: I guess Calista was arrested, but Olivia should be too. Of course the Loup wolves, that forcibly turned people into werewolves should have had harsher sentences as well, but all of this led to current unrest and played into the conflict of the book series. I really feel bad for the vet werewolf who felt like the poster child for the abuse as he was violated multiple times, some of which was rape. I do appreciate that the romance didn't get in the way of the plot. The main couple kept trying to get private moments with kisses but kept getting interrupted until the end of the 4th book lol. There's a lot to unpack with a book review for 5 books but I think I'll leave it at this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I only made it through 14% of the book which is chapter 21, where she’s trying to get Franklin to take her to confront Arbuckle, and had to stop.
She has been doing some incredibly dumb things and making some stupid decisions for quite some time now and it’s hard to remember that she’s supposed to be a 40 year old divorcee.
The way she just flipped on Amar and assumed he did something, with zero proof, set me off. She acted as if he was the only werewolf in the entire town! Then she snitches on werewolves being a thing, but fails to snitch a little later that witches are a thing when speaking to Franklin, even after hearing about what Amar said happened to him! You keep them safe, but not Amar’s werewolf status? Wow. Just wow.
There were several more instances of her doing extremely illogical and ridiculous things considering she’s a logic and numbers person. I just couldn’t take it anymore. The story does have some witty bits and the conversations between Morgen and others, including Lucky the bird dog, are sometimes hilarious, but it wasn’t enough to make me continue.
See my notes, highlights and commentary up to my stopping point on Goodreads. Happy reading!
I really enjoyed this series. My husband stumbled across the Legacy of Magic series and got hooked before realizing they included romance. Lol He was interested enough that he continued to read and enjoy them. He recommended them to me, and I greatly enjoyed the writing style and world building (and romance) but detested the unfairness that the dragons introduced to the world. The real world sucks enough, I don't want my fictional worlds run by unassailable powers of arrogance and disdain. I enjoyed this series so much more. It has the same things I enjoyed about the previous series without the negatives. The heroine was a little OP, but not by too much, and a little OP is infinitely better than the MC being pitted hopelessly against someone with godlike powers.
I’ll be honest when I downloaded the bundle to read I worried I wouldn’t super love it or finish it. It was recommended for me to try based on genre similarities and I was struggling to find stuff to read. This was like a little slice of fun. The setting was interesting and the characters had personalities you wanted to know more of. I wish we got to read more from Amar’s point of view at times. But there was some great wit! And I enjoyed their adventures and dramas! Also it was fun to learn new words as Morgen has a great vocab!
Although, (spoiler) I could of done with the mayor not getting a redemption arc - I kind of wanted him to go away. Or be with her mentor. But def not seem to end up with her cousin haha
Overall an enjoyable fun series - not overly serious but easy to get into.
What with their most dangerous enemy, the rougarou, dead, at long last, life should be relatively easy now in Bellrock for Amar and Morgen. But it does not take away Morgen's lack of income so far. Which might be why Morgen is now keen to open a shop of her own. That is exactly where trouble in Paradise actually struck. With the place itself, tax that has to paid i.r.o of her house, with the cousin, Zoe, eying the smirking mayor, with the other werewolf group insisting that her intended shop be demolished and her three brothers and their wife's rocking up as they reckon she lost her sanity. Hmmm. Could that be all? No? Once again the pressure is rather tense and never really seems to relax one little bit. Enjoy.
The stories were great. Interesting characters, both good and bad, throughout. The animals were fabulous too. I would definitely read any further books set in this world. I'd love to see what happens, "After..." Spoiler: The only thing I would change is the rather anticlimactic end to Amars nemesis. I would have loved to see the comprehension of greater unexpected power and the triumph of Morgen and Amars reflected in his eyes. Alas.
And to the author Lindsay Buroker... My thanks for the entertainment!
A light hearted Enjoyable read with plenty of magic, sarcasm, and supernatural phenomenon featuring witches, werewolves, ghosts, monsters, and more. Humor and wit, pairing rival werewolf packs and witches. An Enjoyable, fast-paced, paranormal yet still actually relatable read, that leaves the reader smirking, laughing, and smiling throughout the series. If there were more books, I would enthusiastically read those too. 10/10 would recommend. Ages 16+
These books are what you would expect by the title. Kitchy and a bit juvenile. I read through the first 4 books pretty fast, but then just really lost interest. It could have ended after they defeated the monster. But it kept going. I would have left it at the Monster. It was a quick, easy read that kept my interest pretty well until it kept going. Rating: PG-13 there are some sexual scenes, but really there is just a lot of talk about sex. There is a lot of language but no f-words. There is also some violence and “scary scenes”.
Great series I love the delayed sex scenes and the growth of a relationship. This series seemed less thought out than the magnetic series but I still enjoyed every page. There were fewer 'but what happened to' questions in this book than the Magnetic series which for me made it more satisfying. Alas the reason for four stars is because the heroine like most YA managed to gain great powers in less than a year. Truly everything thrown at her she conquered without having to lick her wounds and try again. Her poor mate wasn't so lucky.
It took longer to get engaged with the characters than is normal for a Lindsay Buroker series. Where I'm normally involved halfway through the first chapter or two, I was deep I to the second book before it captured me. Still, it was a series well worth reading, and I hope she decides to introduce us to more stories iand characters in the Wolf Wood neighborhood
Lindsay delivers the most unexpected and irreverent MC with an equally unexpected match. I loved these characters and their adventures. The combination of modern and fantasy worlds combined gives us so much to consider and process. I thoroughly enjoyed Morgen's learning process as she discovers her new surroundings as well as her lineage and craft. I wonder if we will see more from this world.
Once I started book 1 I couldn’t put it down . There was plenty of action mystery and the story line was perfect. The characters were all so different and the way humour was added in was just perfect. I would recommend all five books . If you like stories with witches, werewolves and ghosts without going into full on sex scenes in every chapter, I would highly recommend this whole series. I can’t wait to read more of her books.
As a neurospicy woman, a few years away from forty, this was amazing! Thank you SO much ❤️ I really appreciated Sian and Morgen, of course. I love, love, love the fact that they are quirky, book worms and definitely part of neurodiversity. I've read a lot of fantasy/witches/werewolf books in the past couple of years (300+) and I don't think I've come across any main characters that are neurodiverse. This was such a joy to read, and now on my favorites list.
Light hearted werewolf and witchy fun and a bargain at £0.99 for the complete series. If you enjoy light holiday reading urban fantasy then this is great. 10/10 for entertainment value; but don’t expect heavy themes, sophisticated narrative or literary prose (hence 3*)
I particularly enjoyed that it doesn’t really take itself too seriously and that the main couple are in their 40s. (Not quite as ridiculous as the Dragon series & set near Bellingham WA). Reliable quality from Lindsay Buroker.
This series has done it all, got my blood boiling, made me tear up and giggle weirdly next to my husband in bed. Gained me some weird looks but it was worth it! There are some really nasty bad guy (or girls) in here and some really heartwarming good characters that warmed my heart. It’s sad that I am doke reading this series now. But I guess I can always reread it. :3
This story was a bit slow for me to get into, but once I got invested in the characters I just had to see what happened next. I found it very interesting how the secondary character of Sian was written. She was for me a true giggle while reading the story. I look forward to reading other stories from Lindsay Buroker.
Really liked this series, werewolves, witches and even a couple of ghosts thrown in, loved the familiars especially the little fainting ferret. I had the 1st book in audible and loved it so decided to get the rest of the series in ebook was nicely surprised to get all of them in a box set for only .99c.
I really like this series lots going on so much action I hope she writes more in this series I want to know what happens to the sister and cousin and their love interest and some of the witches theirs stories to tell hoping for more🤔🤔🤔🤔 Hope you enjoy as much as I did😊😊😊😊😊😋😋
Probably a tried and true recipe with mildly annoyed with each other to friends/lovers but the story accompanying it was very good. Werewolves, witches and infuriating baddies, I enjoyed every minute. A HEA is always good and I did love the quirkiness of some of the characters!
What a nice change having the main character be an older woman. She discovers the world has magic and werewolves as see navigates her uncertain future.
Some of the characters are just down right weird and hard to connect with. The overall story lines have enough emotional variety to pull a reader in.
Warm, funny, and sexy with both magic and mystery. I love the main characters and would definitely read more "Wolf Wood" books. Perhaps Calista could come back to town or another wolf pack that wants to move to town?