Practical Mischief

Belle Bishop, Queen of Witches #1

by D.D. Scott

Belle Bishop, Queen of Witches, is a good witch.

Her sister Angelica? Not so much.

Belle rules her witchery kingdom using the ancient Wiccan Rede – ‘An’ it harm none, do what thy will,’ while Angelica runs amuck, casting one mischievous spell after another.

But this time, Angelica has gone too far.

It’s up to Belle and her former best friend, Atlas, the greatest wizard the earth has ever known, to save Belle’s niece, Gia, from Angelica’s magical mischief. If they don’t, Gia will end up in The Summerland just like her mother did the last time one of Angelica’s spells went awry.

Luckily, or unluckily, depending on how you look at it, Belle and Atlas have a little help from Atlas’s sons, who are every bit The Three Stooges, as well as an ornery faery named Tinker Hell and a deck of Tarot Cards waiting for someone to deal their destiny.

Genres: Witches, Fantasy, Paranormal

114 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 6, 2013

About the author

"...one of the top Romantic Comedy/Humorous Mystery writers out right now." — ENT (Ereader News Today)

D. D. Scott is an International Bestselling Author and an Amazon and Barnes & Noble Top 100 Bestselling Author. With over 300,000 books sold, including 30 titles in 5 genres and chart-topping audio books, too, she treats her readers to stories with loads of laughs and a bunch of heart. You can get the scoop on her, her books and her adventures as a new, vegetarian (almost vegan) yogi in her new cyber home — www.ddscottville.com

Reviews

[Ambs ❤❤ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an ok read. I realize there are different types of "witches" and this was not my favorite type. Besides that, it was a decent story and flowed well enough. The ending was just that, it kind of left you hanging, but not enough that I have to pick up the next in the series. There were also some open ended story-lines, as well as some random tidbits that didn't fit into the purpose of the story.

That being said, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to anyone particular, unless someone asked for a book with witches using the elements in their magic. I also wouldn't discourage anyone if they wanted to give this book a try.

[Angie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Practical Mischief sounded so fun, magical, and mischievous, but it fell flat. It’s a quick read and has some interesting moments, but as a whole it’s kind of a mess. Belle is the Queen of Witches after her sister, Gaia, was sent to the Summerlands by their other sister, Angelica. Gaia’s daughter, Gia, is suppose to be next in line for the crown, but Angelica worked her magic on her niece as well, making her forget that she’s a witch and binding her powers. Well, Belle has brought their niece back and is helping her remember her past and unlock her powers, while Angelica is working on a way to get rid of her for good so that she can become queen.

I was extremely confused about what was going on in Practical Mischief. The basics are clear enough, but I had no clue how everyone got to this point, or even what this point was. At first it seemed like the Summerlands was just what the witches call the place where their dead go, but that’s not the case at all. Apparently, Angelica did something (who knows what?!) and owed the faeries. Then the faeries needed to take either Belle or Gaia to protect them in their homeland, the Summerlands. Obviously, it was Gaia. At the end, Gaia comes back and no one is protecting the faeries. So what was the point of all this? Nothing is explained!

The characters were all stereotypes there to fill a role. Belle was the wise, good witch. Angelica as the evil witch out for power, and we never learned why. Gia is the sweet, innocent who will one day rule. Then there’s the Farley brothers who are idiots and just served as comic relief. Too bad they weren’t funny. Slapstick is not my thing.

I did like how the magic was presented in Practical Mischief. It was really the only thing that made sense. The witches rely on the power of the moon for most spells, but some also required the Sun goddess. They have incantations and some require plants or precious stones. There’s even familiars! Unfortunately, this didn’t save the book for me.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Andrea Ika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Practical Mischief

DD Scott



Book Categories: High School Fantasy, Science Fiction


Rating


Blurb
For Practical Mischief...

Think The Good Witch meets The Three Stooges and Tinker Hell.


Belle Bishop, Queen of Witches, is a good witch.

Her sister Angelica? Not so much.

Belle rules her witchery kingdom using the ancient Wiccan Rede – ‘An’ it harm none, do what thy will,’ while Angelica runs amuck, casting one mischievous spell after another.

But this time, Angelica has gone too far.

It’s up to Belle and her former best friend, Atlas, the greatest wizard the earth has ever known, to save Belle’s niece, Gia, from Angelica’s magical mischief. If they don’t, Gia will end up in The Summerland just like her mother did the last time one of Angelica’s spells went awry.

Luckily, or unluckily, depending on how you look at it, Belle and Atlas have a little help from Atlas’s sons, who are every bit The Three Stooges, as well as an ornery faery named Tinker Hell and a deck of Tarot Cards waiting for someone to deal their destiny.

My thought
Amazon Top 100 Bestselling Humor Author D. D. Scott is back...this time, with Book One in her brand new and wonderfully witchy series, featuring Belle Bishop, Queen of Witches
Practical Mischief is meant to be a short, light novel in which the heroine Belle Bishop restores the magic and memory of her niece, Gia, which had been repressed through the curse of Belle’s sister, Angelica. the characters are uniformly wealthy, materialistic and into conspicuous consumption. Belle owns a yacht, and she and Gia wear designer togs and Louboutins.
The positive thing about the character is Belle.she is an inspiration to embrace your own strengths and use them. This magical book keeps the reader entranced to the end wanting to read more
I really enjoyed this book and recommended it especially if you love all things with a magical twist.

[Trina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adored this mischievous, fun, fast paced, quick read. So many aspects of witch craft was involved, from potions, chants, alters, tarot cards, familiars and more! The theme to the book was good witch vs bad witch. What makes it more intriguing is that they are sisters.

What I enjoyed most about the book was the close relationship between Aunt Belle and her niece, Gia. You could feel Belle's sense of responsibility toward not only Gia but the whole witch kingdom.

Practical Mischief also touches on grief, how it can cloud our vision and how letting it go can heal us and continue our happily ever after. I LOVE how D.D. Scott wrote about magic and it was used in Practical Mischief. It felt very accurate and natural, and the way she spoke of gods and goddesses reminds me of how much I love reading about witches.

Angelica "the bad witch" is totally relate-able too. Everyone knows someone that's greedy, selfish, and self serving. Angelica plays that role to a perfection. The phrase "bad apple" comes to mind when I think of her.

It was also fun to watch Gia blossom and come into her own. Gia is feisty, intelligent, and a force to be reckoned with. Someone dealing with the grief she's endured could have gone down a different path full of bitterness, anger, and revenge but she rises above all that with hope and positive energy.

In keeping with the fun filled mischief of the book here's my favorite quote that made me laugh out loud:

MY FAV QUOTE:
"Tinker Hell is that you?!" She shouted out to the one faery who always messed with her. "I'm sooo not in the mood for your bullshit today!"

[Rhonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 STARS

First of all I love the cover. The colors grab your attention and then focus in to her.
Practical Mischief is about jealousy, power grab, sisters on opposite sides, light and dark.
It does set up good for a series of books that good be really enjoyable.
I had a hard time though caring for the characters. I never got lost in the story. I needed to care about the characters, see them interacting more out of the plot line.

Belle Bishop is Queen of the Witches. She feels about her sister dying to protect her and that she trusted her other sister Angelica to watch over their niece Gia while she went to town.

Angelica likes to mess with free will. She made her niece forget who she was and the power she had. Then dropped her off somewhere and would not tell her sister where she was.

Now Gia is back but still does not remember her past or how to use her magic. Belle wants to help her and protect her from Angelica.

It is a clean story. I would read another book in the series and see how well I would enjoy it. I think their was a story before this one that we saw Gia fall for her fiancé.

I was given this ebook and asked to give honest review from Netgalley.
03/07/2013 PUB. 102 pages ISBN 13 2940016266367

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice light read with an intriguing new world for the reader to explore and characters to meet. It was a short quick read that is well outlined in the synopsis and I will not even try to improve on as it hits great highlights. The writing was clean and well edited. While this is a good book, in my opinion, it is a little shallow and I would have liked to have had more meat to sink my teeth into. However, this is a very short read that I believe on reading has a YA target audience, which had I been aware at the onset might have made a difference in my enjoyment of the read. Practical Mischief reads like a novella spinoff from a more complicated series that is an aside, giving you a glimpse of this is how we got here, and as it stands I had difficulty getting emotionally involved with the characters or frankly caring about their outcome. The story is complete and does not leave us with a cliffhanger ending, but there is opportunity for more to come should this continue on into a series. I do like the author's writing style and would recommend this to those wanting a short YA tale to pass the time. I requested and received this book from Netgalley and no compensation was received for this review, other than the opportunity to read a new book.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really, really wanted to like this book. I met this author years ago and she was lovely and sweet. I tried and tried to read her first book [cannot find review right now but tried several times to read it] and it was bad. Like, baaaad. When I saw this, I had hopes that, with a dozen titles under her belt, she had maybe mellowed a bit, found a groove, and had a good book.

It's... better. Still did not finish, because it's not that much better. Before I got through chapter 2, I'd checked two different places to make sure this wasn't part of a series, or maybe first in a spin-off series: the author makes constant references to past events. She must explain all later, maybe she's trying to set up tension to draw in the reader and establish the characters' histories, but it's too much and the reader just feels lost. Furthermore, the characters and the book itself are like parodies: the bad constantly smirky and snappish, the good always wounded and selfless, the entire format and story structure what you'd get if you took a regular romance novel and exaggerated all the proportions.

eARC from NetGalley.

[Jaime · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novella is not a quick read. I found myself bored and it was hard to stay focused on the story. A major problem for me was while this book is the beginning of its own series it must be linked to her other books, so right from the start I felt left out. There had been prior drama, action, and relationships established that was not rehashed in this book. I felt like I flipped a book to the middle and started reading. Another issue I had wit the book was the switching of the narrator in each chapter. It’s only a novella, there wasn’t a need or enough of a story for the back and forth between the three leads. I wish it had been told solely from the point of view of Gia. Since she has amnesia she is just as new and clueless to this world as a new reader. I probably wouldn’t have felt as lost or left out if I had been reading her trying to not only piece together the mystery of the story but of her life as well. The writing wasn’t captivating but it was decent, still won’t be continuing on with this series.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was provided a copy for my review.

3.5/5 stars

There were parts of this book I really liked and parts that I wondered if they were written for a 12 year old. About half the book felt like it was missing backstory, to the point I had to triple check that this was the first book in the series. At about 80% through the book one of the holes was filled, but others remained.

The main characters were quite likable and made me want to continue their journeys. I enjoyed the story when I wasn't wondering if I missed something. I thought it was a charming mix of many different series that I have read and enjoyed. It was a quick read and I would probably read more in the series.

[K. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately this wasn't a fantastic read. The writing didn't flow well; the sentences were clunky and the pov switched back and forth too much. The characters, despite their apparently mature ages, seemed to behave, and speak, rather childishly. Reading the words ginormous and gazillions in an adult book made me wince. The sons were as every bit like the Three Stooges, and as equally juvenile and annoying and were more caricatures than believable human beings. Considering the authors' list of accolades I expected something more refined.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like that this book brings in characters from previous books. I have read both the Bootscootin and Cozy Cash series and find so many likeable characters. I have also started on the Stuck series. Good author and good books.

[Alex Owens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting setup and premise. I loved the inventive characterizations (Tinker Hell, 3 stooges, etc.) The magic/ tarot aspect was cool and well done... this reads more like a glimpse into a a world that I should know more about, so I'm guessing it's part of a series.

[Krissys Bookshelf Reviews · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad, not great. Simple concept slow on the uptake.