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Salem Concord #1
Interview for a Wizard
Interview for a Wizard is book one in J.A. Areces' fantasy saga The Salem Concord.
On Halloween night, the greatest vacation spot in the world is about to be scared to death. A dangerous and mad wizard has escaped from jail, and there is no one who can identify him. With only seven days left before Halloween, Jesse and wizard special agent Ch-U-Ch race to solve the mystery, but time is quickly running out.
On Halloween night, the greatest vacation spot in the world is about to be scared to death. A dangerous and mad wizard has escaped from jail, and there is no one who can identify him. With only seven days left before Halloween, Jesse and wizard special agent Ch-U-Ch race to solve the mystery, but time is quickly running out.
ebook
First published December 17, 2007
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17 people want to read
About the author
J.A. Areces
4 books16 followersI am a husband, father and I work all day, but at night I create.
I wrote The Salem Concord Series at the suggestion of a friend. I have always been fascinated by tales of wizards and magic, so I thought I would write a book on a Wizardry family that lived in the United States.
I hope you enjoy the stories as much as I enjoyed writing them for you.
I wrote The Salem Concord Series at the suggestion of a friend. I have always been fascinated by tales of wizards and magic, so I thought I would write a book on a Wizardry family that lived in the United States.
I hope you enjoy the stories as much as I enjoyed writing them for you.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 15, 2018
INTERVIEW FOR A WIZARD
This is a nice, light and entertaining fantasy story full of witches and wizards. Set in a small New England town during the week before Halloween, a young man who manages the local magic shop gets involved in sorcery by no choice of his own.
The characters are pleasant and relatable, easy going and down to earth. A crystal ball, flying brooms and evil spells all add excitement to a gently scary and mysterious tale.
I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by the author. He has an accent which I found interesting and calming. Sound effects and music all combine to make this an enjoyable Halloween experience. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series!
This is a nice, light and entertaining fantasy story full of witches and wizards. Set in a small New England town during the week before Halloween, a young man who manages the local magic shop gets involved in sorcery by no choice of his own.
The characters are pleasant and relatable, easy going and down to earth. A crystal ball, flying brooms and evil spells all add excitement to a gently scary and mysterious tale.
I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by the author. He has an accent which I found interesting and calming. Sound effects and music all combine to make this an enjoyable Halloween experience. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series!
February 12, 2010
This audio book which I found on Podiobooks.com is... pretty good. I know the author (who is also the reader) has English as a second language, so I won't hold it against him that the phrases and sentence structure is sometimes a bit... off. I thought it strange that a character at one point gets in a car and grabs the "Driver's wheel" rather than the steering wheel, and the constant reference to Alavand's Witches and Wizards Corner Store as "Alavand's Witches and Wizards Corner Store" no matter how many times it's mentioned in the same sentence can be a bit... distracting. I really thought that the one thing this needed was an editor, but it's a free book and it moves at a pretty good pace.
It's about a guy named Jesse who works at Alavand's Witches and Wizards Corner Store a store that sells things to people who want to pretend to be Witches and Wizards, or at least that's what he thinks. Jesse soon learns that his customers are real witches and wizards and that there is an evil wizard who is planning an evil act of magic against the non-magic "Folks" of the world. What the plan is isn't revealed for a very long time, but it does a good job of building suspence.
Jesse finds that his job is harder than he originally thought when he hears stories of the building he works in used to be the house belonging to a man who murdered many people years ago. He murdered people by scaring them to death. This is where my main issue with the book comes in. There is a police chief or detective(I forget which) who suspects Jesse of committing murders when people start dying of heart attacks because they've been scared to death. In the world of the book the world of wizardry exists behind the normal world, so no one knows about magic, but this detective and the newspaper see that people are dying of heart attacks and suddenly there's murder investigations and a newspaper headline that says "Murder in the park" when a someone dies from a heart attack because they're scared to death. This bugged me to no end. The fact that a police detective would see someone die of a heart attack, think of the deaths that occurred years ago in the same building and think "Oh, these must all be murders" when he knows nothing of the magic world was just too much of a stretch in my mind.
This isn't the worst thing in the world, and I would recommend it to people but be aware that there's a lot of weirdly stated sentences in it. It's not Shakespeare, but it's also not Twilight, so... there's that.
It's about a guy named Jesse who works at Alavand's Witches and Wizards Corner Store a store that sells things to people who want to pretend to be Witches and Wizards, or at least that's what he thinks. Jesse soon learns that his customers are real witches and wizards and that there is an evil wizard who is planning an evil act of magic against the non-magic "Folks" of the world. What the plan is isn't revealed for a very long time, but it does a good job of building suspence.
Jesse finds that his job is harder than he originally thought when he hears stories of the building he works in used to be the house belonging to a man who murdered many people years ago. He murdered people by scaring them to death. This is where my main issue with the book comes in. There is a police chief or detective(I forget which) who suspects Jesse of committing murders when people start dying of heart attacks because they've been scared to death. In the world of the book the world of wizardry exists behind the normal world, so no one knows about magic, but this detective and the newspaper see that people are dying of heart attacks and suddenly there's murder investigations and a newspaper headline that says "Murder in the park" when a someone dies from a heart attack because they're scared to death. This bugged me to no end. The fact that a police detective would see someone die of a heart attack, think of the deaths that occurred years ago in the same building and think "Oh, these must all be murders" when he knows nothing of the magic world was just too much of a stretch in my mind.
This isn't the worst thing in the world, and I would recommend it to people but be aware that there's a lot of weirdly stated sentences in it. It's not Shakespeare, but it's also not Twilight, so... there's that.
February 25, 2016
A must read of mine. I read this four book series every year. I cant say enough about these four books and to my knowledge they are the only four the author has written. Captivating and thrilling with plenty of humor as well. A good read for young and old alike.
February 23, 2014
very obviously a Harry Potter spin off, the story moves at a reasonable pace and the characters are interesting.
If you're looking for a light, easy read then this book is worth considering.
If you're looking for a light, easy read then this book is worth considering.
November 22, 2017
Got this as an audio book at first and as soon as I started listening I knew I was going to love it.
Having the author himself reading it makes it even more brilliant and I loved the use of chapter intro music and sound effects (this only adds more joy!).
The story itself is brilliant. The characters are interesting and I found myself wanting to listen non stop because I just had to know more. I also love that so much thought went into each character and so you kind of love them (Jesse and Chu-u-ch) and get mad with other characters for putting them in danger!
Another thing I love, is that I can't just predict what's going to happen next. Kept me guessing so kept me interested.
I was actually sad when the book ended (I didn't realize there were more) and considered just relistening to it so I wouldn't miss it, but then I discovered the other books in the series and my sunshine returned!
I have also recently bought this as a kindle book so I can enjoy reading it but I guess I'll have to make my own background music and chapter intros! I know I won't read it as well as the author -once you've heard him read it, it's a hard to hear it done any other way!
Having the author himself reading it makes it even more brilliant and I loved the use of chapter intro music and sound effects (this only adds more joy!).
The story itself is brilliant. The characters are interesting and I found myself wanting to listen non stop because I just had to know more. I also love that so much thought went into each character and so you kind of love them (Jesse and Chu-u-ch) and get mad with other characters for putting them in danger!
Another thing I love, is that I can't just predict what's going to happen next. Kept me guessing so kept me interested.
I was actually sad when the book ended (I didn't realize there were more) and considered just relistening to it so I wouldn't miss it, but then I discovered the other books in the series and my sunshine returned!
I have also recently bought this as a kindle book so I can enjoy reading it but I guess I'll have to make my own background music and chapter intros! I know I won't read it as well as the author -once you've heard him read it, it's a hard to hear it done any other way!
March 13, 2018
Didn't like it. The story did not hold my interest. I didn't finish it.
September 7, 2018
Wonderful book! I've loved it for years!!
March 26, 2020
Listened to it on a audiobook.. but read it a while back also
March 22, 2017
Absolutely terrible. Just couldn't get past the abissmal plot and awkward writing style.
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September 20, 2019I listened to this as one of Scribl's legacy Podiocasts. I like podiocasts, and I mostly enjoyed the added music and sound effects employed here.
However, as other reviewers have commented, the repeated use of the entire "Allevand's Witches and Wizards Corner Store" moniker EVERY TIME the place was mentioned was really grating about 10% into the story, and was enough to pull my star rating down by the end. Only the fact that I recognized the uses of the whole name as a NaNoWriMo trick got me through it; when your goal is to write 50000 words in a month, using the whole name gives you 6 words versus the 1 word you'd get just by calling it a store. Perhaps this book did not start life as a NaNoWriMo book, but things like that make it appear to be one.
The book could use a significant edit. There are a lot of places where there is repetitive wording, or a statement that is immediately contradicted in order to push the plot along. Without the edit, a book I might have liked became a book that was merely okay. It was fine as listening material while driving, and the author deserves credit for writing and sharing it.
However, as other reviewers have commented, the repeated use of the entire "Allevand's Witches and Wizards Corner Store" moniker EVERY TIME the place was mentioned was really grating about 10% into the story, and was enough to pull my star rating down by the end. Only the fact that I recognized the uses of the whole name as a NaNoWriMo trick got me through it; when your goal is to write 50000 words in a month, using the whole name gives you 6 words versus the 1 word you'd get just by calling it a store. Perhaps this book did not start life as a NaNoWriMo book, but things like that make it appear to be one.
The book could use a significant edit. There are a lot of places where there is repetitive wording, or a statement that is immediately contradicted in order to push the plot along. Without the edit, a book I might have liked became a book that was merely okay. It was fine as listening material while driving, and the author deserves credit for writing and sharing it.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews