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Spellbound Bookshop Mystery #1

Pages and Premonitions

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This is book 1 in the Spellbound Bookshop paranormal cozy mystery series by USA TODAY Bestselling Author J.A. Whiting.

It’s holiday time and Shelby Price is decorating her bookshop in the seaside town of Hamlet on the North Shore of Massachusetts when she falls off a ladder and is knocked unconscious. When Shelby wakes up, she can hear her cat Harper talking to her.

One evening, Shelby and her best friend Lucy attend a holiday festival at the Harris Estate on the outskirts of town. After enjoying the outdoor festivities and attractions, the young women head into the mansion for a tour of the place. During the tour, Shelby feels uneasy and anxious, and smells smoke for a moment, but then the odor is gone. The next morning, Shelby learns there has been a murder, and the body was found at the mansion in a room that had been set on fire overnight. With the help of her friend, a town detective, and her cat Harper, will Shelby be able to navigate her newly-discovered paranormal skills and help the detective find the killer before someone else loses their life?

290 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 2, 2024

767 people are currently reading
190 people want to read

About the author

J.A. Whiting

168 books316 followers
J A Whiting is the author of the Olivia Miller mystery series. She lives with her family in Massachusetts where she works full time in education. Whiting loves spending time with family, reading, traveling, following New England sports teams, exercising, and being outdoors.

For exclusive content and new book announcements please visit www.jawhitingbooks.com and sign up for my mailing list.

Also please "like" my Facebook page www.facebook.com/jawhitingauthor

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5 stars
573 (59%)
4 stars
260 (26%)
3 stars
103 (10%)
2 stars
19 (1%)
1 star
11 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
2 reviews2 followers
July 18, 2024
OK Read

I like cats and a talking cat was a bonus. The story was well told and written. The only thing was I felt it was being told by a Sunday school teacher that had every paragraph vetted to be a super squeaky clean moral for perfect lives. The story never got "real" it felt preachy and overly sweet. The story would have benefitted from weeding out many those references to the perfect family.
Profile Image for Krista.
410 reviews18 followers
March 21, 2025
I really enjoyed this. I liked the characters, the setting and how the story unfolded. Will definitely continue reading.
118 reviews
January 4, 2025
Writing is missing passion

I usually enjoy this trope — single woman, magical abilities, small store, and magical cat familiar. Pages and Premonitions fell a little flat. There is no passion to the writing, and I’m not talking about sexual passion. The plot is flat, and it’s if the book was written so as not to offend anyone. I couldn’t engage with this book, and I kept tripping over plot holes, in the beginning a mysterious, slightly threatening woman appeared in the bookstore and then disappeared, never to be referenced again. In the later stages of the book there is a reference to a previous relationship that ended badly for,Shelby, but to was just dropped in, and didn’t go anywhere. Perhaps it is a;buildup for a subsequent book, but it didn’t make sense in how it was presented.

The whole book was like a drawn out series of personal affirmations, with no real tension to drive the story forward. I admit to being disappointed.
Profile Image for Barbara.
127 reviews1 follower
March 18, 2024
I do beleive that this author's work is written with AI. Or she is just a bad writer. I allow the bad writing when reading Sweet Cove another of her series which crosses over in this book but I really don't want to read more stuff like that.

The story is not very long yet seemingly on every page the main character is constantly validated and told what a great investigator she is and what great observational skills she has when in reality she has done nothing remarkable to deserve all that praise.

And the stupidity of some guy going on a short vacation and not having his wallet and someone who knows the guy killing someone else and then planting his wallet is down right stupid plot hole. And if the main character Shelby is so smart she would have mentioned this.

I like the talking cat aspect but either this book is AI or the author thinks her readers are children or stupid.

I had already bought the second and preordered the third before being done with this story. I really am not sure I want to continue after these three if the writing doesn't get better.

And the way the people talk is annoying. Like I said her friend Lucy, and then her parents, are constantly telling her how amazing she is and her cat talks like a fortune cookie.

Profile Image for Booklover77.
69 reviews
October 27, 2024
Prim and Proper

A cozy paranormal that was okay. Putting aside the paranormal, the book reads as very serious, almost Puritanical. It could have been set 100 years ago with little change. The writing is on a 7th grade level and there’s nothing in this book that’s inappropriate for middle schoolers. It didn’t need to be funny, but there was no excitement either. Even Harper the cat is way too serious. Not sure why the angry guy in the library was in town? 3 stars because I read for entertainment which it lacks but the clues were neatly placed (and obvious). As a series for middle schoolers, it’s very good. I’m just not sure that’s the target audience?
937 reviews4 followers
February 9, 2024
A Newfound Talent!

"Pages and Premonitions" is Book 1 in A Spellbound Bookshop Mystery series, written beautifully by one of my favorite authors, J. A. Whiting. This book focuses on Shelby Price, the owner of her own bookshop; her female cat Harper; her best friend Lucy; and Detective Travis Whitely, or as Lucy calls him, "Detective Dreamy." In the first chapter of the book, Shelby falls off of a ladder and hits her head on the floor. When she wakes up, her entire life changes. She is now able to hear her cat telepathically talking to her, she can see books levitating around in the bookstore, she can see ghosts, and she has visions and premonitions. She and Lucy attend a party at the old Harris Estate, and while there, she sees and smells things that Lucy doesn't see or smell. The next day, she finds out there was a fire that damaged one room of the estate, and that there was a dead body in the fire. The news is that it was Mr. James Peacock, a well-known and equally well-liked elderly gentle who was once a lawyer, and then worked and wrote books at the town's library. However, a few days later, Mr. Peacock shows up alive and well. Who was the dead man with Mr. Peacock's wallet in his pocket? Shelby, Lucy, Harper, and Travis all race against the clock to find out who is trying to kill Mr. Peacock and why they want him dead. I really like this first book of J. A. Whiting's new series, and can hardly wait to read book 2 when it is available on Kindle. I also liked the sections where Angie and Courtney Roseland from the Sweet Cove Mystery series were part of the storyline. Shelby and Courtney had attended college together, and this was how they met. Who knows, maybe Lin Coffin and Claire Rollins will also be mentioned, or play a part, in upcoming novels. I received an ARC and this is my voluntary and honest review.
Profile Image for Gillian.
186 reviews3 followers
February 28, 2024
This book was just lovely. The characters were fun and interesting and the story line was not what I had expected. It had goos twists and turns and wonderful character development.
For the first, in what I hope is a long line of books to come, this story build a wonderful and fun foundation.
Shelby Price lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts in a town that has as much haunted history as it's neighbor Salem, but less of the notoriety. Shelby owns a book store and one fateful night she takes a fall and wakes up to be able to talk to her cat. This is only the start of Shelby new found gifts.
This book is set around Christmas, which is one of my favorite settings.
Shelby has some great friends in her town that help her not only understand her new gifts, but also support her. Lucy is fun and I am excited to see her character grow as the series continues. The new Detective in town, Travis Whitely, takes some time to figure out how he might react to Shelby, but in the end it all works out how it should.
This is a fun light mystery with fun characters. I am very excited to read the next Spellbound Book shop mystery!
Profile Image for Judy.
307 reviews
March 11, 2024
Pages and Premonitions is the first book in a new series by J.A. Whiting. While decorating her bookstore, Shelby Price falls off a ladder and hits her head, the result of which is hearing her cat Harper talking to her. Shelby thinks she is going crazy until she talks to her friend Lucy, who believes in her and convinces her to believe in herself and embrace the change. Living in a town near Salem, Massachusetts, intuition or believing in the paranormal is accepted.

A body is found at the Harris Estate after a Christmas festival and Shelby regrets not paying attention to her intuition because she believes she could have saved the dead man. It was kind of strange how quickly Detective Travis Whitely invites her into the investigation and appears to leans on her a lot during the solving of the crime. So different than most cozy mysteries, but Ms. Whiting does this in her other series, Sweet Cove Mysteries. I loved how Courtney and Angie from that series were worked into this one.

It was an enjoyable story with a plot twist involving the dead man and the killer. I really enjoyed Shelby and her friend Lucy and most of all, Shelby’s interactions with Harper. That cat does great pep talks! I can’t wait to read the next one in the series.
1,960 reviews
April 7, 2024
I really enjoyed this book. Liked the characters and the talking cat. Looking forward to reading the next one.


Amazon synopsis:
It’s holiday time and Shelby Price is decorating her bookshop in the seaside town of Hamlet on the North Shore of Massachusetts when she falls off a ladder and is knocked unconscious. When Shelby wakes up, she can hear her cat Harper talking to her.

One evening, Shelby and her best friend Lucy attend a holiday festival at the Harris Estate on the outskirts of town. After enjoying the outdoor festivities and attractions, the young women head into the mansion for a tour of the place. During the tour, Shelby feels uneasy and anxious and smells smoke for a moment, but then the odor is gone.

The next morning, Shelby learns there has been a murder, and the body was found at the mansion in a room that had been set on fire overnight.

With the help of her friend, a town detective, and her cat Harper, will Shelby be able to navigate
her newly-discovered paranormal skills and help the detective find the killer before someone else loses their life?
958 reviews2 followers
April 28, 2024
Harper is her familiar

Shelby falls in her bookstore and hits her head. When she wakes she can hear Harper talking to her, she's her familiar. Later she hears a thump in the store. She finds a book floating in mid-air. Harper says she awakened her psychic abilities when she hit her head. She tells Lucy about hearing Harper now, she accepts it. Their town has a long history of weird supernatural things happening. They take the tour of the Harris Estate, Shelby smells smoke. Travis questions Shelby but feels she's holding back something. Shelby sees two of the Courtland sisters, Courtney and Angie. Chief Martin comes to see Shelby. It was good to see the Courtland sisters and Claire mentioned. Enjoyable story and characters can't wait to read next book.
Profile Image for Jane litherland.
3,918 reviews69 followers
February 2, 2024
Purrfect series starter. One girl , her cat and her bookshop , a great setting for an awesome story, Shelby has an accident that triggers hidden abilities and she’s not afraid to use them…well a little afraid , but with her friends and trusty new handsome ‘friend’ Detective Travis she uses them to solve a mystery or die trying… Brilliant ,loved every minute of this well written book , it has the purrfect elements to engage , with on point descriptions and realistic characters who are uber relatable . The interactive scenes between Harper the cat and Shelby are a hoot. I read a forwarded book and I’m leaving a voluntary review in my own words
Profile Image for Tari.
3,565 reviews100 followers
February 16, 2024
I really enjoyed this a lot! I was pulled in from the beginning and it didn’t let go until the last page. I was never really sure about the whodunit and loved how Shelby, Lucy and Harper handled the showdown. And the festive get-together for Christmas at the end was the perfect touch. I also can’t wait to see how things develop between Travis and Shelby, they’re just too cute together!

Oh I can’t forget mentioning how much fun it was that some of the Sweet Cove series characters crossed over into this book. I’m not caught up in that series yet, so I’m not sure if Shelby was ever mentioned in it although she sounded familiar. Makes me need to go read some Sweet Cove now!
Profile Image for Brenda.
3,386 reviews43 followers
February 16, 2024
It’s holiday time and Shelby Price is decorating her bookshop in the seaside town of Hamlet on the North Shore of Massachusetts when she falls off a ladder and is knocked unconscious. When Shelby wakes up, she can hear her cat Harper talking to her. An unknown man is dead and she keeps having visions that are linked to the crime.

I borrowed this book from Kindle Unlimited. This in no way affects my opinion of this book.
341 reviews5 followers
May 9, 2024
A cute cozy mystery

Being a cat owner myself, I'd love to have mine talk to me. Harper doesn't talk like a pet though, she is all about helpful knowledge. the psychic aspect of the story is interesting. I'm looking forward to following Shelby and Travis budding relationship.
I like to try and figure out the culprit in mysteries. This one had me fooled! I'm going to try the next one.
1,342 reviews12 followers
September 14, 2024
Loved this Bookshop mystery!

I would give this book 100+ stars if I could!! So glad I decided to check this series out. Right up my alley -- ghosts and talking cats. This series is going in my top 5 series category. I love Harper, the cat! So full of love, intelligence, and sweetness! All the characters are great! Definitely will continue the series as well as checking out the other series by this author!
11 reviews
February 7, 2024
Another good series from J A Whiting.

I really enjoyed this book, and I like that it included Courtney and Angie from Sweet Cove. Shelby falls off a ladder bumps her head and her life changes, she sees a ghost, senses danger, has visions and helps solve a murder and keep a good friend safe. This is a great start to a new series. Looking forward to the next book.
103 reviews2 followers
April 1, 2024
Happy Mystery

This mystery was never slow.It started with one mystery and ended with another.Happy endings to the story.I always wanted to be able to talk with my animal friends,but never did.Shelby and Harper were lucky to be able to.Romance and mystery together were for a change ———clean! I would recommend reading the book to anyone who enjoys clean mysteries and Romance
473 reviews
September 20, 2024
Pages and Premonition (A Spellbound bookshop mystery book 1)

Shelby owns A wonderful bookstore, and while hanging a wreath, she calls and hits her head knocking herself out. This is the beginning of her physic powers. From there a strange murder, A detective who senses she is quite intuitive and quite an ending.
Profile Image for Sharen.
591 reviews4 followers
October 10, 2024
Excellent beginning to a new series! A lovely new cozy series that Includes all my favorite elements….a ghost, a wonderful talking cat, a mystery to solve, evil doers doing evil deeds (no graphic violence), romance (no sex), no editing issues, and no cliffhanger endings.
Looking forward to curling up in a comfy chair with a cup of tea and enjoying the next book in the series.
Profile Image for Loraine.
3,420 reviews
November 11, 2024
This book was definitely different from what I usually read. Shelby Price the main character owned a book store. After falling and receiving a bump on her head, she discovers her cat can talk to her; and she is able to read people's minds. This leads her to become a crime solver. The whole premise was just a little too far fetched for me.
405 reviews1 follower
February 22, 2025
Great

I love finding new series by authors that I have already read. This one didn't fail at being great. The author even had a crossover from the other series that I have read. A paranormal aspect is great but not overpowering. Shelby, the bookshop owner, is involved in finding a killer and thief. After a fall she discovers psychic abilities. On to the next one.
351 reviews1 follower
February 4, 2024
Oh what a fun book! I liked how the character Shelby knows Courtney from the Sweet Cove series. Shelby is new to her “skills” but has friends to help her develop them. I look forward to reading this series.
169 reviews
February 18, 2024
Great start…

…to a new series. Loved all the characters and how they interacted with each other. Story was well written and the killers are not revealed until the end which I liked. Looking forward to more adventures with Shelby, Harper, Lucy & Travis. Highly recommend.
91 reviews
May 12, 2024
purely enjoyable

I read the book in one sitting. It moves very swiftly, and the characters are all enjoyable, so for me that makes for an enjoyable book. I envy the psychic powers and look forward to watching Shelby grow with friends, love interest and with Harper.
Profile Image for LuAnn.
567 reviews26 followers
October 22, 2024
This was a fun read and a great book for October. The protagonist falls from a ladder and suddenly she can communicate with her cat, see ghosts and sense when things are not as they seem. It was such an entertaining story.
19 reviews
March 4, 2025
interesting story

I enjoyed the storyline but it only got three stars because I felt there was a buildup that then disappeared
Possibly as it will expand in a later book but something I dislike
Certainly entertaining with open end for follow on books
5 reviews
September 7, 2025
Believe In Yourself

Excellent book great characters. Kept you on edge trying to figure out who the killer was. It showed you to always go with your gut feeling and act on that feeling. Be true to your self and see the good in others. Recommended the book.
Profile Image for Celest.
701 reviews8 followers
October 8, 2025
A Fun Adventure by J.A. Whiting

I enjoyed this mystery. I occasionally drift over to a little paranormal for a change of pace from the cozy mysteries that I love. The characters in this story were pretty awesome. I'm so happy that I found this book free on Amazon. Don't miss it.
Profile Image for Doris Stillings.
241 reviews2 followers
October 30, 2025
Premonitions

After hitting her head, Shelby came into her psychic powers. This just led to a story full of twists, murder, humor, and new interesting friends. I loved this book. I did not stop reading till the end.
Profile Image for JANE VAN HORN.
2,084 reviews12 followers
February 7, 2024
Great book

This is the first book in A Spellbound Bookshop series by J A Whiting. It is a wonderful start and I can't wait for the next book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews

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