Witchcraft, Premonitions & the Emerald Globe Caper

by E.S. Hazard

Blend the magic of witchcraft with the mystery of ghosts, spirits and premonitions, then add the excitement of a robbery investigation with a crisis that could affect the fate of Earth and finally sprinkle in a little romance between a lonely sixteen year old boy and girl and you have Witchcraft, Premonitions & the Emerald Globe Caper.

ebook

Published September 1, 2020

About the author

Writing a little! Writing has its advantages, you can create a story that interests you, it takes more time up than reading does, and most important, it is free to do and fits my budget.

Reviews

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ehh, it was not nearly as bad as it could have been. It's a very clean book: no violence, no bad language, clear lines of good and evil. The teenage protagonists are very earnest and positive. It's not clear who this book might be for: maybe homeschooled teenagers whose parents have no objection to witchcraft and alien influences but also find Harry Potter too morally grey. The writing is not the worst, at least on a sentence level. It reveals a need for editing throughout, but if you know the circles I have dived into it positively shines on that level. I appreciated the can-do attitude on display. And in a contemporary fantasy setting with ancestral magic and rhyming spells like ...

Hidden door.
Listen to this lore.
I command thee to the fore.
I implore ye door.
Swing open to explore.

or,

Hear my appeal;
And do imprison this person and conceal;
It would be ideal;
If they could not break this seal;
That you made as strong as steel.
Even if they used all their zeal.

... the sudden introduction of cloud-like aliens that guide the development of intelligent civilizations over eons by planting scientific and societal breatkthrough ideas into individual minds was an interesting surprise.

I had to DNF at 56% because it was too boring to continue, and as short as the book is it's still too long for its content. There were no surprises still around the corner: the plucky teenage neighbors would combine their newfound magical abilities with the plucky young cloud-bodied alien influencer to counter the ancient evil magic users and aliens and save the town, while continuing to run circles around the incompetent local police and journalist. All that remained was to learn the teased full name of Max Solution, and that was easily achieved using e-book search functionality. His full name is just kidding, I won't do that to the author. Message me directly if you want to know. You don't want to know. .

I have to admit, the only reason I read this at all was because of the names ... oh, the names. They go so far beyond "on the nose" that they're "in the nasopharynx." Start with the series main character: what do you name a girl with the ability to see the future? Why, Cassandra Foreshadow, of course. I mentioned her companion and next-door neighbor, the problem-solving Max Solution. Here is a selection of other unironically named characters from this book:

Celeste Skyward
Winter Siren
An old woman, Mabel Eldergroveton
A well-to-do family, the Vanderwealthys
Doyle Pernicious
Sid Noxious
Oscar Eccentric
Friendly Traveler
Cosmic Wisdom
Curt Stern
Mysticus Powers
The local TV news staff: Betty Central and Sam Presswire
Sinister Crooked
William Petridishman
and so forth.

And what in the fresh Windows 98 hell is this cover:



I'm familiar with no-effort Kindle template covers; in contrast, this one made an effort to represent the story while somehow coming out even worse. The clip-art calendar is partially accurate; the action starts in May 1765 and jumps to May 2005 within a few pages, but then it moves on to June 2005 and that's all. I have to assume its creation process went something like this:

[Triza's · Rating 5 out of 5]

**i received a free ecopy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review**

I have read 83 books this year and I have to say Witchcraft, Premonitions and the Emerald green Caper is probably one of the best short novels I have had the pleasure of reading.
Synopsis: the story begins in 1765 when the Skyward family makes a hastily escape to America to avoid a deadly attack on their lives. It then jumps forward to 2005, where we meet the main characters of the story; Max Solution and Cassandra Foreshadow. Both of them just moved to a new rural neighborhood in Mystical, PA. Being the only teenagers in a mile’s radius, they quickly become friends. As they get to know each other, they find a magic library in Cassandra’s house filled with books of spells and magical items. As they try to figure out what it all means, a serial burglar hits their street. Though they don’t take much from Cassandra’s house, they manage to steal a green orb from her library. It was considered of not much value but she and Max have other suspicions. Despite their best efforts to work with the detective, they eventually decide to attempt to solve the case themselves and get the possibly magical orb back. There is alot going on at once through the novel. The novel has alternating perspectives of the robbers and a pair of cousins who have it out for Cassandra and Max. And an alien named Oscar, that works for a secret alien society.

The story had everything and more than what I had seen coming. Just from reading the first three chapters I knew it was going to be good. I was already trying to draw connections between the Skywards and the Solutions/Foreshadows because there didn’t seem to be one. As the book goes on, I loved to see how their storylines got knitted together. There are several scenes that kept me on edge, like when Cassandra was fighting off the burglars in her house or when she was kidnapped. And many that made me laugh out loud.

Cassandra Foreshadow
Cassandra as a character is pretty strong headed. She has a mind of her own, I love how she has a partnership with Max rather than her being another female book character that’s practically a sidekick just goes with what she’s told by the male lead. I love how the author did something different with a female lead. She is actually really powerful and I look forward to seeing how her gifts grow. In the next installments I hope to see her express more of her very ~obvious~ interest in Max a little more. That was the only thing I would say left me a little disappointed with this book. I would have loved to see a little more romance but I believe it will grow over the series.

Max Solution
Max’s sass was definitely a great highlight of his personality. He doesn’t let anyone put him down and I found myself cheering him on when he snapped back at people. I’d start smiling at my screen before remembering he can’t actually see me 😂. It was an interesting parallel to the shyness he has around Cassandra. He is so good at coming up with words to defend himself but gets tongue tied talking to a pretty girl. Sometimes I just felt secondhand embarrassment for him.

“I know this is short notice, but would you like to go to dinner and a movie tonight?”
“Is it business or pleasure?,” Cassandra asked coyly.
Max was now extremely confused. What should he say? ….Max trying to be funny replies, “business is always a pleasure with you.”
...Cassandra didn’t laugh. She just stood there staring at him for a second and then her eyes grew shiny and red. That was the last thing he saw before she shut the door in his face.

I had to close the book and take a minute to absorb that one. 😬 Though they have their weak points, they quickly became my favorite crime solving duo. I loved the blend of magic and crime solving. The touch of sci-fi with Oscar’s character was not something I thought could work but it was well written in. Oscar is an alien working with the Imperium, an extragalactic organization that works to better different societies by implanting ideas into people’s minds to make better decisions. I was honestly lost as to how this was going to work into the story because it’s so different from the crime solving/magical storyline of the main characters that I didn’t think they would blend well. It ended up being one of the best collabs of unlikely characters I have read. Oscar doesn’t really know how to interact with humans and occasionally embarrasses them by answering their unasked questions out loud; I found this very entertaining and made me laugh a few times. Especially when he relieved Max’s middle names, I don’t want to spoil it because it was honestly golden. 😂 Their teamwork was great, I wish to see more of Oscar in future installments.

Desiree Siren and Ethan Fulton
These two were actually pretty great antagonists. Obviously I was rooting for Cassandra and Max but I actually really liked these two as characters. Overall the author does a good job of depicting female characters as strong, even the villains. It was really well done, I liked how Desiree called most of the shots and Ethan just followed. In a lot of YA books, it’s hard to find a villain you can like but I actually really liked Desiree. She is evil, but I love her. 😂 Both she and Ethan challenge the heroes, I want to see them have more magical battles in the future and include their pets. I think this would make for a great action filled scene. I look forward to seeing how they continue to grow in power as the series continues..

The magical pets
P.S. honorable mentions are Ghost, Minreva, and Nemesis. I was so jealous of Max and Cassandra, having a pet wolf honestly sounds so cool. I hope they get a lot more action and screen presence in the next books.

Overall this novel gets 5/5 stars for me, I very much enjoyed it. It had a lot going for a short book and it was well written. 👍

[Amna]

4.5 STARS

It was a quick read, good characters and all in all I really enjoyed it! It was a creative idea, and you should definitely pick it up!

[Zoha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I little confusing at the start but a good level of mystery

[E.S. Hazard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author's Review:
I laughed, cried and was on the edge of my seat while reading this exciting original story. Sometimes imperfect but never less highly entertaining. Set in 2005 in small town America two teenagers discover the magical mysteries concealed in the oldest house on their street while tracking down a burglary ring. And can you guess the male main character’s full name? Some may find it hilarious. The ending will have you riding a roller coaster of emotions. This story starts fast, and the end of each chapter will have you turning the page to find out what happens next. A very quick read. Go ahead and read the first two chapters and see if you can stop.