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Enchanted Enclave #1-3
A Cauldron of Hot Coffee
Welcome to Enchanted Enclave, where coffee, chaos and cauldrons are a way of life.
Eliza Emory’s reality is about to be checked. Never one to believe in superstitions, let alone magic, the receptionist makes the best discovery of her life during her worst day on the job.
Eliza is a witch. A witch born into a family banished from the paranormal world generations ago due to bad behavior. Well, they can't be that bad, can they?
Introduced to her long-lost family and powers she never knew she had, Eliza moves to the island of Enchanted Enclave, where she falls in love with the quirky little Pacific Northwest town and the coffee shop owned by her family. But her dream come true quickly turns into a nightmare when one of Eliza's customers is poisoned.
Unfortunately, the smoking hot guy she has her eye on also has an eye on her, but for the wrong reason — turns out he’s the lead detective on the case. Eliza sets out to clear her name and hopefully her calendar for a date with Mr. Dimples-when-he-smiles. Will Eliza find the killer before it’s too late or will her new start come to an untimely end?
This is a boxed set containing the first three books in the Enchanted Enclave Mysteries: Wake Up and Spell the Coffee, Whole Latte Magic, and A Witch, Dark Roast.
Eliza Emory’s reality is about to be checked. Never one to believe in superstitions, let alone magic, the receptionist makes the best discovery of her life during her worst day on the job.
Eliza is a witch. A witch born into a family banished from the paranormal world generations ago due to bad behavior. Well, they can't be that bad, can they?
Introduced to her long-lost family and powers she never knew she had, Eliza moves to the island of Enchanted Enclave, where she falls in love with the quirky little Pacific Northwest town and the coffee shop owned by her family. But her dream come true quickly turns into a nightmare when one of Eliza's customers is poisoned.
Unfortunately, the smoking hot guy she has her eye on also has an eye on her, but for the wrong reason — turns out he’s the lead detective on the case. Eliza sets out to clear her name and hopefully her calendar for a date with Mr. Dimples-when-he-smiles. Will Eliza find the killer before it’s too late or will her new start come to an untimely end?
This is a boxed set containing the first three books in the Enchanted Enclave Mysteries: Wake Up and Spell the Coffee, Whole Latte Magic, and A Witch, Dark Roast.
452 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 25, 2021
89 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Samantha Silver
109 books304 followersSamantha Silver lives in British Columbia, Canada, along with her husband and seventeen-year-old dog named Terra.
When she's not writing cozy mysteries, Samantha loves travelling (she's most recently been to Egypt, Jordan and Florida) skiing, eating Dairy Queen, and complaining about how hard running is.
To be notified about new releases, giveaways, sneak previews and more, sign up for Samantha's newsletter by visiting http://www.samanthasilverwrites.com/n...
When she's not writing cozy mysteries, Samantha loves travelling (she's most recently been to Egypt, Jordan and Florida) skiing, eating Dairy Queen, and complaining about how hard running is.
To be notified about new releases, giveaways, sneak previews and more, sign up for Samantha's newsletter by visiting http://www.samanthasilverwrites.com/n...
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 10, 2021
Amazing
When her father dies unexpectedly and an aunt she didn't know she had shows up things start to get weird for Eliza. Her aunt informs her that she has a large family most of whom are witch's and that she is too, big surprise or what!. After traveling to the small town where the family live and meeting the family she starts work in their cafe, On day one a customer is poisoned and she's accused of murdering him. Add in an incompetent police chief magic mayhem and lots of humor and you have this easy to read first in series, well worth a look, I'm off to find book two, Baz
When her father dies unexpectedly and an aunt she didn't know she had shows up things start to get weird for Eliza. Her aunt informs her that she has a large family most of whom are witch's and that she is too, big surprise or what!. After traveling to the small town where the family live and meeting the family she starts work in their cafe, On day one a customer is poisoned and she's accused of murdering him. Add in an incompetent police chief magic mayhem and lots of humor and you have this easy to read first in series, well worth a look, I'm off to find book two, Baz
September 3, 2021
Silver lightly flavours cosy mysteries with magic, creating crimes that aren’t always solved by investigative skill alone but can still be solved by readers who aren’t themselves witches.
When Eliza Emory’s father dies just after she finishes college, she assumes she’s on her own; however, a series of impossible incidents during her first day at work not only end her career before it’s started but also reveal an entire family she never knew she had, a family who are witches. When they invite her to move in with them and offer her a job in their coffee shop, everything seems great—until a customer dies of poisoning just after she served him. She knows she didn’t do it, but how can she prove her innocence in a small town when the police chief assumes the newcomer must be the culprit?
This boxed set contains Wake Up and Spell the Coffee, Whole Latte Magic, and A Witch, Dark Roast, the first three volumes of the Enchanted Enclave Mysteries.
Silver opens the first book with a scene establishing Eliza’s recent transition into both employment and orphanhood, then has her suddenly kidnapped by a flying broom. In addition to highlighting Eliza’s utter lack of awareness of the magical side of her family—and of magic at all—this promises a slightly farcical and definitely not dark tone: a promise that is, apart from the inherent darkness of any murder, kept.
All three novels feature a mystery that is plausible without being mundane. Perhaps more importantly—at least for some readers—Eliza’s progress toward a solution comes mostly from a combination of hard work, careful thought, and the imperfection of villains rather than unfeasible coincidences or exceptional talent; thus, the reader can both race to the right answer and feel that the right answer is fully earned.
This focus on the plausible over the unfeasible is especially evident in Silver’s inclusion of magic: rather than the parallel magical community of many cosy supernatural mysteries, Eliza’s family have been banished from a separate magical world under commandment to remain hidden, so there are not multiple supernatural suspects to rule out or wizards embedded among the police to divine answers. Eliza’s inexperience with magic adds a lack of theoretical options to pressure not to use magic unless it is safe: being able to change the colour of a candle is amazing but not very useful for investigation.
Where there is a possible magical involvement, the characters identify this possibility early on, and—because Eliza doesn’t know anything about magic—give a brief explanation of what it might be, meaning the reader doesn’t discard certain solutions as impossible only to feel tricked when it turns out late in the book that magic was used. A possible downside of this is that magic, and the supernatural in general, lack the awesome and terrible defiance of reality that other novels might display.
However, the magical is more than colour for an utterly realistic mystery: in addition to members of Eliza’s family being able to cast useful spells that solve certain issues, Eliza manages to find innovative uses for a couple of the spells she does know. These advantages are balanced by additional—sometimes very humorous—challenges: sometimes Eliza’s spells go wrong and having someone else cast a spell for you is fine until you need to end it when they aren’t around.
While each novel does start with that certain degree of unfortunate circumstance common to all amateur sleuth stories, Silver avoids the implausibility of having Eliza be a prime suspect in the first murder of each book; instead, each starts with a different reason for her to take an interest, a reason readers are highly likely to agree is a good one but the police—of course—would not.
Potentially the thing that will most divide readers is Silver’s propensity for having characters repeat things in considerable detail rather than make brief references; while this potentially more closely matches the speech patterns of real life, some readers might start to feel they are being told things they already know. As Silver includes conversational reprises of previous volumes in the later two novels, this effect might be especially strong for those who read the collection as a single larger book rather than setting it aside for a while between each novel.
A number of Silver’s characters display the same habit of repetition when it comes to enduring interests and concerns. Depending on reader preference, these will appear somewhere between characterful and amusing catchphrases and tedious repetition.
Eliza is an engaging protagonist, traumatised by the loss of her father and both confused and troubled by the discovery an entire side of her family was hidden from her for all of her childhood but active and open to joy rather than passive and angst-ridden.
Her family balance the commonality one might expect of magical exiles and distinct personalities. Thus, while all of them are definitely good rather than bad people, there is a wide and nuanced spread on, for example, when magic is permitted and whether to live serious and careful lives in the hope of the exile being lifted or have fun.
The supporting cast are similarly complex yet accessible, giving each of them a sense of living entire lives that are seen when they intersect with the protagonists that both makes them interesting and prevents the reader immediately separating them into “part of the mystery” and “local colour”.
Overall, I enjoyed these novels. I recommend them to readers seeking a cosy paranormal mystery that is more about character than flashy powers.
When Eliza Emory’s father dies just after she finishes college, she assumes she’s on her own; however, a series of impossible incidents during her first day at work not only end her career before it’s started but also reveal an entire family she never knew she had, a family who are witches. When they invite her to move in with them and offer her a job in their coffee shop, everything seems great—until a customer dies of poisoning just after she served him. She knows she didn’t do it, but how can she prove her innocence in a small town when the police chief assumes the newcomer must be the culprit?
This boxed set contains Wake Up and Spell the Coffee, Whole Latte Magic, and A Witch, Dark Roast, the first three volumes of the Enchanted Enclave Mysteries.
Silver opens the first book with a scene establishing Eliza’s recent transition into both employment and orphanhood, then has her suddenly kidnapped by a flying broom. In addition to highlighting Eliza’s utter lack of awareness of the magical side of her family—and of magic at all—this promises a slightly farcical and definitely not dark tone: a promise that is, apart from the inherent darkness of any murder, kept.
All three novels feature a mystery that is plausible without being mundane. Perhaps more importantly—at least for some readers—Eliza’s progress toward a solution comes mostly from a combination of hard work, careful thought, and the imperfection of villains rather than unfeasible coincidences or exceptional talent; thus, the reader can both race to the right answer and feel that the right answer is fully earned.
This focus on the plausible over the unfeasible is especially evident in Silver’s inclusion of magic: rather than the parallel magical community of many cosy supernatural mysteries, Eliza’s family have been banished from a separate magical world under commandment to remain hidden, so there are not multiple supernatural suspects to rule out or wizards embedded among the police to divine answers. Eliza’s inexperience with magic adds a lack of theoretical options to pressure not to use magic unless it is safe: being able to change the colour of a candle is amazing but not very useful for investigation.
Where there is a possible magical involvement, the characters identify this possibility early on, and—because Eliza doesn’t know anything about magic—give a brief explanation of what it might be, meaning the reader doesn’t discard certain solutions as impossible only to feel tricked when it turns out late in the book that magic was used. A possible downside of this is that magic, and the supernatural in general, lack the awesome and terrible defiance of reality that other novels might display.
However, the magical is more than colour for an utterly realistic mystery: in addition to members of Eliza’s family being able to cast useful spells that solve certain issues, Eliza manages to find innovative uses for a couple of the spells she does know. These advantages are balanced by additional—sometimes very humorous—challenges: sometimes Eliza’s spells go wrong and having someone else cast a spell for you is fine until you need to end it when they aren’t around.
While each novel does start with that certain degree of unfortunate circumstance common to all amateur sleuth stories, Silver avoids the implausibility of having Eliza be a prime suspect in the first murder of each book; instead, each starts with a different reason for her to take an interest, a reason readers are highly likely to agree is a good one but the police—of course—would not.
Potentially the thing that will most divide readers is Silver’s propensity for having characters repeat things in considerable detail rather than make brief references; while this potentially more closely matches the speech patterns of real life, some readers might start to feel they are being told things they already know. As Silver includes conversational reprises of previous volumes in the later two novels, this effect might be especially strong for those who read the collection as a single larger book rather than setting it aside for a while between each novel.
A number of Silver’s characters display the same habit of repetition when it comes to enduring interests and concerns. Depending on reader preference, these will appear somewhere between characterful and amusing catchphrases and tedious repetition.
Eliza is an engaging protagonist, traumatised by the loss of her father and both confused and troubled by the discovery an entire side of her family was hidden from her for all of her childhood but active and open to joy rather than passive and angst-ridden.
Her family balance the commonality one might expect of magical exiles and distinct personalities. Thus, while all of them are definitely good rather than bad people, there is a wide and nuanced spread on, for example, when magic is permitted and whether to live serious and careful lives in the hope of the exile being lifted or have fun.
The supporting cast are similarly complex yet accessible, giving each of them a sense of living entire lives that are seen when they intersect with the protagonists that both makes them interesting and prevents the reader immediately separating them into “part of the mystery” and “local colour”.
Overall, I enjoyed these novels. I recommend them to readers seeking a cosy paranormal mystery that is more about character than flashy powers.
September 8, 2021
Enjoyable
The first three books in a new cosy mystery series from Samantha Silver. Her first day at work goes horribly wrong for Eliza after a broomstick runs away with her, causing havoc in the mall where she worked and bringing the possibility of arrest for damages. After being rescued by a previously unknown aunt Eliza moves to Washington to live with her mother's family. After being accused of murder she teams up with her cousins to clear her name, and somehow they start to make a habit of finding dead bodies.
A writer who writes great books, this series is ideal to relax in a chair with after dinner to unwind before bed. Recommended.
The first three books in a new cosy mystery series from Samantha Silver. Her first day at work goes horribly wrong for Eliza after a broomstick runs away with her, causing havoc in the mall where she worked and bringing the possibility of arrest for damages. After being rescued by a previously unknown aunt Eliza moves to Washington to live with her mother's family. After being accused of murder she teams up with her cousins to clear her name, and somehow they start to make a habit of finding dead bodies.
A writer who writes great books, this series is ideal to relax in a chair with after dinner to unwind before bed. Recommended.
August 3, 2021
OH I sooo enjoy the writing style of Samantha Silver with her clever witchy tales of mystery and family drama filled with plenty of magical intrigue, mayhem, murder and humorous normal day to day drama as well as magical mischief. All involving one banished family because of an age old ancestors misdeed. But even one magical family on an island of normals can garner tales worthy of your Isaultresse's good reading time. Acquire " A Cauldron of Hot Coffee " box set 1-3 today so that you yourself can enjoy it as much as I have. 😲🤔🙂😃😂😏Kat
April 1, 2022
Magic
Eliza gets a job in a shop after her father passes. It's just been the two of them for years as her mother passed away when she was young. When she grabs the broom to sweep the store, it has a mind of its own and she hangs on for dear life as it hovers in the air and flys round the mall with her hanging on for dear life. An elderly woman tells her she is a witch when she lands and she's her Aunt. She takes Eliza back to Enchanted Enclave to meet the rest of the family. . . Very enjoyable read
Eliza gets a job in a shop after her father passes. It's just been the two of them for years as her mother passed away when she was young. When she grabs the broom to sweep the store, it has a mind of its own and she hangs on for dear life as it hovers in the air and flys round the mall with her hanging on for dear life. An elderly woman tells her she is a witch when she lands and she's her Aunt. She takes Eliza back to Enchanted Enclave to meet the rest of the family. . . Very enjoyable read
Read
March 31, 2021I enjoy the paranormal books and wish I could cast spells. The books are fun to read and I can't wait to finish one and go on to read the next one in the series. I would like a list of the order in which to read the series since I enjoy the characters from one series crossing to another. Enjoyable books.
August 18, 2021
Nice easy read - basically this is 3 Cosy Mysteries with a Witchy twist. They feel very like American afternoon movies, the sort you would get on the Hallmark channel, but that's not to say they are not enjoyable. If you want a bit of fantasy with a murder or two thrown in and don't want to have to think too hard about 'whodunnit' then this series by Samantha Silver is probably for you.
February 17, 2022
I used to not be a fan of box sets but they are a great way to start a series. This is a great "new to me" series by Samantha Silver. I just discovered this author not long ago and I'm making my way through her various series. The character development is good and the mysteries are interesting and there's also some humor. Love them.
September 1, 2021
Amazing
It's an adorable series. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Eliza's adventures with her cousins Leanne and Kaillie are awesome and quite hilarious when their Aunt Lucy plays magical pranks. Excellent series. Highly recommended for reading.
It's an adorable series. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Eliza's adventures with her cousins Leanne and Kaillie are awesome and quite hilarious when their Aunt Lucy plays magical pranks. Excellent series. Highly recommended for reading.
August 6, 2021
Lovely stories
I really enjoyed these books very easy reading great characters would definitely recommend look forward to reading more from this author
I really enjoyed these books very easy reading great characters would definitely recommend look forward to reading more from this author
August 11, 2021
Loved them
Easy to read and obviously teenage fiction, but I loved them all the same, eve at the age of Sixty.
Easy to read and obviously teenage fiction, but I loved them all the same, eve at the age of Sixty.
January 31, 2022
Decent simple stories, often vague and over simplified though
August 18, 2021
Witchy
Actually very good murder mysteries. The tiny clue dropped makes you pay attention to the details. The first book it was almost too easy because I kept saying over and over what about? Ha no spoilers. Great reads!
Actually very good murder mysteries. The tiny clue dropped makes you pay attention to the details. The first book it was almost too easy because I kept saying over and over what about? Ha no spoilers. Great reads!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews