Black Arts, Tarts, and Gypsy Carts: A Cozy Witch Mystery

Spells & Caramels, Book 2

De: Erin Johnson

Narrado por: Hannah Somerville

A carnival bakery booth. A deadly magic show. Is it the perfect recipe for murder or a clever sleight of hand?

Palace pastry chef Imogen is struggling to control her newfound magic and her potent feelings for the prince. So when the carnival rolls into the kingdom, she jumps at the chance to run the royal bakery booth. But her plan to escape her problems backfires when murder rocks the magician’s table, and her dear friend is found holding the bloody saw.

Determined to cook up a way to keep Rhonda out of witch’s prison, she sifts through the clues and the long list of suspects. Between devious dark magicians, cagey stage assistants, and a strongman with more to offer than just muscles, everyone at the fairgrounds seems to be hiding secrets - even Rhonda.

With the final night of the carnival approaching, will Imogen’s shaky powers be enough to flush out the murderer before her good friend ends up on the chopping block?

Black Arts, Tarts, and Gypsy Carts is the second book in the Spells and Caramels paranormal cozy mystery series. If you like feisty heroines, enchanted carnivals, and dueling magicians, then you’ll love Erin Johnson’s whimsical whodunit.

Buy Black Arts, Tarts, and Gypsy Carts to fall under the spell of a festive mystery today!

©2017 Erin M Johnson (P)2019 Erin M Johnson

Cozy mystery at it's finest

Erin Johnson is a relatively new author to me and I am so excited I found her. From the first to the last chapter I was fully invested in Imogen, her friends and her investigation. It’s a cozy mystery and one that I found thoroughly entertaining. This was so good that I was frustrated when real life stopped me from listening.

The narrator Hannah Somerville did a great job and I thoroughly enjoyed the voices she used as she brought the story to life for me.

This was a a book filled with secrets, lies, mystery and suspense with plenty of clues to satisfy my detective spirit and I was on the edge of my seat as I listened to this story.

There are many twists, turns and surprises in Black Arts, Tarts & Gypsy Carts as Imogen and her friends fight to clear their friend Rhonda from murder charges.
I cannot wait for more in this series.

Great reader and great story

I already love this story before listening, but the audible version is so fun to listen to. The reader does a great job of bringing this adorable story to life.

Well-crafted, well-narrated paranormal cozy

The Royal baking staff is invited to open and run a baking booth at the Summer Sea Carnival in Bijou Mer. After assuring that the castle kitchens will be adequately staffed, Maple, Imogen, Sam, and some of the other bakers jump at the chance to spend some time away from the palace. In Imogen’s case, she’s hoping to put some distance between herself and Prince Harry.

Imogen must continue her magic studies, but doesn’t want the good prince to be her teacher. She finds that the carnival’s strongman is also a Swallow, and he agrees to step in and guide her magical skills.

Between baking and magic lessons, Imogen finds herself drawn into a murder investigation of Madame Zerna, a famous necromancer. Imogen’s friend Rhonda is charged with Madame Zerna’s murder after she discovers the body. It’s up to Imogen to clear Rhonda’s name and figure out who really killed Zerna.

To complicate matters, Iggy, Imogen’s curmudgeonly flame, wants to go to the cemetery on the Night of the Dead to visit his former owner and friend, Nan. Spirits can only appear on that night. Will Imogen be able to juggle everything that’s on her plate? Will it be a sweet ending or will everything burn up like a pan of unattended scones left in a hot oven?

I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook. The story, despite the murder aspect, is sweet and engaging. This is a well-crafted cozy mystery, and my desire to find out what might happen next kept me listening. I thought that the narration was perfect for this kind of book. Voices are diverse and easily recognizable, with just the right amount of emotion.. It’s always nice when you don’t need to guess which character is speaking while listening to an audiobook.

I highly recommend this series. It probably helps to read the books in order, but I think there’s enough information included that you could listen to each book without having done so.

I received a free copy of this audio book from the author. While I thank her for her generosity, it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reaction to listening to this audio book.

Imogen has a lot to sort through

Imogen has a lot to sort through. She recently found out that she has magical powers but doesn’t know how to harness those powers and use them properly. She is in a land that has normal human tourists but is filled with various magical people and beings.
Imogen tries to distance herself from Prince Harry. She volunteers to run the royal bakery booth at the summer sea carnival on Bijou Mer where there will be unmagical humans visiting during the day.
She meets another Swallow, magical person that draws their powers from the energy of others & objects. So, Strongman Ed, Hank and her are the only Swallows we know of so far. Being a Swallow is not to be broadcasted. Swallows are normally distrusted and ostracized. They best way to learn to control/use your magic is to learn from another Swallow. Therefore, Imogen gets some lessons from Strongman Ed.
Imogen’s friend Rhonda, a necromancer, is a suspect in the death of the world-famous necromancer, Madame Zerna. Will Imogen figure out how Madame Zerna died? Will Imogen still be alive at the end of the carnival?

These answers are revealed in this wonderful tale.

Awesome!

I received a free copy of Black Arts, Tarts, and Gypsy Carts By Erin Johnson, and narrated by Hannah Somerville in exchange for an unbiased review. This review copy Audio Book was provided by the author/narrator/publisher free of charge via Audio Book Boom.

Black Arts, Tarts, and Gypsy Carts was my second book by this author, and I loved it even more than the first. The book has a little bit of everything mystery, fantasy, and yes even a little romance. Hannah Somerville does a great job reading. I'm so looking forward to book 3.

amazing

Imogen will face dangerous people while trying to prove her friend Rhonda is not guilty of the murder in the Carnival

Even better than the first one!

I received a copy of this book for free, but the review is left of my own accord.

My main complaint about the last book was that the mystery was sort of solved around Imogen instead of BY her. She was there, but she was a passive participant in the solving of the case. Not so, here. Imogen is front and center the entire time. So much so, in fact, that its pushing it into comic book territory with the problem that if the police force was competent at all, then the case wouldnt need to be solved by someone else. It's not so much a problem as it is a necessity for these types of stories to exist. Imogen,

This book focuses much more on the mystery and less on the baking. Iggy, and the rest of the cast get some good fleshing out in this book and Im glad to see character development even in some of the lesser characters. Also, I appreciate that this book calls back to the first one, but reading the first one is not an absolute must in order to understand what is going on in this book.

The performance is excellent. This book has a lot of fun places and you can almost hear the narrator smiling while she's reading some of the lines. Plus her inclusion of the sounds she's making (actually laughing when it says someone laughs, etc) goes a long way. And the multiple times where the sound mixing has her voice overlapping with itself because multiple characters say something at the same time is very well done.

An excellent read, and I cant wait to dive into the third one.

Read this if you like mysteries.
Read this if you like scary carnivals.
Read this if you like necromancy.

Fantastic murder magical mystery

This book is so great!! The plot is very interesting and the mystery is great to follow. This series has a great plot to it and makes readers wanting to hear more when the book is over. This book in particular is super great to introducing the magical world to the listeners. The author's voice is fantastic!! The voices they make for each character fits them perfectly and makes to book a lot better to listen to.

excellent

Received a bonus code for an honest review. Thoroughly enjoyed the story, characters and narrator

More adventures with Imogen

I loved reading this book and it was as much fun listening to Imogen's story.