Blood, Sweets and Tears

Bewitched by Chocolate Mysteries, Book 4

By: H.Y. Hanna

Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt

Magical chocolates, missing jewels, and murder....

When novice witch Caitlyn Le Fey heads to the outdoor cinema festival at a beautiful English manor, the last thing she expects is for the evening to end in murder. But when a dead man is found with fang marks in his neck and her old vampire uncle, Viktor, is arrested, Caitlyn must use all her newfound magic powers to clear his name.

Sleuthing isn't simple, however, with so many strangers arriving at her grandmother's enchanted chocolate shop: there's the secretive village tenant with creepy Goth tastes, the inscrutable new butler at Huntingdon Manor - and a charming Frenchman keen to win Caitlyn's heart. And that's before she has to master the art of making the perfect chocolate soufflé or deal with a Levitation spell gone horribly wrong! Still, at least she has the help of her naughty kitten, Nibs, not to mention all the village gossips!

Then a wild goose chase leads to an unexpected discovery and Caitlyn realizes that she's missed a clue under her nose all along. Can she solve the mystery - and maybe even discover Lord James Fitzroy's real feelings for her? Or will she succumb to a vampire's fatal bite?

©2017 H.Y. Hanna (P)2019 H.Y. Hanna

Best Charming Cozy Mystery!

Blood, Sweets and Tears is my favorite book in the charming cozy mystery series, Bewitched by Chocolate. This is the fourth installment in this magical series, which revolves around Caitlyn Le Fey who lives in an attic room in her grandmothers chocolate shop in the small Cotswolds village of Tillyhenge.

In this story, we find the villagers excited about an outdoor cinema festival at Huntingdon Manor. Unfortunately, a murder occurs during the film’s showing, and the victim has puncture wounds on his neck, which sets off a vampire frenzy. Caitlin’s Uncle Viktor soon gets arrested after he is seen walking by the victim with wild raspberry juice on his face (he is a vampire fruit bat), and because Caitlin feels responsible, she begins her own investigation. Along the way, she experiences magical chocolate, missing jewels, and flirtatious banter with Lord James Fitzroy.

The impeccable Pearl Hewitt narrated the audiobook version of this story and she was fantastic. She narrates with such enthusiasm that it’s impossible not to become totally engaged in the story. I highly recommend this story and the entire series to anyone who enjoys lighthearted cozy mysteries.

Blood, Sweets and Tears

Caitlyn has another mystery and the police think that her vampire Uncle Victor has committed the murder. Come find what happens when Caitlyn is in the clutches of the person she never suspected and possibly finds out how the handsome Lord Fitzroy feels about her.

Earns 5+/5 Decadent Chocolate Soufflés…Clever Fun!

This is in my Top Five of all-time favorite series...H.Y. Hanna’s Bewitched by Chocolate series. I am very engaged with an exciting and engaging continuation of Caitlyn’s journey of self discovery, magical apprenticeship, murder investigations, and in between, mouthwatering descriptions of Widow Mag’s delectable chocolate soufflé and other chocolate delights. The story unfolds with Hanna’s signature twists and turns to the murder that illustrates karma intervention and an “Oh, my…” ending. I greatly enjoyed following Caitlyn’s personal growth and slow and steady magical awareness and her ‘big sister’ style attitude toward her newly discovered cousin Evie, whose lack of skill casting spells always adds a wonderful comic relief to the dangers that keep interfering with quaint village life. Fans of the paranormal will find fascinating some of Hanna’s theories about ‘vampires.’ He isn’t your typical ‘blood-sucking’ menace; he is a ‘fruitarian’ who morphs into a fruit bat and loves ‘wild raspberries.’

You can enjoy H.Y. Hanna’s story in print and eBook formats, but I enjoy revisiting the story with the audio version brilliantly narrated by Pearl Hewitt. She enriches Hanna’s story with her excellent voice artistry performing various British dialects, the American English accent for Pamona and the East European of Viktor, and doing well with the male voices often a challenge for female narrators. The best part of Pearl’s talent is in the way she delivers tone and emotion to illustrate personality: the cranky, “nothing bothers” Widow Mags, the young and naive Evie, the stoic, yet amiable Lord Fitzroy, and then there's nastiness, antagonism, and annoying and overpowering manners of many of the Tillyhenge residents. Oh, this is the perfect way to enjoy this entertaining story.

Great series

Quick fun read! Love the series, almost wish Lord Fitzroy and other main characters had a picture on the book cover somewhere! He sounds quite handsome!

AWESOME,

love when the books don't need to rely on sex and vulgar language for excitement.

the reader is fantastic and each person's voice is very distinctive.

Vampires and jewel theives

This story opens at an open air movie airing that ends abruptly when a body is found with all the indications of being murdered by a vampire. Caitlyn finds herself in a whirlwind of defending Uncle Vicktor ,looking for the identity of a jewel thief ,and getting lavish attention from a dashing Frenchman. This is an engrossing fast paced mystery! I adore this series and am excited for the next book.
Disclaimer I was given a copy of this book for free by the author. The opinions expressed are my own.

This series keeps getting better

H.Y. Hanna and Pearl Hewitt have done it again, keeping the series fresh and quite enjoyable. I look forward to the next in the series. If you’re a cozy mystery fan, you won’t want to miss this one.

Very Enjoyable

I have all six books on Kindle and audio. I enjoy reading/listening wherever I go. it's all on the palm of my hand.

Delightful

I had read the book when it first came out, so I didn't realize how much more I would enjoy listening to the audiobook. I had forgotten many details, so in many instances the story was fresh to me. The delightful surprise was the realization of how many scenes were very funny! As the mystery plot unfolds, one of the characters involved in many crucial events is our heroine's vampire Uncle Viktor, who is a delight.

The plot has numerous red herrings, magic, mystery, danger and a tantalizing advance of the so-far only tempting romance. There is a climactic scene of peril and excitement, and a cliffhanger that follows a satisfying resolution of the book's central mystery. All in all, a very satisfying listen for a fan of the cozy-mystery-supernatural-romance genre.

A lot of charm & a sprinkle of magic

I love this series, it’s the perfect blend of laughter, mystery & magic with a little romance mixed in too. Caitlin just recently learned she is a witch, but only a few people know her secret. In this book Victor’s secret that he is a vampires threatens to come out when a man is murdered with vampires bite marks. Although this is a bit paranormal the crux of the story is a cozy British mystery with a lot of charm