What the Spell? (Spellbooked Mystery 1), by Elle Wren Burke

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I receive newsletters from several authors. One of the components I love are polls. It's fun to cast my vote on various topics and see how others have voted. Over the course of several weeks, author Elle Wren Burke conducted polls for something unique. She asked her newsletter subscribers to vote on various aspects of a new series she was starting to write. She incorporated the winning selections for each question into her new magical cozy mystery, What the Spell? (Spellbooked Mystery 1). It was so fun to see the story come together with all everything we voted for.

The story literally has an explosive beginning. Instead of getting married, Kinley Paigewright, who grew up in foster care, is in her bridal suite in tears cutting up her wedding dress. Suddenly, energy explodes from her, and her bridal suite is gone. A detective appears, informs Kinley, who is still wearing her wedding dress, that she's a witch, and, through a portal, whisks her off to a strange and unfamiliar island.  She then finds out she's the owner of a sentient bookshop, previously owned by her grandmother. Since her grandmother's death, the bookshop himself, named Page, is also rapidly dying. In order to save Page, Kinley must bond with him. As if this isn't enough, Kinley also finds out she has inherited an unpleasant upstairs tenant in the bookshop.

Whew! What a day! But that's not all. The next day, a talking cat appears and leads Kinley to a dead body of someone familiar. It isn't long before Kinley becomes a suspect in this murder investigation. Can she bond with Page and save the sentient bookshop? Can she solve the mystery of the dead body and clear her name?  And can she do all of this while fighting migraines in a town so strange and unfamiliar to her, while dealing with her recent almost-marriage?

Elle Wren Burke wasted no time diving into the action in this story. As you can see, Kinley has a lot on her plate in a very short period of time. I really loved the world-building in this book. The descriptions are so vivid I felt like I was there experiencing the hidden island with Kinley. I especially loved Page, the sentient bookshop. I hope we get to see more of him in action in future installments. All of the magical elements were so much fun to read about.

A lot of time was taken to describe the setting, which in one way is great, especially in a first in series. However, I did feel that the description of the setting took time away from the mystery. The mystery itself was puzzling and strong and I did not figure out the whodunnit. I just wanted more time spent on it. 

I really enjoyed getting to know diverse cast of characters and their familiars, although there are a lot of them. Between all of the main characters and their familiars, I did have a difficult time remembering who everyone was. I highlighted (in my Kindle) each one as they were introduced, but it would have been helpful to have a list of all of them at the beginning of the book that I could refer back to.

Overall the writing in this book is strong, especially with regards to the world-building, but there are multiple uses of language that I prefer not to read, especially in a cozy. There is no swearing, but some of the strong language took me out of the story. I would have enjoyed it even more without that language.

I enjoyed What the Spell? enough that I definitely want to read the next installment when it is released. There is a cliffhanger at the end of this first one and I'm curious to find out what will happen next. I'm hoping that with just a few tweaks, the next mystery is even stronger than this first one. If you enjoy magical cozy mysteries, I encourage you to pick up What the Spell?. I think you'll enjoy the ride. Just remember to buckle up because it is quite an adventure!

Thank you to author, Elle Wren Burke for providing me with an ARC of this book.