We’re reading our way across America...one romance at a time. And, to make it even more fun, we’re doing it in order of incorporation into the United States.
Vermont: Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton
The Green Mountain State is one of my favorite places in the whole world. It’s one of those places that actually looks like the postcards—imposing mountains, sparkling lakes and rivers, brilliant fall color, pristine ski trails (if you’re a skier), and post-card perfect little towns nestled in picturesque valleys. One such town is Sugar Maple, home to New England’s top knitting store, where...but why don’t I just let the owner introduce herself?
“I’m Chloe Hobbs, owner of Sticks & Strings, voted the number one knit shop in New England two years running. I don’t know exactly who did the voting, but I owe each of those wonderful knitters some quiviut and a margarita. Blog posts about the magical store in Northern Vermont where your yarn never tangles, your sleeves always come out the same length, and you always, always get gauge were popping up on a daily basis, raising both my profile and my bottom line.”
Sleeves always come out the same length? Knitters always get gauge? Heck, I want to go there!
Chloe is, of course, the hapless heroine of Barbara Bretton’s charming paranormal mystery/romance Casting Spells, the story of dark doings a town where nothing is as it appears (literally). The story begins on a cold and snowy night when Chloe is holding a knitting clinic in the store when beautiful, mysterious Suzanne Marsden wafts in and buys a shawl. Two hours later, Suzanne is dead, victim of the first murder in Sugar Maple in hundreds of years.
That’s horrifying enough—but there’s more. You see, Chloe is the last living descendant of Aerynn, the powerful witch who founded the town back in the seventeenth century as a haven for those persecuted in the Salem witch trials, as well as for whatever witches, trolls, and fae happened by. Aerynn placed a powerful spell of protection on the town such that as long as females of her line walked the earth, Sugar Maple’s residents would be safe from all harm, and before her death, she poured her magic into a Book of Spells (whereabouts currently unknown) that has been passed down through her female descendants.
Things trucked along well enough for several hundred years. Then Genevieve, Chloe’s late mother—to the horror of all—fell in love with (and married) a human. Chloe was born without a bit of magical ability, although the town-wise women believe that her magic will flower when she finally falls in love. But Chloe is thirty, and the fact that a murder could be committed within the town’s borders suggests that Aerynn’s spell is faltering. And now, to save the town, Chloe needs to find true love, find her magic, find the Book of Spells, and find the murderer before s/he can strike again.
Enter Luke, a handsome cop sent by the state to investigate the murder. He’s tall and handsome (of course), and if he’s a little bit confused by some of the town’s more colorful characters (or the fact that, among other things, there are absolutely no criminal records on anyone connected with Sugar Maple—ever), well, people tend to be a little eccentric up in the remote North Country, right? But strange things keep happening around Chloe and Luke—in particular, sparks fly whenever they touch. Literally. And this is very noticeable, because they can’t keep their hands off one another:
The explosion of sparks when our hands met took my breath away. Or maybe it was the warmth of his touch that did it. We interlocked fingers and it was the most intimate thing I had ever done with a man, more intimate than kissing or making love. The sense of rightness, of connectedness, made me feel something I had never felt before.
Soon, mere lust turns into wonderful, magical love:
Our eyes met, and for the first time in my life I let down my guard. I let him see me the way I really was, not the way I wished I could be. Tall, blond, skinny, big feet, small boobs, part human, part magick, and head over heels in love. And the amazing thing was he loved me too. It was the last thing he said before he kissed me and the world disappeared.
But the town has an ironclad rule: Human tourists (and their beautiful tourist money) are more than welcome in Sugar Maple, but when it comes to moving to town? Not in their back yard, thanks. And then there’s Aerynn’s lost Book of Spells; whoever holds the Book is heiress to unimaginable power. Will Chloe and Luke find the murderer before the murderer finds the Book…or will Chloe (or Luke) be next on the list?
Casting Spells will appeal to fans of mystery, paranormal romance, and the fiber arts; the culprit is more or less hiding in plain sight, but there are a lot of asides about yarn and patterns and needles and whatnot that I loved. (When Luke is locked in the shop overnight, he makes a crack about a skein of a particular yarn costing so much that whoever bought it would be reduced to living in her minivan. I’m familiar with the yarn in question, and…he’s not wrong.) The book even ends with several pages of patterns and knitting tips!
My only complaint is that the narration pings back and forth between Chloe and Luke, and their voices are a little too similar; I sometimes lost track of who was supposed to be narrating. But I usually figured it out quickly enough. For the most part, I really liked Casting Spells, and while I read it in early October, Bretton’s enchanting vision of Vermont made me wish I could be reading it with a hot cup of tea and a hand-knit silk-and-cashmere throw while the fire crackled merrily in the fireplace and the snow fell gently outside my window.
Kate Nagy is Editor at Large of Geek Speak Magazine.
