From Paige Crutcher, the author of The Orphan Witch and The Lost Witch, comes a new tale about a witch, a book of magic, and a beguiling and powerful creature whom she must free, even if it puts her life and soul at stake.

Aline Weir, a witch who can talk to ghosts, has kept her talents hidden ever since a disastrous middle school slumber party, choosing to be invisible and use her powers in secret to help lost souls reunite with the keys to send them home. All the while, she finds solace in a bookstore and the three mysterious women who run it… until Aline discovers the book of Mischief, and her powers are enhanced.

Living a solitary life until the age of thirty, Aline’s life takes an unexpected turn when the wrong (or perhaps right) person witnesses her using her powers and she is invited to a town that doesn’t exist on any map. Arriving in Matchstick, Aline learns of a lost magic that desperately needs to be found and only her unique powers can do it. But what she’s not told is that Magic is a person. One that is dangerous and seductive and has been waiting for a witch with a power like hers for centuries.

Aline is a lonely girl, ignored by her parents and having no friends until a fateful slumber party shows her the beginnings of a world of magic she never knew existed. As an adult she has found a place in an unusual bookstore and a vocation in her magic but then she finds that the town she thought was just a story is, in fact, real and that her future and the fate of the worlds - real and magic - will rest on the choices she makes.

This book was hard for me to get into and I am not sure why. It had most of the elements I enjoy in a book - magic, a sympathetic main character, a touch of mystery and a clearly viewed “villain”, It even had a very satisfying end yet I found myself putting the book down and days passing before I picked it up to read again which is unusual as I usually devour a book of the this size in a day or two.  I really enjoyed Ms Ccrutcher’s “The Orphan Witch” which had many of the same elements as this book and I devoured it in two days. This book will appeal to fans of Ms Crutcher and I may reread it again in a few months to see if I can nail down why, while I enjoyed it, I was not drawn in to this world as much as I was with “The Orphan Witch.” Recommended ~~ Stephanie L Bannon

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