Published by Indie/Self Published
Released on June 7, 2018
Pages: 133
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
The Delight
After wrapping up the Banshee Creek and then the Main Street Witches series, I was not ready to be done with that magically fun world the author created. I was delighted to note this collection of three short stories and didn’t even realize that I’d actually grabbed the next set of spin off stories in the proper chronological order until I started reading.
Review
As I said, The Magical Curiosity Shoppe is a collection of three short stories. They are centered around the holidays of Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day and they feature a new witch in Banshee Creek. Except unlike the Main Street Witches: Kat, Luanne, and Fiona, Dora is an immortal witch who has been cursed to be the shop’s keeper for thousands of years because she made only one mistake- but it was a big one. She opened Pandora’s Box. Yes, she is that ‘Dora’ and, yes, the shop is really the original ‘box’.
The shop is magical because it has existed for time out of mind, but also travels through dimensions with Dora and the other occupants of the shop for each new encounter with people who give her magical artifacts to keep in the shop and the people who will eventually be the new keepers of the artifacts. Dora has no control over where the shop goes or whom the artifacts go to. She is used to cursed objects coming and then going to wreck their malicious havoc on a new person. It has been her fate to be the keeper of the shop. She is used to the cursed teddy bear, the daemon who is her talking cat companion, the snooty Victorian dolls, the chilling wax candles, and the dark sword among the other magical or sentient objects packed onto shelves.
But, now, something new is happening after thousands of years of the same ol’. The shop has returned to Banshee Creek and it has stayed for over three month at the start of the stories. Dora has tentatively made friends with Patricia who runs the bakery and the witches who also have shops on Main Street. She’s never stayed so long in one place nor has she felt such a strong urge to leave her shop and prevent the trouble the magical artifacts can cause people. A knowing PRoVE member, Thomas Lane, watches her with amusement- and, does he know about her and the shop? PRoVE, the group of paranormalies who rush around researching all phenomenon and make Banshee Creek an exciting tour destination are more than they seem, too. Especially Thomas.
Dora was a great character with her awkwardness about friendship, her quirky shop companions, and her hesitant steps to rejoin the world after so long. I enjoyed all three of her adventures keeping certain nasty magical artifacts from harming people and the twists each story took. The stories are all separate adventures, but they tie together nicely into one, too. Nothing was ever resolved entirely as to Dora’s fate, but there was some further explanation in the last story and hints that Dora will reappear in the start of the new series, Drop Dead Witchy. Oh yes, I will be proceeding into that one next.
For those who enjoy paranormal cozies set in a small and quirky haunted Virginia Mountain town, look no further.
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That sounds like a fun set-up with the magical shop that travels and even the shop owner doens’t know where it goes. It sounds nice how this book combines three stories in this world in one book that all feature the same main character. Seems the author has created a fun magical world in all these books. I’ve only read one of her books so far.
I thought it was a fun idea to make it a magical time travelling and dimension hopping shop with quirky magical items. It was neat how the three stories were separate, but worked together to introduce Dora into the Banshee Creek world. I’ve had a good time with all her books.
I just love those fun magical worlds that these authors can create for their readers….sounds like a blast and one I need to be looking into. Hope you have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
I think you’d get a kick out of these, Renee. The people and the Banshee Creek Magical world are fun.
Thanks, and you have a fab New Year, too. 🙂