Download Charmed to Death (Ophelia & Abby Mysteries, No. 2) eBook

4 stars to Shirley Damsgaard's Charmed to Death, the second book in the Abby and Ophelia series, for brewing up an even better story and turning on the ways of the witch. While a fun and good example of a cozy and has a lot of potential as a popular new series, it needs another book to fully round out the setting and the characters before I can push it to a 5.

Story
Ophelia has a dream which her grandmother Abby interprets as a need to solve her best friend's murder from five years ago which was the ultimate driver for Ophelia's move back home to her small Iowa town from the Iowa big city. Ophelia begins to accept that she and her grandmother are witches and partially embraces her powers to discover who killed Brian. At the same time, Abby is leading a group of townsfolk to stop a big company from changing the landscape of their town and potentially causing disastrous results. Ophelia develops relationships with a few new male characters testing the waters to see who might be a good love interest, but Abby warns that one is dark and one is good. Which one will the witch pick? And what happens when the suspected serial killer who murdered Brian seems to be lurking in Ophelia's hometown? All the stories come colliding together revealing more bubbling beneath the cauldron's surface than actually appeared.

Strengths
1. The story was quite clever. It had some complexity but also some simplicity which made it spot on for a cozy mystery read. You know from the beginning that one of the new characters is too good to be true, but you can't quite figure out what's going on until the big reveal.

2. Ophelia's softer side comes out in this book. She's not as harsh as she was in book 1, especially seeing her worry over her grandmother who has an accident and when she turns to her mother (who makes an appearance!) for comfort.

Weaknesses
1. One of the sub-plots had no conclusion: what happens with the big company coming in to takeover some of the farmland and turn it into a hog breeding facility? After Abby's accident, her cause seems to have dissipated along with Harley and Edna. I'm hoping this is picked up in book 3 but it was definitely left too open for readers just starting a new series.

2. When one of the charactes falls victim to an accident/killer, no one mourns his death and it really isn't discussed a whole lot. There is no funeral, no town gossip, no sadness, etc. In order to build the appeal of the town and the people, I think it's important to incorporate these side stories and themes into the overall series in order to build a large readership. Unfortunately, this example felt mechanical and not emotional.

Final Thoughts
The series really took off in this book from the debut. Characters are developing personalities and rivalries. Families are being integrated with Ophelia's return home. The town is being flushed out. It has a lot of potential. And if you have any interest in witch history, it's connecting the story back to the Salem Witch Trials which helps ground it in history. I'll definitely move on to book 3 to see if this series flies off the handle!

I really enjoy the Ophelia and Abby Mysteries so far - this is book 2 in the series, and as a reader, I felt as if I got to know the characters much better.

Let's start at the beginning - which reminds me, this series will need to be read in order. It seems as if each story builds upon the last, so a reader might miss out by starting with book 2. In Book 1, Ophelia starts to acknowledge her witchy side - although even she's loathe to call it that. She has a psychic sense, which she has turned away from because it did not help her prevent her best friend Brian from being murdered several years beforehand. Because of that, she has extricated herself from most social interaction and withdraw into herself.

Abby is her grandmother, and gently (well most of the time, anyway) guides her back to her roots. She doesn't push, but is always there to lend insight and offer advice. Abby is a great character, and the way she's written I have no trouble at all imagining her in my mind's eye.

Book 2 brings the mystery back to Brian's death. As for the mystery itself, it's mostly enjoyable, but I found myself irritated with Ophelia for not recognizing the murderer before the end of the story. If anything, the murderer's odd personality and quirks should have alerted her that something wasn't right. Being as Ophelia seems to have a good sense of the people around her, I found the fact that she overlooked this person to be a huge hole in the story.

To further undermine the set-up, Ophelia's friend and co-worker, Darcie, who has been set up from book 1 as being people smart, also didn't pick up on the false notes in the murderer's character. If I mentioned the key personality trait of the murderer that should have been a huge red flag, then I'd give it away to someone who hasn't read it. However, once you do read it, I believe you would agree with me - the murderer constantly remarks on a certain relationship and that alone is a dead giveaway that something isn't right with him/her - and would be in real life as well.

I could forgive that plot point because I really do like the characters and really enjoyed learning how much the characters grew since the last story. The character growth and relationships with each other ring true to life, and the author captured that really well.

That all being said, I definitely recommend this book - as long as you read Witch Way to Murder first!

Ophelia is starting to show off her mettle in this book as she takes on the issue of Brian's death, something that has haunted her for years. She's beginning to come out of her shell, thanks to Darci, Rick, and Abby, but unfortunately still finding dead bodies. The mystery involving the pig farm is great to me, I don't know why I liked it so much. As for the rest of the mystery, I found the villian's backstory as somewhat outlandish but it works and I like his methods for the story so I'm not going to nag about it. The information about the witch trials and runes was also really cool to learn. I felt like Comacho was just a red herring as a possible love interest for Ophelia, especially since she dislikes him with such vehemence in the beginning and Rick is out of the picture. Bill is as funny as ever as he threatens Ophelia with jail time for her "bumbling". Can't wait for the next!

Love Ophelia and Abby books! Fun read and great characters
I feel like I’ve been to their town and know the folks there after reading
You like a who dunnit with a little psychic charm, then this is for you

In this second novel, Ophelia has to learn to stretch her paranormal abilities to solve, once and forever, the killing of her best friend, Brian. The nightmares are vicious but nothing to the evil this dark-souled villain displays as he kills his way to the real quarry...Ophelia!

We get introduced to the detective in charge of Brian's case, new possible love interests, and shocking crime scenes in this fast-paced and engrossing murder mystery.

I'm enjoying discovering this series and find the tales as fresh today as they were when first published.