Audiobook Review – Moonshine & Magic (Southern Charms Cozy Mystery, Book 1) by Bella Falls, Narrated by Johanna Parker (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 7 hours and 58 minutes
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Release Date: July 18, 2018
ASIN: B07F6FB3GG
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Southern Charms Cozy Mystery series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

“ Charli Goodwin doesn’t expect her homecoming to go without a hitch—after all, she skipped town, leaving her fiancé and family without a clue as to where she was going or why. Now that she’s ready to return home, she plans to lay low and sip some of her Nana’s sweet tea while the town gossips come out to play.

Unfortunately, on her first night back, Charli discovers the body of her crazy great-uncle (hey, everyone has one). She suddenly finds herself at the center of a mystery that threatens the very foundations of Honeysuckle Hollow and the safety of every paranormal citizen in it—starting with Charli herself.

With the clock ticking, will Charli’s special magical talents be enough to save not only the town but her own life?”

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Southern Charms Cozy Mystery series. I got this as an audiobook from Audible.

Audiobook Quality: The narration here was decent, I didn’t have any issue with it. This is a fine book to listen to if you are into audiobooks.

Story (3/5): This was an okay investigative urban fantasy set in the south. The mystery itself was really predictable and I kept getting frustrated that the characters here were so dense.

Characters (3/5): The characters were so-so; I didn’t really engage with any of them all that well. The characters lacked depth and were pretty typical paranormal characters. The other thing that bothered me was the lack of any character description; I have no idea what our main character looks like and that just kept niggling at me the whole time I read this book!

Setting (3/5): This is set in a small town in the modern Southern US called Honeysuckle Hollow. The setting is fairly well described and does a good job of capturing southern cozy charm, but it’s also a fairly generic setting.

Writing Style (3/5): The writing was fine but nothing all that exciting. Technically it is decent and the story flows at a good pace. The mystery was incredibly predictable though, and I didn’t find any of the characters all that intriguing. The relationships between characters felt forced and awkward. Like I keep repeating…it was okay.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this book does a good job of capturing good ole Southern charm. I don’t plan on continuing the series though because this just wasn’t all that entertaining or well done. It’s just typical, cutsy, paranormal fare, in a southern US setting. Okay if you are desperate for something but there are much better series out there with similar settings, better plots, and more well developed characters.