Review--A Cast-Off Coven by Juliet Blackwell

LILY IVORY IS NOT YOUR AVERAGE WITCH. SHE RUNS A VINTAGE CLOTHING STORE CALLED AUNT CORA'S CLOSET, AND WITH HER MAGICAL ABILITY TO SENSE VIBRATIONS OF THE PAST FROM CLOTHING AND JEWELRY. LILY HAS MADE THE SHOP A BIG HIT--AND HER MYSTERY-SOLVING SKILLS ARE ALSO IN HIGH DEMAND.

Students are spooked at the San Francisco School of Fine Arts, and Lily is called in to search for the possible paranormal activity. In exchange for her help, she's been promised a trunkful of Victorian-era clothes recently discovered in a school storage closet.

But Lily finds something else: the body of a wealthy patron of the school. In between running the store and seeing her new boyfriend, Max--a "myth buster" who is uncomfortable with her witchcraft--she uses her sleuthing skills to try to solve the murder. Soon Lily senses something from the school's vintage clothes, but it's not the smell of mothballs--it's the unmistakable aura of evil intent.

Juliet Blackwell's second book in the Witchcraft Mysteries, A Cast-Off Coven, was an incredible followup to Secondhand Spirits. It's amazing how readily addicted I became to this series. I remembered hearing about it at RT this year, but when I finally made my way to the beginning of the alphabet at the mass signing, her book was already sold out!

The series has a nice blend of the supernatural intertwined with the mystery and they're evenly balanced and well paced with a good dash of suspense. Once again I found it a little hard to figure out the who-done-it. I had my suspicions, but really didn't guess it right until the character was revealed. But I was totally engrossed with the book that I almost could've read it in one day had I made myself do so! 

There has been a little bit of time between books, can't remember how much, but book 1 events are mentioned and brought up here and there. And there were of course the familiar characters from the first book as well. This time Lily finds herself investigating strange noises at the college when suddenly a murder occurs and people are saying it was a ghost that did it. But Lily knows that's nonsense, ghosts can't kill people, there's a human murderer on the loose, but there is also something much more dangerous than that on the loose as well and it lives inside the school.

Lily has to do some serious investigating, looking into the school's history back when it was home to a small group of nuns who mysterious disappeared sometime ago after the earthquake. And there are quite a few suspects as well. Oh my goodness, I really couldn't pick just one, every time I started to suspect someone and thought I had the mystery solved something happened to prove me wrong! Yes, very enjoyable indeed! And there are still ghosts and other nasties involved as well!

There is also some more development in the romance area between Lily and Max, but just as things start to heat up, trouble occurs. We also get to learn a little more about Max's history and what happened with his wife. And there are other new characters that pop up as well, like Sailor, another person with the gift like Lily, but he is a very temperamental kind of fellow.

Aidan Rhodes returns as well and is still as secretive as ever. He and Lily definitely have something between them, but what exactly that is, is still hard to figure out other than both being of the magical wielding variety.

Overall a GREAT tremendous read! I don't read a lot of mysteries, but this series has become a fast fave! And I highly highly recommend it if you like paranormals and mysteries! It's the perfect balance! 

Overall I give it 5/5 stars!! Can't wait for the next one!!