This is a book that lives up to its cover. Its light, fun, clever and just an all-round darn fine read.

Would-be Witch is was the debut novel from Kimberly Frost, which always makes a book just interesting to read for review, often with thoughts around the quality of the writing more in focus than the quality of the plot and characters.

Think of our main character, Tammy Jo Trask, as a cross between the spunk and confidence (and accent) of Sookie Stackhouse (Charlaine Harris) and the humour and ‘luck’ of Betsy Taylor (MaryJanice Davidson). She’s a wonderful character, with an abundance of great lines.

Now we had corpses rising from graves, werewolves in our bars, and vampires in our parks. Crime sprees and the occult in Duvall. This wasn’t going to look good in the visitor’s brochure.

There is often a sense of ‘realism’ in good writing, but Kimberly Frost manages to deliver a wonderful writing style, without that sense of realism. You know you’re in a made up world. The characters are almost believable, but there is something just a little too clichéd about them. There is definitely a delightful a sense of the fictional about this book.   

You won’t find plot twists or hidden mysteries. The plot is pretty straight forward, if not quite predictable, the story is certainly allowed to unfold rather than ‘pop’.  But we are given a couple of leading men to choose from, both with individual ....assets, to recommend them. And we’re given a backstory that will make for a great series. There is the thread there, but I can happily see each book being a nice ‘standalone’.

Would-Be Witch is meant to be read for amusement, it’s entertaining and enjoyable, but it’s not a ‘gripping, gritty urban fantasy’, nor is it an ‘emotionally intense paranormal romance’. It’s light and it’s fun.