Blog Tour Stop: The Goodbye Witch by Heather Blake (Guest Post, Review and Giveaway)

Please join me in welcoming Heather Blake to Debbie's Book Bag, today. Heather is here promoting the release of her book, The Goodbye Witch. Please enjoy her guest post, along with my review of her book and a giveaway!

Blind Faith

By Heather Blake

One of the most-asked questions I receive from readers is, “Where do you get your ideas?” 

Honestly, some of the time I have no idea where they come from. The ideas are just there. Most of the time, however, an idea comes from a situation I see or hear. It sets off a spark that I then flame into a full-blown plot by playing the “what if” game. What if that happened to one of my characters? Then what if my character did this, did that?

For The Goodbye Witch, it was a magazine article I read that created the spark. A human-interest piece about a young woman who’d been murdered. Nineteen years old. A high-achieving college student. The whole world ahead of her. There was a preponderance of evidence against the woman’s boyfriend that he’d committed the crime. DNA. Witnesses. A confession (though later retracted). Yet…his parents steadfastly refused to believe their son, their pride and joy who was also a college student on the fast-track to greatness, could have had anything to do with this heinous crime. No way. Not their boy. They proclaimed his innocence to any and all who would listen (and still do, despite his conviction).

The behavior, the blind faith, of those parents struck me hard. What if that was one of my sons? What would I do in that situation? How would I react? Better yet…what if it happened to one of my characters?

What if?

In The Goodbye Witch, Wishcrafter Darcy Merriweather’s best friend, Starla, is living her worst nightmare. Her fugitive ex-husband, Kyle, has returned to the Enchanted Village. Years ago, he escaped jail after being arrested for Starla’s attempted murder. His family – his parents and two brothers – and most of the village took Kyle’s side after the arrest. As the village’s golden child, Kyle could do no wrong in their eyes. 

Darcy, of course, is livid at the absolute allegiance to Kyle. How could everyone simply ignore all the evidence against him?

What if?

It’s not until Kyle’s found dead, and Starla becomes the number one suspect in his death, that Darcy learns how easily someone can put blind faith behind a loved one accused of a horrible crime. She’ll do anything and everything to clear her friend’s name.


Because nothing is ever what it seems in the Enchanted Village, it takes all Darcy has learned about the Craft and help from her family and friends (mortal and Crafters alike) to discover the true motive for Kyle’s death. And when she does, she’s completely unprepared for the consequences of those actions and how they affect her own life…

Book Information:

The Goodbye Witch (Wishcraft Mystery - Book 4) by Heather Blake

Publication Date: 05/06/2014
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Obsidian Mystery
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 320
ISBN-10: 0451465873
ISBN-13: 978-0451465870

(Received for an honest review from Obsidian Mystery)

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Indiebound

Heather Blake on the WEB: website, blog, twitter, facebook, goodreads

Books in the series: 

Wishcraft Mystery

1. It Takes a Witch
2. A Witch Before Dying
3. The Good, The Bad and The Witchy
4. The Goodbye Witch

Coverart: Click the Image for a larger, clearer view of the covers in this series.

Synopsis:

As Enchanted Village’s resident Wishcrafter, Darcy Merriweather has the power to make other people’s wishes come true, but what she really wishes is that she had the power to uncloak the invisible man who’s stalking her best friend....
 
Darcy’s closest friend and fellow witch, Starla Sullivan, hoped she’d never see her ex-husband, Kyle, again. Two years ago he tried to kill her, and he has been a fugitive ever since. Now Starla claims to have seen him back in Enchanted Village, but it seems she’s the only one who can see him. To everyone else, her ex is invisible.
 
Darcy only wishes his motives were as transparent as the rest of him. Since the police can’t arrest someone they can’t see, it’s up to Darcy to find the secret behind Kyle’s latest disappearing act—before he does something they can’t see coming….

Thoughts:

The fourth book in Heather Blake's Wishcraft Mystery series, The Goodbye Witch, combines a well written cozy mystery with the paranormal. The charming town called the Enchanted Village isn't at all what it seems sometimes and Blake makes readers believe that wishes can come true there. Great character development and pacing make this book a perfect read for the lounger or the porch swing. A great addition to the series!

What I liked:

It's official... I want to live in the Enchanted Village. Heather Blake has made this little town so accessible to her readers that they literally would love to find a town like it and move right in. I always enjoy the way that Blake makes the village come alive with great descriptive passages and characters that seem like old friends. The Goodbye Witch is the fourth book in the series and as a reader I still feel like I am always finding something new about the town or it's inhabitants. 

I loved the fact that this installment focuses on Starla and Darcy's best friend. These two have been close all along and Starla always seems to know the right thing to do or say and now she's the one in trouble. I liked the idea of blind faith, and how Darcy was utterly convinced that Starla could never hurt anyone including her ex-husband who had tried to kill her in the past. It showed the depth of their friendship and how important Starla was too Darcy and to the series in general. I like it when an author lets the mystery hit close to home.

Darcy, as usual, has an interesting way of going about figuring out each crime and whodunit. In this one, there plenty of suspects and motives and Darcy has a lot of evidence to work with. I liked seeing the whole gang of Darcy's family and friends trying to save one of their own. It worked well with the story and I thought Blake did a great job of placing her red herrings strategically to keep the reader a little off balance. I figured it out before the end, but not too far ahead. I was very satisfied by the ending and thought that this was probably the best in the series so far. 

What I didn't like:

There were a couple of points when I felt like the story dragged a little bit and I wanted to push ahead, but that's just the mystery reader in me. I want to see if I've got it all figured out, like most readers do.

Bottom Line:

This was a fun read. It had some good underlying themes, like strong friendship and blind faith. Blake's books seem to improve with each one in the series and I like this one best so far. I want to live in the 
Enchanted Village so I think it's safe to say this is a good read.

The Goodbye Witch will be available to readers from their favorite bookseller on May 6th. It is available for pre-order NOW!

I'm giving this one 4 out of 5 apples from my book bag!

About the Author:

Heather Blake grew up in a suburb of Boston and enjoys going “home” in her novels. As a young mother, she tried her hand at writing novels and hasn’t looked back. Heather currently lives in the Cincinnati area with her family. She is the author of the Wishcraft Mysteries as well as the Magic Potion Mysteries.

Giveaway Details:

The publisher is sponsoring a giveaway for one copy of The Goodbye Witch by Heather Blake.

~ You must be an email subscriber to participate.
~ US addresses only.
~ The deadline to enter this giveaway is Midnight EST, May 17th.

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