Member Reviews
What an absolutely charming series!
Sarah Booth Delaney is just such a fan character! I enjoyed the writing so much. I enjoyed the setting. I enjoyed the hints of the paranormal that just added to the story and made it that much more exciting. I even enjoyed the mystery.
The book was both atmospheric and interesting. I devoured it quickly, and want to finish the rest of this series.
A great book by a fantastic author. The writing is excellent and the mystery keeps you turning the pages. Characters are well developed. Highly recommend.
Like visiting old friends, this series is always a laugh out loud romp through the south. Another great read with friends.
I am sorry for not reviewing fully but I don’t have the time to read this anymore. I believe that it wouldn't benefit you as a publisher or your book if I only skimmed it and wrote a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for not fully reviewing!
This is a great book with a wonderful story and well developed characters. The story flowed very well and was very enjoyable. This book will keep you reading long into the night and you will not want to put this book down until you finish. This was such a great read and full of surprises. I am looking forward to reading other books by this great author.
I liked CHARMED BONES, the eighteenth book in the Sarah Booth Delaney series. With the focus on the three witches and the rather gothic Musgrove Manor, this installment leans to the darker end of the cozy mystery spectrum. Haines definitely knows her craft. The characters are well developed, the mystery is intriguing, and there is enough humor to balance the darker elements.
Sarah Booth seems a little off her game this time around. Perhaps she is distracted and frustrated with the progression of her relationship with Coleman, or maybe she is tired of Tinky’s obsessive want for a child, but, at times, she is mean, and that is out of character. Confusing reality with a dream like state is also not like her, and this left me scratching my head a little. Jitty, as always, provides great comic relief, but even she seemed different, talking in riddles instead of laying it all out there. Even Tinky is out in left field half of the time. But, don’t get me wrong, I still love all of the recurring characters.
The mystery itself is gratifyingly complex, though it gets off to a somewhat clunky start. About midway into the story, things really get going, and the final twist made for a satisfying ending. The story is a tangled web of greed, deceit, magic, and murder. I recommend CHARMED BONES to fans of Carolyn Haines, paranormal cozies, and readers looking for a nice balance of humor, zaniness, and darkness.
I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley and voluntarily shared my thoughts here.
Such a cheeky mystery! I love this author and her latest had me laughing and solving a witch of a mystery. I would recommend this book to mystery fans that enjoy some dark and cheeky humor!
Carolyn Haines continues her zany cozy Sarah Delaney mysteries with Charmed Bones.. Sarah has to find out who is murdering people and trying to run out of town the new witches(who want to open a charter school) . Her resident ghost offers few answers and her boyfriend Coleman the lawman appears stymied. Does someone covet the real estate the proposed school stands on? Is their witchcraft involved? Read and find out while following the zany cats and people in this mystery.
Sarah Booth Delaney and friends and back again, this time with witches and magic! It's another fantastic book in the series, makes you count the days until the next!
Sarah Booth high only to realize I'm done with the book and I miss my friend Sarah Booth. She single and a private investigator and I want to live vicariously through her.
When I saw the cover, I thought this was going to be a Halloween story, but it's not. When I read the first couple of chapters, I thought this was going to be a hokey plot about some witch sisters. It is not. I enjoyed the plot immensely. Haines not only has a grasp on how to write a serial character and not make her repetitive, but she makes it so the reader care for a fictional character. I love the setting, in the south, but that is my bias because I live in the south. This is only my third Sarah Booth mystery, but I am going to put the series on my reading short list.
I did receive this book from NetGalley in lieu of an honest review. I do wish Sarah Booth would leash her pets.
I love cozy mysteries! Especially when they are in small towns, with kooky characters that you just have to love. The crazier, the better! And if some ghosts appear that have attitude, I like it even more!! And add in some romance, ideally where the female lead isn't married, and I'm a bigger fan. Not that there's anything wrong with it, I just like to read a bit of the romantic tangles along with my mystery.
I unfortunately haven't read all the books in this series so I think there were some parts of the book that just didn't make as much sense to me. So I will be going back to read the series and fill in the holes. And to go back and go through the Coleman goodness! I also love my cozy mysteries with a little romance. But that's just me.
ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Sarah Booth is back with book 18 in the Sarah Booth Delaney Series. Coleman is searching for the perfect time to propose and nothing seems to be going right. His sister Pammy wants to stay with them and the murder of a local artist is keeping him busy. The arrival of three witches in town wanting to open a school has everyone in a tizzy. I love Jitty the ghost who is all in favor of Coleman and Sarah Booth getting married and having babies. Can be read as a stand alone but you won't want to miss some of the previous books. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
The 18th installment of the Sarah Booth Delaney mystery series does not disappoint as readers are treated to another romp through the Mississippi Delta, a locale as steeped with genteel tradition as it is bound by quirky superstitions.
Whether you are new to the series or a longtime devotee, you are sure to appreciate Haines’s knack for layered storytelling as plots and subplots gently lead readers deep into a mysterious coven of witches as characters wrestle with bumbled trysts and empty wombs—nothing a little spell can’t fix, right? But it will take more than a little spell to quell the furor over the Wiccan school that the gorgeous witches hope to open in Zinnia, Mississippi. Can private investigator Sarah Booth and her BFF Tinkie keep the witches (and themselves) safe as Zinnia residents threaten to start their own witchhunt?
Richly developed characters and highly tuned plot twists ensure that readers will be kept guessing until the end. A dash of romance, a bit of ghostly premonition, just the right amount of humor and Southern charm, and Haines has cast the perfect spell in Charmed Bones.
Ms. Haines has written another wonderful book in the Sarah Booth Delaney series. I always enjoy my visits to Zinnia and catching up Sarah Booth and Tinkie. This is another well-written book with nice details and characters that seem more like family than characters in a novel.
Ms. Haines description of the Mississippi Delta is 'spot-on' and shows both the good and the ugly about small town life.
Although I had the mystery figured out, Sarah Booth and Coleman's relationship is what really kept me reading way too late in the night! I'm already ready for the next in the series.
This is the first book I have read by Carolyn Haines. Charmed Bones is the 18th book in the series but you can read it as a standalone. The book has quirky characters, mystery, witches and magic. I was hooked from the moment I started reading and was kept guessing until the end. Carolyn is a wonderful storyteller and she keeps you interested until the end. I will definitely be reading the rest of the series. I can’t wait until the next book in this series comes out.
4.5- Faith, Hope, and Charity are sisters but not your ordinary sisters but sisters with powers and abilities that set them apart. This book had me laughing, gasping, and swooning. I loved this book. I cannot wait to read the next ones.
This is the 18th book in the Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery series (wow) and I've read them all. This is a fine addition. I think this could be read as a standalone book, by the way. Sarah Booth has grown up a lot over the years but still has the Delaney Detective Agency with her friend Tinkie.
This time, they are asked to investigate a group of Wiccan witches who have moved to town and want to open a school. Sarah Booth isn't sure they're a bad influence, but when the owner of the house they live in is murdered she want to find out what the heck is going on. She and Tinkie investigate with the help of her boyfriend Sheriff Coleman, and the as the investigation goes on they all put themselves in grave danger.
As in the previous books, the characters act a little zany but the plot is solid and it's a good read. I highly recommend this book.
Thanks to St. Martin's/Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Charmed Bones was definitely charming. I love Sarah Booth Delaney and this book in the series is definitely one of my favorites. The Wizard of Oz references for sticking my head, like a song on the radio. The mystery was intriguing and trying to figure out what was lurking in the woods near the witches was scary good. I highly recommend reading this book.
Charmed Bones may be 18th in this series, but it's as fresh and charming as the first. In fact, this latest adventure of Sarah Booth Delaney and her personal haint, Jitty, is one of my favorites. A trio of Wiccan practitioners, otherwise known as witches, have come to the Mississippi Delta to open a school and capitalize on using school vouchers. As you might imagine, the small town of Zinnia does not welcome the newcomers with the proverbial Southern hospitality. Add in a dead body or two, and you've got cauldron full of suspects and eccentric characters ready for your reading pleasure.
Sarah Booth Delaney is back! This time it's witches and magic that highlight the scene in this the next chapter of Sarah Booth and her best friend and PI partner, Tinkie Richmond.
Three sisters, Hope, Faith and Charity Harrington, have come to Zinnia and they are opening up a Wiccan School on the old dairy farm owned by the painter, Trevor (?).
Kitten Fontana (what a nutcase!!) is furious about witches moving into her beloved Zinnia and decides they need to go. Her and her husband are fairly wealthy and she drops $10,000.00 checks like pennies falling from heaven. She hires Sarah Booth and Tinkie to do several jobs for her. The major one is investigating these sisters and seeing if their story is heads up.
That's when the really quirky characters just start coming up out of the woodwork. I sometimes had trouble keeping up between Malvik and Spurlock. Don't ask me why. During all of this, strange things are happening. People go missing, some turn up dead and some are just lost somewhere on this dairy farm. It sounds like a very creepy place many times in the book.
My mind kept going back and forth on these witches - are they good or are they bad? And, I think at times that they have some REALLY rotten luck.
The book kept me mesmerized and I sped right through this action packed book. I even had several laughs. Some of these people are so dumb that you just can't help it.
And I LOVED the zombie scene. HA!
I think this is an excellent series and I just love the covers. Now, I'm back to waiting for Sarah Booth again.
Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.