Thank you NetGalley and Ace for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was intrigued by the prospect of demon hunting, but was hesitant about the cozy mystery aspect. I was also excited about an older protagonist, but unfortunately the overall tone of The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society was just way too twee and cozy for me. For a murder mystery, this felt like a warm hug. Which is fine, but I am extremely touch adverse and I often can’t handle warm hug books (I do tend to avoid small town cozy mysteries, it’s on me that I didn’t realize that this was that).

Outside of the genre mismatch, this did feel a little lukewarm overall. I don’t really think this book will stick with me very long, which is fine, but while this was a fast paced book I also felt like a lot of the interesting action took place off page. In addition, Sherry had a character trait for a large portion of the book that irritates me both in fiction—I really do struggle with nosy normal everyday folk who happen to Solve Murders through the power of… treating it like a game? (if you’re wondering! I do not like true crime.) I think the overall idea was neat and there was potential for me to be into it, but the execution and the choices the author made aren’t for me—I think people who typically enjoy cozies will have a good time, but I’m not that person.

A cozy mystery with a supernatural twist, this will appeal to readers who like some quirkiness in their books. Sherry (crime solving librarian) is an appealing main character and I would read more books with her at the center, but this book did feel like the reader was supposed to already have a familiarity with Sherry and her past mystery solving work, almost like this was not the first book in a series. I enjoyed this enough that I will pick up the next one if it does become a series and it's a worthy and unique addition to the crime-solving librarians in cozy mysteries genre.

A cozy mystery with quite the twist! The cast of characters were so fun to watch interact and work together to figure out the truly sinister mystery behind the cozy setting of the novel. Who knew that demon's could enjoy Murder She Wrote so much? It would be great to see more of these characters solving crimes of the supernatural or regular variety or even just hanging out.

I almost put this down. I read some reviews that made it seem like I should stick with it, so I did, and it did get better. Some weird things that didn't make sense were cleared up though there were still some holes there. I liked the Poirot-like reveal, and the friendship among the characters. The ending leaves it open to a possible sequel. I do agree with the others who said this felt like the 2nd or 3rd in a series which was probably intentional, but added to the weirdness.

Thank you to Ace Books for the advanced reading copy!

I was so intrigued by the premise of this book, just couldn't get into it. I ended up trying it on audio, as I was feeling unattached to the e-arc, and that was no better. The narrator didn't connect me anymore to the story than the words themselves, and I ended up only skimming through this. I felt confused for most and, despite the interesting premise, just wasn't intrigued. sad!

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

3.5/5
This was fun! I am always down for a cozy mystery, and The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society did not disappoint! I mean, the title alone is an attention grabber!

Sherry doesn't seem to notice that she's always there to solve the small town's many murder cases. That is until she becomes a suspect.

With demons, a talking cat, and some surprising small town connections, this librarian proves she should not be underestimated!

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society is a cozy mystery for fans of Murder, She Wrote and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sherry Pinkwhistle, the village librarian suspects that the spate of deaths in her small town have a supernatural aspect to them. Add a talking cat, due to demonic possesssion and you've got a charming, cozy paranormal mystery.

From the first chapters, The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C. M. Waggoner felt confusing. Despite being a standalone novel, the frequent references to prior sleuthing adventures left me feeling like I was missing key parts of the story. It created a disjointed experience that was hard to get beyond.

Initially, the concept of a librarian turned senior sleuth in a supernatural murder mystery intrigued me. However, as the story progressed, I became disengaged and ultimately decided to put the book down. The narrative didn't align with my expectations, and I couldn't connect with the plot or characters.

I'm not sure if it was the writing or if it was simply not the right fit for me. The potential was there, but it didn't quite hit the mark.

This became a DNF for me.

This cozy mystery follows Sherry, a local librarian, seeking to solve yet another murder in this small town. Lots of plot twists as Sherry, with the help of the local "demon hunting society," seek to end the murderous spree! A full cast of fun and quirky characters make for an enjoyable read.

**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review an electronic ARC of this book.

I had such high hopes for this book, but when it came down to it the writing was just not my cup of tea. I couldn't get hooked. I wanted so badly to love this book, but I couldn't get into the first 100 pages.

Waggoner was a new author to me, and will be someone who’s backlist I want to read. This was cute and cozy and a fun mystery to unravel. A perfect book for a weekend in!

An absurd love letter to Murder She Wrote with demons. Sherry is a humble librarian with a knack for solving crime. But just how many murders does she have to solve in this sleepy town? She refuses to continue when her beau is murdered, but she can't stay away. Especially when her cat starts talking to her and she realizes that she can't leave the town before this is put to rest. The town is rich with strange characters and circumstances. Plus this book wins the prize for the best descriptive sentence--"Time sneezed". I still think of the line when life goes sideways.

This was a wonderful palette cleanser of a book. It is the type of story I expected from The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, and I love it! Cosy mysteries aren't a genre I'm super familiar with, but this seems like the type of book I would describe as a cosy mystery, with a bit of extra supernatural flavour. The ending was perhaps a bit so-so, but if there happens to be another book in the series I would certainly read it! In short, if you've always wanted to read the story of what would happen if your grandma turned out to be a monster hunter but you need a palette cleanser from the fantasy novels with hard to pronounce city names, this is a book to try out!

Murder, demons, and a librarian who won’t back down—The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society is a wildly entertaining cozy fantasy mystery that’s equal parts charming and hilarious.

Sherry Pinkwhistle’s knack for solving murders turns supernatural when her cat, Lord Thomas Crowell, becomes possessed by an ancient demon. With the help of a ragtag Demon-Hunting Society and a rookie priest, Sherry juggles sleuthing, exorcisms, and the occasional witty retort.

C.M. Waggoner delivers a delightful blend of Murder, She Wrote’s cleverness and Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s supernatural sass. Perfect for fans of cozy mysteries with a fantastical twist and fiercely determined heroines.

With all of her great reviews, I had high expectations which were not met. A little silly for me. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

This wasn’t for me. At all. I went into this book fully expecting a cutesy, cozy fantasy/romance, so you can imagine my utter disappointment when I realized I was reading a murder mystery instead of a cozy fantasy. That was completely my fault for not reading the synopsis. Normally, I don’t mind a murder mystery, but something about this one just didn’t work for me. I had a hard time with the main character’s voice and the way it was written. The MC’s thoughts jumped around a lot in a very random way. And toward the end, we find out it was intentional, but it still pulled me out of the story.

The plot didn’t work for me either. A lot of it didn’t add up or make sense, and the further I went, the less sense it made. With how messy the main character’s thoughts are, we don’t even get to see how the mystery is solved. The MC just randomly figures it out and then gives a quick explanation of how she got from point A to point B. You don’t get much investigating or problem-solving on page. Everything just gets neatly cleaned up at the end.

Overall, I can see how some readers might enjoy this, especially if they're into strange, paranormal mysteries. But for me, it just wasn’t what I was hoping for, and I couldn’t connect with the story.

Thank you so much to the publisher, NetGalley and the author for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

I LOVED this book. Sherry was such a delight. As a librarian, I was more than happy to have her in our troops. The mystery kept me involved, and the twist keeping Sherry from detective-ing more quickly didn't occur to me until the very last moment before revealed. Waggoner has a new reader in me. I can't wait to check out her back catalog!

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society is a cozy paranormal mystery with Murder She Wrote vibes. The main character, Sherry Pinkwhistle, is a librarian and amateur sleuth hot on the trail of several murders that have popped up in her small town. She discovers that there is more to the deaths than she anticipated. Joining with several unique and interesting characters, she’s off to stop the evil that is causing havoc in her community.

I liked Sherry’s voice. At times, I felt like the book was a sequel as the character introduction was a little lacking for my tastes. The author also relies a bit on librarian stereotypes in Sherry’s creation. Despite that, I found the writing engaging and witty. Overall, this is a fun book with an interesting premise.

The following review was published or updated in several Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia newspapers and magazines in November and December 2024:

Booking a full year of reading

Review by Tom Mayer

If only us readers could just spend our days … reading. What would a year look like? Here, the editors of Home for the Holidays present their yearlong list of books, culled from the past 12 months of reading and reviewing. A few of the titles you’ll immediately recognize, and you’ll likely have more than few in your own library. But just in case you missed a title or two, we’re showcasing the whole year’s worth of books that we’ve read and reviewed, month by month.

Except for the first title, the list is simply a list. To find the reviews of many of these titles, visit our newspaper parent, The (Athens) News Courier at enewscourier.com — with a slight caveat. Our newspaper webmasters are currently working overtime to improve our content management system, the foundation of any website, and while many of our archives are now found there, it may be a few weeks before everything is fully re-uploaded — including the most recent editions of Limestone Life and Home for the Holidays. For now, though, enjoy our literary stroll through 2024.

And about that first title: Not every college professor can make statistical analysis approachable, let along interesting to their students and the general population, but Athens State University emeritus professor of psychology Mark Durm is not every college professor. After spending nearly five decades teaching thousands of students, the “ol’ psychology professor” decided that he’d best get around to writing the one book out of his nearly 100 published pieces that’s he always wanted to write. Call it a legacy piece, but what it really is is a “best of” Durm’s peer-reviewed, book reviews, non-peer reviewed and magazine articles from his 47 years in higher education.

The result is “Professional Publications of an Ol’ Psychology Professor” (Dorrance) with full previously published articles ranging from studies on the effects of glasses on a child’s self-esteem to his ever-popular parapsychology pieces, Durm presents his internationally recognized efforts with a twist.

“It’s a different kind of book because it doesn’t talk about the research, it presents the research,” the professor says from his second-career office at Durm Properties in Athens, about a half-mile from where he first presented that research in person. “I’ve spent hours on all of these articles, especially in the peer-reviewed journal articles.”

And so, articles on divorce, sex, religion and other topics now populate the pages of Durm’s most recent book in an effort to both continue his teaching and satisfy what has been a lifelong wonderment.

“You know, most people don’t understand statistics, so it’s all in there,” Durm said. “What I’m trying to do is a more critical approach to ‘just don’t believe everything you’re told.’ … It’s things that were in my life that I wanted to see if they were so, by using a psychological analysis.”

And like any good professor, Durm didn’t do that research on his own — or take all of the credit. Among the co-authors of many of his articles in the book were students — many of who he’s lost touch with, but all of whom who he credits by name in his acknowledgements and for each of who, if they look up their ol’ mentor, he has a signed book ready to hand over. For the rest of us, you can find the book at any online bookseller — just as you can with the remainder of our list, presented by the month in which the book was published, read and reviewed.

JANUARY

Unbound (Blackstone) by Christy Healy NG/F

The Devil’s Daughter by Gordon Greisman NG/ARC

FEBRUARY

Almost Surely Dead (Mindy’s Book Studio) by Amina Akhtar NG

The Chaos Agent (Gray Man 13) (Berkley) by Mark Greaney NG

The Lady in Glass and Other Stories (Ace) by Anne Bishop ARC

A Haunting in the Arctic (Berkley paperback) by C.J. Cooke NG

Ghost Island (Berkley) by Max Seeck

MARCH

Hello, Alabama (Arcadia) by Martha Day Zschock

The Unquiet Bones (Montlake) by Loreth Anne White

I am Rome: A novel of Julius Caesar (Ballantine Books by Santiago PosteguilloMarch 5: Murder Road (Berkley) by Simone St. James

The Luminous Life of Lucy Landry (Holiday House) by Anna Rose Johnson

Ferris (Candlewick) by Kate DiCamillo

After Annie (Random House, Feb. 27) by Anna Quindlen

Crocodile Tears Didn't Cause the Flood (Montag Press) by Bradley Sides The #1 Lawyer (Little, Brown and Company) by James Patterson, Nancy Allen

Lilith (Blackstone) by Eric Rickstad

Life: My Story Through History (Harper One) by Pope Francis

APRIL

Matterhorn (Thomas & Mercer) by Christopher Reich

Friends in Napa (Mindy’s Book Studio) by Sheila Yasmin Marikar

City in Ruins (William Morrow) by Don Winslow

The House on Biscayne Bay (Berkley) by Chanel Cleeton

Two Friends, One Dog, and a Very Unusual Week (Peachtree) by Sarah L. Thomson

For Worse (Blackstone) by L.K. Bowen

A Killing on the Hill (Thomas & Mercer) by Robert Dugoini

The Clock Struck Murder (Poisoned Pen Press) by Betty Webb

The Book That Broke the World (Ace) by Mark Lawrence

The Forgetters (Heyday Books) by Greg Sarris

Lost to Dune Road (Thomas & Mercer) by Kara Thomas

Warrior on the Mound (Holiday House/Peachtree) by Sandra Headed

Pictures of Time (Silver Street Media) by David AlexanderBare Knuckle (Blackstone Publishing) by Stayton Bonner

Murder on Demand (Blackstone Publishing) by Al Roker

Home is Where the Bodies Are (Blackstone) by Jeneva Rose

MAY

Matterhorn by Christopher Reich

The Hunter's Daughter (Berkley) by Nicola Solvinic

The House That Horror Built (Berkley) by Christina Henry

In our stars (Berkley) by Jack Campbell

Freeset (book 2) (Blackstone) by Sarina Dahlan

Southern Man (William Morrow) by Greg Iles

Camino Ghosts (Doubleday) by John Grisham

JUNE

Specter of Betrayal by Rick DeStefanis

Lake County (Thomas & Mercer) by Lori Roy

Serendipity (Dutton) by Becky Chalsen

Shelterwood (Ballantine) by Lisa Wingate

The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra’s Needle (Holiday House) by Dan Gutman

Jackpot (Penguin) by Elysa Friedland

The Helper (Blackstone) by M.M. Dewil

Winter Lost (Ace) by Patricia Briggs

Shadow Heart (Blackstone) by Meg Gardiner

Lake Country (Thomas & Mercer) by Lori Roy

The Out-of-Town Lawyer (Blackstone) by Robert Rotten

Love Letter to a Serial Killer (Berkley) by Tasha Coryell

Sentinel Berkley) by Mark Greaney

JULY

Three Kings: Race, Class, and the Barrier-Breaking Rivals Who Redefined Sports and Launched the Modern Olympic Age (Blackstone) by Todd Balf

The Night Ends with Fire (Berkley) by K.X. Song

Echo Road (Montlake) by Melinda Leigh

It’s Elementary (Berkley) by Elise Bryant

You Shouldn’t Be Here (Thomas & Mercer) by Lauren Thoman

Back In Black (Blackstone) edited by Don Bruns

The Recruiter (Blackstone) by Gregg Podolski

AUGUST

You Shouldn’t Be Here (Thomas & Mercer) by Lauren Thoman ARC

Not What She Seems (Thomas & Mercer) by Yasmin Angoe NG

Fatal Intrusion by Jeff Deaver/Isabella Maldonado

Death at Morning House (HARPERTeen) by Maureen Johnson

Fire and Bones (Scribner) by Kathy Reichs

Some Nightmares Are Real (University of Alabama Press) by Kelly Kazoo

The Brothers Kenny (Blackstone) by Adam Mitzner

Blind to Midnight (Blackstone) by Reed Farrel Coleman

The Wayside (Blackstone) by Carolina Wolff

Enemy of the State (Blackstone) by Robert Smartwood

You Will Never Be Me (Berkley) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice (W.W. Norton) by Adam Kirsch

We Love the Nightlife (Berkley) by Rachel Koller Croft

Talking To Strangers (Berkley) by Fiona Barton

An Honorable Assassin (Blackstone) by Steve Hamilton possible interview see email

Dungeon Crawler Carl (1 of 6 but see next two months) (Ace) by Matt Dinniman

SEPTEMBER

Fatal Intrusion (Thomas & Mercer) by Jeffrey Deaver and Isabella Maldonado

When They Last Saw Her (Penguin) by Marcie Rendon

American Ghoul (Blackstone) by Michelle McGill-Vargas

First Do No Harm (Blackstone) by Steve Hamilton

A Quiet Life: A Novel (Arcade) by William Cooper and Michael McKinley

One More From the Top (Mariner) by Emily Layden

No Address (Forefront Books) by Ken Abraham.

Tiger’s Tale (Blackstone) by Colleen Houck

An Academy for Liars (Ace) by Alexis Henderson

Rewitched (Berkley) by Lucy Jane Wood

Gaslight (Blackstone) by Sara Shepard and Miles Joris-Peyrafitte

Counting Miracles (Random House) by Nicholas Sparks

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society (Ace) by C.M. Waggoner

The Hitchcock Hotel (Berkley) by Stephanie Wrobel

In the Garden of Monsters by Crystal King

Carl’s Doomsday Scenario (2 of 6 see next month also) (Ace) by Matt Dinniman

OCTOBER

The Hushed (Blackstone) by K.R. Blair NG

A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer (Berkley) by Maxie Dara

On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice (Norton) by WSJ Weekend review editor Adam Kirsch

Framed (Doubleday) by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey

This Cursed House (Penguin) by Del Sandeen

The Puzzle Box (Random House) by Danielle Trussoni

Two Good Men (Blackstone) by S.E. Redfearn

Dark Space (Blackstone) by Rob Hart and Alex Segura

This Cursed House (Berkley’s open submission)by Del Sandeen

Vindicating Trump (Regnery) by Dinesh D’Souza

The Book of Witching (Berkley) by C.J. Cooke

The World Walk (Skyhorse) by Tom Turcich

The Waiting Game by Michael Connelly  ARC, possible interview see email

Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Thomas & Mercer) by Robert Dugoni

Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook (3 of 6, with bonus material) (Ace) by Matt Dinniman

Frozen Lives (Blackstone) by Jennifer Graeser Fronbush NG

Vincent, Starry Starry Night (Meteor 17 Books) intro by Don McLean

Paris in Winter: An Illustrated Memoir (PowerHouse Books) by David Coggins

NOVEMBER

The Waiting (Little, Brown) by Michael Connelly

The Teller of Small Fortunes (Penguin) by Julie Long

Shadow Lab (Blackstone) by Brendan Deneen

Trial by Ambush (Thomas & Mercer) by Marcia Clark

Devil Take It (Heresy Press) by Daniel Debs Nossiter

SerVant of Earth (Ace) by Sarah Hawley

All the other me (Blackstone) by Jody Holford

The Perfect Marriage (Blackstone reissue re-edit) by Jenny Rose

DECEMBER

Trial By Ambush (Thomas & Mercer) by Marcia Clark

The Close-Up (Gallery Books) by Pip Drysdale

The Silent Watcher (Thomas & Mercer) by Victor Methos

Leviathan (Lividian Trade HC) by Robert McCammon

The Silent Watcher (Thomas & Mercer) by Victor Method

Assume Nothing (Thomas & Mercer) by Joshua Corin

One example link:
https://enewscourier.com/2024/11/29/in-review-booking-a-full-year-of-reading/