Holiday Hexes

Winter Witches of Holiday Haven Series, Book 3

By: J.L. Collins

Narrated by: Amanda Ronconi

Have yourself a very Merry Witchmas in Holiday Haven, where the magic and mystery of Christmas is snow joke!

Top toy designer Star Clearwater is convinced that Christmas is cursed. What's supposed to be her hard-earned vacation turns into chaos when her mother lures her to the North Pole only for all spell to break loose at her arrival.

A heinous hex threatens the entire toy production inside Santa's Toy Workshop, putting millions of children's wishes in jeopardy. If her mother - who reports directly to Mrs. Claus - can't get things under control, Christmas won't be the only thing getting canned.

Star has no choice but to crash at her mother's cottage in the charming magical town of Holiday Haven. The sooner she can find the Scrooge responsible for the crime, the faster she can get back to her normal life.

Armed with her witchy wits, Star accepts help from a talking husky and the cute guy running the town bookstore as she follows the trail while the countdown to Christmas Day ticks away.

Will Star find a way to catch the criminal and reverse the hex? Or will Christmas be canceled this year?

©2020 J. L. Collins (P)2021 Tantor

Cute novella

This is a delightful little holiday novella that will get you in the Christmas spirit whether you want to love the holidays or not.

A cozy story

The author started the story in an unexpected way. We returned to the north pole and it was a good story. It was a cozy story which will warm the heart. We will see where it goes with the main characters.

Fan

Of course it was great and the narrator was great. I just wish she would have carried Star and Everett a little farther maybe another book.
It was a good Christmas story and family.

Fun, Fast Paced, Christmas Emergency Mystery

This was my first title by J.L. Collins and of course 3rd title in the Holiday Haven series. This story takes off at a very fast consistent pace and Star Clearwater is quickly pulled into a Christmas emergency via their mother who lives in Holiday Haven. This is a good start to a series within a series. So far despite all the authors operating in this Winter Witches of Holiday Haven all the stories seem self-contained and do not cross over into each other, which I kind of wish they would at least a little. Sometimes the volumes feel like the stories are taking place in totally separate boroughs of the city. But I completely understand how hard it could be to coordinate things with this many authors but maybe having a couple shared businesses across the different books. The romance is light and easy as is the mystery. The characters also feel at an early stage. We have Star, her mother Gloria, Chaser the Husky familiar, and Everett the neighbor/love interest. There is some funny uses of magic and it's a relaxing listen while you are taking care of other things, but I would like to see J.L. build on the characters and flesh them out a little more if follow up series. I always love Amanda's narration and wish they would let her do the entire series, would be a great way to tie the series together as well. Of the first three books in the WWOHH the first is still my favorite but this would be the runner up. Again this series isn't blowing my socks off but kind of like a Hallmark movie: formulaic, light, fun, guaranteed happy endings with a few laughs in between. I did decide to check out one of J.L.'s other series on audible just to get a sense of their work but will look forward to future installments about Star in WWOHH.

I love this Christmasy series!!! 🎄❄️

I am so thankful to find this enchanting, festive series so close to Christmas! I struggle every year to find ones Christmasy enough for me. So many masquerade as Christmas or just have it low key going on in the background. The setting for this series is the North Pole and the characters are a bunch of winter witches! So well written and well narrated!

So far the second book is still my favorite by far. I really enjoyed this one too but I felt it was a little slower paced and the MC didn’t appeal to me as much as the other two. But I loved that she was 35!!! There are so few adult novel books that are not porn 🙄 And most fantasy and romance books focus on teenagers which is annoying and inaccurate that epic adventures and romances only happen to ppl under 20. Adult readers def exist! And this series is a perfect option for us.

(Spoilers) I enjoyed that Star had her own toy business and thought it was comical that’s why the main elf didn’t like her, saw her as competition lol. Talking animal companions typically are not my thing but they are subtle and well done in this series. It was very clever that the Husky was allergic to elf magic too which played a huge role in solving the mystery. I was really impressed with the voice the narrator fashioned for the stuffed up dog lol. I wish they had delved more into the drama between Star and her mother. I liked Everett and I’m always on board with romantic sub plots but this one felt a little tacked on. Hopefully they show more of their relationship in later books bc if not, this one should have been longer imo. I love that Mrs. Claus is the main witch and that they all revere her so much. The twist with Clover, the overworked Elf was so clever and cute. I’m glad it all worked out in the end and the characters all seemed to learn something. Sometimes tragedies and catastrophes can have a silver lining.

I highly recommend this book series to anyone looking for festive reads. It will not disappoint!