Blurb: Moonshadow Bay…where magic lurks in the moonlight, and danger hides in the shadows.
One month before January Jaxson turns 41, her husband ditches her for a trophy wife. Adding insult to injury, he steals the business she helped build, and kicks her out during the holidays. So when her best friend Ari suggests she move back to Moonshadow Bay—a quirky, magical town near Bellingham WA—January decides to take the plunge.
Born into a family of witches, January accepts a job at Conjure Ink, a paranormal investigations website. The job’s right up her alley but she doubts that everything reported to Conjure Ink really exists. That is, until she’s sent out on her first case.
An abandoned asylum once housed a murderer, who killed an entire family one Yuletide Eve. It’s rumored that every December he returns to haunt the woodland around the asylum, seeking to add new members to his supernatural family. January’s sure it’s an urban legend, but when new victims show up with no logical explanation for their deaths, Conjure Ink sends her in to investigate. Suddenly January finds herself in over her head, staring directly into the shadowed world of the Veil.
Now, January must not only navigate the new life she’s trying to build, but the paranormal beasties she’s sent out to explore, as well as a hot new neighbor, who seems to be hiding a shadowed past of his own.
Review: January Jaxson just got out of a horrible marriage and has moved back into her deceased parents' house in the magical town of Moonshadow Bay which she grew up in. She was born into a family of witches, and that, along with her writing skills, gets her a job at Conjure Ink which does paranormal investigations. Her first case is a doozy, though. There's a great big evil energy at the town's abandoned asylum and people are turning up dead there. Getting back on her magical feet, discovering secrets about her family's past, and a hot new neighbor make her life even more chaotic. Will January be able to figure out the mystery and how to rid the land of the evil or will it consume her as well?
This is the first book in a fun paranormal romance series taking place in Moonshadow Bay. There are all sorts of supernaturals living there, and we get a quick introduction to several as January settles back in. The world building is fantastic with all the layers and secrets in the town. January is working on getting her confidence back after a bad marriage, and I love seeing a smart, curvy middle-aged woman as the heroine. The whole cast is wonderful, and I would love to see more of Rowan and Val.
It's wonderful to see a middle-aged woman as a spunky and sexy heroine. She is confident with how she looks and there's no whining about gray hairs or a sore back or knees. Being in your forties isn't that old, but you see it so often portrayed that way in books. The romance genre can still be age-ist in many ways. Love can bloom at any age. Also, let me tell you, I'd feel way more confident about a group of middle-aged individuals who are smart and wise saving the world than a group of teens!