An Enchanting Case of Spirits

• Author: Melissa Holtz
• Genre: Cozy Mystery
• Publication Date: April 9, 2024
• Publisher: Books on Tape
• Series: The Gin and Tarot Club #1

When a fortieth birthday celebration leads to a ghostly visitor, four friends find themselves navigating surprising mysteries and spiritual hijinks, in this clever debut from Melissa Holtz.

Alyssa Mann isn’t adventurous, not since her husband died and she found herself the single mom of a teenage daughter. But there’s no way to avoid celebrating the big 4-0, so when her best friends drag her out for drinks and a tarot reading, she throws caution to the wind and decides to see what the spirits have to say. It’s all fun and games, until she wakes up the next morning with a wicked hangover—and a ghost perched on the edge of her bed.

Sheer panic sends her running to get help from Nick West, the (very attractive) detective who lives next door. When he finds no one inside, Alyssa has to accept that she really did see a ghost. As the dearly departed keep appearing, Alyssa and her friends do their best to learn how to control her newfound power. Trading insults with ghosts, tracking down family heirlooms, and getting closer to the skeptical but helpful Nick is more fun than Alyssa imagined. But when looking into one ghost’s past reveals unexpected—and unwelcome—facts about Alyssa’s late husband’s death, she discovers she just may be in over her head.

When I was approved for an ARC of the second book in this series, I didn’t realize that it was a series. Luckily, my local library had a copy of the audiobook available, and I was able to check it out. I’m always up for a book involving tarot.

At first, I didn’t really mesh well with Alyssa’s character. She’s struggling with grief, which is what saved her, along with her sense of humor. Two years after the traumatic death of her husband, Alyssa is deep in her grief, and it sounds like some symptoms of depression as well. Being stuck in the head of someone who is grieving and depressed isn’t an enjoyable experience, but Alyssa has some really great friends who refuse to give up on her. 

She’s dragged out, practically kicking and screaming, to a tarot reader and spirit medium with her friends for her 40th birthday as part of a wine and woo night. And this one involves visiting Madame Corinne. Although Alyssa is hoping to connect with the spirit of her deceased husband, that isn’t quite how the night goes—instead, Alyssa leaves the medium with a newfound ability to see and communicate with spirits.

Since the book incorporates plenty of humor, it helps to keep things light. Alyssa and her friends are in for lots of hijinks as she learns to control and conceal her new talent. Naturally, she also lives next door to a super hot detective, who comes running when she sees her first ghost. After searching the house, he confirms that no one is there and she realizes that it had to be a ghost. The ghost has unfinished business and Alyssa is the one that is pushed into helping him figure out what it is. But the ghost and Alyssa don’t get along—they have an antagonistic relationship full of witty repartee. It’s like she discovered the ghost she loves to hate and can’t do anything about his presence.

Like any good cozy, there’s a potential slow-burn romance with someone nearby, and the tension between Alyssa and Nick simmers throughout the book. Since we get POV chapters from both of them, we can see that the attraction is mutual, and it kept me reading to see if they were going to connect in this book. The romance doesn’t overshadow the relationships between Alyssa, Nina, and Lainie, her two best friends, and the prickly Madame Corinne, as they help her to solve a murder.

The interactions between the characters ranged from loving and supportive to abrasive and witty zingers, and it was really cool to get to see such a wide range of relationship types all in one book. I found myself enjoying this book more as I got further into it, and by the end, I was ready to start the upcoming book in the series, even though I wasn’t initially sure at first. 

Overall, this is a fun debut as a cozy mystery, and it’s done really well. I didn’t see the end coming, and found myself surprised by the plot twists. Although it centers on a murder mystery, it stays a light story, bringing fun and laughs to the table. There are some heavier topics discussed, like grief, loss, murder, and mental health, but they aren’t bogged down by how serious the topic is. This might be a good read for you if you like: cozy mysteries, slow-burn romance that doesn’t take over the story, tarot, and books with paranormal elements. 

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