A short book review this week for “Wisteria Witches: A feel-good paranormal women’s fiction mystery”, a light-hearted title with over 1400 5* ratings on Goodreads.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a 5* for me!
Wisteria Witches by Angela PepperMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Former media personality, Zara, and her teenage daughter, move to the quaint town of Wisteria to start a new life. The big red house is the first property Zara’s owned, and things start well when their hunky new neighbour, Chet, helps them to unpack boxes into the house. So far so good.
Then weird things start to happen, culminating in Zara being possessed by the ghost of the former house owner, who died in mysterious circumstances. I’m fine with weird things (I wouldn’t be reading a book about witches otherwise) but these seemed rather disjointed, and not always leading anywhere.
It’s a good set up for a cozy witch mystery, and the snarky banter and lively characters were great for the first couple of chapters. Then it started to become rather grating, with a lack of light and shade to both the characters and the action. Well, what action there was. In fact, it wasn’t until nearly the end of the book that the plot really became clear to me – figure out who the murderer was.
I suppose that’s implicit in the genre, but for me, it wasn’t a clear motivator, more of an incidental side issue. There’s no doubt the characters were well painted, the dialogue realistic (although the continual snark became wearing after a bit). The flow of the language is pleasant and blissfully typo-free, which is probably why I kept returning until I’d finished, but it took me more than 2 weeks to get through it, a chapter at a time, with no driving force impelling me to read faster. Hence my 3-star rating.
It might be your thing. All I can say is, it wasn’t mine, and I won’t be continuing with the series, despite some interesting hooks leading forward.
View all my reviews
I try to always be fair in my reviews, giving both positives and negatives, and pointing out that it might simply be that while it doesn’t float my boat, it might yours.
3 stars is the lowest rating I will give – if the book doesn’t rate that, I won’t have finished it.
How about you? What’s your lower limit?
deborahjay 
That’s about my lowest and then even a three, I might not review it. It depends…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Snap.
I don’t review many of my 3 star rating, I just felt this one was worth it because its well written, in a popular genre, and simply didn’t grab me personally.
LikeLike
Even though I love character-driven books, I have the same reaction to reads that don’t seem to have strong, driving goals (strong plot). The characters might be well written, but they need to get down to business before the end of the book.
I’ll rarely finish a “3-star” book. It’s just not good use of my time when there are so many great books out there. My review stats look skewed toward high marks, but that’s the reason. Thanks for the honest review!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I used to finish any book I began. Now I’m a lot quicker to stop, and it’s only the odd 3star book I will complete, usually because there’s something there to keep me going back. However I may revise that habit after this one. There’s not enough time to read all the good books, let alone the ones that don’t quite cut it.
That skews my reviews, same as you, as it looks like I only give 4 or 5 stars, which is why I like to raise the point every now and again.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I also used to finish every single book too, but I read for fun and I want it to stay that way.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Deb! I hear ya girl. Yes, anything I can’t get a 3 star for I won’t review and I’ll most likely stop reading it. Usually I don’t run into those disappointments when I choose a book for myself after checking out the criteria. But sometimes when we offer to read a book for someone and then we’re stuck if we can’t jive with it. I’m there right now with a promised read with many 5 stars that I can’t wrap my head around. Lol 🙂 x
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh dear, yes I know that one. Really tricky, I ended up there with a book from an online author friend and just had to quietly ‘forget’ I’d read it. At least I hadn’t let him know I was reading it; far trickier when you’ve communicated about it beforehand 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, but my bad. I was offered a free copy if I reviewed, scanned many reviews, loved the premise of the story, and bam! The worst part is, as a reviewer, I don’t want to lie to my readers, and don’t want to hurt any author’s feeling or ratings. I just may have to toughen up like you and give this current read the 3 stars I feel I can only give it. Talk about looking like a sore thumb review among so many fivers lol 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I understand how you feel, but you need to be honest. Like me, you’ll have clear reasons for your rating.
At the end of the day, it it has so many 5*s already, one 3* won’t dramatically affect the overall rating. I have a couple on mine, and while I’m not thrilled about it, they had valid reasons that were well laid out in their reviews.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So true, thanks for the vote of confidence. 🙂 x
LikeLiked by 1 person