Witchcraft and matchmaking unravels a mystery

This week, I returned to a fun read by selecting “A Match Made in Spell” by Regina Welling and Erin Lynn. It is one of her Lexie Balefire series.

Lexie Balefire is fast approaching her 25th birthday. For Lexie, it will determine her future as a Balefire witch and Keeper of the Flame. Lexie grew up under the care of her faerie godmothers — Evian, faerie of water; Soleil, faerie of fire; and Terra, faerie of earth. The lovely faeries have done their best to raise Lexie but never told her the facts behind her orphan status.

When a wicked witch kills another witch, she is instantly turned to stone. Lexie knows this is true because she must pass the scorched spot where her mother died and the location of her grandmother’s stone statue every day. At age 14, witches are capable of Awakening, or achieving their full witch powers. But for 10 years, Lexie has attempted to awaken her powers to no avail. Her 25th birthday will be her last chance.

If she fails, any nearby witch can claim Keeper of the Flame honors. With that on her mind, it is difficult for Lexie to concentrate on her day job. She runs FootSwept Matching using her amazing intuition (witchcraft) to feel the presence of her client’s true love.

Business is steady with high success rates. Sadly, Lexie has had vibes concerning her own true love, but she doesn’t have to time to dwell on that now.

A fourth faerie godmother, Vaeta, has recently returned from a nasty sojourn in the dark places, and her presence tends to spark horrific arguments — complete with lightning, flooding and plenty of other-worldly things.

Lexie was walking home, remembering the pleasure of matching Harry Tart to his soulmate, Lemon — yes, she knew she’d have the name Lemon Tart, and that was OK — and how well things had gone with her newest client. Lexie’s friend and partner Flix, the half faerie, had given her a new look, and it transformed her into a confident young woman ready to find true love, when she noted another faerie fight. Even worse, her normally homebody black cat Salem has been found by a new neighbor.

Mackintosh Clark is utterly handsome and seems really nice. He’s also a musician at one of her favorite spots. She takes her friend Mona to a performance and is stunned at the way women are reacting to Kin’s playing. When she see Lemon nearly throwing herself at the stage, she questions her matchmaking skills. Each time Kin plays, the women get more aggressive and possessive.

When Harry calls, saying Lemon is planning to run off with Kin, Lexie must get to the bottom of the situation. Whenever she’s with Harry, Lemon is deeply in love, but when Kin plays the guitar, she goes off the deep end. Lexie’s witch sense tells her that something or someone is controlling what comes out of the guitar.

With Lexie’s confrontation with a rival and her desperate attempt at Awakening, she witnesses Salem’s transformation from cat into human form at will. But Lexie still has a lot to learn about controlling her new powers. As she and the faeries learn more about the spell on the guitar and how its wicked bewitching could affect Kin, they realize they have to take drastic action to break the spell.

That’s when she learns that she has a half-brother. What he says about her mother and father shakes Lexie to the core, but it steels her resolve to deal with him in love instead of hate. Her first priority is protecting those she cares about. She’ll deal with him when the time comes. Until then, she’ll explore the possibility that Kin could be “the one” for her.

I prefer matching my love for reading with a nice selection of books. You can count on your public library to have what you need. Just stop and check it out.

AT A GLANCE
BOOK: “A Match Made in Spell”
AUTHOR: Regina Welling and Erin Lynn
PUBLISHER: Amazon.com Services LLC
PUBLISHED: Dec. 21, 2016
PAGES: 250