Spells and Spiced Latte (Maddie Goodwell #1) (2024)

Very simple read. The story is short with little drama. I guessed the murderer very early in the story. I prefer a cozy with much more complexity and depth.

Cute seasonal cosy mystery especially with a pumpkin spiced latte in hand!

Maddie Goodwell has had an inkling she may be a witch since she was a little girl. She is able to see people's short-term future in a cup of coffee (beats reading tea leaves I guess) & she is shocked to see that one of the visitors to her coffee truck has a meeting with the grim reaper very soon. Her colleague Suzanne talks her into warning customer, Joan, of her impending demise but they can't track her down. The next day another customer tells them that Joan was found dead that morning so Maddie & Suzanne decide to investigate.

Now I wasn't expecting this to be Agatha Christie, but come on. The plot was far too simple & you can probably work out the killer in oh about three seconds. There was very little peril apart from a half-hearted warning note to stop investigating, & the dialogue between Maddie & other characters was excruciating: "She has to be fifty five if she's a day", yeah wow, heaven forbid a woman over fifty might want a love-life. Finally the guilty party is caught in a flimsy lie & suddenly they're admitting to everything like Wonder Woman put the Lasso of Truth on them - not even to the police detective, but a barista with no actual evidence!

Overall it's too cheesy even for me & the plot is way too obvious. If you like undemanding kinda twee cozy mysteries then you might like this. Best character - Trixie the persian cat.

Dit soort boeken lees je niet voor het goede plot of voor de karakterontwikkeling.

A fun fast paced book on coming of age as a witch trying to be “normal” while solving a murder. Along with her best friend Suzanne, they run a coffee truck trying to make a dent in their community.

While there were a few spelling and grammar errors, the overall feel of the book makes for a nice read! Enjoy!

Cozy indeed!

So first, this is free on Amazon; second, I love the book cover, it's eye-catching; third, the summary is kind of interesting.

The characters are pretty likable, I really like Maddie and Suzanne's sisterhood. I think the mystery is okay for such a short story. I didn't catch the criminal until the very later part of the story. What I liked so much was that it didn't try too hard to BE a mystery.

No added frills that supposedly makes the puzzle more complicated, the reader more confused and apparently make the story more interesting.

If anything, it's a mystery solved in a kinder world, like Scooby Doo but only with murder and real witches.

On that note, the only thing I found laughable was Maddie's ability to see the near future through a person's cup of coffee.

Totally novel and original but I still find it funny. 😅 I think I'm gonna stick around and read the rest of this series, though.

Loved the characters but the story didn’t have enough mystery for me.

Yikes. This was rough for a whole slew of different reasons.

Unless you want to read the phrase "health balls" 35 times in a less than 200 page book...

Pretty predictable. The dialogue was meh at best and not very realistic, especially the confession at the end. The way he yells Phoebe he wasn't interested in her was so odd. Like about the makeup and everything. Also the locket thing gave stalker vibes. I also didn't think it was too realistic that they thought it odd how upset Phoebe got with their questions. She didn't know them and they are basically accusing her of an affair and murder but they said she wouldn't get mad if it weren't true? No.
Cute, fluffy story though. Easy to read.

Maddie and her best friend Suzanne run a coffee truck in their local town square outside of Seattle. Maddie is able to get a vision of the near future in the coffee foam of the person drinking the coffee. One morning she sees a vision of her semi regular customer dead in the kitchen. Maddie and Suzanne try to solve the murder while keeping the business going and trying to learn more magic. It was a short and basic read. Although Maddie and Suzanne are 27 year old adults, they read like simple and giggly teen girl sleuths a la Nancy Drew but with energy balls instead of cookies. The story was fine but no real depth or deception.

Just ok

I was not too terribly impressed with this book. The writing is a bit juvenile. Probably geared towards a much younger age group, middle school-ish level. Too many inconsistencies and contradictions for older readers to buy into. That made it hard to take this book too seriously or get drawn into the story. Everything was just too superficial. Too many grammar errors in the beginning almost made me abandon it but since it was so short I decided to stick with it to the end. It didn't get better. I would not recommend this to more mature audiences.

This was a quick, fun read. I really enjoyed it. I would like to read more from this author.

Cute cozy mystery.

Maddie makes the best cappuccino in town. And she can see 24-hours into the future of the person ordering the coffee. Together with her best friend Suzanne, and her cat Trixie, they run a mobile coffee stand.

When one of her regular customers, Joan, looks distressed, Maddie peers into her future and finds her dead. Not knowing how to earn her, Maddie tells Joan to be careful and take care of herself.

When Joan does turn up dead, and with a murder investigation underway, Maddie and Suzanne take it upon themselves to solve the case. With a little magic in their side, what could go wrong?

This book was a fast read - about 160 pages. It was exactly what I expected from a cozy mystery. Fluffed with friendship and cute cats. The murder, while violent, is not graphic or gory. And if you pay attention to the clues, it will lead you right to your killer.

The author developed Maddie as smart and a good critical thinker. Her interrogations of Joan’s friends and family seem to flow naturally without raising too much suspicion because she empathizes with them.

And Suzanne as the comedic relief was just what this serious topic needed to lighten the book.

There wasn’t actually a lot of magic or spells cast in this book. With the title “Spells and Spiced Lattes” I expected Maddie to at least attempt to use her magic more than a few times. I figure the author imagined a few parts were more magical than was actually conveyed on paper.

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author to see how Maddie grows into her powers.

Sunday night, I finished reading Spells and Spiced Latte by Jinty James. It's the first book in the author's "Maddie Goodwell" series, featuring barista and possible witch, Maddie.

Maddie and her BFF, Suzanne, run a coffee truck in their small hometown. It also enables Maddie to cast the one spell she can do, which is to get visions from her customers' coffee. When she inadvertently sees the future of one of her regular customers, the vision shows the woman lying dead on her kitchen floor. Maddie is shocked by what she's seen, but she has no idea how to warn Joan without coming across as crazy. After learning that Joan was murdered, Maddie feels guilty and is determined to solve the crime. She is aided by Suzanne and Trixie, her Persion cat, who just may be her familiar. Maddie and Suzanne start asking questions of Joan's friends and family, despite being cautioned off by the grizzled cop who's working the case. When Maddie gets a threatening note, she realizes she may have gone too far...but it's also clear that she's close to solving the murder.

The story was lite and uncomplicated. Characters weren't multi-dimensional, but that was okay for a short read. SPaG was good, although the author repeatedly referred to a male massage therapist as a "masseuse". Ugh! It's "masseur" for a guy! Thank you, college French classes.

Story was fun, but there was little depth to it. Average score.

Cute, clean, cozy

Maddie, Suzanne, and Trixie make quite the charming trio! Maddie is a fledgling witch with only two spells in her arsenal, one of which is the ability to see the future in a cup of coffee. Suzanne is her encouraging bestie who supports Maddie's decision to open a coffee truck and still holds out hope that Maddie will come unto her full power soon. Trixie is the sweet, strikingly marked Persian who walked into the coffee shop where Maddie is unhappily employed and claimed her. These characters, including gruff Detective Edgewater, will be even more engaging with further development. The locale will also benefit from more description; the reader has no real sense of place. The murder is well detailed and offers several reasonable suspects; Maddie's sleuthing is rather scattershot and, at times, foolhardy (not unusual in a cozy), but the resolution is suitably climactic and the detective is shown as more than competent. All in all, a good start to the series!

Maddie and Suzanne are the bestest of friends, together they run a specialty coffee food truck. Maddie has a special relationship with coffee, one that lets her glimpse into the near future of whom the coffee is for. She had never before seen a vision if death until she had one of one of her regular customers. When the vision dies come true, Maddie and Suzanne stick their froth where it doesn't belong as they ask around about the death, motive and mystery. Want to know more, grab a cup if coffee and settle in for a read.

These style books, cozy mysteries, are so much fun to read. This one is roughly 150 pages, reading fast and light. There is enough detail to set the stage but not be bogged down, and there is a handful of characters that are easy to remember and relate to. I very much enjoyed it. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars because I did feel some of the content felt repetitive, just little mentions of things over and over. I also felt the ending was a little bit predictable. Overall I did enjoy the story and would read more from this author.

Not sure what's up with the title but I bought this eBook as "Spells and Spiced Latte" which is how it's listed in my Kindle. But at the end when it gave me the option to rate it on Amazon and Goodreads, the title came up as "Lethal Latte". Either way the book is a good read.

Maddie owns a coffee truck with her best friend, Suzanne, which leads us into Maddie's one "witchy" power, reading someone's 24 hour future in a cup of coffee. Maddie reads the future of one of their regular customers and sees her murdered and lying on her kitchen floor. She feels guilty about not haven given enough warning so decides to investigate. And Maddie is a witch who has a Persian cat who's also her familiar and helps her learn another power opening up the possibility that she hasn't come into all her powers.

A short read "Spells and Spiced Latte/Lethal Latte" combines two of my favorites, coffee and the paranormal. It's a good read. I look forward to reading more books in the series.

Maddie and her friend, Stephanie, run a coffee/food truck. Maddie figured out she was a witch when she was quite young, however, could only do one spell...seeing a person future, but only 24 hrs. in advance, and within coffee. She also has a white Persian cat, named Trixie, who happens to be her familiar.

After serving a customer coffee, intuition tells Maddie to do the coffee spell, and she sees the woman, murdered. She warns the woman to be careful, but couldn't very well tell her all the details, especially about Maddie being a witch. However, the woman does die, and Maddie feels guilty. Now I don't know why she would, but it leads her to start investigating, and the chase is on to find a murderer.

This is a short first novel. My only disappointment was not finding the recipe for the "health balls" and "senior treats" at the end of the story.

Could have been so much better

2*

It's not a had story but, in terms of witchy murder mysteries, I have read better. The way the story is written felt childish even though the main character and her friend are 27. There are many repetition. I mean, we get it that you can only do one spell correctly after 5 times or that Phoebe is the assistant at the library. There is no character development and I was more interested in Trixie, the cat, which we also didn't get all that much on. The detective's reaction to the girls the first time is over the top and I don't get how a cookbook led to the murderer.

Other than that, it's a fast read. Had I started it maybe 30 minutes earlier, I was finishing it in one night. The cover is very pretty.

Am I interested in following the series? I'm not so sure. I might, one day. Maybe.

This was my first time reading anything by Jinty James. This book was so good and entertaining.

Maddie is a witch who has not fully discovered her powers yet. She is able to see things in coffee cup visions that will impact the receiver in the next 24 hours.

Maddie and Suzanne run a coffee food truck in the town square. Maddie tries to warn Joan, a regular customer, to be careful after she sees her dead in the coffee cup vision. The next day Joan is found murdered.

Maddie and Suzanne with the help of Maddie's cat Trixie set out to solve the murder. The local police tell them to stay out of it or they will be arrested for obstruction of murder.

Maddie is able to solve the murder before she becomes the next victim.

This "cozy" was an enjoyable read. Maddie, and her best friend Suzanne, run a food truck that sells coffee. It just so happens that Maddie can see into a person's future by looking at their coffee as it swirls. So when one of their customers is murdered, after Maddie saw it predicted, they take it upon themselves to solve the case and bring the killer to justice. Maddie has a cat, her familiar, who helps her realize that she has a second ability that will come in handy as an amateur detective. No spoilers! This was a cozy mystery that didn't offer a mind blowing ending. It does offer an afternoon of entertaining reading that's a lot better then an afternoon of TV or another superhero movie.

This was such a cozy story. I am loving cozy mysteries right now, and since this one was free on my kindle I decided to try it out. It’s not the best written story or anything new really but I loved that the main character has a cute coffee business with her best friend (and obviously the characters, setting, and plot haha). Even though it was kinda cheesy it did what it went out to do: it was cozy with a compelling mystery. I really enjoyed the short time I was reading this! I loved the cute town and the coffee truck and Maddie’s cat that she would watch read her spell book at home!😅 I just wish it would’ve been longer to flesh out the plot a little more.

I totally recommend this cozy witch mystery!

Immediately I got pulled in. Right from the start the book had a good vibe.

Maddie can see the future (only for the next 24 hours) in a cup of coffee, and now, for the first time ever, she sees death. And it actually comes true… She feels guilty because she thinks she could have prevented it and therefore feels she HAS to investigate. Together with her best friend Suzanne and Trixie the Persian cat, and Maddie’s familiar, who steals the show!

If you like cozy mysteries with a touch of the paranormal, you’ll love this one for sure.

It was a cute read, nothing special. Of course, the fact that the girls kept closing down their food truck to go investigating was ridiculous -unless they had so much money they didn't care if they made more, which was not the case. Another thing, a Masseuse is a female, a Masseur is a male. So, particularly since he was supposed to be a hottie and gorgeous, it would be a shame to refer to him as a woman. I wish some of these writers would put more time. research and thought into what they put in their books - a little pride in your work goes a long way.

One Cup of Joe Please.

5 stars are for this paranormal mystery series . Good clean storyline and plot line healed you interest until the end. What I didn't like was the short chapters but the Author is still new so hopefully this series will begin to get longer in chapters. But for a New Beginner as a Witch Mad's has always to go but with friends and her familiar she's going to be great. I'll tell my friends and family to read this Paranormal Mystery it was all some.

Coffee, the elixir of life.

Cute book. I liked the characters, although they were not all very likable. The coffee truck is a bit of a change from the usual bakery, tea room, cafe that cozy readers are accustomed to. I am sure that the author will flesh out the two main characters as the series progresses. Ill keep reading to find out. Worth the short time it took to read it.

i really enjoyed this story. It was a super short and quick read (although it took me two weeks because I forgot I was reading it, lol). There were a lot of grammatical errors, but I don't believe it took away from the actual story. I wish it had been a bit longer so we could get into the world a bit more, but there are more books in the series, so I'm sure they will go into more dept. Overall, a very cute story.

I got this book for free on Kindle. I picked it for the cute title (Spells and Spiced Latte), the cute cover, and the fact that I was on both a witch kick and a cozy mystery kick. Add in the fact that I love stories with best friends and cute animals, and I love coffee, and this was great.

It’s sat on my kindle shelf for a while, but once I started it, I read it very quickly. I highly recommend this one!

Maggie and Trixie

A different kind of witch story, one accidental witch, no coven, one believing friend, one nice cat. This is what it took to create a story that was very easy to read, not spellbinding but not boring either. There is a lot of latte but not many spells because our heroine keeps forgetting that she has the ability to cast the spell she needs.
Light reading to pass away a couple of hours.

This book was okay. There was hardly any character development, which was disappointing. I really did not like Suzanne, she seemed immature, but then again, both her and Maddie did for being supposed 27-year-olds. It was all too simple and too short. Had the book been a little longer, it might have gotten a better rating or had more potential. I won't be continuing this series, but I appreciate the author's effort.