Dee is a Good Witch but she wonders if she could be a better witch.
She wonders if there’s more to life than Disney movie marathons, eating a whole box of chocolates for dinner and brewing up potions in her bathtub. So when she’s offered a chance to go on a personal development course in the English countryside, she packs her bags, says goodbye to the Shelter for Unloved Animals charity shop and sets a course for self-improvement.
Caroline isn’t just a Good Witch, she’s a fricking awesome witch.
She likes to find the easy path through life: what her good looks can’t get for her, a few magic charms can. But she’s bored of being a waitress and needs something different in her life. So when a one night stand offers her a place on an all-expenses-paid residential course in a big old country house, she figures she’s got nothing to lose.
Jenny is a Wicked Witch. She just wishes she wasn’t.
On her fifteenth birthday, she got her first wart, her own imp and a Celine Dion CD. She still has the imp. She also has a barely controllable urge to eat human children which is socially awkward to say the least and not made any easier when a teenager on the run turns to her for help. With gangsters and bent cops on their trail, Jenny needs to find a place outside the city where they can lay low for a while.
For very different reasons, three very different witches end up on the same training course and land in a whole lot of trouble when they discover that there’s a reason why their free country break sounds too good to be true. Foul-mouthed imps, wererats, naked gardeners, tree monsters, ghosts and stampeding donkeys abound in a tale about discovering your inner witch.
It's my pleasure to be hosting the blog tour for A Spell in the Country by Heide Goody and Iain Grant today. Many thanks to the authors and to Rachel Gilbey of Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me and for my ecopy of the novel.
A Spell in the Country isn't the usual sort of book I choose to read but we're a Harry Potter loving household so I couldn't resist the lure of a story about witches in training. It has to be said that these witches are a long way from Hermione - and Jizzimus the imp is definitely not child-friendly... It is however, a fabulously enjoyable book that made me laugh many times and features a madcap story which becomes really quite exciting as the book progresses.
The characters in the book are all completely wonderful. Dee, Caroline and Jenny are joined on the course by Norma, Shazam and Kay, and together they eventually form what could perhaps best be described as a sort of dysfunctional Scooby Gang as they uncover a wicked plan and join forces to defeat evil. Before that happens though, their adventures on the witches training course are a joy to read. Whether it's accidentally creating a mutant rat creation, hypnotising cows or seducing the gardener, there's never a dull moment. Being from very different backgrounds means their relationships with one another aren't short of dramas too, especially when it comes to the interactions between Caroline and Jenny who are both fluent in sarcasm and not averse to underhand tactics. The most memorable character though has to be Jenny's familiar, Jizzimuss; he is foul mouthed, rude and desperate for Jenny to fund his imp porn plan or better yet to give in to her urge to eat a child - and yet there is something strangely endearing about this twelve inch loyal little beast.
I thought A Spell in the Country would just be an amusing tale of the mishaps of a group of disparate witches but the plot that draws everything together turned out to be something really quite dark and as the action grows ever more frantic it all becomes very exciting. There are surprising secrets, unexpected friendships are formed, lessons are learned and there's some real drama, laced throughout with that fantastic humour. A Spell in the Country is a gripping and witty read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
A Spell in the Country can be purchased now from Amazon UK or Amazon US.
Don't miss this fabulous giveaway to win this fantastic Witch's Pamper Package (Open Internationally)
The package, worth over £100 contains…
A lacy gothic bracelet
A witch's hat fascinator
A pair of green and black stripy tights
A Yankee candle in "Forbidden Apple"
A set of wand-shaped makeup brushes
A gothic notebook (for spells!)
A bookmark featuring a squashed witch (with just the legs sticking out!)
A gemstone ring
A gorgeous coffin-shaped vegan eyeshadow palette from Lunatick Cosmetic labs (with a bat-shaped mirror!)
See the Rafflecopter for the various ways to enter. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Don't forget to follow the rest of the blog tour, details are below
About the Authors
Heide Goody is the stupid one in the writing partnership and Iain Grant is the sensible one. Together, they are the authors of seven novels, two short story collections and a novella.
The ‘Clovenhoof’ series (in which Satan loses his job and has to move to Birmingham) has recently been optioned by a Hollywood production company. Their latest novel, Oddjobs 2: this time it’s personnel, was published in August 2017.
Heide and Iain are both married, but not to each other.
Website
Twitter: @HeideGoody and @IainMGrant
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