Book Review: Belle, Book and Candle

This book is full of charm, in both senses of the word. Belle, Book and Candle by Sharon Booth is a delightful story that sits at the intersection of urban fantasy and romance, in a cozy sort of way.

The main character, Sky St. Clair, feels like a misfit in her magical (literally: spells and so on) family, all of them from a magical British town with its own set of unique folklore. But she doesn’t believe in magic. In fact, she left home to get away from her sisters and their ridiculous ideas. She’s so annoyed with their craziness that a job in a big-city call center feels like an escape.

But of course, unexpected circumstances land her back in her home town. And along the way, she meets a man with a similar disdain for magic and related silliness, so she finally doesn’t feel so alone. But then one of her sisters gets injured, and Sky ends up managing the family’s metaphysical shop. Not exactly her cup of tea, but she’s a decent sort and doesn’t want the family business to suffer. The fact that it’s almost Yule, with Christmas coming shortly after, adds to the pressure to be cheerful even when that’s not remotely how she’s feeling.

You can guess that she’s going to be confronted with the reality of magic in one way or another, can’t you? And that the New Guy is involved? But there’s a great deal more to the story than that.

What I enjoyed most was how real the characters and their relationships felt. Sky’s family is complicated. They love each other, but they also fight, and some of them haven’t spoken with each other in quite a while. Sky, her siblings, and their parents are entangled in the history of the town in ways that affect them all, for better or for worse. They have a lot of issues that need working out and that come to bear on the story.

The love interest, Jethro, has his own back story that connects him with the town. I can’t say much about him without spoilers, but he’s definitely not a cardboard cutout. He has been through stuff in his life, and like Sky, he’s faced with sorting out some personal issues.

The town of Castle Clair reminds me in some ways of Glastonbury - a combination of ancient history, genuine power, and touristy faff. But that’s where the similarity ends. Booth has given Castle Clair its own centuries-old background that twines the town through the story, almost as a character in its own right.

Altogether, this is a fun tale with some meat to it. It’s not fluff, but it is fairly cozy. There’s no real peril (unless you think someone can die of embarrassment, but that’s another matter), no onstage sex, and no sweary language. There’s a theme threading through the book about figuring out who you really are and then owning that, which I quite enjoyed.

My only complaint, a quibble really, and it has nothing to do with the actual story, is that I liked the original cover better. It was more whimsical and less “same-as-every-other-paranormal-romance-book-cover." You can see it on Goodreads if you look under “More Editions.” I realize that genre fiction book covers are often very same-y, and that’s expected. But I really enjoy it when I find one that has its own character, which the original one of this book did.

This is the first of a five-book series, and I look forward to reading the rest of them. Highly recommended for a fun, magical, mostly light-hearted read.

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I review fiction and non-fiction titles of interest to the Pagan/polytheist/New Age/witchy/occult community. I don’t post negative book reviews, though I am willing to add honest criticism to an otherwise positive review, and I do that from time to time. If I don’t like a book, that might just be my personal taste, and someone else might love it. It’s hard enough for authors to be heard these days without my dragging them down. So I only review books that I enjoy.