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Seana Kelly
Author
Bewicched: The Sea Wicche Chronicles
Seana Kelly, author
We here at The Sea Wicche cater to your art-collecting, muffin-eating, tea-drinking, and potion-peddling needs. Palmistry and Tarot sessions are available upon request and by appointment. Our store hours vary and rely completely on Arwyn—the owner—getting her butt out of bed. I’m Arwyn Cassandra Corey, the sea wicche, or the wicche who lives by the sea. It requires a lot more work than I’d anticipated to remodel an abandoned cannery and turn it into an art gallery & tea bar. It’s coming along, though, especially with the help of a new werewolf who’s joined the construction crew. He does beautiful work. His sexy, growly, bearded presence is very hard to ignore, but I’m trying. I’m not sure how such a laid-back guy got the local Alpha and his pack threatening to hunt him down and tear him apart, but we all have our secrets. And because I don’t want to know his—or yours for that matter—I wear these gloves. Clairvoyance makes the simplest things the absolute worst. Trust me. Or don’t. Totally up to you. Did I mention my mother and grandmother are pressuring me to assume my rightful place on the Corey Council? That’s a kind of governing triad for our ancient magical family, one that has more than its fair share of black magic practitioners. And yes, before you ask, people have killed to be on the council—one psychotic sorceress aunt comes to mind—but I have no interest in the power or politics that come with the position. I’d rather stick to my art and, in the words of my favorite sea wicche, help poor unfortunate souls. (Good luck trying to get that song out of your head now.) Content Warning: Bewicched: The Sea Wicche Chronicles is a contemporary fantasy novel with suspense elements about a clairvoyant witch who, among other things, helps detectives hunt a fledgling serial killer. While there are light, funny, romantic moments, there are also dark ones that may be disturbing for some readers. Warning for: death of/harm to a child, violence toward animals, visions that include graphic or explicit violence.
Reviews
Kelly (author of the Sam Quinn series) kicks off this paranormal romance series with a spirited defense of the villain from The Little Mermaid and then the introduction of a wicche artist named Arwyn and a construction working werewolf named Declan. Together they take on familial expectations, a dangerous sorcerer, and the nebulous evil slowly poisoning the local community in the first book of the Sea Wicche Chronicles. Arwyn just wants to finish the renovations to her new art gallery/studio space, but when a police officer shows up to beg her to use her clairvoyance to help locate a missing boy, she’s drawn into a dangerous mystery. Declan, meanwhile, is a transient werewolf who only wants to pick up a construction job or two and move on before he gets embroiled in local pack politics.

Kelly’s story is fast-paced and polished, boasting underwater wonder (including Cecil, Arwyn’s octopus bestie) unexpected magic, and emotional jolts, all powered by a savvy sense of genre expectations and when to spring a surprise. The leads are brought together by the work that needs to be done to rebuild the dock behind the gallery space, and readers may wonder at Declan’s motivations as he inserts himself into Arwyn’s life and her personal business—is he just that entranced by her? Though they snap and snipe engagingly at each other, Declan sets everything else aside to follow and support Arwyn as she is forced by necessity to take her place as a leader of her family’s coven.

Touchingly, Declan becomes a pillar of support for Arwyn when her aunt is magically attacked and left comatose, and the two develop a relationship complicated and made possible by a clever twist: Declan’s unconscious ability to suppress Arwyn’s magic and prevent her from being constantly caught up in unwanted visions. This story hits all the right beats for a paranormal romance, and the complicating factors make the prospect of future books enticing.

Takeaway: This enticing series starter takes a werewolf under the sea.

Comparable Titles: Anna Banks, Jennifer Donnelly’s Waterfire Saga.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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