What happens when you take a horror kid, raise them on Shirley Jackson and atmospheric dread, and then hand them a paranormal cozy mystery about a witch accused of murder at a festival? You get me, sitting on the floor of my apartment at 11 PM, Shirley (the cat, not the author) draped across my lap, genuinely enjoying something I never expected to enjoy this much.
Let me be upfront: Midnight Spells is not horror. It's not trying to be. It's a paranormal cozy mystery with a murder whodunit wrapped in witch-town charm, and if you come at it expecting dread, you'll be disappointed. But if you come at it the way I accidentally did - needing something lighter after a brutal week of curating our library's October reading list and recording back-to-back episodes on body horror - this is a surprisingly fun palate cleanser.
The Hollow Cove Problem (And Why It Works Anyway)
Here's the thing about Hollow Cove as a setting: it's exactly what you think it is. Paranormal small town, quirky supernatural residents, a Night Festival that's basically a five-day Halloween party for witches. Kim Richardson isn't reinventing the cauldron here. But what she does do - and this is where book two improves on book one - is let her characters breathe. Tessa's aunts, who felt a bit like set dressing in Shadow Witch, actually get dimensions this time around. They have opinions. They bicker. They feel like real people who happen to be witches, not just witchy props.
The introduction of Iris as a new character is a smart move too. She shakes up the dynamic enough that Tessa has to navigate new social territory while also, you know, being accused of murder. The murder mystery itself is fairly standard cozy fare - suspect list, red herrings, a ticking clock - but Richardson keeps the pacing tight enough at 7 hours and 36 minutes that it never outstays its welcome. Compare that to some paranormal mysteries I've listened to that bloat past 12 hours with nothing happening? This knows what it is and gets in, gets out.
The Marcus situation, though. Hot-but-confusing love interest territory. I'll be honest, the romantic tension reads like it was designed in a lab to keep you coming back for book three. Which - fine. It works. I'm not immune.
Devon Sorvari Understands Assignment
So here's where I get genuinely enthusiastic. Devon Sorvari's narration on this second book is noticeably sharper than the first. And I don't say that lightly - I'm someone who will abandon an audiobook in the first twenty minutes if the narrator phones it in. The narrator commits. That's rare.
What Sorvari does well is vocal differentiation that actually maps to character personality. Tessa sounds like someone in her late twenties who's perpetually exasperated but stubborn enough to keep going. The aunts each have distinct vocal textures - not just "old lady voice #1" and "old lady voice #2." Iris gets her own thing. You can close your eyes and know who's talking without narrator tags, which sounds basic but so many audiobook performances fail at exactly this.
The emotional delivery carries the comedic beats too. There's a dry, almost self-aware quality to how Sorvari handles Tessa's internal monologue - the "my life is spiraling down the crapper" energy - that keeps it from feeling whiny. She leans into the absurdity when needed and pulls back for the genuinely tense moments. It's calibrated well.
No audio production issues that I caught. Clean recording, standard production, no weird background hiss or jarring edits.
Who's Going to Love This (And Who Should Keep Walking)
If you're a paranormal cozy mystery person - the kind who watches Practical Magic every October and has strong opinions about fictional magic systems - this is your jam. If you liked the first book but thought the narration could be better, good news: it is.
If you're coming here for actual scares? Keep walking. This isn't that book. There's a murder investigation and some "someone's trying to kill me" tension, but the vibe is closer to a Halloween episode of a sitcom than anything that'll keep you up at night. I listened with the lights on like a normal person and felt zero need to check my closets afterward. (For me, this is practically a vacation.)
My podcast listeners are going to raise eyebrows at me recommending something this cozy, but I stand by it. Sometimes the horror nerd needs a night off. Shirley (my cat) was unimpressed. The last time I needed a proper palate cleanser between heavy listens, I ended up with Fledgling — which, granted, is still horror, so maybe I haven't fully cracked the "taking a break" thing yet. But Shirley is unimpressed by everything that doesn't involve tuna.
The Librarian's Recommendation Card
This is comfort-food fantasy with a murder mystery backbone and a narrator who's clearly leveled up between books one and two. It's not going to change your life. It's not trying to. But at 7 and a half hours, it's a well-paced, well-performed listen that knows exactly what shelf it belongs on. I'd hand this to any patron looking for light supernatural fun with enough plot to stay engaged. And honestly? I'll probably grab book three.
