Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Vampires and Villains: The Magical Mystery Book Club by Elizabeth Pantley. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
Vampires and Villains: The Magical Mystery Book Club
by Elizabeth Pantley
Vampires and Villains: The Magical Mystery Book Club
Paranormal Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Independently Published (September 3, 2022)
Print length : 219 pages
Paige and her joyful Aunt Glo have learned that the home they inherited comes with a magical library. They put together a book club group of loveable kooks to explore the magic.
They’ve recovered from their first book journey, and they all agree on their next book which takes place on a cruise ship bound for Hawaii. Problem is, they were so excited about the cruising idea that they didn’t read the entire blurb on the back of the book. (“It was entirely too long,” explains Zell.) Once on the ship, they meet a charming and likable man who blends seamlessly into their motley group. Too bad they don’t know why he’s so scarce during the day but shows up to join them every evening for dinner, drinks, and a show. When a dead body shows up on board, their new friend is labeled a suspect. Can they help him out by finding the real murderer? Or is he the real murderer? The book club will need to solve the case to get off the ship, out of the book, and back to their home.
My review of Vampires and Villains
Vampires and Villains is the highly entertaining follow-up to the first book in the Magical Mystery Book Club series, Shifting and Shenanigans. I definitely recommend reading that one first! It gives you the complete story of how Paige and her Aunt Glo came to inherit the house where the magical mystery book club meet, and you are introduced to the characters in more depth. I think knowing the characters makes your reading experience even more pleasurable.
Once again, the magical mystery book club is ready to dive into a cozy mystery book, but since one of their members stayed in the last book, they’re awaiting the arrival of a new member. He’s another court appointed attendee, and the group speculate what he’ll be like. From his name, they expect a trust fund, entitled young man. Just like you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can’t judge a person by his name. Maxmillion fits into the club very easily and seems to accept the weird experience of being sucked into a story…quite literally.
This time the story has the club members on an amazing Hawaiian cruise! I could handle that. As I was reading, I was very envious of all the delicious food they get to eat! They always say that calories don’t count when you’re on a cruise, but we know that’s not true! But my question is this, “Do calories count when you’re on a cruise in a book?” I’d love to find out! Traveling with the club on this cruise was very entertaining. Vampires and Villains is definitely character driven, and those characters are quirky and unique. I have my favorites, but I’ll let you discover your own.
The cruise was a really fun setting especially since a couple of the members are regular cruisers and tried to out “fact” each other. The author always uses such descriptive language in her books, so you’ll feel as if you’ve been transported on to a cruise ship surrounded by glitz and glamour. Solving the murder along with the club was entertaining as well. They get their clues in some crazy ways!
If you like your cozy mystery books with a little bit of magic, a whole lot of quirky characters, and a mystifying mystery, you will enjoy Vampires and Villains. I’m excited to jump into the next book in the Magical Book Club series!
Vampires and Villains Character Guest Post INTERVIEW WITH MOONBEAM
by Elizabeth PantleyAuthor of Magical Mystery Book Club series
Hello and welcome, Moonbeam! This series is about a unique book club. What makes it so different?
Thank you for inviting me. Oh, our book club is unlike any other! First off, we have a private collection of books in a fabulous library that’s hidden away. It has thousands of books – and they are all cozy mysteries, my favorite genre! The crazy, psychedelic thing is that you don’t just read the books . . . you get absorbed into them and live the mystery! You become a character!
Speaking of characters, your book club is full of them!
You can say that again! If only the whole world was this way, we’d have a lot more fun and harmony. In our motley gang everyone is as different as cheese and puzzles. We’ve got everything from a spunky octogenarian, Zell, to my charming teenage son, Forrest, and everything in between. It’s a miracle, but we all get along and work together to solve the mystery.
I heard that it’s imperative that you find out who the killer is in each book.
Whooo! That’s the understatement of the year! We think that if we don’t solve the mystery we never get out of the book! In the history of the book club – and it’s a very long one – so far, every club has figured out the mystery and made their way back home. But honestly, Zell and Frank, our talking library cat, are the only ones who have history with the group, and they are unreliable sources of information!
Wait. You have a talking cat?
Haha. He not only talks, but he’s a clever, brave, and sort of obnoxious little dude. Oh, don’t tell him I said that! We all love him, even though he’s apt to cause a heap of trouble for us along the way.
What is the mystery in Vampires and Villains that you must solve?
We picked this book for our monthly adventure because it takes place on a fancy cruise ship to Hawaii! Word has it that the author loves to cruise and has been on ships many times, so she really describes things perfectly. Oh, that’s part of the thing, if the author doesn’t do their research, sometimes we get to live through some interesting things. If the author loves adjectives, for example, everything is bright, bold, and exaggerated! It’s kind of wild!
Anyhow, we get to meet a new friend on the cruise, but he turns out to have a hidden secret. We all love him, but we need to figure out if he’s a true friend or a bad guy in the book. Yep, you can see, hear, feel, and taste when you’re in the book! (And boy, did we taste on the cruise!) But we need to keep remembering that these folks are all characters in a book. It’s fine line to juggle and makes for a fascinating trip!
After your cruise ship mystery, where do you go in your next book?
We do something very different! In Cowboys and Chaos we get to time travel back to the 1800s and explore the old Wild West. I never would have figured it was so lovely and fun – but it is! Except for the murder mystery, part, of course. But if you remember the people are all characters you can enjoy the experience.
Thanks for joining me today, Moonbeam!
Thank you for having me. Stop by the book club someday – we’d love to have you join us on an adventure!
About Elizabeth Pantley
Elizabeth Pantley says that writing the Destiny Falls Mystery and Magic book series is the most fun she’s ever had at work. Fans of the series say her joy is evident through the stories she tells. Elizabeth is also the internationally bestselling author of The No-Cry Sleep Solution and twelve other books for parents. Her books have been published in over twenty languages. She lives in the Pacific Northwest, the beautiful inspiration for the enchanted Destiny Falls world.
Author Links
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/24811.Elizabeth_Pantley
Website: https://www.nocrysolution.com/books/
Newsletter Sign-up: https://www.nocrysolution.com/mailing-list/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DestinyFallsMysteryandMagic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethpantley/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nocrysolution/_saved/
Blog: https://elizabethpantley.com/
Purchase Link – Amazon
Enter the giveaway
Vampires and Villains TOUR PARTICIPANTS
September 1 – Baroness Book Trove – REVIEW
September 1 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST
September 2 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
September 2 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
September 3 – Angel’s Guilty Pleasures – SPOTLIGHT
September 4 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW, CHARACTER INTERVIEW
September 5 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
September 6 – Cozy Up With Kathy – CHARACTER GUEST POST
September 7 – Ruff Drafts – GUEST POST
September 7 – fundinmental – REVIEW
September 8 – Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
September 9 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog – SPOTLIGHT
September 10 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
September 11 – Nadaness In Motion – REVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW
September 12 – Hearts & Scribbles – SPOTLIGHT
September 13 – eBook Addicts – REVIEW
September 14 – BookishKelly2020 – SPOTLIGHT
Wow! Thanks for the awesome feature! I had so much fun writing this book — and I got to take a cruise vicariously through my characters. What a blast! : – )
Your welcome! I loved taking that virtual cruise with you!