THE CAT'S MEOW by Stacey Kennedy

Title: The Cat's Meow
Series: Witch's Brew #1
Author: Stacey Kennedy

Summary

Libby Jenkins is no ordinary member of the Charleston coven.  She is an Enchantress, a witch gifted by the Goddess with the ability to cast spells.  Her job is to investigate uses of dark magic and the help catch the witch or warlock who is breaking the rules.

When cats start turning up dead, Libby is called in by her coven to figure out what's happening to the cats and who is responsible. That isn't the only mystery she has to solve; there's a new warlock in town by the name of Kale Griffin, and for some reason her coven has him helping her with the investigation.  Libby doesn't trust warlocks, and she's convinced there is another reason for Kale's presence at her crime scene, one that she's determined to figure out.

But dead cats and new warlocks will soon become the least of Libby's worries when she discovers something evil happening in Charleston.  It will take ever ounce of Libby's magic and complete trust in the Goddess if she plans to make it out alive.

My Impression

Libby is a pretty dynamic heroine.  Though she is a member of a coven, Libby has a clear dislike for the coven's hierarchy; she is willing to follow their orders and solve the crimes they request of her, but outside of that she avoids them.  Libby has her own code, and above all she respects and trusts the will of the Goddess.  I liked that Libby had an attitude and was willing to speak her mind when she felt like a pawn.  I definitely liked that she didn't always get away with her attitude, and that there was an undercurrent of possible repercussions for her behavior.

I also liked the romance in this book.  While there is a clear attraction between Libby and Kale, Libby's distrust of warlocks and her suspicion that Kale isn't being honest with her caused her to fight their attraction, which I found realistic.  If the characters had immediately fallen into bed I wouldn't have been able to trust Libby as a character, especially since it is pretty obvious from the beginning of the book that she despises all warlocks, with the exception of her best friend's boyfriend.

I struggled a bit with the background of this book.  While the book explained what some of the different characters are (Enchantress, warlock, Sentinel), I was unclear about the role of some of the members of the hierarchy.  Libby's coven has four Priestesses, and the Alchemy, the governing body for all witches and warlocks in the US, has four High Priests, but the only thing the book explains about these positions is that they are leaders and that they have more power than the general witches and warlocks.  I wanted to know more about how these leaders are select and what specific roles they have besides giving orders.

Why I Picked Up This Book

I found this book on NetGalley, and I thought the description of the book sounded interesting.

Genres: Romance, Urban Fantasy
My Rating: Four Stars

Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for providing me with the ARC of this book.