At forty-three, Paige Provey is at the height of her career. As the author of a successful paranormal book series, she has a legion of fans who all believe she has powers herself. But when Paige’s ex-husband reveals that she’s a fraud, she quickly finds herself and her career canceled.

But Paige is still under a publishing contract, so she must put out a new book–one that will save her career. The only problem is her crippling case of writer’s block. So she heads to a lakeside community to refill her creative well.

Only while she’s there strange things begin to happen: Paige speaks to a woman who she swears is transparent, and everyone in town dresses as if it’s Halloween. Not only that but there’s a very mysterious (and attractive) man who claims to hunt monsters.

As if that’s not weird enough, when Paige’s ex-husband winds up dead, she becomes the primary suspect in his murder. Can Paige write another book, figure out the mystery surrounding Willow Lake, and also prove her innocence? Or will all her dreams go up in flames?

Titles in The Accidental Medium series include — Witch’s Block – Poisoned Prose –

This is an adult 18+ story that might contain language, possible violence, and/or sexual situations geared to an adult audience.

Title:  Witch’s Block
Series:  The Accidental Medium #1
Author:  Amy Boyles
Genre:  Paranormal Women’s Fiction / Paranormal Cozy Mystery
Released:  April 24, 2022
My Rating:  4.5 stars

Witch’s Block begins The Accidental Medium series which is a combination of the Paranormal Women’s Fiction and Paranormal Cozy Mystery genres.  Knowing what a prolific writer this author is I’m definitely looking forward to what this series brings to us over time.

Paige was on top of the world until she was outed by an unknown female and her nasty piece of work now ex-husband.  She once was an author famous for her ghost-driven stories, ghosts that she saw and spoke to… except that was a lie.  One that she’d pay dearly for with the loss of her fame, her reputation, and most definitely most of her money as the ex-husband has greedily milked an injury for alimony and is trying to scam/threaten her for even more.  And perhaps worst of all, she had writer’s block and cannot come up with a single idea for a new style of story to generate an income for herself (and to keep paying the scumbag ex).  A trip to Willow Lake was her escape, her chance to break through and find the words flowing once again.  She had to, there was no other choice.  Except, things aren’t exactly as they seem in the quiet, little town of Willow Lake – and Paige is about to learn those secrets firsthand in ways she never believed possible.

I had fun with Witch’s Block, there is definitely some small world-building in this first story but it flows with the story and doesn’t feel like an information dump.  Paige is about to find out that there is more in this world than she ever imagined.  And, somehow between the book attack and finding her ex-husband dead in her cabin Paige’s magic has come into a rather late bloom – and she has no clue what to do with this so-called ability that allows her to really see and speak to ghosts or see the local townsfolk for exactly what they really are.  

We have lots of laughter, a trail of red herrings, and one handsome man who is gruff beyond belief and holds his own secrets close to his chest.  Paige will attempt to keep herself out of jail by solving the ex’s murder, and she isn’t quite prepared for what she’ll discover along the way.  I was surprised at the ending to Witch’s Block, I shouldn’t have been it was a perfect setup but I was too involved in the story to see beyond what was happening on the book page.  Which is fine, I don’t read to solve the mystery, I enjoy the details of how it’s been done more than finding out whodunit before anyone else can.

I had fun in The Accidental Medium world and will definitely be following the series.

I own a Kindle edition of this title.

Available for the Kindle as this is in Kindle Unlimited at the time of this review.