Magic and Macaroons: A Magical Bakery Mystery by Bailey Cates

               I went into Magic and Macaroons a little bit hesitantly, I’ll be honest.  After Declan’s behavior in the last book, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from him in this one.  Katie deserves to be with someone who wants her for who she is, not someone who will scoff at her for it.  Unfortunately, Declan has turned into the scoffing type.

                It was pretty much like any other spellbook club meeting for Katie Lightfoot and her fellow coven members.  Then a woman looking for Katie banged on the door.  When she was let into the bakery, the woman collapsed onto the floor before anyone could learn who she was or what she wanted.  Of course, these were secondary concerns to that of getting the woman some help.  Once they did, though, then Katie and the coven went about figuring out who the woman was and why she had come looking for Katie.

                The woman turned out to be Dawn Taite, the niece of Detective Franklin Taite.  Detective Taite was the man who told Katie she was a lightwitch, and he also happens to have been missing for three months.  With Dawn in a coma, it’s a mystery as to what is going on that Dawn needed Katie’s help and attention for.  They only thing anyone can figure is that it has to do with Voodoo.              

                Voodoo is something only one of the coven members really has any experience with.  Cookie is from Haiti, and because of something that happened in her past there, Cookie does not want anything to do with Voodoo.  The problem is, Katie doesn’t have anywhere or anyone else to turn to.  Cookie is her only option.  Thankfully, Cookie eventually agrees to help her, although very reluctantly, and she sends Katie into a world that Katie knows absolutely nothing about.

                It’s funny how sometimes things from different series can overlap and almost become one.  As Katie was trying to convince Cookie to help her, all I could think about was the Witchcraft Mystery series.  There is a character in there that knows about Voodoo.  I thought it was too bad that Katie could not hop over to the other series and get the help that she needed.  Kind of like a crossover episode except with books and two different authors.  Fortunately, Cookie did come around, so Katie going into the other series was not necessary. 

                Someone who didn’t come around, and someone who I’m not particularly fond of, is Cookie’s husband, Oscar.  He’s hardly in this book, but yet I still don’t like him.  That’s because Oscar is very controlling.  He is controlling to the point that Oscar will answer Cookie’s cell phone without her knowing, then not tell Cookie people have called, to keep her from doing things he does not want her to do.  By the end of the book Cookie says she and Oscar have come to an understanding about his ways and what she wants to do with her life, but I’m not so sure.

                Declan I’m also not so sure about.  He is better in this book, having gotten used to having his own power, but his behavior can still be off and on.  I’m hoping that as the books continue both he and Oscar do improve.  If they don’t, it would be my wish for both Katie and Cookie to dump them.  The way these two men are acting, Katie and Cookie would be far better off on their own.