A Vision in Velvet: A Witchcraft Mystery by Juliet Blackwell

            I don’t know why, but it took me quite a while to get into this Witchcraft Mystery book.  Maybe my brain was in too many places, which does have a tendency to happen sometimes.  Or maybe I was more up for a serious book than a light mystery.  It could have also been that I was just too tired or too distracted to really get going with any book, not just this one.  No matter what the reason, I still wanted to see what happened to Lily.  So, I made sure to keep diligently sitting down, reading one chapter each time, in order to get going.  In the end, I enjoyed this book as much as I have the others. 

                It’s not uncommon for Lily Ivory to buy old clothes from someone.  She owns a vintage clothing store, after all.  That does not mean she’ll buy just anything, though.  When Lily first sees the beyond repair clothes in the trunk antiques dealer Sebastian Crowley is trying to sell her, Lily rejects the sale.  Then Lily finds a cape amongst the other things in the trunk, and the cape gives her a strange feeling.  It is a feeling that leads Lily to buy everything in the trunk, even though there is pretty much nothing she can use.

                Back at her shop, Lily tries on the cape and something odd happens.  She is transported back in time to the witch trials.  It is an alarming experience, especially being a witch herself, and Lily is all to happy to leave it behind.  As other events unfold around her, though, it becomes clear that Lily may have to go back.

                One of the events that happens is the death of Sebastian.  Lily and her friend Conrad find him shot at the very tree Conrad is trying to save from getting cut down.  Then, while trying to figure out what happened to Sebastian, Lily’s familiar, Oscar, disappears into the tree.  Desperate to get Oscar back, Lily will do anything to instigate his return.  She’s even willing to turn the powerful witch Aidan Rhodes into an enemy.  That is how much Oscar means to her.  As Lily does whatever she can to save Oscar, she must also try and figure out who killed Sebastian.  With Oscar being her primary concern, if Lily can somehow do both tasks, that’s all the better.

                This book is probably the one where Lily had the hardest time keeping her secrets to herself.  As a witch, Lily has quite a lot of them, one being the fact that Oscar is not a pig.  He’s actually a combination of a goblin and a gargoyle who turns himself into a pig when non-witches are around.  Another secret is that Lily knows Oscar disappeared into the tree.  That is not exactly something she can share with the volunteers who are looking for him, though, especially since they believe Oscar is a pig.  Thankfully, Lily does have Sailor to talk to about what is going on. 

                As a psychic, and a person well informed on Lily’s life as a witch, it is nice that Sailor is there to understand what Lily is going through.  In fact, the relationship between Lily and Sailor is going really well, despite all the secrets Sailor is keeping from her.  I really hope that Lily and Sailor’s relationship keeps growing, and that Sailor begins to open up more.  They seem to be good for each other, and I would hate to see anyone, like Aidan, get between them.