Dial Sorcery (Dial Witch Trilogy Book 2)

SUSPENSE: Jane Black wants to help others. It’s her calling. That’s why she opened her magical shop, Dial Witch, in the cozy hamlet of Mystic Keep. In a town where non-magical people, or regulars, co-exist with witches, warlocks, and other supernaturals, Jane tries to assuage their misgivings by offering magical assistance to her neighbours. Then, a gargoyle named Grig enlists her aid to reverse a curse on his soul, becoming her first supernatural customer. The job involves doing battle with the town femme fatale and preventing her from stealing even more souls. Jane also gets blackmailed by her questionable friend, the vampire Alessandro, invoking the ire of both of her witchy sisters. And finally, she accidentally sets her familiar on fire! Has Jane taken on more than she can handle?

It's easy to love Jane. Her banter with her cat, Vixen, is adorable. One wonders why Jane tries so hard to please, but a clue may lie in her history of being kidnapped and claimed by a dark wizard. Jane has been trying to prove herself as a light witch, while being haunted in her nightmares. At times, she tries too hard, forgoing the help of her support system for arguably misguided reasons. Perhaps a better understanding of her strained trust in her sisters lies in the previous book? There are a lot of characters, including two competing love interests, for readers to juggle in a middle volume that clearly benefits from reading the previous book and leaves questions unanswered for the next. Some proofreading and geographical errors further detract from the rating. “Dial Sorcery” teleports interest from “Dial Witch” and conjures appetite for “Dial Magic”!

Joan Lai