{"id":6333,"date":"2025-03-28T08:46:06","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T15:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6333"},"modified":"2025-03-28T08:46:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T15:46:06","slug":"lauren-elliott-a-spirited-blend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/lauren-elliott-a-spirited-blend\/","title":{"rendered":"Lauren Elliott: A Spirited Blend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crystals & CuriosiTEAS #3<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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In Lauren Elliott\u2019s third Crystals & CuriosiTEAS mystery, A Spirited Blend,<\/em> Shayleigh Myers is making the most of her life in Bray Harbor, California as a tea shop owner and local seer. After having her life completely destroyed, and everything taken from her, Shayleigh is slow to trust and cautious of new ventures. Despite that, Bray Harbor has quickly begun to feel like home thanks to the lovely locals, a large white German Shepard named Spirit, and her sister Jen and her family. Not only is she learning how to run her tea shop, she’s also having to learn how work with and use her ancestors powerful magic, known as Early Magic. For the longest time, she fought against the validity of her visions and the magic local Gran Madigan talked about. However, there\u2019s only so much proof denial can stand against, and now Shayleigh is embracing the magic and learning to respect the dangers that come with it.<\/p>\n

Halloween has Shayleigh more than a little worked up. Someone she thought of as a friend has opened up a rival tea shop down the street, and even offers their own seer readings.\u00a0 Her customer base is dwindling, and fear of closure looms overhead like a cloud. Added to that, Shayleigh\u2019s hopeful visions of romance in her future with one Liam Madigan seems to be sinking fast as he is running around town dating any woman with a pulse. Except her. As if that isn\u2019t stressful enough, Shayleigh\u2019s ex decides that he needs to move to Bray Harbor as well, and push his own new life and relationship in her face as much as possible – he truly does seem to delight in making her suffer. While the Halloween Monster Mash Dance and her own Halloween booth give her some distraction, it is short lived when the body of a woman is found and it seems like someone was performing some sort of conjuring ritual.\u00a0 Whether it was an amateur or a long-time practitioner, the result was still murder, and Shayleigh finds herself consulting with the local police sheriff, who also happens to be her sister Jen\u2019s husband. Once more it seems that the Early Magic is bringing tragedy and chaos into Shayleigh\u2019s life, but it\u2019s with that very magic that she can help solve this horrible crime and protect herself and those she loves from whatever evil forces are trying to get to them.<\/p>\n

I have mentioned in previous reviews that supernatural cozies are tricky. Lauren Elliot\u2019s Crystals & CuriosiTEAS mystery allows readers to enjoy supernatural themes without making them kitchy or satirical, as she pulls in fairy lore and myth to boost the story, but not take it over. Shayleigh is on a journey of discovery with her seer powers, and readers get to discover and experience it along with her. While A Spirited Blend<\/em> is an enjoyable book on its own, I feel readers would enjoy it more if they have read the previous two books. There are several high tension moments that are amplified with the background of the others, but a first time reader will still enjoy A Spirited Blend<\/em> as Lauren Elliot sets the scene and establishes backgrounds succinctly. However, some big plot twists of books one and two are revealed so I do suggest reading the series in order.\u00a0 This just means more wonderful books to read – never an issue, as far as I\u2019m concerned.\u00a0 \u00a0 — Carla Schantz<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crystals & CuriosiTEAS #3 In Lauren Elliott\u2019s third Crystals & CuriosiTEAS mystery, A Spirited Blend, Shayleigh Myers is making the most of her life in Bray Harbor, California as a tea shop owner and local seer. After having her life completely destroyed, and everything taken from her, Shayleigh is slow to trust and cautious of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2046,488,949,1452,1533,994,2047,2048],"class_list":["post-6333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-a-spirited-blend","tag-california","tag-carla-schantz","tag-crystals-and-curiositeas","tag-kensington-cozies","tag-lauren-elliott","tag-supernatural-elements","tag-tea-shop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6333"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6337,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6333\/revisions\/6337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}