In The Secret of the Jewel Shop by Olivia Swift, Carly James has opened a shop to sell the jewelry that she makes. As a sensitive, she notices the scent of lavender in the upstairs of the building that comes and goes and which she ascribes to thejii spirit of someone formerly connected to the building. Her friend Dex, who is in the process of moving to her area, offers to help out during busy times in the shop, but he is a skeptic about her psychic powers until Carly gives him a reading that reveals facts about his life that no one else knows. Soon Carly has made the acquaintance of Emily, the ghost, and she sets out to find out what happened to the woman 100 years earlier.
The Secret of the Jewel Shop is a short, gentle book full of whimsy of fun. It is marketed as a cozy mystery, but there wasn’t much of a mystery to the book, certainly not a contemporary mystery. I did find it hard to believe that Carly is able to help Jazz pull off the perfect wedding in only three weeks, all while studying up Emily’s life and death and running her new shop. Also, in a minor detail, the police investigators are called a detective inspector and chief detective inspector. To the best of my knowledge, those labels are not used in the United States, but I do know they are used in England. However, that’s not a very significant issue and certainly does not get in the way of the fun novel.
Becky Boyd performs the audio edition of the book and does a good job. I did find the accent she uses for Carly to sound a little strange to me, but I don’t recall from the previous book where she is supposed to come from, so perhaps it’s an accurate regional portrayal. I enjoyed Boyd’s bubbly tones as she brings the book to life.
For the most part, I enjoyed The Secret of the Jewel Shop. It is very light- hearted and gentle, with no bad language or sex scenes, so this book would be appropriate for children if you are comfortable having your children read about ghosts and the paranormal. I give the book four stars.
Disclaimer: I received this book for free for review purposes, but that had no influence on the content of my review.
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