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Witch Swindled in Westerham—Paranormal Investigation Bureau Book 2

Witch Swindled in Westerham—Paranormal Investigation Bureau Book 2

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1100+ 5-star reviews

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "All the magic is just too much fun. Lots of fun characters. Lots of action. Great imagination from the author."-CapGoat

Just when Lily’s settling into life in Westerham and making new friends, the Paranormal Investigation Bureau needs her help again. A witch has been misappropriating millions from unsuspecting retirees, but she’s destroyed all the evidence. Lily’s unique witchy skills are the only thing that can uncover the past and get the PIB the evidence it needs.

Even though Lily has her own plans, nothing seems to go right. Her fun day in London turns into a devastating collision with her past, and super-hot Agent Crankypants is annoying as hell. He knows all her buttons to press, and she’s not sure if she wants to kiss him or strangle him, or maybe both. Then tracking down the PIB’s suspect puts Lily’s new friendship at risk, and, if that’s not enough, it finally brings Lily face-to-face with death.

Can Lily solve the crime before someone dies? And will the universe give her a break before she loses what’s left of her sanity?

Unfortunately, coffee alone can’t fix things this time.

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Main Tropes

  • Amateur Sleuth
  • Witches
  • Quirky Characters

Synopsis

Just when Lily’s settling into life in Westerham and making new friends, the Paranormal Investigation Bureau needs her help again. A witch has been misappropriating millions from unsuspecting retirees, but she’s destroyed all the evidence. Lily’s unique witchy skills are the only thing that can uncover the past and get the PIB the evidence it needs.

Even though Lily has her own plans, nothing seems to go right. Her fun day in London turns into a devastating collision with her past, and super-hot Agent Crankypants is annoying as hell. He knows all her buttons to press, and she’s not sure if she wants to kiss him or strangle him, or maybe both. Then tracking down the PIB’s suspect puts Lily’s new friendship at risk, and, if that’s not enough, it finally brings Lily face-to-face with death.

Can Lily solve the crime before someone dies? And will the universe give her a break before she loses what’s left of her sanity?

Unfortunately, coffee alone can’t fix things this time.

Intro into Chapter One

I stood in line at Costa and inhaled the rich, sweet aroma of one of my favourite things in the whole world. Coffee. Only two people were before me. Ooh, now it was one.

The blonde woman in front of me with the cute, pink Chanel handbag ordered while her
filed-to-points bright-pink nails incessantly tapped the counter: pinky, ring finger, middle finger, pointer finger, repeat. Tap, tap, tap, tap. “I’ll have a regular coconut-milk latte.” Did
she realise latte meant milk in Italian?

So she’s having a coconut-milk milk. The corners of my mouth twitched. Yes, it didn’t take much to amuse me.

The young woman behind the counter punched the information into the register. “Would you like
any food with that?” Her shoulders tensed, and her smile was tentative.

“If I’d wanted food with that, I would’ve said. When have I ever ordered food here? I come in every day and order a beverage. Surely you know what I want by now. And this time, don’t burn my coffee.” She turned to me and shook her head, speaking loud enough that the whole café could hear. “It’s not that complicated, surely? I come in here for a coffee, and I get drama. It would be wonderful if they could employ people with an IQ above one hundred.”

Wow. Someone was looking to get their beverage spat in. “I’m sure they’re doing their best, plus it’s probably the boss’s orders to ask that question.” I risked a smile.

She blinked, her large fake eyelashes slapping together so hard, I almost felt the breeze. An indignant huff was all I got before she turned back around to eyeball the barista. At least the girl behind the register gave me an appreciative smile.

“That’ll be two-ninety-five, please.” Kudos to her for being polite.

Snarky, rich woman handed over a five-pound note, and when she got her change, counted it… twice. She finally moved out of the way, to wait for her coffee.

“Hi.” I smiled. “Can I have a regular skim-milk cappuccino with extra chocolate on top?”

“Sure. And would you like anything to eat?” She grinned, her brown eyes crinkling at the corners.

“I would love something to eat. Thanks for asking.” I made sure my perky response was loud
enough to reach the area where people were waiting for their orders. “I’ll have one of those delicious double-chocolate muffins, thanks.”

“Good choice.”

She rang it up, and I paid. “Thanks for your awesome service.”

“My pleasure. Have a great day!”

“You too.” I was still smiling when I stepped over to the waiting area where werewolf-nails stood. I didn’t get that claw look. Sure, it might be handy in a dark alley at night, but I’d probably need stitches every time I scratched an itch, and, oh
my God, what about wiping after going to the toilet? I shuddered.

She gave me a narrowed side-eyes gaze before jutting her chin up and turning the other way.
My work here was done, and I didn’t even get stabbed with the shiny, pink talons of death.

Her coffee arrived. She grabbed it and left, taking her negative energy and questionable fashion
sense with her.

My coffee arrived, and I found a table near the window. Even though William had given me the
coffee maker, I came to Costa every second day. I couldn’t resist a cappuccino made by someone else, plus I loved the ambiance here—the warmth, gorgeous food aromas, plus all the British accents floating around.

It had been two weeks since my brother, James’s, welcome-home-from-being-kidnapped party, and everything was pretty much back to normal, except that I wasn’t going back to
Australia. Angelica had magicked herself to the local public toilet at Cronulla Mall—yes, it’s gross, but it’s a system the witches had set up to have
permanent doorways to travel to—then walked to my apartment and sent my clothes to my room at her place. She’d slept
for two days afterwards—apparently travelling such great distances took a massive amount of a witch’s energy. Not
all witches could travel over large bodies of water either, which was lucky for James, or I would’ve been livid that he hadn’t visited me for a few years.

I sipped my coffee, then took a bite of the muffin. I savoured
the chocolate before washing it down with another mouthful of coffee. Heaven. I smiled to myself, then took my Nikon out of my bag. I’d taken a few photos up and down the high street this morning, and I wanted to look through them.
Thankfully, I hadn’t picked up on any soon-to-be-dead people or past events. My future-seeing magic only extended to knowing who would die by seeing them
through my camera as a ghostly image rather than the solid person they were. Although I hadn’t confirmed it yet. It was still an assumption after one ghostly looking person I’d photographed had died soon after. It wasn’t a nice feeling knowing that person might soon be dead, and what was I supposed to do with the
information? How could you tell a stranger they were going to die soon? And since I didn’t know how they would die, what was the point? It’s not like I
could stop it from happening. Trust me to have some magic that was useless.

Some of the photos were gorgeous. The quaint architecture had me swooning, and the light this morning had been magical. I couldn’t wait to get these on my laptop and have a better look.

“Excuse me.”

I looked up. It was the girl from behind the register. Her curly dark hair was in a ponytail, but a
tendril had escaped, and she tucked it behind her ear.

I smiled. “Hi.”

“Do you have a moment?”

“Yeah, sure.”

She sat opposite me. “I’m just on a break, and I wanted to say thanks for before, with that woman. Her name’s Camilla. She comes in every day, and she’s always rude, but more so
with me than anyone else. I can’t understand it. I dread the morning shift because of her.” She frowned and looked down at her hands in her lap.

“Hey, not a problem. Just happy to help. Some people really suck, but don’t let her get you down. She’s obviously a bully; call their bluff, and they usually back off. They love an easy target.”

She looked up at me. “I’ll lose my job if I say anything.”

“Surely your boss doesn’t want the staff to be harassed. What about workplace health and safety?”

She shrugged.

“What’s your name? I’m Lily.”

“Hi, Lily. I’m Olivia.” She smiled and held out her right hand. I shook it.

“Pleased to meet you.”

“Are you from Australia? I love your accent.”

“Yes, and thanks.” I grinned. “Yours is pretty cool too. I haven’t been here long, but it’s awesome, so I’m moving here for good. My brother’s been here for a few years. He married an English girl.”

“Nice.” She looked at my camera. “Oh, are you a photographer?”

“Yep. I mainly did weddings and corporate stuff back home, but now I have to start again. I still
have my website, but I’m just adjusting it to reflect my recent move. In the meantime, I’ve been doing the tourist thing and taking photos of the countryside.”

She sat up straight and bit her bottom lip. “Do you do engagements?”

“I sure do.” Hmm, was this going where I thought it was? I would be so happy to get my first paying job in England. That would be cool.

“Do you have a card? I'm having my engagement party in two weeks, and my cousin was going to take the photos, but he’s not a professional. I didn’t want to insult him by getting someone else in, but I can say it’s payback for you helping me.”

I rifled in my bag, skimming my hand through the debris at the bottom. A chewing-gum packet, rogue M&Ms, used tissue, crumpled receipts, and was that sand? Argh, I really needed to clean it out. Phew, there it was. I
pulled out a clean, for the most part, card. “Here you go. Check out my website, and if you like my stuff, give me a call. No hard feelings if you decide I’m not right.”

She smiled, her eyes shining with excitement. “I’m sure you’ll be perfect, but I’ll have a look this afternoon.” She stood. “I’ll give you a call, Lily. And thanks again.”

I smiled. “My pleasure. Speak to you soon.”

She gave a little wave and returned to her spot behind the cash register. I finished my muffin and coffee and stood. It was time to return to Angelica’s for our daily magic lesson. Some days were theory, but today
she was going to teach me how to relocate stuff. Woohoo! Not having to carry the shopping all the way home was going to rock, and what about when I was out
and forgot something? No having to dash home or suffer without it.

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  • ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

    "Quirky characters, adventure, mystery and paranormal what's not to like? Each book can be read as a stand alone but the relationships and other threads make me want to read the whole series."-Stephanie

  • ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

    "Great mystery and storytelling. I could envision the scenery and I enjoyed the characters and plot. Nice light reading for fun."-1hapygrl

  • ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

    "And the second book is even better than the first! I love Lilly's sense of humor, her inability to be false, and her naive love of anything new and unusual. The professional writing makes the characters easy to picture, and also keeps me from cringing at errors! I'm not sure whether to dive right in with Bk 3 or to reread Bk 1 first! Hmm."-A Book Lover