Lila is laid off from the local newspaper then lands a job at a literary agency where on her first day she is confronted with a body of a man who was chased out of the agency within an hour of Lila's arrival at the agency. Was it murder or something else?

I liked Lila. The agency has a cast of characters working at it. Their descriptions give a good picture of what each is like. Lila wants to know who the man is and who/what killed him so she decides to investigate no matter the cost to her. She also has a few possible romance partners. Her mother is a hoot and her son should have had a good spanking once or twice in his childhood so he wouldn't be so spoiled.

The story line was interesting. I liked how Lila works to solve the murder. She's wrong at times but keeps at it until she finds the answer. The world building is good. I look forward to more of the series.

I know nothing of current Egypt and it's politics, so this promises to be interesting. I used an Audible credit to listen to this while I cross stitch, sit and await the end of times. Sigh.

Anyway, so far I'm very impressed. I'm having a good run with nonfiction. 

As with Mainly by Moonlight, I wrestled with rating this book. I may do a full review later on, but for now here's a quick and dirty list of what worked for me and what didn't.  Some spoilers below.

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Likes:
- Cosmo - he's a kindhearted witch with a bright personality and an interesting voice. I adored him and want to see him get the happily ever after he deserves.
- When Cosmo acknowledges that his marriage to John isn't one of equals. I loved when he finally stands up for himself instead of letting John steamroll him (more on that below).
- Josh Lanyon's writing, which sucked me in. I read I Buried a Witch in one sitting and can't believe how fast the pages flew by.

Dislikes:
- John. He's judgmental, unyielding, domineering, and occasionally condescending toward Cosmo.
- Cosmo ceding all the power in their relationship because he's afraid of losing John.
- The foundations of the romance were shaky to begin with and the more I saw of John the more the fine cracks in the romance developed into dangerous faults. A non-spoiler example: John decides they're going to put a pool in the backyard. Cosmo objects because he's terrified of water. Rather than asking him why or showing any interest in his feelings at all, John dismisses Cosmo and declares they're getting a pool and he wants Cosmo to deal with the contractor.
- I hated that - since this is a romance - it seemed to me like Cosmo would be better off without John. The fact that in one scene he's actually physically afraid of him? No matter that the fear is short-lived, this is a huge red flag for me.
- I loved that Cosmo acknowledges the faults in their relationship and starts to stand up for himself, but it felt like he forgave John quickly with so little give on John's part.
- John's version of compromise at the end made me feel even more unsettled about their future; I feel like he hasn't really changed and he still doesn't accept who Cosmo is.

Neutral:
- The mystery involving who was murdering Wiccans was interesting, if understated
- The ongoing mystery plus some witch politics are also interesting (I know I keep using that word, but it really fits this story and it's part of why I rated it as high as I did), but there are a lot of threads to be tied up in the third book. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

All in all, I Buried a Witch is an engaging second installment to the Bedknobs and Broomsticks series. Josh Lanyon's writing is as addictive as ever (which bumped this rating up one star for me), but as this really feels like part 2 of 3 of a larger book, I'm waiting to see what happens in Bell, Book and Scandal before I can decide how I feel about Cosmo's journey as a whole. The fact that the romance is so deeply flawed is interesting, so long as the love story is ultimately resolved in a satisfying manner. I'm optimistic and I hope Cosmo comes into his own and John becomes a husband worthy of him.

Last book for Halloween bingo. Not much to say except that this book ended up aggravating me the whole time. The lead in the book, Maura, is nasty to pretty much everyone and sits around judging how small town the village of Leap is and how one of the villagers, a teenager named Rose, needs to do more with her life instead of working in a pub. Throw in a mystery of a young man who seems out to get Maura for no good reason and a body found in a bog, I was just ready to be done with this one. The book felt endless after a while and reading about cleaning, clothes, tea making, and other things in this book just made the overall flow painful. This is the first book in a series I have no intention of continuing. 

"Buried in a Bog" follows 25 year old Maura Donovan who returns to Ireland following the wish of her recently deceased grandmother. Maura was born and raised in Boston and after her grandmother's passing realizes she doesn't have anything going on in her own life. She plans on traveling to the village of Leap for just a week to honor her grandmother and return home. Instead, Maura ends up meeting a lot of people who tell her stories of her grandmother, her grandfather, and even her deceased father. She starts working in a local pub and wonders if she should stay. If that's not enough a dead body is found in a bog that may have some connections to those who live nearby. On top of that a mysterious young man seems hellbent on stalking and trying to scare Maura for some reason unknown to her.

So Maura was a piece of work. She herself didn't go to college and is working at bars in Boston, but she sure had time enough to look down upon everyone she meets. She doesn't like the fact that a young man near her age, Mick, is just working at the pub. She wonders why he hasn't moved away and even when he tells her he is there for his grandmother and to keep an eye on her she acts like people don't sometimes delays things to take care of elderly relatives. Maura has the same opinion about a teenager named Rose who has gotten her Leaving Certificate but has no interest in moving away and doing anything else. The character started to put my nose out of joint but it got worse when there's a throwaway line that Maura has about at least the Irish are better than how Americans act since they (Americans) just expect jobs to be given to them by the government along with money.

Moving on. Can't say much about the other characters because except for two of them, Maura is sitting around judging everyone. When she starts getting stalked how she talks to the police in Leap would have had her cursed out if she was a woman of color.

The writing was painful after a while. Connolly stays focused too much on describing every freaking thing that is happening and what Maura is eating, smelling, seeing. Everything became tedious after a while. Also she keeps going on and on about how she needs to get clothes and or wash the clothes she brought for a really long time. I think that's what I should have called the title of this review, "Everything Goes On For A Really Long Time." The flow was awful.

The setting of Leap could have worked if I didn't want to bludgeon the lead. 

The ending was a big whatever to me. It made zero freaking sense, but it's a way to keep the character there for the series. This is the second cozy mystery series of Connolly I have read and I swear she must say to herself that cozy mysteries equal unlikable female character cause she did the same thing in her Orchard series which caused me to stop reading that one after a while too.