Better Haunts and Garden Gnomes

Cozy Mystery Reading Order:

Happily Everlasting series:

1. Fooled Around and Spelled in Love

2. Curses and Cupcakes

(Un)Lucky Valley series:

3. Better Haunts and Garden Gnomes

4. Any Witch Way But Goode

5. A Potion for Your Thoughts

Reader notes: 

The Happily Everlasting series was a group book project with authors Jana DeLeon, Mandy M. Roth, Michelle M. Pillow, and Kirsten Painter. Each book was a standalone and do not have to be read in order. 

The (Un)Lucky Valley series is by Michelle M. Pillow. Did her character Aunt Polly tickle your funny bone in Fooled Around and Spelled in Love, and Curses and Cupcakes? If so, just wait until you read the next crazy adventure Aunt Polly has up her sleeve.

Welcome to (Un)Lucky Valley!
(But don’t stay too long. We don’t trust outsiders)

Excerpt from
A Cozy Mystery Paranormal Romantic Comedy
By NYT & USAT Bestselling Author Michelle M. Pillow

In the town of Lucky Valley, Colorado, nothing is quite what it seems. As Lily Goode is quickly finding out…

“What do you mean feared? What did my relatives do?” Running footsteps sounded overhead. Lily looked at the ceiling. “What is that?”

“Every old house makes its own noise,” Nolan dismissed. “You’ll get used to it.”

“You don’t think it’s another animal, do you?”

“No.” He seemed fairly confident, so she let it drop. “To answer your question, Lucky Valley was founded by the Goodes and the Crawfords during the 1800s as a refuge for certain types of people who were not wanted in the old country. Jedediah Crawford had struck gold, and the Goode family had the money to set up a full mining operation. They combined forces and together they built this town.”

“Go on,” she prompted when he paused. Getting conversation out of him was like trying to get a straight answer out of Polly—darn near impossible.

“All I know is the stories I heard as a kid.” The light through the window had dimmed, and he reached to flip on a light switch. The lights flickered. “I’ll fix that.”

“The stories you heard as a kid…” she reminded him. There was no way she was letting him go until she heard why someone wanted to burn the lawn and spray paint the house.

“Some say the Goodes became greedy. Some say the Crawfords became careless. Others claim it was a pact with the devil. And a few think maybe it was the very first of the bad luck curse. The one thing everyone agrees on is that the Goodes and the Crawfords did not get along, and it was that feud that began the run of bad luck the town became known for.” Nolan walked to the window and looked out. His shoulders lifted as if he took a deep breath. “Out there, in Unlucky Valley—that’s what locals call the remains of the first town—there were a series of calamitous events. In the span of three days, a church went up in flames, a disease spread out over the crops, and the mine caved in.”

“And they think my ancestors did this?”

“They think it was a byproduct of the magic being used between the feuding families. Everyone in town had a family member who died that day, most had more than one. The two families couldn’t agree on the way to save the miners and refused to work together. Their individual efforts were not enough and by the time they dug through to where the men were holed up, a hundred and eighteen workers died.”

“That’s tragic. So did my ancestors sabotage the mines? Or skip corners with safety?”

“They say it was magic.”

“So they magically dried up crops, destroyed churches, and ruined their money making gold mines? That makes little sense. Why would they do that? It doesn’t seem like it was beneficial for anyone.” Lily shook her head. “Maybe it was nothing more than plain old bad luck.”

He stiffened. “I wouldn’t dismiss the stories in front of others if I were you.”

“I didn’t mean to insult anyone, but I’m still trying to determine how a mining accident in a time where there were probably hundreds of unsafe mining accidents in this country equals my siblings and me being evil.”

“Well, your mother…”

Lily sighed and nodded her head. “Right. Never mind. Now it makes sense.”

Marigold wouldn’t have helped the family reputation.

“I don’t want to speak ill of the dead,” he said. “It’s your mother.”

“The last time I saw my mother, she was standing outside my apartment window tapping her fingernails on the glass while muttering nonsense. She was too thin. Her hair looked like wild birds might have been living in it, and her black lace dress was in tatters. When I tried to go outside to get her help, she’d vanished. All that was left was a strange symbol drawn in blood on the glass. So please, don’t feel the need to sugarcoat anything on my behalf.”

“They say she stirred dark magic when she married a Goode and awoke the old curse. Like I said, I was a kid at the time, but I remember people shunning her in the streets. We were all scared of her. Bad things were happening, and every misstep was blamed on your family. I remember her how you described—thin, almost skeletal, with overgrown hair and nails. She always talked even though no one was there to answer her. We were told to stay away from Marigold Crawford Goode or she’d steal our souls and leave us wandering.”

“I don’t know about soul stealing.” Lily even surprised herself at the small defense.

He again turned his attention toward the window. “You didn’t ask me why the people who came here needed a refuge.”

“Wasn’t it because of religious persecution, or people being exiled, or potato famines, or something? My history is a little rusty, but I’m pretty sure that is why most people came to America in the first place.”

“That’s true, but the one thing that joined everyone in Lucky Valley, the one thing that still joins us is…”

CW: These cozy mysteries are considered clean romance, as in there are no sexy times happening on the page. There is mild violence and themes, deaths, and neglectful parents, things like that. These cozy mysteries are going to be the sweetest of Michelle’s books. You want something sexier and more graphic, try her other series. 

Book Heal Levels: Sweet / Clean (No sexy times), Closed Door