Book Review — Antique Magic by Eileen Harris

I received this ebook as part of the Blog Tours hosted by Book R3vi3w Tours. Thank you! 
Antique Magic is a short supernatural novel that revolves around the unraveling of mysteries left behind by Bernice Hall, a very ambitious antiquarian with an even riddled motive behind her obsession. Alicia Trent, the protagonist of the story, gets employed in the Hall mansion, after Mrs. Hall’s death, so as to evaluate and sell the enormous collection of antiques nestled in every corner of the house. Thoroughly enjoying her job, Alicia doesn’t see the large sledge hammer about to turn her into a human slush. Someone is trying very hard to make sure she doesn’t succeed in her job and they are not being subtle about it. With multiple threats looming in the horizon and even more number of suspects, Ali has no clue why anyone would have a problem with harmless, kind-loving Bernice Hall, or her either.

The story started off extremely well. It builds a thrilling atmosphere and pushes you to find out what happens later. So good that I was sure it would definitely be worth a 5 star. And that was for the first 5-6 chapters. Then the quality of description tapered off for a bit.  That’s where sections of the novel started to go awry. I didn’t like the protagonist much and so it was difficult to understand her. She behaved without reason and was often immature in her decisions. Many of the dialogues fell flat and weren’t so promising. As for realistic depiction of characters, I found Mrs. Baylor to be a relatable personality who helped Ali throughout and was supportive. The style of narration is rather fun, it covers in detail everything that Alicia does during the day, almost like a journal. And I absolutely love journals made into books. The plot is what sold me into reading this and is a very creative concept to come up with. Kudos to the author for that. I’ve never read any book where antiques played a major role in the storyline and Ali’s job seems to be real fun, apart from when she is dodging death threats. As a reader, we are made to stand on our toes, wondering who is the culprit and there are so many characters, that it is mind boggling. The number of potential love interests for Ali, in the novel, is ridiculously hilarious. All in all, it was a quick, nice read.

Ratings – 3 stars on 5.

Meera