Wolves of Wisteria (Wisteria Witches #6; City Hall, #1) by Angela Pepper

Wolves of Wisteria (Wisteria Witches #6; City Hall, #1) Reviews

• 
  Montzalee Wittmann

  Wolves of Sister is by Angela Pepper and narrated by Rosemary Benson is an Audible book I requested and the review is voluntary. I love this series and the strange town of Wisteria! Witches, gnomes, shifters, ghosts, and brain eaters....what a town! Who wouldn't want to live there? Love the characters, great plot with twists, and plenty of clues that do nothing out confuse me more, lol. Love the interaction between characters, the dialogue, and trying to guess what will come next. Great series. The narration is done perfectly for this book! Great voices and emotions.
• 
  Bon

  DNF at 50%. By that point I was listlessly paging through and didn't care who murdered who.
• 
  Coco.V

  🎁 FREE on iBooks today (7/15/2019)! 🎁
• 
  Elissa

  Wolves
  
  Finally we get to learn a bit more about Zinnia. If you have been following the Wisteria Witches series, you've learned much of Zara's story, and Zinnia, her aunt, has been a side character. In this novel, however, Zinnia comes into her own. Does this mean you need to have read any of the other books? No. This is absolutely a stand-alone novel. What it does have is the Easter eggs and tie-ins to the other stories for those who enjoy all the parts of a series. Seen from her own perspective, Zinnia is far less eccentric and quite a competent witch. And, as always, author Angela Pepper has put together an intriguing mystery with all sorts of paranormal intricacies. It is appropriate that there is a different narrator, Rosemary Benson, with a slightly deeper voice, acting out Zinnia's story, and she is every bit as talented.
• 
  Mummy's Naughty Corner

  Well this was okay. I liked the older characters and the fun and games that produced. i like the idea of hidden witches and not everyone knowing about the magic. I liked the office life it was really realistic. The mystery was okay. I found that part quite predictable. I liked the last few scenes and the twist at the end that was nice.
• 
  Curly's Ramblings

  Audiobook review: Audiobook review: Wolves of Wisteria is my kind of story. It has a “normalcy” bend with a touch of supernatural that makes the story feel real. The characters are unique, likable, & believable. The mystery was well written and the accompanying storylines had me wanting more! The narrator did a great job with providing unique voices for each character and appropriate tone inflections for each scene! I received a free copy of this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
• 
  Eden

  2020 bk 382. #6 of the Wisteria Witches - #1 of the City Hall series featuring Aunt Zinnia - and a prequel to Zara's arrival in Wisteria. This can more easily be read as a stand alone novel, more than any other book in the series. Zinnia is an employee at City Hall when one of her best work friends is murdered when she works late. Closely cooperating the the police leads Zinnia into danger before the mystery is solved.
• 
  Jessica Zimmer

  This was a solidly good book, earning every bit of three stars. Plus maybe a little more, I'll go with three-and-a-half.
  
  As a big fan of the Zara Riddle books, and Wisteria in general, I'm always glad when I have another opportunity to re-enter the wonderful world Angela Pepper has created. And while I've never felt compelled to learn more about (Aunt) Zinnia, I'm glad I did. The book was an enjoyable read. Just the thing I needed to lift me out of a blue mood, and a streak of mediocre (to downright awful) reads.
  
  That said, I'm saddened that I can't give Wolves of Wisteria a glowing four or five-star review. For reasons I don't fully understand, this book felt drab to me. It started to sag in tension around 40% (roughly chapter 14) and felt like it limped toward the finale. One of the things that perked it up was a cameo by Frank whom I sorely missed.
  
  None of the characters came to life for me the way Zara, Zoe and the worker bees at the Wisteria Public Library have in visits past. Even Aunt Zinnia herself felt a bit lifeless. Though, she seems to be struggling with a heavy bit of loss, so that makes sense.
  
  The employees of City Hall didn't tempt my curiosity the way the folks at the WPL or the Department of Water, or even the town bakery!, do. I'd much rather read about a new upstart at the Department of Water or the sweet romance of the couple who runs the Gingerbread Baking Company. I felt Dawna, Carrot, Gavin and the group merged into a grey blob of not-quite-colored-in side characters. The only exception being Ethan Fung, whom I thoroughly enjoyed and would like to see more of.
  
  I also picked up the killer pretty much as soon as they came on-screen. Given their connection to Zinnia and the fact that she was hardening her heart, and intuition, with magic it seemed almost impossible for it to be anyone else. The motivations of the killer also weren't terribly surprising because, again, it was telegraphed fairly early.
  
  So, final verdict? While I still love the Wisteria series, this felt like the weakest trip so far. Lacking the richness and humor (oh how I missed the humor!) of previous books. Since this is the first in a planned trilogy, I'm hoping the next two books really knock my socks off and bring Wisteria to bold, vibrant life as before.
  
  Sidenote: For Zara critiquing her Aunt's fashion choices in almost every book, Zinnia never fails to look amazing on both City Hall covers. I, for one dig her style.
• 
  Jim Marsh

  This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
  This is the 6th book in the Wisteria Witch Mysteries by Angela Pepper and the first book about Zara’s aunt Zinnia.
  The story takes place almost entirely before Zara and Zoey arrive in Wisteria. As such it has a different tone and cast than the first 5 books.
  Zinnia is more responsible and less zany than Zara. She is more experienced with witchcraft so there is less joy of discovery and exploration of the world and wonders of this quirky, charming suburbia.
  The format of the story is more about office life and the ole of your coworkers as a pseudo family as they discover that one of their co-workers was murdered. This down put a bit of a downer on the book. Although Zara deals with ghosts, more are completely unknown to her to here we have people grieving and dealing with how you carry on after losing an acquaintance.
  In a meta twist, the co-worker in question was a writer in her spare time and fashioned a fantastic fan fic where each of her co-workers possessed magical powers or properties. How much did she know and how much was a fun story? There are also plenty of jokes about writing including how some series decide to split off with a side character.
  Angela Pepper gets to flex some different muscles with this series but there are plenty of connections and call forwards to the main series – including relatives of and cameos from town residents we know and love.
  This story had a few scenes that were more intense than I’ve come to expect from the author and frequent flashbacks made the real slightly more challenging than previous installments.
  By the time you get to the end everything falls into place. I’m glad the next volume is already available and ready to launch into.
  Rosemary Benson has the unenviable task of being the second narrator of the series after Tiffany Williams has narrated the first five. It makes sense that Zara and Zinnia have different voices and so while I did need to adjust my expectations, she did an excellent job managing the voices of the new cast of characters and making known characters recognizable while still giving her own performance rather than try to mimic Williams. She is a wonderful narrator in her own right.
  
• 
  Birgit

  Zinnia, a witch a bit out of practice, gets involved in a murder case and tries to solve it with her friend Margaret.
  Now, I still have not really made up my mind whether, or how much, I liked or disliked the characters, the plot, and the telling of it.
  I think I liked the plot best, the characters next, they were likeable enough. The narration style was okay, although it seemed to me as if the story could not decide whether it wanted to be a page-turner with tension and lots of magic and fights (of both magic and non-magic fight), or just a sort of funny - it teetered between the two, never quite managing to combine them seamlessly, sorry to say, and not enough of one of them to definitely go in that direction.
  I think the story was too rushed through; the occurrences, the events, could have been a bit more fleshed out, a bit more of suspense and actual magic would have done a lot to make me like the book better.
  The main characters came of indecisive and whiny for the most part, there were not enough dialogues for my taste - the story was mainly told from Zinnia's point of view, and whatever she tried to be, she was not a sarcastic or even remotely funny bitch witch. She was quite amusing occasionally, but with her magical potential, which was a bit rusty: what a field for funny mishaps, or more impressive magical defensice feats.
  Although this can be read as a standalone in the series, there is too much of past books not properly explained which might be a reason for me finding this specific book a bit bland. Having most of the last chapter being completely unrelated to the current story and being more like a teaser for the next book in line did not help.
  I am at present not certain if I continute this series, or get the books before this one - maybe I should.
• 
  Mel

  Enjoyable book
  
  What would you do, going to work at the office for WPD and see that you beloved co-worker has been murdered.
  A good mixture with supernatural creatures and dry humour. The storyline has a good plot with twist, strong character, very funny in some ways. Lots interactions between characters.
  There are some weird actions like when Gavin searched the murdered body of Annette, with all the blood and no one said anything about it....only much later, who would do something like this, I found this weird.
  Second, why was no funeral held for poor Annette, there are good details and information about a lot of things, I missed this information, because all characters have liked her, well not all but most of them. I found it a bit sad that Zinnia had no friends at all, well she has definitely a dry humour.
  And what happened to the detective Fung, did he got replaced completely after the accident?
  I know it's mentioned that a new detective has started, but there was not much information on it the Fung never get back?
  I would have liked a bit more magic and information about Zinnia past, why she drank her magical tea.
  The at the end she meets Zara her niece, buys her shoes but there are no hugs to say hi OMG what you doing here. Still I liked the book.
• 
  Paula Dyches

  Aunt Zinnia's Story
  
  So, I have read the first 5 books in this series and I was a bit surprised and confused at first with this one. I will admit I didn't read the summary. I was just expecting to continue on with Zara's crazy life but I had to switch gears and go back in time with this story. This book starts off before Zara moves to Wisteria and is from Zinnia's point of view. Once I got on board with the switch it was a much more enjoyable read. Zinnia has a different (more mature/grown up) personality, she still has a sense of humor but this book wasn't as funny as Zara and I did still find myself missing her spunkiness. It was a solid mystery with plenty of twists, turns and yes other supernatural characters. This is geared for a more adult crowd with her sometimes overnight boyfriend (much is implied) but there is still enough that I would say older high school to adult in range. The narrator does a fantastic job and really was fun to listen to.
  
  —I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
• 
  Krystyna

  Being a witch can be dangerous for your health
  
  A good start to a new spinoff series to the Wisteria Witches. Working in a mundane job is just what she needs. Even her magic is getting rusty from non use. However all that changes on the more that they discover the body of a colleague in their department. Who killed her and why? Shifters, magic, an unpublished manuscript and numerous supernatural beings abound in this great read. Okay I guessed the identity of the killer really early on but it was still a great read with a great array of characters, that seem to come alive the further you got into the book. It wasn't quite as good as Wisteria Witches but hopefully will get there in subsequent books.
• 
  Dallass

  Read before Wisteria Witches
  
  I’m so glad that I read this just after Wisteria Witches because it is set just before Zara and Zoey move to Wisteria, and actually includes events prior to their arrival, filling in a few gaps.
  
  Zinnia is a very tough, but likeable woman who seems to be mourning the death of Aiden(?) but ends up drawn into a murder investigation. I enjoyed Zinnia’s combative friendship with fellow witch, Margaret, and her frosty interactions with (fr)enemy, Charlize.
  
  The hunt for the killer seemed to drag on a bit, and I had worked out the identity of the murderer, if not their motive, about 3/4 of the way through.
  
  A great start to this paranormal cosy mystery series spinoff.
  
  3.75 stars
• 
  Anima

  Zara's Aunt Zinnia finally gets her own series. At first I thought this was a prequel, before Zara moved to Wisteria, but it became clear this was her own story. A captivating mystery of whodunit, witches, shifters and secret societies. The quirky characters lighten the serious mood as they deal with the fact their peer was murdered. Identities are uncovered, secrets revealed and friendships formed. I can't wait to continue with Zinnia and her supernatural office mates. Although Zinnia is from another series you can enjoy this book without the others, or read all of them and get reacquainted with old friends. I received an early copy and wrote my review voluntarily.
• 
  Claudia

  I really love this story, the way it goes back and forth, giving us the information we need about all Zinnia's coworkers without lessening the intrigue. When I previously listen to 'Wisteria Witches', Wisteria seemed like a nice, old-fashioned town, but now we discover that there is a lot going on around here.
  
  The mystery was fantastic, and I seriously couldn't discover who was the killer until it was unveiled by Zinnia.
  
  But what I loved the most was getting not only Zinnia's POV on her niece's arriving at Wisteria, but also the tip of the iceberg in the mystery surrounding Zara.
  
  And the narration was superb, too. A fantastic story that would be a shame to miss.
• 
  Jan

  Zinnia Riddle is a witch in a town that has lots of magic but nobody admits to being supernatural. The suspense and excitement begins when Zinnia arrives at work only to find the mutilated body of her nonmagical coworker. Call in the local detective and crew! And the specialty department that exists to manage anything possibly magical. A great cast of characters, peppered with humor, and a real plot make this a great read.
  It's also the first in a series that's a prequel to the Wisteria Witches mysteries.
  Rosemary Benson is the very convincing audio performer.
• 
  Alexisdanyelle

  I was a little surprised with this book. It followed Zinnias life and I liked seeing a character in a different light. But I don’t think I will keep reading the series if it is only about Zinnia. While she was interesting. She also was not really what I would have chosen. Still hands down think this author is amazing at keeping the twists and turns coming. And the ending was not what I expected at all. It’s so much fun to guess what will happen through out the book and than get blown away by the ending. Great fall read!
• 
  Sierra

  I highly considered taking an entire star off because the audiobook narrator is pronouncing the name of the main character of the main series (Zara) wrong. If you're going to read a spin off from an already existing universe with established names, use the already established pronunciation. It's so annoying that I am genuinely thinking about just dropping the entire series. It was tolerable in this book only because Zara wasn't present in Wisteria but I imagine that the second City Hall book will be extremely enraging and might be the end of my interest.
• 
  Michelle Page

  I received an ARC copy of this book. I have read all the other wisteria books and LOVE them. I was a little disappointed at first that this was set before Zara got there. It was a bit slow going at first for me, however it picked up by a quarter of the way through and I really enjoyed Zinnias story. I finished it in good time and am looking forward to the next one. Such a fresh perspective and flip side to the stories!!!!
• 
  Ashly

  I was a little confused about this one until I realized it was a prequel to the rest of the Wisteria Witches series. This one follows Aunt Zinnia shortly before Zara moved to town. It honestly never occurred to me that Zinnia should have her own books, but now that they are here, I'm glad they are. Zinnia is an interesting character who's story has barely been touched in the main series, and this is a good start to getting her story out there. I'm looking forward to the next in the series.
• 
  Stephanie Butenhof

  Love the Wisteria Witches...
  
  ...and all the town's other magical creatures or lack thereof. I'm glad for more stories from Wisteria, and especially happy to feel the spunk coming back. At least one of the last books I read in the series fell a little flat, and I missed Zara's zesty (gotta get some good 'z' words in here) attitude. It looks like her aunt Zinnia found some that she let go, and I'm glad for it!
• 
  Victoria Haugen

  Great story loaded with fun, antics and entertainment. Really nicely done, great writing and great narration. Loved it!
  I highly recommend this author and narrator, they did an excellent job.
  
  Characters are relatable, likable and always getting into something. Makes for a very fun listen, I really enjoyed it :)
  I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.