Guest Post: Jeanne and Treadmill Books: Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Beginnings by Lydia Sherrer

Lily Singer is an archivist at the McCain Library on the campus of Agnes Scott.  She’s a bit young for the job, but she was groomed for the position by the previous manager, Madam Barrington, because of Lily’s educational and library background and because she’s a wizard.

Quite helpful when, unbeknownst to most, the Archives contain an extensive collection of occult books, some of which can be dangerous.

Madam Barrington, herself a wizard, undertook to train Lily in more than library management.  She’s still close by, serving as mentor.  She takes a certain amount of pride in Lily, but not in her great nephew Sebastian who is working to become a witch; in fact, she’s disowned Sebastian, but that doesn’t stop him from pestering Lily.

At this point I should explain that in this world, wizards are the ones born with innate power that needs to be honed.  There are very few of them around. Witches, on the other hand, are those who seek powers, usually by an exchange of favors with magical folk.  Often the humans who seek this route are fools, getting themselves into situations beyond their control, which is pretty much how Madam sees Sebastian. Lily is more tolerant—just.  It would be easier if Sebastian didn’t involve her in some of his schemes….

This first volume in the series is divided up into “episodes,” but they are really a set of novellas, letting readers learn not only the characters but the supernatural ground rules.  In “Hell Hath No Fury,” Sebastian has taken on the job of exorcising a house while in “Mobius” a town is caught in a time loop. 

While no real new ground is broken here, Sherrer does tell an entertaining story.  Although the writing is third person, some sections are more from Lydia’s point of view while others give us a better understanding of what makes Sebastian tick.  (Good thing, because Sebastian can come across as annoying.)

I did enjoy these and was ready to start the second book in the series, only to find that the library’s copy had gone missing. I’ll be watching for it, and will be interested to see how these characters develop.

The titles in the Lily Singer series are Beginnings, Revelations, Allies, Legends, Betrayal, and Identity.