Ballroom Bits: A Cozy Witch Mystery
- 314 pages
- 11 hours of reading
Christine Pope has been crafting stories since her childhood, embracing diverse genres from contemporary romance to paranormal, fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Her writing is informed by years in the magazine publishing industry, now channeling that expertise into freelance editing alongside her fiction. She brings a distinctive voice to her explorations across various speculative and romantic landscapes.






The perfect Thanksgiving recipe for disaster - means, motive...and opportunity. As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, Selena finds herself soothing the nerves of her friend Josie, who's now Globe's newly minted mayor. Popular television preacher Aaron Galloway is bringing his traveling prayer gathering to town, and Josie is worried Selena's New Age shop will attract negative attention. Josie's concern is touching, but Selena can't imagine her humble little shop being any more than a blip on the faithful's radar. Still, she does a quick Tarot reading, just to be sure. To her dismay, the cards warn there's trouble brewing. What kind and how deep it goes is anyone's guess. Until Galloway falls over dead of arsenic poisoning - and Josie is accused of murder. Holiday plans are put on hold as Selena races to prove Josie's innocence. And as she begins unearthing something rotten under the megachurch's squeaky-clean veneer, the real killer is getting nervous...and determined to mow down anyone who gets too close to the truth.
Never get into a bidding war with a demon. Winning could be murder. One phone call from her mother, and Selena Marx’s relatively quiet summer ends with the clang of alarm bells in her head. Mom and her husband are coming to Globe…and not just to meet Selena’s boyfriend of two months, Calvin Standingbear. They’ve also dipped a toe into the local real estate market.By buying the most haunted Victorian mansion in town. Sight unseen.Resigned that there’s no talking them out of their vacation rental dreams, Selena checks the place out for herself. Oddly, she senses nothing. But there’s no mistaking the unholy racket of bangs, wails, and evil laughter blasting through the walls. Something is infesting this house, and it’s not your garden-variety ghost.This time, her arsenal of moon water, coffin nails, and rock salt isn’t going to cut it. Selena needs backup, but when it arrives, the house strikes back — hard and deadly. Now her parents are murder suspects. If Selena can’t find the true culprit, she could be the haunted mansion’s next victim.
To unlock his past, it’ll take more than a little bit of luck… What has Joanna Wilcox gotten herself into? She needed an extra hand to fix some broken fences on her alpaca farm, and her cousin sent someone over to help. Now she can’t seem to take her eyes off that “someone” — those capable hands, those ice-blue eyes…not to mention the way he fills out his jeans.Randall Lenz, ex-government agent and brand-new warlock, should be the last man to send that tingling sensation across Joanna's skin. But when he won’t take payment for the work, she finds herself offering the next best thing: a home-cooked meal.The Wilcox clan took Randall in when a lightning strike awakened his power, and he plans to repay their kindness by living a quiet life…which means not getting involved with a Wilcox witch. But Joanna’s offer of a hot meal isn’t the only thing making his mouth water.One kiss ignites the need they’ve both been trying to ignore, but their relationship is barely off the ground when Randall disappears — and Joanna suspects it’s more than a case of cold feet. It’s a secret that proves lightning does, indeed, strike twice….Note: This novel takes place approximately three months after the end of A Wheeler Park Christmas. It’s the sixth book in the series but can stand on its own.
One last chance to control her magic…or she’s banished to a world without it.At the ripe old age of eighteen, Calendula Dobkins should be able to cast simple enchantments as easy as breathing. But most days, Callie and magic aren’t exactly on speaking terms. Not that she doesn’t have it. More like…she has control issues.Her parents pack her off to Miss Primm’s Academy for Wayward Witches, where she has only three years to whip her unruly magic into shape. Or DOME (the Department of Magical Exile) will banish her to Mundania. A world without magic.Callie quickly learns which girls have her back, and who will throw her under the bus. Pop quizzes can be killer. The Beginning Spells professor seems have it in for her. And…just who is the mysterious Miss Primm, anyway?Then there’s the six feet of Scottish gorgeousness she meets at the joint school dance with Master Marco’s School for Woeful Wizards, Lochlan Abernathy. If Callie can survive finals with a ticket to year two, maybe they can do more than just dream about the future….
When you pull up stakes, make sure you don't get stabbed in the back.Self-taught in the arcane arts, hedgewitch Selena Marx is comfortable doing divination for West Los Angeles' anxiety-ridden housewives, lawyers, and aspiring actresses. Her biggest challenge? Avoiding Lucien Dumond, leader of the Greater Los Angeles Necromancers' Guild, who views her as fresh meat to add to his harem of slavishly devoted groupies.Selena's not interested in the slimy, celebrity-schmoozing sorcerer, but nobody turns Lucien down without consequences. When he threatens to fit her with magical cement shoes and drop her off the Santa Monica Pier, Selena's Tarot cards point her to Globe, Arizona, for a new home, a new shop, and a cursed pet cat.Just as she's settling in and meeting the locals - including Calvin Standingbear, hunky chief of the San Ramon Apache tribal police - Lucien tracks her down?and promptly disappears. When his body turns up on tribal lands, it's up to Calvin to investigate. Starting with Selena.And when one of Lucien's acolytes is killed, traces of dark magic and cryptic warnings from the spirits send Selena and Calvin in a race against time - before a too-close-for-comfort evil cuts her own life short.
An angel has returned to Paris. But is it the Angel of Music...or Death? Two years have passed since Christine fled the opera house, put the memories and the horror behind her. And yet, in her dreams, she still hears his voice, feels his moth-light touch on her throat. The rumors involving the legendary Opera Ghost are merely newspaper sensationalism. The Opera Ghost is dead. His tragic life, his epic opera, his obsession with her voice...ended. But with a slow, heart-pounding dread, Christine lets a lie slip from her lips, and heads for Paris. Alone. Because she has to know if Erik is dead. Or if he's alive...and wreaking his vengeance.
Heaven is a step away...until it all goes to Hell in a handbasket. Ruling Hell isn't all that much fun anymore. With humans so adept at corrupting themselves, frankly, the Devil is bored and ready to do anything for a change of scenery. Predictably, God's got a catch: Lucifer must fall in love, and the woman in question must surrender her heart. A woman has even been pre-selected for him, ripe and ready for picking, so how hard can it be? A little charm, a little magic, and Heaven will be his. Luke Nicolini is everything Christa Simms - any woman, really - dreams about. Deep blue eyes, knee-melting smile, divine Cosmo-making skills. Then there's that instant teleportation thing, and his refreshing honesty about who he is. The mystery? Why the Devil, who could have anything, anyone he wants, would look twice at her - ordinary, unremarkable Christa Simms. But it's her birthday, she's alone, and if the Devil wants to show her a good time, she's in. But even the best of intentions can turn the road to love into a slippery slope. And when Luke goes one step too far, love - and Heaven - could slip forever beyond his reach. Revised and updated in October 2019.