3.5 stars

A SPIRITED BLEND, the third installment in the Crystals and CuriosiTeas, continues to follow protagonist Shay as she navigates her emerging abilities as a seer. When a prominent citizen of Bray Harbor dies after Shay reads her tea leaves and bad omens come true, Shay is determined to find the killer. All the while, she is frustrated with pub owner Liam’s love life, her ex’s sudden appearance, and the very real worry that the man who might be her father is out to kill her.

I love the first two books in this series, and A SPIRITED BLEND is quite enjoyable, but it is a bit repetitive. The pace sometimes lags even though there is plenty of action and intrigue. Shay, who I have always thought of as having inner strength and determination, seems so unsure of herself here. The mystery itself is interesting, and I did pinpoint the killer’s identity before the climax of the tale. Gran and Shay’s dog Spirit are my favorite characters, but everyone else is well drawn and entertaining.

A SPIRITED BLEND is a worthy read, and I look forward to more adventures with Shay and company. Recommended to any cozy mystery reader, especially those who enjoy a bit of the paranormal.

I received an ARC of this title from the author and Kensington Publishers and voluntarily shared my thoughts here.

#ASpiritedBlend #NetGalley

While I liked this book, I absolutely loved the first two books in the series. And the mystery posed and solved in this book, was interesting. Yet the overarching mystery from the series is being drawn out too much. And there's such a a dichotomy with the main character. In previous books I felt her strength, but here she's almost simpering at times. It's still a decent read and I will definitely read the next book in the series.Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve been reading this series since it first came out. The first two hours have been fabulous. This one is a little darker so keep that in mind as you’re add it to your reading list. If darkness bothers you and you truly want light and happy cozy only, skip this one. You’re best and a great story, but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

A Spirited Blend truly lives up to its name, offering an interesting mix of suspense, mystery, murder, and magic. The story follows Shay, a budding seer, as she becomes entangled in a murder investigation. Acting on her unique gifts, she uncovers unsettling revelations about both the past and present. This engaging story ends with a five-star ending that I never saw coming.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you Lauren Elliott ( @laurenelliottcozymysteryauthor ), Kensington Publishing ( @kensingtonbooks ), and NetGalley ( @netgalley ) for allowing me to read A Spirited Blend (out March 25, 2025).

I just love this series and the female main character, Shay. Shay is a tea shop owner who also has the gift of seeing. She has a variety of friends, and one in particular person who she would like to be more than friends. Add to that, Shay wears around her neck a powerful blue bottle with a priceless diamond inside that gives her powers…and enemies, who want it for themselves.

In this book, Shay is losing customers to the new town tea shop, run by her former friend. When someone who wants the blue bottle is spotted with this former friend, it seems they have worked together to cause a death of one of the town’s elite. It’s up to Shay to win back her business and use her powers to find the murderer.

#ASpiritedBlend #NetGalley #LaurenElliott #KensingtonBooks

A Spirited Blend is the third book in the Crystals & CuriosiTEAS Mystery Series by Lauren Elliott. The story is set in Bray Harbor, California and features a tea shop owner turned amateur sleuth. 

The tea shop owner is Shay Myers, who has inherited witchy seer powers from her mother's side of the family. Her magic (and its source) is a secret that Shay does not want certain people to know about. 

Shay can read tea leaves, and she is seeing all sorts of signs in the bottom of her cup. The big question is how to interpret them...

With the Spooky Season approaching, Shay is busy making witchy brews and being mad at the cute pub owner who wants to date everyone but her. And then there is the family drama...

I really enjoyed this cozy mystery. It is a super fun read and would be even more fun around Halloween time. A loved the concept of a Monster Mash Dance.

The characters in this book are enjoyable. Shay is an interesting sleuth. I adore Gran and Shay's clever German Shepherd, Spirit.

Lauren Elliott's writing is also engaging. The story hooked me early on and I was excited to read to see how the plot and the mystery unfolded.

The coastal setting is also a plus. I would like to visit Bray Harbor to go into the shops and walk the boardwalk.

I would definitely recommend A Spirited Blend to cozy mystery readers who enjoy seasonal reads and a dose of the paranormal. However, there is a lot going on in the story. Although readers could jump into the series and read book three as a stand-alone, you are going to enjoy this story more if you read the first two books in the Crystals & CuriosiTEAS Mystery Series. This well help you to better understand the family subplot and the unrequited love subplot. 

Thanks to Net Galley and Kensington for the advanced reader copy.

A Spirited Blend is book #3 in the Crystals & CuriosiTEAS Mystery series by Lauren Elliott.

It was good to visit Bray Harbor and its interesting residence again. Shay has a lot going on with Liam needing romantic advice, her ex-husband buying a local winery, competition from Madame Malvina, and the Halloween festival. Then add in a murder that she is drawn to investigate and her plate is full. I was drawn into the story and couldn’t put it down

Thank you to the author, Kensington Publishing, and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) copy of this book and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

There are good reasons why Shay does not trust her instincts. She was so wrong about her ex and also her supposed friend and assistant. She was wrong about a woman who seemed like a friend only to be stabbed in the back by all three. The third lady, Madame Malvina has opened a rival tea room and is siphoning off Shay’s clients and the despicable duo have shown up in the town where Shay escaped to get away from them. Coincidences are one thing but she is beginning to suspect there is a mastermind behind it all and it may be the evil villain Shay suspects may be her biological father.

It seems she inherited a very special stone from her biological mother that has enormous power. She also inherited the “sight” but she has yet to really harness her powers or be able to discern what her visions are showing her. It becomes urgent for her to get a grasp after there is a murder and Shay believes she may be the next victim. In the background there is a nascent relationship with the guy she’s been told is her soul mate. But neither of them can do anything but stumble around each other and send mixed signals. Everybody wants them to “get a room” but neither of them can pull it together.

It took a while for the story and characters to gel but once they did, the book was entertaining. And it left a lot of loose ends that clearly will be dealt with in future stories. Four purrs and two paws up.

I love this author’s Beyond the Page series, so I was excited for this. This is my favorite in the series so far. There’s a mystery to solve but it also has a continuation of things that started in book 1. I love how it’s all connected. It was so much fun reading it while it was all unraveling. The characters are wonderful. The ending was exactly what needed to happen. I cannot wait to see what happens next.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my e-copy in exchange for a review.

I was so looking forward to this book. I loved the first two books in the Crystals & CuriositiTEAS series. This book inspired a wide range of emotions. I’ll be honest part way through it felt so dark to me that I had to push myself to keep reading. Shay experiences quite the mental state as events progress.
I’ve read that the author likes to give her characters difficult situations but some of the things in this book felt excruciating to me. It may be where I am in my own life right now, such that I would have a different experience reading it at some other time. Just know that this book may be difficult if you are having a difficult time yourself. It didn’t feel like there was light in this tunnel and I did consider whether I would continue to read books by this author because she treats her other main character in a different series this way as well. I’m glad I continued.
The end of the story reintroduces hope. At least a few of the issues from throughout the series see resolution.
I like the book but it wasn’t the book I was hoping it would be. It is a good example of how life often is and that if you keep going you come out the other side. Most the time I prefer my cozy mysteries to not be this emotionally challenging. But again my response and review may well be very influenced by what is happening for me. If you are a fan of the first two books, I think you will find this a satisfactory addition to the series.
Thanks to Kensington Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I’ve come to think of these characters as old friends now especially Liam’s crazy fun Gran, she’s such a hoot! She’s always after Shay and Liam to get together since her fairies predicted it, so I guess it’ll remain to be seen if Gran gets her wish soon or not lol. This was a mystery with a couple sides thrown in that weren’t gonna be solved immediately, but the main murder was solved so that’s what matters. There’s always a storyline waiting on the sidelines in this series which makes readers eager for the next book!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by Kensington Cozies via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.

Shay gets involved in another murder in this 3rd installment of the Crystals and CuriotiTEAS series. When someone from Shay's past moves in next door to her business, and a body is later discovered on the property, it's up to Shay to figure out what is going on. I love the cast of characters in this series, and the setting. Shay also gets some answers to her past in this book, as well as making progress with Liam, her love interest. This one had several great twists, and I will be looking forward to the next in the series.

I seriously get this series confused with another one. They seem similar. Inherited tea shop, secret magic. When reading I'm trying to differentiate between the two series. Usually by the halfway mark I'm drifting out of the fog and enjoying the book. I enjoyed the mystery and following the clues with the main character. Overall a fun paranormal cozy mystery with more romance.

Part of series.
Shay runs a tea shop where she does readings.
She gets involve in a murder in a Fairy ring.
Good suspense ,drama ,twists, with god characters.
Voluntarily reviewed.

The latest in a series that might be most appreciated by those who have been following Shay's adventures at her Crystals and CuriosiTeas shop. It's Halloween and there's a lot going on, starting with a woman who comes for a reading and insists they're related, her ex moving in next door, and, well, murder. Shay's also doubting her psychic powers but the paranormal ends up helping her deal with all of it. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

This is the 3rd book in Lauren Elliott's A Crystals & CuriosiTEAS Mystery series. Shay's had about enough with Laim asking her advice about dating. Between him and the competition from Madame Malvina she’s about had it. The mayors wife is convinced that she has some seer power and asks Shay to do a reading and there are dark visions in the tea leaves. When she ends up dead Shay wonders if Madam Malvina is involved. To top it all off her ex-husband and his new wife decide to move to town and cause trouble. She solves the mystery and some of the previous story lines are resolved. Great cozy mystery

Although I haven't read the first book in this series, I had read the previous novel and enjoyed it as a stand-alone cozy mystery. Book three may have been more cohesive if I had gone back and read the series starter. A lot of the background for this work was dependent on that first book, at least for me. That being said, I do like many of the elements and characters in this latest installment (the Irish Gran, the dash of magic, the reveal about the nasty ex, etc), but the MC seemed a bit lost for most of this book. The story picks up quickly in the last third of the book for a solid ending and potential for the next story. Hopefully, the MC will be more confident in herself and her abilities then.

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Wow! This was the book I needed, and this series just gets better with each book. There are an abundance of irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaicked pieces forming a veritable jigsaw puzzle from characters and their stories, past and present, to the overlapping mysteries upon mysteries. I loved Shay from the first, and adding Gran to the mix in Book 2 was genius; but this book blended (pun intended) the characters, the questions, the answers, and so much more into an amazingly fun and satisfying tale. Oh, there are still unanswered questions. Danger still lurks, and I look forward to so much more from Shay, Liam, and the entire cast of characters. I definitely need more, Lauren Elliott!

Shay’s tea and tea leaf reading shop has lost many of its customers to a former friend, Malvina, who has opened her own shop. When the mayor’s wife comes to her with a blue bottle that she is sure is magical, Shay knows it isn’t because she herself has the real bottle. Shay is a seer and is slowly learning to use her abilities, thanks to Gran. Shay tries to warn the mayor’s wife to be careful, but she goes to Malvina for another opinion and things go downhill from there. This is a fun mystery with the right touch of magic and romance. Thanks to Kensington Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

3/5 stars: This is the third entry in Elliott's Crystals & CuriosiTEAS Mystery series, which is a Paranormal Cozy Mystery that takes place in California during October festivities and follows a seer and tea and psychic shop owner as she juggles her father's deadly games, her shifty ex-husband and her investigation into the mayor's wife's poisoning death after discovering her body after the Halloween carnival. Guided by her knowing dog, she'll have to work fast if she's to catch the wickedly perceptive criminal. With plenty of twists and turns, Elliott has masterfully crafted a mystery that deftly balances the suspects, clues and red herrings and will leave you pondering the whodunit until the final reveal. Heartfelt and humorous, Elliott's writing and character work are stellar; the characters are well-rounded and complex while remaining incredibly likable. It's great to catch up with Shay, her friends and family, the goings on at Crystals and CuriosiTEAS and the townsfolk of Bray Harbor. Additionally, it's great to see Shay and pub owner and Irishman Liam's relationship finally progressing. And of course, Shay's pure white German shepherd companion, Spirit, is great. While you could read this as a stand-alone, you'll gain so much more by reading the series from the beginning; so be sure to pick up book one, Steeped in Secrets.

I received this eARC thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing | Kensington Cozies in exchange for an honest review. Publishing dates are subject to change.