Reviewed by Dan

TITLE:    Avaritia

SERIES:  The Oswald Witches #1

AUTHOR:     Mathew Ortiz

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH:     251 Pages

BLURB:

Welcome all to Maquintock Bay. A sleepy little town a few hours north of Boston on a picturesque stretch of New England coast. The town’s folk live a quiet life away from the hustle and bustle and enjoy the simpler life, even if just north of them dwell the infamous Oswald family. The Oswald Estate is only minutes north of the town but most people avoid it. The town’s history tells of witches and supernatural events at the stately mansion. Is there truth to the rumors? Witches aren’t real, are they?

Prodigal son William Oswald Blackthorne has come home to take his place as head of Oswald House and his family. He sets about renovating and repairing his family home since it had fallen into disrepair. All seemed to be going well until he butted heads with his obstinate siblings, an overbearing aunt and the opinionated staff. Just when he thought everything was hitting its stride, Rushford Harrington, the head of the construction company, refuses to send his men to the house. Who the hell does the man think he is? No one tells an Oswald ‘no’!

Rush Harrington has his hands full. His workers are frightened. The gossip about Oswald House has made it near impossible to find workers to do the renovations his company promised. Now the Oswald family members are making his life crazy with abrupt changes to the renovation plans. When he attempted to talk to William Oswald Blackthorne, the man refused to speak to him. So Rush pulled his teams. Next thing Rush knows, a handsome and irate blond man barges into his office and into his life; Rush realizes that nothing is ever going to be the same!

REVIEW:

Avaritia is the start of a new series for Mr. Ortiz. Along the way we do have mini-flashbacks into some of his previous works, particularly in the epilogue, which frankly confused even me, and I think I’ve read all, or almost all, of his prior works. The switchover from the Oswald Witches back to the characters from his “Renovating Love” series was too dramatic of a cut-away for me. Therefore, I’ve decided to base my review on the primary story and ignore the epilogue in my rating, since it would hurt the overall score.

Three hundred years ago a terrible thing happened in Maquintock Bay, a picturesque New England village. Driven by a man named Bartholomew Harrington and other fanatics, three boys of the Oswald family were captured and hung as witches. On their dying breathes, each made a curse. William, the oldest, cursed the Harrington Family and all their descendants to a life of misery, never knowing peace until they do right by the Oswald family. Duncan, the middle child, cursed Ezekiel Abramson, his bondmate, who wasn’t there to save him. Oliver, the youngest of the three cursed Maquintock Bay, that all should fail and fall. After hearing their curses, Bartholomew Harrington rushed to pull the handle, hanging the witches and getting rid of the abominations once and for all. Well, except for the father, mother and youngest child Jaime who will come back to make the township of Maquintock Bay wish it had never been founded.

Skip forward to the present. The Oswald family has done very well for themselves over the years. They now own, or control, most of Maquintock Bay and its environs. They are, by far, the wealthiest family in the town, and they are witches. Since no one believes in witchcraft any longer, no one in town suspects that aspect of the Oswald family. However, after close to three hundred years of bad luck, the Harrington family and the founding families have a deep seated dislike for the Oswalds.

William Oswald has just returned home. His primary witch’s power is over electricity, making him able to become a computer guru, developing some of the best security programs on the planet. While other programmers have to look through code manually, he can “see” the code from the inside. William has decided to spend some of his personal money on restoring the family home to its former glory, and the only company that would take the bid was the Harringtons!

What will happen when William meets Rush Harrington, and they are both instantly attracted? Is it possible that Rush is his bondmate? A Harrington??? Trust me, the Harrington family isn’t happy about it either! What will happen when Rush finds out there really are witches in Maquintock Bay?

One note for my readers, take my advice. Read to the end of the actual book and put it down to reflect on the story. When you have a few minutes later, pick it back up and read the Epilogue, which as I said at the start of this review has almost nothing to do with this current storyline. It is good on its own and deserves its own chance to catch your attention!  It does provide a tenuous tie between the two series by making one of the servants at the Oswald Estate the aunt of one of the characters from the previous series.  But yeah, not enough of one to make up for the sudden shift.

I really enjoyed this book. If you are a fan of movies like Practical Magic and Hocus Pocus, you will love it. I particularly enjoyed the reference to “I put a spell on you”. Since Winifred in Hocus Pocus was back after 300 years, I thought it was fitting! Great job Mr. Ortiz. I highly recommend this book. I’m off to read the next book in this series, Luxuria. Look for my review on that book later this month!

RATING:

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