Reader's Edyn: Blitz: New Witch on the Block (Midlife in Mosswood #1) by Louisa West

**New Witch on the Block by Louisa West**

Good Morning, Everyone! So thrilled to see you all today! Today I have another new-to-me author to share with you! She is here to tell us more about her latest book! Please allow me to feature on the blog Louisa West and her latest release, NEW WITCH ON THE BLOCK ….

**LOUISA WEST**

**BIO**

Author by day, Netflix connoisseur by night.

Louisa likes Pina Coladas and gettin’ caught in the rain. Determined to empty her brain of stories, she writes across several genres including fantasy, speculative fiction, contemporary and historical fiction, and romance.

She lives in Mandurah, Western Australia, and drinks more coffee than is good for her. When she’s not writing or researching projects, Louisa enjoys spending time with her family, and Harriet The Great (Dane). Hobbies include playing video games, watching copious amounts of tv, and various craft-related initiatives.

She strongly believes that the truth is still out there.

To find out more about Ms. West, please visit:

**NEW WITCH ON THE BLOCK**

Publication date: June 30^4th, 2020

Series: Midlife in Mosswood #1
Genres: Adult, Paranormal

**BLURB**

She thought she was running away from her past, not catching up with it.

Rosemary Bell just wants to live a quiet, happy life and raise her daughter as far away from her toxic ex-husband as she can get. But when they move into a decrepit cottage in the woods of Mosswood, Georgia, Rosie realizes her life will never be simple.

A gang of meddling neighborhood do-gooders want to run her out of town. The vicious laundromat machines keep eating her spare change. Not to mention her buff Irish stalker who insists that he’s a Witch King and that it’s her royal destiny to be his Queen.

And to top it all off, strange things keep happening around Rosie when she least expects it…

She could deal with it all, but her ex won’t rest until he tracks her down. When her ability to protect her daughter is threatened, Rosie shows them all that nobody messes with the new witch on the block.

Practical Magic meets Bridget Jones’ Diary in this fun, heart-warming short novel about starting over, putting family first, and finding love when you least expect it.

**EXCERPT**

Surprisingly, her mind settled on men. It had been twenty-two years since she had been single, and at least twenty since Randy had started policing where her eyes lingered. It had been a long damn time since she’d had a man make her feel... well—anything, other than revulsion. So, alone in her bathtub, she allowed her thoughts to go where they willed.

Like to the dimple in Ben’s left cheek when he had smiled at her that afternoon. Ben was cinnamon-spiced apple pie, with a generous serving of cream. Comforting, clean-cut. Wholesome.

If Ben was apple pie, then Randy was wilted bitter greens. Hard to swallow, and no matter how much you tolerated, it didn’t ever seem like there was less of it on your plate.

Declan was something else altogether. She replayed the way he’d swooped her up in his arms like she was as light as a dried leaf. She remembered the strength in his grip when he’d held her on the playground. He was full-bodied whiskey, with a hint of chili powder.

A deep exhale escaped her at the thought. She slid her hands over her abdomen, suds skimming down her legs as the candlelight cast enchanting shadows across the scene.

And then she was in the dark.

Rosie froze before realizing that the breeze must have snuffed out her candle. She sighed into the darkness, not wanting to break the spell she had been under and get out of the bath yet.

She explored her body like it was a city she’d once known well but had lost her way in recently. Strangely, her touch didn’t feel like her own touch. Her hands felt somehow larger and rougher, even though that was impossible. Her mind focused on a crooked smile, smoky jade green eyes, and a head of shaggy ginger hair that she longed to pull.

When her release came, she felt like she was coming alive again. All the tension of the past few years—leaving Randy, worrying for her daughter and herself—melted into a mellowness that she’d never known. She sighed again, but it was a lighter and more contented sound than before. Rosie ran her hands through the cooling water and then up over her face. The sensation was liberating, and she felt more like herself than she had for decades.

And when Rosie opened her eyes, the candle was burning once more.

The recipe said to cast the spell at midnight. Rosie took her charm and the carton of salt and set them down by the front door, preparing herself for the next step. She had half considered ignoring it, but it was supposedly the most important part. She took a deep breath and stripped out of her daily jeans-and-tee combo until she was completely nude. And then she picked up her ingredients and stepped out onto the porch.

The charm was to go in the mailbox, which was at the end of the driveway, so she decided to do that bit last. While it was unlikely that anyone would be driving through the woods in the middle of the night, Rosie needed to build a little confidence first. She began on the porch, tipping the carton of salt so that a thin trickle poured on the ground. She tried to remember the chant, kicking herself for not having written it down.

“Mother Moon, please hear my call

Let your light upon me fall

Shine your shield upon my home

And follow me elsewhere I roam

Charge with power this simple charm

Guard against those who mean harm…”

She continued the incantation, doing a wide circle around the perimeter of her home. She reached the mailbox at last and popped the charm into it.

“By earth and flame and wind and sea As I pray so may it be.”

A gentle breeze sprung up into the tops of the oak trees surrounding the house like a whisper of approval. The Spanish moss drifted in slow-moving waves. Rosie was so distracted by its beauty she forgot she was standing stark naked on the side of the road. And then she heard a branch snap in the brush right across from her.

She froze, not knowing whether to scream or bolt. Everything was silent until a rustling sound, and moving bushes proved that she was not imagining things. Rosie opened her mouth, but her voice caught in the back of her throat. She took a large gulp of air and was about to scream when a creature snuck out of the woods.

Almost entirely white except for its black head and paws, she almost mistook it for a small dog or cat. That was, until the black face and white stripe gave it away for what it really was: a skunk. It peered at her lazily, black eyes full and child-like in the moonlight. She slipped one arm protectively across her boobs to hide them from its inquisitive gaze, her other hand dropping to cover her lady parts, Eve style.

“Shoo!” she called to the creature, but it took no notice of her. It merely waddled forward across her path, until two small kits caught up to her. They all turned to stare at her, mama and her two babes.

“Er—” she began, unsure of the situation. “Um… good skunks? I’ma... erm... just... gah!”

“Rosie?” Declan’s voice drifted across the garden to her, and she felt her breath catch in the back of her throat. She snatched a branch of the bush, pulling it against her skin like a shield.

“What?” she called back in an exaggerated whisper.

“Ready?”

Taking a deep breath that she immediately let out again once she noticed it made it look like her bosom was heaving, Rosie steeled herself. “I guess,” she muttered.

When he spoke again, Declan sounded much closer than before. “What?”

“I said yes!” she yelped, moving closer to the bush as she tried to see where he was standing. She could almost make him out, standing on the lawn a few yards away.

He paused, and it seemed like he wanted to say something but then thought better of it. “Okay, you go around the house in a clockwise direction – I’ll go anti-clockwise. Like you did the first time, only this time with more intent. Between the two of us, we should be able to double-charge the wards.”

In her head, Rosie was already planning the route she would take to get maximum coverage. She wasn’t sure whether success in this instance would be having wards strong enough to keep Randy and his men at bay or by being able to run around the house completely nude without Declan seeing her. At last, she replied with a terse, “Okay,” and bent down to retrieve the carton of rock-salt by her abandoned flip-flops.

“Great. Let’s go.”

He didn’t need to tell her twice. Rosie turned her back on him and adopted a weird lope that was equal parts skipping and running, trying not to knock herself out with her jiggling boobs. She gave up three paces into her crossing of the lawn. Scooping her breasts up with one arm across her chest, she clutched her carton of salt with the other. She sprinkled as she galloped but forgot that she was also supposed to be chanting until she reached the relative comfort of the oak tree garden bed in the middle of the lawn.

“Shit,” she huffed, trying to catch her breath from her first effort. She turned to face the trunk of the tree, standing close enough so that it would cover the front of her body from view. Sprinkling salt around the base clockwise, Rosie reached around the trunk, almost like she was hugging the tree, and passed the salt carton to herself.

“Mother Moon, please hear my call,” she began, straining to remember the chant. “Uhh... I don’t remember the rest at all!”

Her admission forced an unexpected giggle out of her, which she stifled by clapping her hand over her mouth. When she was sure that she wouldn’t laugh again, she decided that honesty would be the best policy and that it was time for some real talk.

“Look, Mother Moon,” she said, feeling ridiculous. “I don’t remember this chant, and it seems kind of dumb to say it anyway. You know my intentions – they're in my heart.” Rosie pursed her lips. “I need to protect my kid from her father, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to do it. Ain’t no intention purer than a mother’s love.”

She looked straight up into the full, clear moon, bright and white on the summer evening. “So please hear me. I need your help.”

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