Spellbound in Seattle was a Golden Heart finalist last year. It’s not hard to see why. Garthia Anderson’s writing is strong and polished, and in her first novel she’s fashioned a creative, original story. It’s an admirable first effort, even if it is not an entirely successful one.

The story is set in an alternate version of our world where magical and nonmagical beings coexist. Petra Field is a recent transplant to Seattle, a major hub for magical activity on the West Coast. The child of two wizards, but nonmagical herself, Petra would be happy to keep her life magic-free. But when an enchanted bloodstain appears on her living room rug a mere hour before her new co-workers are set to arrive for a party, she has no choice but to seek out a magical solution.

No sooner does she call one wizard agency than its main competitor arrives on her doorstep, eager to solve her dilemma. Their efforts prove unsuccessful, forcing them to summon a far more powerful wizard, Vorador. The darkly intimidating Vorador immediately inspires what’s-he-wearing-under-that-robe thoughts from an intrigued Petra. Unfortunately, the situation is too complicated even for him, forcing a temporary solution in the form of an invisibility spell to prevent anyone from noticing the blood.

It’s truly a stop-gap measure, as Petra learns the next morning when she discovers a hole leading to parts unknown where the blood used to be. When first her cat, then Vorador, disappear into the hole, Petra goes after them. Inside this nether realm, they learn the truth about the mysterious stain. The blood belongs to the rug’s previous owner, an Amazon who was murdered – or so Vorador led everyone to believe. However she is only partly dead, her soul still trapped in her body, and the only way she can be revived is with the blood of her attacker.

Spellbound in Seattle unfolds in that kind of offbeat, madcap manner. It’s a fun book, mainly because of the world Anderson has created. The author has a firm grip on her fictional universe and it’s interesting to see where this story will go and what exactly is possible there. Her writing is strong, the dialogue snappy. The story is fairly light and doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously. Despite the potential for High Drama, she delivers a comedic romp. Many of the original touches are nicely done. The scenes in the hole are particular stand-outs.

While often entertaining, the book isn’t totally satisfying. The romance is minimal, often overshadowed by the hijinks of the paranormal plot. What romance there is seems to be based entirely in lust, which makes the final declarations of love and the characters’ actions in the closing chapters unbelievable. They haven’t known each other that long and haven’t shared enough meaningful interactions to give the impression they are close to being in love.

The mystery is a nonstarter. Given what is revealed about the murder from the start, it seems obvious who was responsible. The villain is also introduced as so obviously bad I thought this person had to be a red herring. Instead, the mystery and its resolution are so simple the reader is left watching the characters run around, unable to see a solution that couldn’t be more obvious. And while likable, neither Vorador nor Petra is particularly deep, and one running gag involving fire never struck me as all that funny – it grew irritating.

The book also has some pacing problems. To put it simply, it wore me out at times. The plot summary above is a good example of how much of it unfolds. Most of the chapters are made up of one long scene, which leads directly into the next long scene, which leads right into the next long scene, and so forth. Occasionally a few minutes or hours will be skipped. Otherwise the story seems to go on and on and on and on for several chapters at a time without any variation in the pace. It’s overly busy, at least until things begin to break up somewhat in the final third of the book.

Those problems are not overwhelming, and Spellbound in Seattle has much to offer It is appealingly cute and different, but suffers from enough flaws that I can’t really recommend it. That said, however, if there were ever a sequel set in the same world, I wouldn’t hesitate to pick it up.