Southern Belles and Spells Matchmaker Mystery Books in Order

This series moves the action to Witch's Forge, a magical town tucked in Tennessee's Smoky Mountains, and gives the spotlight to Charming Calhoun. She arrives with a successful matchmaking business and the reasonable expectation that life will stay somewhat orderly. Witch's Forge immediately proves otherwise.

The town is broken in the best possible way.

Magic backfires. Houses behave strangely. Broomsticks develop attitudes. A pig with opinions can matter just as much as a suspect. Boyles uses all of that to give the series a slightly zanier texture than some of her Alabama-set books, though the mystery structure stays steady.

Charming works well as a lead because she is polished and practical, which makes Witch's Forge hit her even harder. Very quickly she is dealing with a missing employee, then murder, and then the added irritation of having to work alongside a vampire chief of police. Their tension gives the books a romantic thread without taking over the mystery.

The setting does a lot of work here. Witch's Forge feels a little more unruly than Magnolia Cove, less cozy on the surface and more likely to throw something magical and rude in your path. That keeps the cases lively.

If you want paranormal cozies with matchmaking, mountain-town weirdness, and a heroine who has to keep adjusting her idea of normal, this is a fun corner of Boyles's world.