Raven's Hollow Spring Magic by Tena Stetler

It’s my great pleasure to welcome Tena Stetler back to the blog this week to talk about her latest book Raven’s Hollow Spring Magic. This book is part of the Jelly Beans and Spring Things anthology. You may remember Tena from her last blog post Security Force of Two.

Raven's Hollow Spring Magic

11 Reasons to Read Tena Stetlers’s Raven’s Hollow Spring Magic

Find out what makes Raven’s Hollow so unique.
Find out who is missing and what happened.
What about the adorable dog, Cocoa? Where did she come from?
Was the ancient jelly bean machine to blame?
You love spring time.
You love tales with happily ever after endings.
You love stories set in a small town with quirky townspeople.
You love mystery stories and time travel.
The action, adventure, and magic will keep you turning pages.
Find out what happened in 1861 that intrigued the characters.
You enjoy stories with twist and turns, and engaging characters.

Background Info for Raven’s Hollow Spring Magic

Spring is in full bloom in Raven’s Hollow, a small town in the Colorado Rockies with a population of unique townspeople. Blaze, a dragon shifter, and Wynter, a witch, are neck-deep in wedding preparations, when Wynter’s mother, Jade, goes missing after opening her new antique store, and attending the Simon estate sale where she procured an ancient jelly bean machine. Frantic with worry, Blaze and Wynter track her last movements via the store’s ancient, grainy, security footage. What it reveals is nothing short of shocking. As deputy sheriff, it’s Blaze’s responsibility to find his soon-to-be mother-in-law. But at what cost?

Raven’s Hollow Spring Magic revisits the same quirky town and some of the same unusual characters from Meringue Snowflake Magic. Then add in a few new quirky characters, a romance, a mysterious ancient jelly bean machine, a disappearance, and time travel and poof you have a new and exciting tale. I love jelly beans. Don’t you? I guarantee after reading Raven’s Hollow Spring Magic, you’ll never look at jelly beans the same way again. See the trailer for Raven’s Hollow Spring Magic now. Buy it here as well as these other options for buy links –

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ravens-Hollow-Spring-Magic-Things-ebook/dp/B0C43XYQ5P

Barnes& Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ravens-hollow-spring-magic-tena-stetler/1143427010?ean=2940160979014

Ibooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/ravens-hollow-spring-magic/id6448729654

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/raven-s-hollow-spring-magic-jelly-beans-and-spring-things-by-tena-stetler

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/146782568-raven-s-hollow-spring-magic

What Readers are Saying…

Recommended and rated this book 5 stars

Cyber security expert and witch Wynter is now in witness protection along with her fiancé, her family, and her best friend, but her new life in a new town isn’t as safe and uneventful as she planned. After her mom buys an antique jelly bean machine and accidentally time travels to the past, Wynter and her yummy man Blaze must find a way to save her and keep their wedding plans on track.

This is a fun, cute romance with a hefty splash of magic and adventure. I love time travel books, so all the scenes set in 1861 really captured my attention. Although Wynter and Blaze met and fell in love in a previous book, that book was recapped here, so new readers shouldn’t have any problem following along with this one. Tena Stetler’s new paranormal romance, Raven’s Hollow Spring Magic, is a great read for when you need to kick back and relax. 5 Stars

– Amber Daulton

An Excerpt from Raven’s Hollow Spring Magic

“Jade isn’t here?” Syndi glanced around.

“Nope. She probably forgot. There are so many things going on at the moment.” Wynter chewed nervously on her bottom lip.

Blaze wandered the show room, then stepped behind the counter and jiggled the cash register. The cash drawer popped open. “Hey Wynter, does your mom always keep this much money in the drawer?” He held up a stack of twenty dollar bills bundled together with a rubber band. “All the other denominations are like this. Not to mention the drawer is unlocked.”

Wynder scooted behind the counter and stared in the drawer. “No. She takes the cash drawer out of the safe in the morning, counts out what she believes she needs for the day, and returns the rest of the money to the safe. At night, she makes a deposit of the days earnings. It appears she got the drawer out for the days business, but didn’t get any further.” She pursed her lips, forehead creased in concern, and glanced around nervously. “What could have happened to her?”

“First thing is to secure the register. Let’s return it to the safe. The worse that could happen is she’ll fuss at you for interfering in her business. At which time you’ll counter with her irresponsible actions of leaving the store unlocked, the cash drawer unsecured, and full of currency.” He shook his head disapprovingly.

“Mom does make a habit of going for coffee with her new friends in the morning. But she always locks up and puts a sign on the door with the time of her return. She’s kinda sweet on the hardware store owner. She likes his irish accent. Never would she leave the store like this.”

Cody strode to the door. “I’ll go check with Duncan over at Walsh’s Hardware.”

“Wait.” Wynter started after him. “No use…”

“Let him go. The sooner we find her, the better, innocent or not.” His voice held a hint of foreboding.

Wynter didn’t like the implications. “She’s probably just off visiting.”

Syndi planted her hands on hips and shook her head. “You know better.” She wandered into the back storage room. “Hey you guys, better come take a look at this.”

On the work bench was a large bag of jelly beans. Next to the candy, rested a book entitled the History of Jelly Beans. The novel was open to a page indicating William Schrafft, a sweet maker from Boston, invented the jelly bean in the 1800’s.

Wynter and Blaze skirted the antique jelly been machine to take a peek at the book. Wynter flipped a few pages then returned to the original open page.

“When did your mom get this?” Blaze ran his fingers lightly over the machine’s glass globe, knelt and touched the coin slot. “The metal work on this candy machine is extraordinary. Look here, a dragon is carved into what looks like gold all the way around the base of machine. The twist handle is carved into the dragon’s tale even portraying the creatures scales. Talons hold the coin box in the back. This was quite a find for your mom. Probably will bring a kings ransom from the right buyer.”

“She mentioned wanting to show me the treasures she found at auction or an estate sale. The jelly bean machine was going to be the pride of the store. Wasn’t going to sell it.”

“Does it work?” He dropped in a penny and twisted the handle. A couple jelly beans rolled out. “Is that all? ”He jiggled the handle. It turned another quarter turn and gears whirred. The glass globe sparkled, etchings of the countries around the world appeared as it tilted and slid to the side. On the other side a control panel slid out revealing a panel filled with tokens in the center. The group gasped and silence ensued for several beats.

“What the heck?” flew out of Wynter’s mouth as she clutched at her chest. With her other hand, she reached out to touch the machine only to have her hand slapped away with a pair of black gloves Blaze had pulled out of his pocket.

“No one else touch this.” He slipped on the protective gloves and removed one of the tokens holding it up to the light. “Its inscribed in latin around the outside. My Latin may be rusty, but rursus in tempore means a turn in time.” He picked up another token and read the inscription. “Fatum suum aspicientis moderatur – Beholder controls it’s destiny.” Carefully, he returned the tokens to their slots turning his attention to the control panel. “Look here…”

“There is a place or slot for one token in the control panel. You don’t suppose this is a—

The front door burst open and closed quickly. “Hey guys, Duncan said Wynter’s mom stopped by this morning to say hi. Brought him a cup of coffee.” Cody paused for a moment. “Where are you guys?” He stuck his head through the beaded curtain and gave a low whistle. “What you got there?” Cody strode to the workbench.

Syndi grabbed his arm. “No closer.”

“Why? Anyway as I was saying, Jade was finishing up entering the inventory into the computer and had a unique item she wanted to show Duncan after her meeting with you and Wynter. That was the last time he saw her.”

“I smelled the faint scent of magic when the machine opened.” She stared at Blaze. With a slight tremor in her voice she asked, “You’re not going to tell me that my mother disappeared in time?— Are you?”

Cody’s mouth dropped open and his eyes widened. “What’s going on?”

Syndi leaned over. “We’re not sure, but— “

“I don’t know what to think at the moment. But we need to close the shop and lock the front door. Hang a sign in the window that she’ll be gone for a few days. Did your mother turn on the old surveillance system?”

“I don’t know. I told her to. But you know her.” Wynter raised her arms and let them drop to her sides. “What about the vampire woman, Mrs. Roost? Wasn’t Mom supposed to contact her about the chess set?”

“That’s where I’m going to start. We’re going to pay her a visit as soon as we put this jelly bean machine back to it’s original position. I saw her card laying next to the cash register.”

“I’ll get it.” Wynter rushed to the show room with Syndi on her heels.

“Wyn, I need to get to work. Unless you need me here.” Syndi glanced toward the door.

“You go on to work, I’ll keep you updated. Don’t say a word to anyone. Don’t want Jess or Tammy to get wind of this yet. I’m still holding out hope Mom’s in town somewhere.”

Syndi raised an eyebrow and looked dubious. “Okay. Don’t you make a move with that jelly bean machine without talking to me. Don’t need you and Blaze going poof too.” She made a star burst motion with her hands.

Snatching the card off the counter, she walked her best friend to the door. “I promise.” Then she winked at Syndi. “You and Cody are getting pretty cozy.”

“Maybe.” Her friend flounced out the door.

Wynter started to close the door.

Cody scrambled out of the backroom and rushed toward the door. “Syndi, wait for me.” He paused only a moment. “Blaze wants me to cover for him today. Gotta go.”

Dark storm clouds gathered on the horizon as she closed and locked the door behind him. With her back leaning on the door, she blew out a breath. What has Mom gotten herself into? She searched the store for a piece of paper and wrote in big red letters, GONE FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS ANTIQUING. BE BACK SOON. Huge raindrops hit the window as she hung the sign. We’re in for a thunderstorm. No sooner than the thought crossed her mind, a loud clap of thunder shook the building and lightning streaked across the darkened sky. “Blaze.” She sprinted to the back room and found him bent over the still open machine with a flashlight.

“Look at this.” He narrowed the light beam to an empty slot and held a token in his hand.

She peered at the writing in the empty slot. “What’s that mean? I never liked latin. Though I use it in a few spells.”

“Monitum ne perdatis indicium—nullo modo retro. Translation…Warning don’t lose your token— no way back.”

Re-introducing the Amazing Tena Stetler

Raven's Hollow Spring Magic author Tena Stetler

Tena Stetler is a best-selling author of award winning paranormal romance/mystery with an over-active imagination. She wrote her first vampire romance as a tween, to the chagrin of her mother and the delight of her friends. Colorado is home; shared with her husband, a brilliant Chow Chow, a spoiled parrot and a forty-five-year-old box turtle. When she’s not writing, her time is spent kayaking, camping, hiking, biking or just relaxing in the great Colorado outdoors.

Her books tell tales of magical kick-ass women and mystical alpha males that dare to love them. Travel, adventure, and a bit of mystery flourish in her books along with a few companion animals to round out the tales.

She has books in other anthologies as well such as An Angel’s Wylder Assignment in the Wylder West Anthology.