A romance / fantasy / murder mystery / family drama novel, with some sweet family interactions, but there is a lot of info dumping needed to give the newcomer protagonist, Alex, and thus the reader, the background needed to make soap, identify all the scents in a perfume, worry about the barista’s love life, make progress in the murder investigation focused on her aunt, match wits with the handsome detective who invited her to dinner just before accusing her aunt of murder, and follow up on the nosy local reporter’s weird obsession with the possible witch / mermaid ancestry of the main character’s family.

Gave up when I reached the point where Alex is described as having grown to like the barista at her coffee shop after a week in town. Alex knows the barista’s educational background, romantic history, and personality traits. Those must have been really in-depth coffee orders.