Eat, Pray, Hex: A Magical Start to Tara Lush’s Crescent Moon Mysteries

There are some cozy mystery series where you finish the first book and immediately know you want to spend more time with the characters. Eat, Pray, Hex by Tara Lush was one of those books for me.

Published in October 2023, Eat, Pray, Hex introduced readers to Amelia Matthews, the wonderfully named Freddie Purrcury, the Crescent Moon Inn, and the strange little Florida town of Cypress Grove.

It also began what has now grown into a nine-book main series, with Hungry Like the Hex, the ninth Crescent Moon Mystery, published in March 2026.

What makes this such a strong first book is that we get far more than a simple murder to solve. Amelia is immediately relatable, with a life that is interesting and well-rounded, as we get to experience all the ups and downs of her journey with her.

And, of course, there’s the little matter of the paranormal side of Cypress Grove, which is wonderfully subtle without taking over the mystery.

It is funny, warm, slightly strange, and very easy to settle into. Basically, it ticks an awful lot of my cozy mystery boxes!

What Is Eat, Pray, Hex About?

So let’s get into the plot of Eat, Pray, Hex so you can decide if the Crescent Moon Mysteries should be on your TBR list (they really should be!).

Amelia Matthews has had a pretty dire run of things. She is a middle-aged woman dealing with hot flashes, who recently lost her successful cookie business to her husband in their divorce, and is now wondering how on earth she is going to start her life over from scratch.

Then she inherits an inn from her deceased Aunt Shirley in a town called Cypress Grove in Florida. Amelia had very little connection to her aunt and cannot remember much about the time she spent in Cypress Grove as a child.

Her plan is therefore fairly simple. Go to Florida, deal with the property and sell it, but unfortunately for her, the Crescent Moon Inn comes with a few complications.

For starters, there is a ghost called Billy causing problems, and he isn’t simply hanging around quietly either. Previous guests have given terrible reviews of the Inn (and the ghostly noises) so much so that there are currently no bookings, which makes the property rather difficult to operate.

Then Amelia starts having strange experiences of her own, and it gradually becomes clear that she has psychic abilities, something her aunt apparently knew considerably more about than she did herself.

She begins experiencing visions connected to objects and the past, leading her towards a decades-old murder linked to the inn.

Rather than quickly selling up and heading home, Amelia finds herself investigating what happened, helped by some of Cypress Grove’s more unusual residents.

Among them is local historian Oliver Everhart, who also provides the possibility of a little romance, his sister Sage, inn employee Jimbo, and Amelia’s new friend Liz.

And then, of course, there is Freddie Purrcury. Frankly, any cozy mystery cat with a name that good deserves a mention.

The Paranormal Side Really Works

I don’t always need paranormal elements in my cozy mysteries, but I thoroughly enjoyed them here because they feel like a natural part of Cypress Grove.

It’s very low-key, and the ghosts, psychic powers, and supernatural residents are part of the fun of the story – a bit like the TV show The Ghost Whisperer with Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Cypress Grove itself is known for its psychic community, and Amelia quickly learns that what seems strange to her is perfectly normal to most of the people around her.

Her powers appear gradually, and much of the book is about Amelia trying to understand what is happening to her and using it to solve Billy’s mystery so he can move on to the great beyond, and she can finally get some guests back in the Inn.

Why Eat, Pray, Hex Gets The Thumbs Up

For me, the strongest part of Eat, Pray, Hex is Amelia herself. She is funny, sometimes unsure of herself, and at a point in life where she is having to work out what comes next.

The paranormal side may not be relatable for most of us, but the rest certainly is.

Plans change. Relationships end. Jobs disappear. Families keep secrets. Sometimes life simply heads in a completely different direction from the one you expected, so her arrival in Cypress Grove feels like a lovely shiny new door opening for a fresh start.

I also loved the supporting characters, a group of friends who like her and immediately have her back, rather than because the plot requires a collection of amateur detectives.

With a great protagonist, lovely friends, a haunted inn, a quirky paranormal town, and a decades-old murder to be solved, it ticks all the right boxes.

A Mystery That Builds the Series

The actual murder mystery in Eat, Pray, Hex is relatively gentle. It centers on a cold case that lets Amelia feel out her newfound psychic abilities.

Book two, I Want Your Hex, picks things up with Amelia preparing for a group of bridesmaids at the inn, only for one of them to be murdered during a spooky swamp walk.

In other words, the stage has been very nicely set.

I finished the book really wanting to know what happens next for Amelia, and with nine main books now available, that is thankfully a very easy problem to solve.

So, if you like your cozy mysteries with ghosts, psychic powers, humor, friendship, and just enough magic to make everything slightly strange, Eat, Pray, Hex, by Tara Lush, is a very good place to start.