In a Nutshell Reviews

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The Magic All Around by Jennifer Moorman
Published by Harper Muse on January 16, 2024
Age/Genres: Adult, Enchanted Realism

Goodreads

In this latest enchanting novel from bestselling magical realism author Jennifer Moorman, a treasure hunt through the past reveals one woman’s extraordinary gift for arranging the future.

The Russell women have always lived in a house that is as special as they are—a century-old Victorian with a radio that tunes itself to the listener’s mood and a pantry that rearranges to provide just the right ingredients for any baking need. Lilith Russell was the exception. She left the family home in Ivy Ridge, Georgia, and has been flitting like a hummingbird from place to place with her daughter, Mattie, in the decades since, only returning each summer to drop Mattie off with Lilith’s sister, Penelope.

When Lilith dies suddenly, Mattie is left without her sole companion and the captain who steered her ship. That is, until she visits Ivy Ridge and learns Lilith charted one last course for Mattie: a series of tasks that she must complete to earn her inheritance, with Penelope overseeing the process.

Both Mattie and Penelope are outraged by Lilith’s seemingly random stipulations: throw a Halloween party, take a local pizza cooking class, share secrets with someone . . . But Mattie soon realizes that if she completes the tasks, she may unearth her mother’s secrets, including the identity of Mattie’s father. She may also discover more about the Russell family “gifts” and why Lilith chose Penelope’s former love to be the executor of the will. She may even learn how and why Jonathan Carlisle, the boy who stole her heart ten summers ago, also happens to be back in town.

Mattie can only hope that Lilith’s final map will finally point her home.

Following her mother's untimely death, Mattie was feeling lost. After spending years accompanying her mother from place to place, Mattie was on her own to decide what was next. But before she had to make those decisions, she had to complete a set of tasks left by her mother in order to inherit her trust. What seemed like a meaningless exercise may be the very thing that brings Mattie the clarity she was seeking.

This year, I have read so many wonderful books in this sub-genre. I was always a contemporary reader, but it seems a touch of magic goes a long way with me. It was a treat learning about the Russell women's talents and seeing them in action, but I think it was the sentient house that was my favorite magical element here. That house had an agenda, and I was fully supportive of it. Aside from that, the house was simply a special place. It was a place of love and healing, but I could also say that about the town of Ivy Ridge.

When I was a teen, we moved from Brooklyn to a one-square mile town in New Jersey. I thought it would be the death of me, but I see it differently through adult-eyes. It reminds me of Ivy Ridge, one of the those towns that teens can't wait to flee, but when they look back on it all, they realize they were lucky to have grown up in such a lovely place. It was a "home" with a supportive community, and for both Mattie and Jonathan, it was a place where they could find themselves.  

This book had so many elements that I adore. Themes of grief, healing, second chance love, family and friendship were all elevated by a bit of magic. I found myself fully engrossed in Mattie's personal journey, cheering for her and Jonathan as they figured out different aspects of their lives, and hoping for Penelope to reconnect with her past. With some delightful surprises and many sweet and tender moments, this book left me in an elated state while reminding me that there is magic all around.

*ARC PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER

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The One That Got Away by Charlotte Rixon
Published by St. Martin's Press on August 15, 2023
Age/Genres: Adult, Fiction

Goodreads

Two years together. Twenty years apart.
One day to change their story.

2000. Benjamin’s world is turned upside down the night he meets Clara. Instinctively, he knows that they are meant for each other, but a devastating mistake on their last night at university will take their lives in very different directions.

20 years later, Clara has a high-profile job and a handsome husband. But despite the trappings of success, she isn't happy, and she knows that a piece of her heart still belongs to Benjamin, the boy she fell in love with years earlier. The boy whose life she fears she ruined.

When a bombing is reported in the city where they first met, Clara is pulled back to a place she tries not to remember and the first love she could never forget. Searching for Benjamin, Clara is forced to confront the events that tore them apart. But is it too late to put right what went wrong?

Across the miles and spanning decades, Charlotte Rixon's The One That Got Away is a sweeping, poignant story about growing up, growing apart, the people who first steal our hearts, and the surprising, winding roads that love can take us on, for readers of Jill Santopolo, Rosie Walsh, and Colleen Hoover.

I love stories about second chances and possibilities, and I got both with The One That Got Away.

This story began twenty years after something traumatic caused the end of Clara and Benjamin's relationship. A bomb was set off in the football stadium where Benjamin could be found every weekend. Shook by the possibility that he could be one of the casualties, Clara returned to the town where they fell in love in hopes of finding him alive.

The story flipped between different points in the past and the present. I watched Clara and Benjamin fall in love, I glimpsed their lives post breakup, and eventually, I learned what drove them apart. I was pretty surprised, but Rixon had some other surprises in store for me as well. I struggled with calling this a romance, though I would call it a love story without hesitation.

It was easy to get swept up in Clara and Benjamin's story and the throes of first love. The idea that their love for each other still flickered after twenty years set my heart aflame. I was definitely cheering them to reunite.

This was a story of love, loss, what-ifs, and heartbreak. It was also a story about finding yourself and second chances which kept me captivated from beginning to end.

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