Olivia Kiskey has been working at the same New York waffle house since she was a teenager. She's been in love with the same man for the last four years; he's never made a move. Every Saturday night she meets up with the same friends over the same margaritas for the same old stories.
But now everything is about to change. Magic is coming to Olivia's town... and she will be drawn into an age old battle between dark and light that will threaten everyone and everything she loves. To save them, she'll need to step up and fight the demons of her past and present. It's time to discover who she really is - time to let lose the latent talents she's held in check for so long...
The Review:
Liv is ready to pack up and escape her life. She's in a rut and has just thrown herself at the guy she likes, only to have him reject her. There's nothing keeping her in town until a mysterious lady throws a stinky gym sock at her. With that bizarre occurrence, more strange things begin to happen and Liv discovers not only does she have magic, but someone is out to steal it from her. Meanwhile, the guy she likes knows more than he's letting on!
I listened to the audiobook of A Little Night Magic just because it was read by Amanda Ronconi. She is such a fabulous narrator who really brings out the snark in paranormal romances like those of Molly Harper. So I figured I'd give this one a try. As usual, her narration was perfection.
There's a lot to like about the story too, but it's definitely no Molly Harper.
The romance itself is tricky, because Tobias is gorgeous, completely devoted to Liv and just that sweet, sexy mix I love. But he's keeping a huge secret from her - apparently for her safety, but I didn't really buy that. So I wanted to love them together, but really struggled to forgive him for that.
As for Liv herself. She's fun and quirky, so the Amanda Ronconi narration really suited. The problem was that I found her just too foolish. It's really clear from early on (or at least it was to me), who the villain is, and I thought it should have been apparent to Liv, but she trusts this stranger for no reason. She also does a number of other inexcusably stupid things and I just couldn't quite cope with it. It was like one of those moments when you're screaming at the girl in the horror movie to just avoid the dark alley with the man in a clown mask! Just run away! And instead she walks straight to her doom.
The world building in the story, though, is actually really great. From the blurb I was expecting your run of the mill paranormal romance, but the magic element is quite unique and really charming. There's a character, for example, whose only magical ability is the ability to make delicious deserts from thin air. This really appealed to me. Hmm. Cake.
So, I had mixed feelings. If you want a paranormal romance with a unique magical element and don't get quite as frustrated as me by foolish heroines, then I'd recommend this one. But if, like me, your eReader/iPod is at risk of being thrown across the room when heroines walk blindly to their doom.. then maybe give it a miss.
A Little Night Magic by Lucy March is a paranormal romance, released by Piatkus on December 31, 2013.
Find this book at: Amazon | Audible | Goodreads
