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Have a Magical Day
Customer service blows. Especially when your heart is on the line if you don't turn a temperamental wizard's failing shop around in three months.
After getting evicted from her apartment, Val finds herself at the mercy of her new boss with an aversion to touch. She is living with him and teaching him the rules of customer service. But Grimaldi Briarwood has an unfortunate reputation for being a monster, thanks to his unpleasant attitude and permanent scowl, so getting the public to come into the store is a task in itself.
As for Grim, he might actually be the monster everyone thinks he is. What with his murderous tendencies and his inability to tolerate stupidity. He wants to kill Valeria and eat her heart, but that’s becoming harder to do as he finds himself unable to get that infuriating woman out of his mind.
And that was their biggest challenge until they found themselves facing off with a rival wizard, Finneas Welsh, who revealed that Grim was on the run after deserting his post as a High Wizard. An act of treason in this realm. With Finneas came a new challenge, a bet to see whoever could sell out of their inventory first. If Grim and Val win, he will leave. If they lose, Finneas gets Val and Grim’s fate is in his hands. With the help of friends, and half their inventory already sold, they might just have what it takes to defeat him at his own game. If Grim doesn’t find a way to ruin it.
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy meets Legends and Lattes in this laugh out loud, Cozy Fantasy/rom-com where a careless deal might be the catalyst for a chance at a happily ever after.
After getting evicted from her apartment, Val finds herself at the mercy of her new boss with an aversion to touch. She is living with him and teaching him the rules of customer service. But Grimaldi Briarwood has an unfortunate reputation for being a monster, thanks to his unpleasant attitude and permanent scowl, so getting the public to come into the store is a task in itself.
As for Grim, he might actually be the monster everyone thinks he is. What with his murderous tendencies and his inability to tolerate stupidity. He wants to kill Valeria and eat her heart, but that’s becoming harder to do as he finds himself unable to get that infuriating woman out of his mind.
And that was their biggest challenge until they found themselves facing off with a rival wizard, Finneas Welsh, who revealed that Grim was on the run after deserting his post as a High Wizard. An act of treason in this realm. With Finneas came a new challenge, a bet to see whoever could sell out of their inventory first. If Grim and Val win, he will leave. If they lose, Finneas gets Val and Grim’s fate is in his hands. With the help of friends, and half their inventory already sold, they might just have what it takes to defeat him at his own game. If Grim doesn’t find a way to ruin it.
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy meets Legends and Lattes in this laugh out loud, Cozy Fantasy/rom-com where a careless deal might be the catalyst for a chance at a happily ever after.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 8, 2024
Have A Magical Day is a cozy romantic comedy, starring two POVs. One is a disillusioned former art student desperate not to have to get a real job with her family's giant company and give up her art. The other is an older, male wizard who runs the one magic shop in town and who is looking for someone to pay the cost of his magic with their heart.
In the beginning, he hires her to work at his magic shop and the story hinges on a wager they make. She promises to make the business busy in three months and if she fails, he gets her heart.
The largest portion of the story is the moment to moment unfolding of their relationship, and while it mellows out later in the book once they do some confessing of feelings, the beginning is banter, arguments and stomping out of rooms.
Eventually, of course, they end up together, but it's a pleasant surprise that they also end up supporting one another and being kind. But it's hard to see how they are going to get there when you get started.
The book has got solid structure and solid writing. It's easy to trust that the author is going somewhere worth going. It is fast-paced and chock-full of banter and teasing- for-the-reader sexy moments as well as will they/won't they emotional bits. And magic is handled well, too; it is a costly and finite resource directly tied into the plot, so it doesn't feel like an afterthought. There's also a very nice implied happily-ever-after.
But I didn't love the book. One reason for that is technical. The others boil down mainly to personal preference.
The one technical problem I found with Have A Magical Day is that it suffers from a case of white room syndrome. Very little space in the text is given to the setting.
It is a normal-life-with-magic-thrown-in type of setting where normal life doesn't need much description, but does need some description and there isn't much. But the implication of the plot and the roles of some of the characters is that magic is fairly important to that world, fairly central. Which creates questions for the reader. Where does the Normal Life end and the fantasy world begin? Streets, shops, apartments are all recognizable from our lives and don't need to be gone over excessively, but the place names aren't typical names and every city has a witch/wizard and a magic shop in it. And there's some sort of Royal authority for users of magic. None of that is particularly fleshed out. It leaves the impression that the drama unfolds in isolation. There's little context, little framing of the picture it paints.
As far as personal preference goes, I am an older reader living my own HEA, and I find my taste and tolerance for the red flags younger people are willing to put up with quite limited. I had enough of my own bad relationships that I don't savor reading about someone else's.
The problem for me, is that neither of the main characters has much self-awareness and no personal boundaries or ability to communicate. At the beginning of the book, the relationship reads a bit like a magical One Tree Hill episode. The male character is an anti-social psychopath and the female character is sweet and caring and slots right into his life like a puzzle piece from almost page one. She gets non-consensually pinned up against the wall again and again and never questions that or says no. Soon after they meet, she ends up homeless and her life depends on him. His magic is running out and so his life depends on her, but her plan is to help him and his plan is homicidal (and it takes him quite a while to get past this).
He is older, has status, and calls himself a monster (and is not lying when he calls himself that). Her love and sweetness redeem him. I'm sure some people will really enjoy "The Beauty and The Beast" of it all, but it is not my thing. It is the worst of hetero-normative fantasy tropes, in my opinion.
They have a strong attraction to each other, but the male character doesn't know what his feelings are and couldn't express them, if he did. The female character has more awareness of her feelings, but not much more. Their interactions are mostly bickering and misunderstanding each other with rare moments, at least in the first half of the book, of kindness and actual communication between them.
Later on, their dynamic softens and they admit their feelings to themselves and each other, and honestly, I will say he comes around and the Happily Ever After is set up pretty well.
You, dear reader, might not be bothered by any of these things. You might enjoy the bickering. You might find the boundary violations exciting or the bad boy/sweet girl dynamic compelling. And overall, except for the case of white room syndrome, it IS a solid book. The prose is good, structure good, plot good, the ending satisfying. I just didn't like the lack of development of the setting, and I didn't like the characters or their relationship to one another. For a story that is 95% relationship, not liking the relationship made it a no go for me.
In the beginning, he hires her to work at his magic shop and the story hinges on a wager they make. She promises to make the business busy in three months and if she fails, he gets her heart.
The largest portion of the story is the moment to moment unfolding of their relationship, and while it mellows out later in the book once they do some confessing of feelings, the beginning is banter, arguments and stomping out of rooms.
Eventually, of course, they end up together, but it's a pleasant surprise that they also end up supporting one another and being kind. But it's hard to see how they are going to get there when you get started.
The book has got solid structure and solid writing. It's easy to trust that the author is going somewhere worth going. It is fast-paced and chock-full of banter and teasing- for-the-reader sexy moments as well as will they/won't they emotional bits. And magic is handled well, too; it is a costly and finite resource directly tied into the plot, so it doesn't feel like an afterthought. There's also a very nice implied happily-ever-after.
But I didn't love the book. One reason for that is technical. The others boil down mainly to personal preference.
The one technical problem I found with Have A Magical Day is that it suffers from a case of white room syndrome. Very little space in the text is given to the setting.
It is a normal-life-with-magic-thrown-in type of setting where normal life doesn't need much description, but does need some description and there isn't much. But the implication of the plot and the roles of some of the characters is that magic is fairly important to that world, fairly central. Which creates questions for the reader. Where does the Normal Life end and the fantasy world begin? Streets, shops, apartments are all recognizable from our lives and don't need to be gone over excessively, but the place names aren't typical names and every city has a witch/wizard and a magic shop in it. And there's some sort of Royal authority for users of magic. None of that is particularly fleshed out. It leaves the impression that the drama unfolds in isolation. There's little context, little framing of the picture it paints.
As far as personal preference goes, I am an older reader living my own HEA, and I find my taste and tolerance for the red flags younger people are willing to put up with quite limited. I had enough of my own bad relationships that I don't savor reading about someone else's.
The problem for me, is that neither of the main characters has much self-awareness and no personal boundaries or ability to communicate. At the beginning of the book, the relationship reads a bit like a magical One Tree Hill episode. The male character is an anti-social psychopath and the female character is sweet and caring and slots right into his life like a puzzle piece from almost page one. She gets non-consensually pinned up against the wall again and again and never questions that or says no. Soon after they meet, she ends up homeless and her life depends on him. His magic is running out and so his life depends on her, but her plan is to help him and his plan is homicidal (and it takes him quite a while to get past this).
He is older, has status, and calls himself a monster (and is not lying when he calls himself that). Her love and sweetness redeem him. I'm sure some people will really enjoy "The Beauty and The Beast" of it all, but it is not my thing. It is the worst of hetero-normative fantasy tropes, in my opinion.
They have a strong attraction to each other, but the male character doesn't know what his feelings are and couldn't express them, if he did. The female character has more awareness of her feelings, but not much more. Their interactions are mostly bickering and misunderstanding each other with rare moments, at least in the first half of the book, of kindness and actual communication between them.
Later on, their dynamic softens and they admit their feelings to themselves and each other, and honestly, I will say he comes around and the Happily Ever After is set up pretty well.
You, dear reader, might not be bothered by any of these things. You might enjoy the bickering. You might find the boundary violations exciting or the bad boy/sweet girl dynamic compelling. And overall, except for the case of white room syndrome, it IS a solid book. The prose is good, structure good, plot good, the ending satisfying. I just didn't like the lack of development of the setting, and I didn't like the characters or their relationship to one another. For a story that is 95% relationship, not liking the relationship made it a no go for me.
October 13, 2024
What a cozy fun lightheaded read. Between the banter and the stubbornness of our main characters and plenty of room for all the things to come I look forward to reading more.
It’s quite different than what I normally read with magical elements in a seemingly ordinary world.
Plenty of laughs, and heart swelling moments to be had between the pages of Have A Magical Day with much more to come as sadly…we’re left dangling from a cliff with the climax and resolution still to come.
That being said, I’m happy to wait
It’s quite different than what I normally read with magical elements in a seemingly ordinary world.
Plenty of laughs, and heart swelling moments to be had between the pages of Have A Magical Day with much more to come as sadly…we’re left dangling from a cliff with the climax and resolution still to come.
That being said, I’m happy to wait
September 7, 2024
This was such a cute read!! The banter and tension gave me similar vibes to Assistant to the Villain. It's funny with dark aspects.
These quotes 🥵
"He wanted his hands on her. Truthfully, he'd never seen a body he'd kill to touch. The gods of this realm sent her to ruin him."
"For the first time in his life, he worshiped another body like a sinned finding faith for the first time."
These quotes 🥵
"He wanted his hands on her. Truthfully, he'd never seen a body he'd kill to touch. The gods of this realm sent her to ruin him."
"For the first time in his life, he worshiped another body like a sinned finding faith for the first time."
October 25, 2024
What a cozy read! I loved Val's determination and strength; it's clear with Grim begins to like her.
There is a lot of banter (which I really like) and emotional baiting (will they? won't they??) that keeps you on your toes. The concept was great, and I love when a magical book starts with a good bargain (hehe).
All-in-all, I enjoyed this book!
There is a lot of banter (which I really like) and emotional baiting (will they? won't they??) that keeps you on your toes. The concept was great, and I love when a magical book starts with a good bargain (hehe).
All-in-all, I enjoyed this book!
July 18, 2025
Oh my gods, this book was super good. If you want a book where the MMC is a bit confused about his feelings for the FMC but is “Touch her and 💀”, this is the book for you.
All I have to say about the ending is NO!! Finneas, you asshole!! Can’t wait for the next one!
All I have to say about the ending is NO!! Finneas, you asshole!! Can’t wait for the next one!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 19, 2024
This was such a delightful and charming book. I loved Val’s character. She’s strong and independent and a lot of fun. She has a joy to her that makes it easy to see why Grim likes her so much, even though he doesn’t want to. It also goes without saying that Val and Grim have great chemistry! The story is so enjoyable that I had to stay up late to finish it. I can’t wait to see what happens in the rest of the series!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews