Once Upon Stilettos by Shanna Swendson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Urban fantasy chick-lit? I guess that’s the best description.
In the first book of the series Katie Chandler found out that she is a magical immune. That means that she sees through magical spells. That’s a rare ability and makes her valuable to her magical employers. She is able to verify that no one is magically cheating during business deals.
Now in the second book of the series Katie’s parents are coming to visit from Texas. It turns out that her mother is also immune and is seeing all the weird things that Katie sees in New York like fairies and live garden gnomes. She has to hide the truth about magic from her too-perceptive mother. Just as this visit is coming to a close Katie starts to realize that her mother is seeing things that Katie doesn’t. Katie is losing her immunity which may mean losing her job.
This is where this book almost lost me. She doesn’t tell anyone about it even though she has previously been on the receiving end of some foul-play by competitors of her company. This is a plot device that makes me crazy. I hate the whole “I have a problem that I should take to a person who could help me clear it up but I will keep it to myself until it causes ten times more problems than it needs to” trope. Luckily this doesn’t last long and she does the smart thing and fesses up and it all gets fixed.
I forgive this book because I liked the ending. It mixed things up a bit for the next books in the series. I like to see series developing their characters instead of keeping them in the same static emotional state for a long time.
Damsel Under Stress by Shanna Swendson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Katie has a long history of dating disasters but now she is dating a man that she likes. So why does her fairy godmother decide to show up now?
It doesn’t help that her fairy godmother is incompetent either. No matter how many times Katie tells her that she is fine by herself she manufactures disasters for Katie’s Prince Charming to rescue her from. How are they supposed to get to know each other when every date is an emergency situation?
This series is a cute, quick, light read. I’m looking forward to reading the rest.
