Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Review of Much Ado About Magic by Shanna Swendson


Title/Author: Much Ado About Magic (Enchanted, Inc #5) by Shanna Swendson
Publisher/Date published: NLA Digital Liaison Platform LLC, August 15th 2012
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "Katie Chandler is back in New York and at Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc. – and just in time. The city’s in the grip of a magical crime wave from spells that wizarding whiz Owen Palmer thinks look awfully familiar, and the rogue firm Spellworks is raising its profile in the magical world by selling protective amulets. It’s Katie’s job as the new director of marketing for MSI to fight this battle of public perception while Owen and the other wizards try to uncover what’s really going on.
What Katie doesn’t realize is that her idea to stage a showcase for MSI’s magical achievements is playing right into a devious plot more than three decades in the making. Now Katie has to do damage control that has nothing to do with marketing. To save the magical world, she’ll have to prove who the real enemy is, and doing that will require digging deeper into Owen’s mysterious past than he wants anyone to go. If she fails, she not only stands to lose a magical war, but she could also lose the man she loves."

***WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR BOOK 1-4***

I really, REALLY loved the first book in this series, Enchanted, Inc, and while I have enjoyed books 2-4 as well, they never really got to the same level as Enchanted, Inc. I hadn't really expected there to be a book 5, but when I saw it up on NetGalley, I couldn't resist, because this is is just such a fun series!

Basically, I would love to be Katie Chandler. As a 20-something she discovers about magic and gets to work at a magical company and her boss is MERLIN! I mean, how freaking awesome is that? This is sort of like my Hogwarts fantasy only more grown up.

Throughout the books Katie's been trying to have a relationship with Owen, who is a good guy and a very powerful wizard. But Owen isn't really very good at relationships, he's somewhat less talented at interacting with other people than he is at catching magical bad guys. And while I know that if the characters have a perfect walk off into the sunset moment in the first or second book, it is somewhat less interesting to read about their relationship after that, I just found myself going: GAH, give these two a break already!
I mean, come on, how many times can you NOT have a date? Every time they try to do something together other than chasing evil, they get disturbed by new evil loons. They don't seem to make any real progress in their relationship. But they are pretty sweet together, so I can sort of forgive this.

As for the romance itself: these books are pretty clean. There's some kissing, but that's pretty much it.

I like that these books are just fun chicklit with a magical element! There's a serious threat, but there's also time for funny moments and I love Katie's sense of humor. I did think that she took a lot of crap from him and if I were her I would have stood up for myself a long time ago, but she does so in the end, so it was all good.

Also, Owen has tamed real live dragons and is adorable in his social awkwardness.

Guys, this was an easy, breezy read, perfect to relax with after a busy day at work and while it wasn't my favourite, it was still pretty darn cute and I'm still rooting for Katie and Owen and all the other characters I've come to love!

My rating: 3,5 stars

1 comment:

  1. I saw the book on NG but when I saw it was 5th on series I passed on, but you got me curious about the beginning of the series so I'll try to check that out!!

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