Magic & Mayhem box set
Magic & Mayhem Boxset
by Erica Ridley
2.5 out of 5
3 out of 5
Synopsis
Enjoy an Outlander-meets-Frozen romantic comedy from a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author:
Adventurer Lance Desmond needs to produce a fortune before his arch-rival collects the bounty on his head. He risks an ancient curse to retrieve treasure hidden within icebound Castle Cavanaugh, only to become trapped inside. Not with the gold he so desperately needs, but with medieval Princess Marigold who's been cooling her heels since...well, medieval times.
The lonely princess refuses to acknowledge the blossoming attraction between them. Not just because she deserves a better future than a penniless rogue. But because at midnight, he'll vanish like all her other would-be heroes. And the evergreen in the parlor will have one more figurine hanging from its boughs...
Review
Lance is in over his head in debt, and his only hope is to raid a castle for treasure. The only problem is, once he goes in, he will never come out.
I received a free copy as part of the Magic & Mayhem boxset, from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is a light, fantasy romance, following Lance. He's an adventurer and a chancer, and has a price on his head. After buying the ship of his dreams, he's in a lot of debt, but he plans to clear it by heading to a castle that might harbour a magical item the imbues eternal youth.
Once there, he finds the castle is almost empty, except for a strange princess.
After a curse was placed on her, Princess Marigold has been trapped in the castle for hundreds of years. She has tried everything to escape, and knows that nothing will work. When Lance breaks into the castle, she knows that she will only have a few hours with this handsome adventurer, before he is also taken from her.
This was light and fun. The romance between Lance and Marigold was really quite sweet, and I was rooting for them both to escape the cursed castle.
This was a reasonably short read, and made for a pleasantly light and fluffy distraction.
The fantasy aspect was... unsatisfactory.
We start with Lance, who is obsessed with his new ship and is having trouble with wanted posters etc, and it all feels very typical pre-technology-standard-fantasy-realm. Then it's smushed into a version of the modern world, with phones, apps and Candy Crush.
This is cute, but there was never any solid foundation or world building. It felt like the author went with whatever suited the story at the time.
It was the same when Lance got into the castle, and there's a bit of a culture difference between him and the princess. The difference was ignored when it didn't suit, and there were sections that were so completely anachronistic that I had to ignore them to continue.
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Must Love Magic1 out of 5
Synopsis
Daisy le Fey is good at a lot of things: Math, science, accidentally turning people into pumpkins... Unfortunately, she's hopeless at the one skill hiring managers look for when filling open positions for magical beings: Magic.
When she jeopardizes her apprenticeship by getting involved with sexy mortal Trevor Masterson, it's one disaster too many. In order to earn her wings, she's going to have to ditch the human–and her one chance at true love.
A rollicking Nether-Netherland adventure!
Review
Daisy is trying to earn her wings as a toothfairy, but complications ensue when she stumbles into the tent of anthropologist Trevor.
I received a free copy as part of the Magic & Mayhem boxset, from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This follows Daisy, who has to live up to the impossible standards set by her extremely-successful parents. It doesn't matter that she's a genius and that she's managed to find scientific solutions to her lack of magic - in Nether Netherland, only magical ability counts.
Trevor is in the middle of an archaeological dig, and under threat of losing his job, the last thing he needs is a tenacious toothfairy complicating things.
No, just no. This did not work for me.
I thought it was very poorly written, scatty and jumping all over the place, it just made my head hurt.
Am I the only person that is concerned that Daisy doesn't recognise the difference between an 8 year old boy and a full-grown man. Especially when she's grinding against him within a minute of crashing into his life (yet still insisting he was her target and had to provide a tooth).
For a scientific genius, she never came across as particularly smart.
Ridley does seem to be a bit of a hit-or-miss writer. I have thoroughly enjoyed some of her other books, but equally found some to be a rushed mess.
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4 out of 5
Synopsis
Former corporate shark Javier Rodriguez plans to redirect his money and attention toward family and good works. Unfortunately, his attempts to make things better meet with one disaster after another. His plans disintegrate further when he runs into a sexy tourist with... wings?
As Javi’s guardian angel, Sarah Phimm has her work cut out for her. When his latest charitable scheme risks his life, she's forced to reveal her existence—against protocol. He's everything her immortal heart desires, but can never have. She soon discovers that keeping him safe may be even harder than guarding her heart…
Review
Sarah has been a guardian angel for centuries, and none of her charges have given her half as much trouble as Jack.
I received a free copy as part of the Magic & Mayhem boxset, from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Jack was a go-getting businessman, he worked tirelessly and has amassed a fortune by taking advantage of a grey area that's not-quite-illegal.
Jack decides to atone for all the damage he's done by giving away most of his money to charity, and using the rest to fund repairs in his ancestral home of Bolivia, of which he will be doing most of the manual labour.
Sarah is a guardian angel, she has to protect her assigned human, and she has long been one of the best at the job. Jack is really testing her to the limit, as he seems to have no concept of self-preservation. When they accidentally collide, Sarah has to pretend to be human, and runs the risk of falling for Jack.
This was definitely the best book in the boxset.
Jack and Sarah are really cute together.
I really liked that, despite his growing feelings for Sarah, Jack puts his mission first. He aims to give an isolated Bolivian village the Christmas they deserve. He wants to repair roofs, get the kids back to school, and show them they are not forgotten by the world.
And Sarah is just as much a workaholic, in her own angelic way. She is an immortal, and her job has been her calling for her very long life. It was such an interesting twist to see her realisation that she might not be the envy of everyone back home, and that observing life, is not the same as living it.
I very much enjoyed this story.
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