I liked this book, but it left a lot unsaid. There are suggestions of a magical world, and a little magic is performed, but I was left with a lot of unanswered questions about the world the author has created. A group of 12 women with different types of magical powers is assembled, but about half of their stories are left untold. I would have liked to know more. ( )

This book has so many aspects of an easy comfort read that I should just fall right in to. I'm always looking for them. It had touches of magical realism, women taking emotional journeys, location as a character, quirky vibe. It started okay, the unconventional writing style didn't bother me (much), but as the book went on the glaring immature 'self dialogue' of the characters was a huge impediment. The writer is a young women so this is not a generational issue, but the language was out of step in time, age appropriateness, and it continually pulled me out of the story. By midway through we meet a character who is struggling to justify something the author doesn't give us reason to reconcile. I'm not a strict moral code reader that can't forgive a character humanity, frailties, and everything that comes with it, but the writer better do their job of showing motivation. Otherwise the character becomes shallow and self serving for these acts. That's what happened with this character. Two stars is generous for me here. I skipped a lot just to read the ending (I never do that). I was disappointed. ( )

I really wanted to love this story. The first 50 pages made me think about a wonderful affinity to the enchanting stories one of my favorite comfort read authors, [[Sarah Addison Allen]] writes. There is just the right amount of magical realism to make this a fantasy escapism read but with a quaint small town quality to it. For a debut novel, it is not bad and yes, I am a sucker for a book set in the Pacific Northwest. So, why no great love for this one? Well, for one, the story's focus tends to ramble and jump around from character to character without any clear explanation of the 'whys' and 'hows'. Sadly, the book doesn't come with a crystal ball to shine insight on the 'bits' left out from the story that would have been helpful. Also, it only took me 6 days to read the story from start to finish and even in that short time span, I had managed to completely forget a couple of the characters, so not exactly a memorable read for me. The story is quaint, charming and infuses little things that we take for granted in everyday life with a slight magical touch but overall it was just an average read for me. ( )

Characters and plot were too underdeveloped. For such a short book, the bulk of it was spent haphazardly introducing characters. You end up quite near the end wondering how she could possibly weave everything together in fewer than 40 pages (hint: she can't). For all that she spent so much time introducing and examining one character after another, it still wasn't enough to make you care a fig about most of them, and many of them you spent so much time meeting never really appeared again. There was no sense of authority, and the writing was weak. I actually wondered if I'd accidentally gotten a hold of a literary selfie. Needed more work. Should've known from the title, but I'd heard the quirky town would reel you in. Not so for me. ( )

It wasn't the way this book was written that made me drop this book. I felt it was written well and I was expecting a little movie like Practical Magic charm. What made me drop this was the affairs that were in it. Normally this probably wouldn't bother me. But, I'm sure you've guessed it. But I recently found out that my husband has been having an affair. I was disgusted by the way the author appraoched this topic. I don't see myself picking it up in the future.