Rating: 4.5⭐️
“A woman starting over. A new house with an unexpected twist. A cape wearing butler acting as the world’s worst life coach.”
I found this urban fantasy tale totally charming, with its laugh-out loud moments, endearing characters, and wonderfully mysterious plot.
Breene’s series about a divorced woman who takes a chance on a new life by accepting a job in a place she vaguely remembers from her childhood is a brashly funny, often revealing tale of a woman remaking her life, even as her own world view of what’s real is turned inside out.
Jessie is a marvelous character, believable, relatable in her emotions as she navigates the challenges she faces after her divorce from a cheating husband, with no real plans for her life or a place to go. And the job she finds herself doing places her back in a small town where she visited as a child, one with fuzzy fond memories and dreams of strange things.
How I love everything about her, the other characters and the many strange situations Jessie finds herself in. Ivy House, the magical weird structure that’s revealing its secrets reluctantly, is richly detailed and mysterious. As is its inhabitants, Mr Tom, or intriguing members of the community like the alpha Arden, who’s constantly being told to reevaluate his position on women by Jessie, each one has staying power both within the narrative and with the reader.
Jessie and all the others demonstrate personal growth and self development as she discovers what the town and Ivy House is about, as her potential role, if she decides to accept it.
A fantastic story, great characters, and a journey I’m happy to follow.
A winner!
Leveling Up (13 book series):
Magical Midlife Madness #1
Magical Midlife Dating #2
Magical Midlife Invasion #3
Magical Midlife Love #4
Magical Midlife Meeting #5
Magical Midlife Challenge #6
Magical Midlife Alliance #7
Magical Midlife Flowers #8
Magical Midlife Battle #9
Magical Midlife Awakening #10
Magical Midlife Rescue #11
Magical Midlife Rogue #12
Magical Midlife Conclave #13 – Nov 12,2026
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Blurb
A woman starting over. A new house with an unexpected twist. A cape wearing butler acting as the world’s worst life coach.
“Happily Ever After” wasn’t supposed to come with a do-over option. But when my husband of twenty years packs up and heads for greener pastures and my son leaves for college, that’s exactly what my life becomes.
Do-over.
This time, though, I plan to do things differently. Age is just a number, after all, and at forty I’m ready to carve my own path.
Eager for a fresh start, I make a somewhat unorthodox decision and move to a tiny town in the Sierra foothills. I’ll be taking care of a centuries old house that called to me when I was a kid. It’s just temporary, I tell myself. It’ll just be for a while.
That is, until I learn what the house really is, something I never could’ve imagined.
Thankfully forty isn’t too old to start an adventure, because that’s exactly what I do. A very dangerous adventure that will change my life forever. I have a chance to start again, and this time, I make the rules.
February 16, 2020
Language
English
Print length
316 pages
Book 1 of 13
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 