Review: A Fun, Charming, Magical Story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 19, 2011
Elly has returned to her hometown of Mystic Hollow at the request of her Grandma Imelda.  Imelda is ready to retire, but she can't make her move until Elly is ready to take over the family business; a homey restaurant serving traditional southern dishes called the Mystic Cafe.  Her timing couldn't have been better, because Elly has recently ended her engagement to her cheating fiance Ray and is ready to make a fresh start.Although Elly had grown up in and around the Cafe, she never knew that her Grandma's cooking had a little something special inside.  Grandma Imelda had been adding magic to her dishes for the thirty years since the Cafe opened.  Elly also didn't know that she possessed the ability to perform the same magic herself.  She only needed to learn how to use it.In the first days of running the Cafe on her own, Elly's best friend and employee Mary Jane makes a mistake with one of the magical dishes - she gives a love spell to the wrong customer.  The recipient is a handsome man named Rory on whom Elly already has a crush.  When Rory starts showing interest in her, she isn't sure if the butterflies in her stomach are coming from true feelings or the mistaken magic.  It won't be easy to find out for sure with Rory's jealous ex-girlfriend Kim constantly interfering.To complicate matters further, an investigator named Tom shows up from the National Organization of Magic.  Tom informs Elly that she has to correct the mistake within 48 hours or risk losing the Cafe forever.  Elly seems to find bad luck at every turn, but she has quickly grown attached to her new life and isn't willing to give it up. Will she be able to solve all of her problems in time?I usually choose books that are more gritty either in their danger or romance than this one.  But for what this book lacked in intensity, it made up for with charm, humor, and a fun cast of misfit characters.  I enjoyed this story, probably because it was a departure from the darker books I read every other day of the week.  It was sweet and fun and left me with a warm, homey feeling.  This was a small town that I'd like to visit, so I have no doubt I'll be back for the next two installments in this series.Although this is an adult book, it is definitely appropriate for young adult readers as well.  There is no violence or sexual content at all.  I don't really have another series to compare this to, but if you enjoyed movies like Simply Irresistable (Sarah Michelle Gellar 1999) and  Practical Magic (Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman 1998), you will probably enjoy this series as well.