Review: LITERAL ADDICTION's Review of a Fun, Quirky PNR
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 28, 2011
No Shoes, No Shirt, No Spells - Mystic Café series Book #1Author:  Rose PresseySynopsis:Elly Blair welcomes the chance to escape her ex-fiance and job from hell when Grandma Imelda, ready to retire to sunny Florida, calls for her to take over her little southern cafe.Elly has no idea her grandmother has baked up magic for the unsuspecting townsfolk for thirty years-and now Grandma Imelda insists that Elly use her own hitherto unsuspected magical powers to carry on the family tradition.But Elly's new at this stuff. Her dishes don't turn out as full of smidgens of enchantment and dashes of wishes come true as she'd hoped. When handsome customer Rory Covington takes a bite of the wrong burger, he ends up capturing the attention of every woman in town. Elly doesn't know if her feelings for Rory are true or based on her magic gone awry.Tom Owenton is an investigator the National Organization for Magic sent to look into the magical mishap. Unless Elly can reverse the spell, the cafe will be closed permanently. Tom is more than willing to help Elly out of this magical pickle, but she's not sure she should accept his offer.Elly only has forty-eight hours to find a way to reverse the spell, or she'll lose the cafe and never discover if her feelings for Rory are real.Our Review:  [Provided by Michelle McMichael.  Edited by Michelle Olson]When Elly is called back to her home town by her Grandmother, she's surprised by what she learns when she gets there.  Her Grandma Imelda is a witch, and has been weaving magic into her dishes at the Mystic Café for decades to aid unsuspecting customers with their aches, pains and broken hearts.Elly, welcoming the move to her Grandma's home town after a messy break up, gets a quick lesson in both the Café and the magic, and is then left to 'sink or swim'.  When she's given the chance to mend someone else's broken heart, she jumps at the chance, but it doesn't take long for things to go awry.  A spell meant for a heartbroken customer is accidentally given to someone else, and highjinks ensue.Reeling from her previous experiences, Elly adds a line in the spell to make the customer's ex jealous, but when the spell is given to the unsuspecting Rory, trouble comes in the form of a very sophisticated woman named Kim.Elly tries hard to fix her mistakes while fighting her growing attraction to Rory.  Unfortunately, the spell makes EVERY woman drawn to Rory so Elly doesn't know if she can trust her reactions.Amongst all of this, Tom, an investigator from the National Organization for Magic turns up to police the situation and ensure that Elly is able to fix the mess.  But Elly's trying so hard to fight her attraction to Rory she isn't on her best game.It's like being back at high school again at times in the book with all the emotions being heightened by the spell, jealous girls following them round, woman throwing themselves at Rory and Rory being clueless!  Elly makes a lot of mistakes throughout the book and her reactions are quirky & comical.Rory is a genuinely nice guy, maybe a little too nice for me. I preferred the more flirty Tom; he had a touch of mischief about him.  I'd like to see more of him in future books.LITERAL ADDICTION's guest reviewer gives this book 4 out of 5 skulls, and calls it a  light hearted paranormal romance suitable for both adults and older teenagers.  If you're looking for light & quirky... you've found it!