On the HahaFiction shelf
Magical Midlife Madness
by K. F. Breene
Leveling Up · Book 1 · 2020
Jessie Evans has reached forty with a divorce, a son leaving for college and no desire to resume her old life. A caretaker job offers an escape from her parents’ house. Ivy House, in a small Sierra foothills town, comes with secret passages, unusual neighbors and powers she has yet to understand.
From the author’s blurb
“Forty isn’t too old for adventure. Not by half.”Read the full description at K.F. Breene, author description
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What makes it funny?
Jessie’s ex expects sympathy when he announces his departure; she starts packing. Her father lectures her about manners while standing naked in the house. The opening gives her plenty of people to answer back to, including a man who expects someone else to iron his underwear.
The comedy at work
Breene gives Jessie a grand ambition to begin again, then makes her negotiate the indignities of moving home. Her impatient first-person commentary keeps family clutter, double standards and bodily embarrassment in view as the supernatural adventure approaches.
Try this if…
A forty-year-old heroine finding room for herself gives this magical-house story a different starting point from a teenager’s first adventure. It suits readers who want midlife reinvention with blunt family comedy and a supernatural community to discover.
Good to know
The opening uses profanity, crude jokes and nonsexual parental nudity. Kirkus also flags recurring bladder jokes and finds some of the explanatory conversations overlong.
A few distinguishing details
- A fresh start at forty in a magical house
- Sarcastic domestic comedy before the supernatural adventure
More funny paranormal romance
Sources & further reading
- Kirkus review
Review
- Opening chapters
Reading sample
- Author
Author commentary
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