As her 25th birthday approaches, mild-mannered Philomena Swann lives in terror of her annual birthday wish. Sure, she has a disinterested fiance' and a misogynistic boss, but from experience she knows wishing both away could result in disaster. Why? Because she and her sisters are one-eighth fairy. Not enough to give them magical powers, but enough to qualify for a fairy godmother from hell.
All Phil wants is, just once, to have the courage to speak her mind. She blurts out her wish and suddenly finds she can't stop. To her friends. Her boss. Her Nana. And her best friend, hot and hunky co-worker, Josh. Before she can do any more damage, she begs for the spell to be reversed. And it is...with a vengeance. Now everyone else is compelled to tell her the truth. Including Josh.
But the fairy godmother's not done. One more wish could change Phil's world forever- if it doesn't ruin her life first.
After the heaviness of Dirty Girl, I needed something light and funny. Look at that cover. And that blurb. Doesn't that just scream it?
I don't care much for book boyfriends but I'll take Josh as a book best friend any day. His first scenes in the book had me already smiling as he whisked Philomena away from her inattentive fiance to go for icecream and ended up teasing her about a foot fetish a licking chocolate from her instep.
I laughed. I chuckled a lot at Josh. But I really broke down when their eccentric old grandma, lovingly called Nana, screwed up a love potion in a room full of Eagles Scouts. Guys ages fifteen to eighteen couldn't get enough of old Nana.
“Holy crap!” Cass spoke out of the side of her mouth. “Nana’s having herself a Mrs. Robinson moment.”
Josh, though. Josh has charm. Josh is one of those guys that make the silliest joke just to see a girl smile. He's got knack for it, too. No shame. No shy pullbacks. Just pure male confidence. SO CUTE!
Midway in the book, things take a drastic turn. Philomena no longer has the urge to blurt out everything in her mind, but her friends, coworkers, and associates now do. And well, we learn that each one of them is some kind of crazy. I was chuckling pretty good until they mentioned furry hentai then it was full out, gut wrenching laughter.
But my enjoyment always circled back to Josh.
Josh was the perfect shopping companion because he didn’t start whining about going home to watch the game five minutes after they walked into the mall. He also didn’t mind giving his opinion on something she wanted to buy instead of just saying, “I don’t know—they all look the same! Are you almost done?” which was the answer she most often got from Christian.
The only time Josh had ever refused her was when Phil had tried to get him to have a pedicure with her. “No, Swann,” he’d told her firmly. “I’m your best friend but not your girl friend. I’m not going to get my toenails painted Tahitian pink so we can go shoe shopping together and squeal over adorable sandals. A man has to know when to draw a line in the sand and my line is right here, in front of the Pretty Pedi Day Spa.” Phil had laughed so hard smoothie almost came out of her nose, and relented on the pedicure.
Gotta love a sister's advice:
“See?” Phil spread her hands. “So what am I supposed to do?”
“Get in the car tonight, drive to Josh’s apartment and jump his bones,” her sister said. “No, wait.” She held up a hand as Phil started to protest. “First take a shower and put on my little red silk nighty—then drive over and jump his bones."
Near the completion, once again, Philomena tries to get her fairy godmother to correct the wish and once more... it's all wrong. This time, she says exactly the opposite of how she feels.
And I am so mad at myself for not figuring out the end. Duh! How else do you break a spell in a fairytale?
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