Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Mini-Review: A Little Light Magic by Joy Nash


When a girl with no family meets a guy with too much.

For Tori Morgan, family's a blessing the universe hasn't sent her way. Her parents are long gone, her chance of having a baby is slipping away, and the only thing she can call her own is a neglected old house. What she wants more than anything is a place where she belongs, and a big, noisy clan to share her life.

For Nick Santangelo, family's more like a curse. His nonna is a closet kleptomaniac, his mom's a menopausal time bomb and his motherless daughter is headed for serious boy trouble. The last thing Nick needs is another female making demands on his time.

But summer on the Jersey shore can be an enchanted season, when life's hurts are soothed by the ebb and flow of the tides and love can bring together the most unlikely prospects. A hard-headed contractor and a lonely reader of Tarot cards and crystal prisms? All it takes is A Little Light Magic.
A Little Light Magic by Joy Nash is a contemporary romance with a 'hint' of magic, although that part is really quite understated. The hero and heroine are very different people. Tori believes in Tarot cards and magic spells and Nick is as down to earth as you can find them. Yet, this couple had great chemistry -- you will find excellent sexual tension and some really hot moments in this story. Their characters are well developed, their backgrounds explored and the reasons behind their actions and reactions are clear to the reader. I especially enjoyed Nick's conflicts and the way they were complicated by his family.

I loved the way Nash introduced us to and developed the great cast of characters in this book. The Santangelo family members jumped out of the pages, including the brothers and specially Nick's grandmother and his teenage daughter Leigh. The setting is a familiar one for me as this book is set in the Jersey shore -- Atlantic City boardwalk to be exact -- and it was fun revisiting, if not the place, the atmosphere. I could almost taste all that greasy food I enjoyed during my summer visits to the boardwalk.

The heroine did have the "I want a baby NOW" mindset. This theme prevailed throughout the story and that part of it took away some of my overall personal enjoyment of the book. I must confess this is not my favorite device; therefore it's a pretty subjective problem and not a problem with the book itself. Having said that, I hope Ms. Nash writes more books featuring the Santangelo family. Nick's brothers -- Alex, a divorced detective and Johnny, a sexy soap opera actor -- were great characters and I would love to read their story.

I found A Little Light Magic to be an enjoyable contemporary focusing on the romance, and give it a plus for the excellent secondary characters.

You can visit the author here.

8 comments:

  1. I have four of her books but haven't read them yet, but still this one sounds intriguing enough for me to look for it.

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  2. Nice review Hils. It sounds like the secondary characters got your attention. :)

    Hmmm... I've got a few Nash books on the TBR pile but I think they're PNR - I'll have to check.

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  3. This sounds interesting. I'll have to check this out. Thanks!

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  4. Hmmm, I'm still on the fence about this one... It sounds cute... but lately, I want no teenagers in my books ^_^; Don't really know why.

    Did you read any of her other books, or this was your first by her?

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  5. KristieJ, I'd like to know what you think of her PNRs. I hope you enjoy this one, if you do decide to read it.

    Leslie, those secondary characters definitely made a big difference for me.:) You know? I think most of Nash's books are PNR -- druids & magic. I couldn't really find more contemps at her site.

    Tabz, let us know if you do read this one. :)

    Nath: This is a cute story. But, if you're not in the mood for teenagers, this might not be the story for you right now. Leigh's character is well developed & she's a big focus for Nick -- in a way she's part of his conflict & an important character. :)

    This is my first book by Nash (recommended by a friend). I would read other contemps if she decided to go on with the Santangelos, though. :)

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  6. I have this on my tbr pile and will have to move it up.

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  7. This book sounded really good right until you mentioned the "I want a baby now" part. Thank you for bringing that up it probably would have ruined the book for me. As much as I've loved the Virgin River books the number of times I'm told how much the men luuuuuurve pregnant women is just a tad too much.

    Sorry for the post hi-jacking. Excellent mini-review and thanks for mentioning one of my hot buttons :)

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  8. Cheryl, thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy it. :)

    Novelnelle, I'm glad this helped you decide. :) I do enjoy the VR series (although I took a break from the baby boom, lol). But in this book the situation is different. The device is used as part of Tori's & Nick's conflict, plus Tori becomes a bit obsessed (IMO) & that's the part I didn't enjoy. :(

    BTW, you didn't hijack, I love discussing the books & that was a great point. ;D

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