I picked up this book after watch the author’s YouTube channel. I think she and her husband are pretty funny, and when I read the book synopsis, I thought it might be a fun read. And it was… Mostly.

It’s a light, fluffy book, just the right thing to take along with you on a flight to keep your mind off the fact that your layover has just been extended, and there’s no way you’ve going to make it to your destination when you had planned.

The book started out pretty well. A little insight into the main character, some intrigue when it came to a nearby animal that we all know means something significant, and we were off to the races. The premise of all of this was interesting and I was really enjoying the first fifteen or so pages.

But then the other characters came into play. Vin is a complete asshole. Though we can sort of give a pass to Olivia due to her situation, she comes across really poorly, with self-serving motives and ill-defined plans. I can find a soft spot for auntie Ann, but I was going to be driven nuts with one more mention of Ella needing training, and then NOT GETTING ANY! And finally, without rhyme or reason, we have Vanessa, who is in training, but other than research, we have no idea how.

Ella falls down… a lot, which I guess is funny. But enough already. Vin is always there, so you and I both know something is going to end up happening there soon. The mystery itself was kind of cool, but again, no fully explained reason for why anything was happening, or why it had to be magic in the first place.

The thing is, there was next to no explanation about now the magic worked. There were no rules, no parameters, and no guidance to understand what was supposed to be odd or out of the ordinary.

And I think that’s my main beef here. I had hoped to enjoy the story – there were definitely fun and funny parts to the book.  But the flow feels off, too. As though the book’s editor didn’t know how to fix the structure of the story. I know there are more books in the series, and perhaps they’re keeping that detail for later. I can respect that. But here’s the thing – I’m not going to remain interested in future books if I’m not given the opportunity to understand why things work the way they do in Rambler, NV.