A LITTLE NIGHT MAGIC

Readers will find themselves charmed by the quirky inhabitants of Nodaway Falls and the little bit of magic that comes their way in March’s novel. 

Long before Olivia became a waitress at Crazy Cousin Betty’s Waffle House, known around town as CCB’s, she was convinced that the small restaurant’s lone square of sparkly blue linoleum was magical. After all, Olivia reasons, she wished for and got the prom date of her dreams while standing on the square, didn’t she? But the magic doesn’t seem to work when it comes to Tobias, CCB’s short order cook, who makes the world’s best waffles and ignores that Olivia’s in love with him. After suffering from years of lonely pining, Olivia finally blurts out the truth and is rebuffed. Her humiliation has led her to decide to leave Nodaway Falls and all of its memories and friends behind and head for Europe, but before Olivia can pack her bags and climb onto that plane for Scotland, she finds herself embroiled in an odd mystery: How is it that no one bothered to tell her that she is one of the Magicals and capable of daylight magic? True, her talent, which is turning objects into sweet woodland animals, does seem a bit useless, but once she discovers the secrets long hidden by her late mother, Olivia’s world goes topsy-turvy and she finds that almost everyone in her life is different from her perception of them. March weaves an uncommon romance around a likeable cast, while stalwarts like Betty, who says what she thinks, turn out to be better friends than Olivia ever imagined. Although Olivia’s fierce refusal to succumb to common sense is at times exasperating, March’s story is original, funny and much more satisfying than the standard girl-meets-boy story.