Its A Kind Of Magic

I've enjoyed following Carole Matthews' entertaining Twitter and Facebook posts for probably a couple of years now, but had never actually gotten around to reading any of her novels So when I spotted a well-thumbed copy of It's A Kind Of Magic at a campsite book exchange late last year, I swapped for it. As my regular visitors will know, frothy chick lit isn't one of my favourite genres! In fact, I'm not sure how long ago the last time I read this kind of story would have been. However, giving the current grimly apocalyptic state of my social media timelines, (Carole's lovely posts excepted, of course!) this novel turned out to be just the kind of silly, light-hearted escapism I needed to lift my mood.

Emma and Leo aren't characters with whom I could sympathise - certainly not when I first met them and my opinions didn't improve much as their escapades unravelled. I did enjoy reading about them though, especially their reactions to the increasingly implausible situations in which they find themselves. They are the kind of affluent white Londoners for whom the rest of the country doesn't really exist and I frequently found myself spitting feathers at their arrogance and cushioned lives. Their wealth and connections don't help much when one of them unintentionally wishes a mischievous fairy into existence though. I don't want to give away too much of the plot in case I'm not the last person who hadn't already read this, however I do now have a greater wariness of casual wishing - and of Superglue.

It's A Kind Of Magic is an easy read which I happily devoured in a day. It is perhaps rather too repetitious at times and should have been trimmed to 300 pages instead of just over 400. There are also a few hows and whys which I would like to have seen explained, but then this isn't really the sort of book that calls for a lot of post-read pondering. If self-isolating has got you needing a fluffy mood lift already, then maybe give It's A Kind Of Magic a try.