Magical Realism

Light-hearted, good-natured, and comfortably predictable, Kristy Greenwood’s The Love of My Afterlife is a perfect example of understanding the assignment and hitting all the bullet points to get the job done, nothing more nothing less. This book is a casual read that’s catered directly to fans of cozy chick lit rom-com novels looking for an easy and pleasant time. Devoid of anything that could be remotely triggering or controversial and full of the genre’s expected hijinks and romance tropes, it’s a competently written book that doesn’t really have any glaring weaknesses. On the flip side, it also takes zero risks and feels complacently good but not great. For me personally, I found The Love Of My Afterlife to be a bit underwhelming although I thought its overall tone and plot were great. I picked this book up purely based on the intriguing premise (before it started trending on booktok I might add) fully knowing it probably wasn’t going to be to my taste, but I was surprised by how pleasant and quick it was to read. Unlike other romance novels with magical realism elements that skirt or cheapen their gimmick, The Love of My Afterlife sticks pretty close to its…

This is my fourth Matt Haig novel that I’ve read (though I have another three that I already own but keep putting off) and The Life Impossible is both somewhat on-brand for what you would expect yet also quite out there in the back half of the book. If you are a fan of The Midnight Library but have yet to read his other works or are picking this up as your first Matt Haig novel, I would strongly recommend trying out his other books first and coming back to this one later. While The Life Impossible is filled to the brim with introspective reflections and lengthy internal monologues that are to be expected for Haig’s style, I found the fantasy/magical realism plot elements in this one to be quite bizarre, random, and less effectively incorporated into the character work of his previous books. That’s not to say that The Life Impossible isn’t well-written; it’s very ambitious and complex. It’s that the presentation and the plot devices are nowhere near as mass appealing or accessible as the Midnight Library and even as a fan of Matt Haig’s books and slower reads, even I had trouble staying invested in this one…

Creatively whimsical, The Dallergut Dream Department Store fits nicely into the cozy magical realism/fantasy-feel genre that admittedly is normally not my thing. Lee’s debut novel follows a similar formula of other Asian-translated cozy reflective stories in a similar style of Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold or Aoyama’s What You Are Looking for is in the Library. However unlike many books it’s drawn similarities to, The Dallergut Dream Department Store is presented in a far more whimsical manner that focuses on the Dream Village and the inner workings of how dreams are created, sold, and used by sleeping customers. Like those other novels, there isn’t much of an overall plot or storyline as the main character Penny serves as a surrogate for the reader experiencing and learning about the Dallergut Dream Store. While I wasn’t necessarily hooked by this book, I was impressed by its creativity and appreciative of how well it accomplished what it was trying to do with its premise. At just over 200 pages, it’s also an incredibly easy and breezy read that you can pick up and put down casually without sacrificing details or the reading experience. Cozy reads are typically not my go-to genre, and…

Cute, cozy, hints of the supernatural, and a habitual schemer, Happy Medium had a genius premise and all the elements of an amazing romantic dramedy. I had previously read Mrs. Nash’s Ashes so I had an idea of what I was getting into, and I had hoped that Sarah Adler’s sophomore novel would be able to improve on Nash’s disappointing and contrived climax/conclusion. Despite being paced more evenly and feeling more refined page to page, overall I found Happy Medium to suffer from similar issues of dumb character logic (2nd half only), melodrama that doesn’t have sufficient build-up (again 2nd half only), and a concluding plot twist that ruins most of its intriguing plot potential. On the plus side, I quite enjoyed FMC Gretchen’s spiky personality and devious wit. Constantly trying to plan out her moves, both to convince Charlie that his farm is haunted and to safeguard her investment with her spirit medium client, I thought the first half of the book worked quite well; albeit feeling a bit slow for my taste. Although her sparring and enemies to friends to lovers arc with Charlie was good, her enemies to friends banter with the ghost Everett was the real…

Charming, cozy, and exceedingly clever, I thoroughly enjoyed Ashley Poston’s A Novel Love Story that delivers on its creative premise. Beyond Eloraton’s warm vibe, this book is filled to the brim with numerous book references and has a lot going on beyond the focal romance plot thread. I generally liked The Dead Romantics and thought The Seven Year Slip was great, however A Novel Love Story is easily my favorite and has solidified Ashley Poston’s work for me. Well-written and lovingly crafted, this is an easy recommendation for anyone who like romance (particularly high-concept ones), cozy/easy reads, or even light touches of magical realism (a genre I typically do not care for). When this book was announced, I automatically added it to my reading list purely based on the premise which is one of my favorite tropes if done well. From the start, the story reminded me a lot of the BBC’s miniseries Lost in Austen which also features the main character being transported into their favorite literary world, in that case being Pride and Prejudice. A Novel Love Story doesn’t have the luxury of working off a popular established piece and has to work a lot harder with its…