Irish Magic by Susan B. Jamies

Setup Doesn’t Pass Reality Check

Contemporary romance with a dash of the supernatural. I thought that the setup of this book was contrived, which kind of spoiled the rest of the book for me. It might sound silly, but even in fiction with fantastical elements, I expect a book to pass a reality check of sorts. So what in the setup bothered me so much? As someone who writes, I found it odd that the heroine would need to take a trip to find a new model for the hero of her book, which was supposedly in the revision stage. (Oh, and the snippets we read of the heroine’s “book” seem like stereotypical bad historical romance, which feels like a bit insulting to those of us who enjoy good historical romance.) If a writer really based characters so heavily on real people, she doesn’t have much imagination! And there is no way someone who quit her job and is living off her advances could do this. To me, it just seemed like a plot device to get the heroine to Ireland so the rest of the book could happen there. Once all players were in Ireland, the book did have some humor, and I did like the paranormal aspect and the concept of the heart wish and its fulfillment.