Title: Reluctantly Charmed
Author: Ellie O’Neill
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
Opening line: “…A year ago no one had heard of me…”
Blurb: Kate McDaid is listing her new-year’s resolutions hoping to kick-start her rather stagnant love life and career when she gets some very strange news. She is told that she is the sole benefactor of a great great-great-great aunt (and self-proclaimed witch) who is also called Kate McDaid, but this Kate died over 130 years ago. As if that isn’t strange enough, the will instructs that, in order to receive the inheritance, Kate must publish seven letters, one by one, week by week. Burning with curiosity, Kate agrees and opens the first letter – and finds that it’s a passionate plea to reconnect with the long-forgotten fairies of Irish folklore. When the letter is published on an unused website Kate’s life is almost instantaneously turned upside down. As the subsequent letters are published events become stranger and stranger and she starts to discover things about herself she’s never known before.
My thoughts: RELUCTANTLY CHARMED is not just contemporary fiction, it has history, drama, laughter, tears, romance and a little bit of magic. The story starts off with just a tiny hint of the mayhem that is about to start “…A year ago no one had heard of me…” This opening line just begged for the question – why has everyone heard of you now? Kate has a dead-end job in an advertising company, with clients that are too hard to please so have been handed to Kate. Her love life is non-existent and her general life is going nowhere, which is why she decides to publish the letters – for a break in the monotony. It doesn’t take long for Kate’s life to be anything but boring, in fact her parents are being interviewed on TV, the paparazzi are chasing Kate and she has a pack of weird anorak-wearing groupies camped out in her front garden. Suddenly everyone is fairy obsessed and researching their fairy name, talking to nature and hugging trees – including Kate. Well it can’t hurt can it? Soon Kate’s life is out of control and she finds she’s doing spells to help her friends, and discovering that unbelievers are being cursed through the letters. Welcome to the dark side of magic, Kate decides to find out more about her ancestor and what is happening to her and heads off to the small Irish village where it all began. RELUCTANTLY CHARMED gets serious and part of the ending is quite tragic in one sense, not quite the completely happy ending I was expecting, more bitter-sweet with a final twist really surprised me. A belief in fairies is not required to enjoy RELUCTANTLY CHARMED, and rest assured that while there is a lot of humour, it is not all fluff and there is a very dark undertone as fairies are not nice creatures when they don’t get their own way. Kate is a very believable character who certainly grows in character as the story progresses. She starts off as doing it for a bit of a laugh and then has to grapple with a very serious choice by week seven. The tension as she made her choice and mulled the pros and cons kept me on edge and certainly rescued the book for me as it took me a while to settle into the story. I will certainly look out for future books from Ellie O’Neill.
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C – Above average. Was very readable and I really liked it but was easily able to put it down and walk away for a while.
With thanks to Simon and Schuster and the author for my copy to read and review.
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