When I’d read Sarah Hogle’s debut novel You Deserve Each Other, I fell hard and fast for her work. Her writing managed to both tickle my funny bone and track a good bucket full of tears down my cheeks. After reading the synopsis for Just Like Magic, I was intrigued by the nature and premise of the story that the book promised.
When the book begins, you find your heart heavy and your emotions tangled, unsure how to feel for the protagonist and her situation. You feel sorry for her… but you don’t particularly like her. For a good thirty percent of the book, Hogle quietly sets a stage that we don’t see the beauty of until the very end.
My biggest advice for any reader who picks up Just Like Magic is: trust the author and stick to the book. The author’s writing is what makes this whole book work. The concept of the book is bizarre, but Hogle’s words make it wonderfully so. As the pages turn you start to see deeper meaning, painful wounds and a search for love and acceptance. And who can’t relate to that? Hogle’s writing is certainly what sets her apart and can elevate any normal story to something special.
The set-up and plot is all that the blurb promises it to be. It’s about an accidental conjuring of a holiday spirit and the comical and heart moving results of it at a family Christmas holiday. However, that’s not all the book is about. The book has layers of emotions, mystery, lots of characters that you somehow grow to love, a sunshine and grump trope between the protagonists, comical lies and their even more comical consequences and most importantly: humour and love. Also a dollop of emotion that will guarantee tears during the last twenty percent of the book.
The characters in the book are aplenty, to the point that sometimes some names blur. However, Hogle intends it that way, adding humour to it and making us laugh about the confusion. She has a certain trick that she uses in her books. She writes her characters initially by shining light on all their faults—be it the protagonists or the secondary characters. Then somehow (even the reader isn’t sure when) the characters showcase parts of themselves that endear us to them. Suddenly you know everyone’s name, their favourite colour, how they take their tea and you see their vulnerabilities and their kindness. She does this with the protagonist and she does this with every single person you may have had a problem connecting with in the story.
The book never particularly felt off in its pace but post 30% it certainly feels like more. More lovely, more warm, more funny, more endearing, just more. It’s a strange happening where the reader is caught up in the protagonist’s emotional mind space; so when she’s happy you’re happy when she’s sad, you’re crying, when the things around her are in a flurry you’re flustered and when she stops to look at the sky, you breathe the quiet air right with her. I stand by my statement: Hogle’s writing is her greatest most precious asset.
In fact Just Like Magic was so beautiful to me that for the first time in my life, I wasn’t even looking for a “perfect ending”. Wherever the heroine was at that very moment felt perfect to me. That’s a great feat to achieve for me as a reader who’s constantly looking to read a typical HEA.
Additionally it’s hard to write a book that’s a cross between contemporary and a somewhat fantasy trope without the latter overtaking the former. As readers we categorise books that have even a little bit of not-real elements in them, as a fantasy book in our minds. However, at some point while I was reading, I realised Just Like Magic didn’t feel like an impossible book… it felt real. Like it could happen to you. It was like a watching a Hallmark movie! A big ten on ten from me!
Just Like Magic is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Bettie Hughes once knew the comfort of luxury, flaunting a ridiculous collection of designer shoes and a stealthy addiction to CBD oils. That is, until her parents snipped her purse strings. Long obsessed with her public image, Bettie boasts an extravagant lifestyle on social media. But the reality is: Bettie is broke and squatting in Colorado, and her family has no idea.
Christmas, with its pressure to meet familial expectations, is looming when a drunk Bettie plays a vinyl record of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” backwards and accidentally conjures Hall, an unexpectedly charming Holiday Spirit in the form of a man. Once the shock wears off, Bettie knows she’s stumbled upon the greatest gift: a chance to make all her holiday wishes come true, plus a ready-made fiancé.
But as the wiles of magic lose their charm, Bettie finds herself set off-kilter by Hall’s sweet gestures. Suddenly, Bettie is finding her heart merry and light. But the happier she gets, the shorter Hall’s time on earth grows. Can Bettie channel the Christmas spirit and learn to live with goodwill toward all men? Or will her selfish ways come back as soon as the holidays are over?
From the author of Twice Shy comes a sprightly Christmas novel, a rollicking romp through the absurdity of family holidays and the hope of new love.
