A Little Magic

• Author: Lindsey Lanza
• Genre: Romance
• Publication Date: October 3, 2023
• Publisher: Independently Published

Thank you to Lindsey Lanza for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Nine years to fall in love. Eight nights to learn the truth. One chance to rewrite the past.

Ellie Klein fled Vermont after graduating high school, and she hasn’t been back since. Not to see her overbearing parents nor her distant brother, not even to visit her temperamental cat and beloved dog. And most importantly, she hasn’t been back to see Theo Fox. Her first love and brother’s best friend has been but a distant and painful memory for the last seven years.

When Ellie’s travel site lands her back where it all began, her goal is to get in and out without seeing anyone from before. But life has other plans when she’s caught in a blizzard that leaves her seeking refuge in a cabin owned by none other than the infamous Theo.

Theo Fox has been winning collegiate hockey and NHL championships since Ellie disappeared, but all he really wants is a second chance with the woman he can’t stop loving. When she shows up unannounced in Vermont, he’s determined to find out why she left and never returned. And if he has a little magic on his side, how to get her back.

Told over the course of nine Christmas Eves and eight nights of Hanukkah, A Little Magic is a cozy, nostalgic story of young love, finding your voice, and the complexities of what it means to be a family.

There’s a few indie authors that I absolutely adore, and Lindsey Lanza had earned her spot on my list with her debut book, Speechless, and now cemented her place with this story. I was thrilled to read it, even if it took me a lot longer to get around to it than I hoped. Sorry for the delayed review, but … better late than never?

To start with, the story is told in dual perspectives. We first meet Ellie, who has moved across the country from her roots and created a whole new life in California. But when her travel site requires her to go back to her hometown to feature a new winter encounter, she doesn’t have any choice even though she desperately doesn’t want to go. And when she finally gets there, she winds up stuck in a blizzard and rescued by the man who broke her heart years ago, and was a big part of the reason she left Vermont in the first place. On top of all of that, she’s forced to wait the blizzard out in his cabin. We also get to hear Theo’s side of the story.

As a second chance romance, there’s obviously history between Ellie and Theo. It’s revealed in glimpses through flashbacks to the past from both characters. We get to see their story little by little until the whole story is revealed, and I loved seeing their romance unfold side by side in the past and the present. We also get to see how Ellie’s family celebrates Hanukkah, but also how they honor Theo’s Christmas traditions, making this a great holiday read.

There’s also disability representation in the story. Ellie was diagnosed with lupus during childhood, and a lot of the story deals with how her illness affected her life in various ways, especially during her past. You can see how her early experiences influenced her later life, and I can absolutely identify with the difficulties of having a chronic and potentially life-threatening illness as a young person, and how frustrating it is to have to take medicine and listen to your body when all you want to do is be able to play like other kids. 

I completely fell in love with this story. It features some really great tropes, and they’re done to perfection in this story. Overall, I enjoyed the way Lanza crafted the story, allowing us to get to know the characters, slowly learn their backstory, and understand how their relationship developed and changed over the years. She created a wonderful love story as well, and having it set against the holiday seasons makes this a perfect read no matter what you celebrate, since there’s equal emphasis placed on Christmas, Hanukkah, birthdays, and New Year’s Eve. I finished this book with that happy feeling of satisfaction whenever I complete a good romance, and I can wholeheartedly recommend this book to my romance fans out there.