The Magic All Around

• Author: Jennifer Moorman
• Genre: Romance
• Publication Date: January 16, 2024
• Publisher: Harper Muse

Thank you to Francesca Fuentes, Wunderkind PR, and Harper Muse for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In this latest enchanting novel from bestselling magical realism author Jennifer Moorman, a treasure hunt through the past reveals one woman’s extraordinary gift for arranging the future.

The Russell women have always lived in a house that is as special as they are—a century-old Victorian with a radio that tunes itself to the listener’s mood and a pantry that rearranges to provide just the right ingredients for any baking need. Lilith Russell was the exception. She left the family home in Ivy Ridge, Georgia, and has been flitting like a hummingbird from place to place with her daughter, Mattie, in the decades since, only returning each summer to drop Mattie off with Lilith’s sister, Penelope.

When Lilith dies suddenly, Mattie is left without her sole companion and the captain who steered her ship. That is, until she visits Ivy Ridge and learns Lilith charted one last course for Mattie; a series of tasks that she must complete to earn her inheritance, with Penelope overseeing the process.

Both Mattie and Penelope are outraged by Lilith’s seemingly random stipulations: throw a Halloween party, take a local pizza cooking class, share secrets with someone…But Mattie soon realizes that if she completes the tasks, she may unearth her mother’s secrets, including the identity of Mattie’s father. She may also discover more about the Russell family “gifts” and why Lilith chose Penelope’s former love to be the executor of the will. She may even learn how and why Jonathan Carlisle, the boy who stole her heart ten summers ago, also happens to be back in town. 

Mattie can only hope that Lilith’s final map will finally point her home.

This is one of those cases where the gorgeous cover caught my attention, and I love how it feels so fitting for the story. The cover features a hummingbird and a stunning shade of green, which makes me think of nature and greenery, and it suits the magical realism aspects of the story.

While I classified it as romance, that isn’t the only genre it fits into—it also crosses into a bit of fantasy, women’s literature, contemporary fiction, magical realism, and even some elements of mystery, albeit on a milder level than an actual mystery book. Either way, all of these different genres worked together beautifully in this book. I’m very particular about magical realism, but this one was done really well, and it just flowed with the story. 

The story centers around Mattie Russell, a young woman who has spent her life living a nomadic existence with her mother, Lilith, moving around the country every few years, only returning to the same place in the summers, when she leaves Mattie with her sister at their family home in Ivy Ridge, Georgia. But when Lilith suddenly dies, Mattie is left without the most important person in her life, the one who guided her. Heading back to Ivy Ridge, she discovers that Lilith left her one final path to follow on the way to get an unexpected inheritance, and it might just answer a lot of her questions.

I liked Mattie, and found her to be an easy character to connect with. She’s young but as someone who moved so frequently, she struggles to form connections with others. There are flashbacks of her life with Lilith, and the joys are highlighted much of the time, although we get to see some of the negatives. Having had to abandon friendships in the past, she decided at a young age to keep her distance from the people around her so it wouldn’t hurt so much when she had to leave. That doesn’t erase the history that she has with Jonathan Carlisle, the guy who broke her heart ten years ago, but she hasn’t seen him since, so at least that makes it easier.

The story itself was rather slow-paced for easily the first half of the book. More things started to snowball in the second half of the book and the pace picked up so fast that it was a difficult adjustment for me. It almost felt as thought the first half of the book set the stage for the story, while the second half let the plot unfold, and things felt a bit rushed, especially compared to the laid-back pace of the first half. 

There’s a romance that develops between Jonathan and Mattie, and it’s glaringly obvious that it’s going to occur. Even so, I still really enjoyed watching the relationship between these two develop. The second chance romance trope worked perfectly here, since it allowed them to work through the distance that existed and get closer to each other. We also got to see chapters through Jonathan’s eyes, so both perspectives are seen and it was nice to get inside his head as well.

Throughout the book, there are themes of love, family, belonging, and what home really means, and I enjoyed how it was done. By returning to Ivy Ridge, Mattie is exposing herself to what life could be like if she stays in one place, and it’s only through Lilith’s strangely specific list that she finds out more about life and about herself. The list that Mattie is given forces her to get outside of her comfort zone and just do things that she might not normally do, and especially not by staying in Ivy Ridge. 

Overall, this was a good read. The romance was a bit predictable, but I enjoyed it anyway. I think my favorite part was how something that seemed ridiculous and frivolous wound up being a way for Lilith to chart the course for her daughter one last time, even after she has passed, and giving Mattie the confidence to choose her own path in life going forward. I liked how things were done, and the story had that cozy, small town feeling that made it feel like a comfort read even though it was my first time around. 

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