Magical Midlife Madness: Leveling Up

“Magical Midlife Madness” (Leveling Up #1) by K.F. Breene ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Paranormal Women’s Fiction. Location: The Sierra foothills of Northern California, USA. TIME: present.THE SERIES: Jacinta (Jessie) Evans’ husband of 20 years leaves her, and her son leaves for college. She’s 40 and needs a new life. She moves to the tiny town of O’Briens to be caregiver of Ivy House, her friend’s aunt’s creepy old estate. The house comes with Great Uncle Earl, aka Mr. Tom (a cape-wearing butler), and Edgar (a gardener with very long incisors). It’s just temporary, she thinks.THIS BOOK: When Jessie arrives, she finds the town includes Niamh (very, very, very old rock-throwing neighbor), and Austin Steele (super sexy bar owner known locally as the “uncrowned alpha”). Ivy House is like a sovereign nation on the outskirts of town. As Jessie becomes aware of why she was hired as caretaker, locals take sides for or against her. And now out-of-owners are coming for her. It’s a dangerous situation that will change her life forever.I could happily write about any of author Breene’s characters, but for this 1st book, I’m concentrating on Jessie. Breene writes about a woman on fire. She’s going to stop being ignored. Raise her voice until it’s heard. Look however she wants. Be whoever she wants. Demand people pay attention to her. (Plus there’s magic!)She is eloquent in describing how Jessie stands up for herself. When Austin punches a drunk for disrespecting her, Jessie points out the increased danger he put her in because of that well-meant but unthinking action. (“…but often a man doesn’t account for how dangerous the fallout can be for a woman.”) Yes! (Plus there’s magic!)If a fabulous strong woman protagonist isn’t enough, Breene places her in the middle of a twisted fairytale land. (I wish there was a map of the town!) If you like geriatric gargoyles, unusual shape shifters, and other magical creatures, this might be the book (and series) for you. It’s 4 stars from me.🌵📚💁🏼‍♀️ I’ve already put book 2 on my TBR list.

Jessie's been a Domestic Doormat - excuse me, Stay At Home Wife - for 20 years. Now her successful husband has dumped her, and their son is an adult in college. It's time to rediscover herself, she decides. But with no job or prospects, she has to crash at her parents' house. But it barely takes 24 hours before she realizes there must be something better to do than stare at her old poster of Brad Pitt and try to avoid looking at her dad in the mornings, who has decided to start off his days **sans** clothing ("they scratch!" he claims).A friend offers her a caretaker job in a small town. Great, she thinks, I liked that eerie old house when I was a kid, and then I can have some time to decide what I'm going to do with my life.But Jessie's wrong....very wrong. She didn't pick that house because she liked it. It was the house that picked her - and it wants her very badly to stay. Forever.As her all-too-few allies tell her, it's her decision. She can walk away, right now. Or she can stay, and be the focus for the immense power of the house. But if she does that, her mundane human existence is over. All sorts of magical creatures, good and bad, will be attracted to such a source of power.What will she decide to do? Or is the decision going to be made for her?There is a lot about this intro book that was fun. Enjoyed the way the mysteries were plotted so that the pacing and tension ratcheted up steadily. I really liked how everyone, including Jessie, realizes that it's her age and experiences that have made her the ideal locus for the house's power; at twenty she wouldn't have been ready to deal with it.And the room full of dolls - oh, that was a GREAT in-joke for every horror movie fan!The humor is fun, even if somewhat rote. I rounded the rating up from 3.5 just for the dolls. Otherwise, although entertaining the whole cast of characters was a little too much Generic Supernatural to really stand out. I may or may not read Bk 2, to continue the series. YMMV

From start to finish, I fell in love with the characters in this book. I haven't laughed so hard reading, in quite some time. This is a wonderful humorous find that I'm glad I came acroson to the next book in this series... Happy reading. ;)

A fantastic, paranormal & urban fantasy story. When Jacinta Evan's husband decides he wants a new, younger woman, she doesn't get depressed; she gets motivated to start her own adventure. Then, her best friend's aunt offers her a job as the caretaker for Ivy House. When she arrives, she meets several weird characters and questions her sanity for accepting the position. This title is all about exposing her to the paranormal world around her. The ending is quite good, but also a bit of a cliffhanger.

I laughed so much and cheered when both sober and drunk Jessie handled Austen sage advice and scared off 3 attackers. I think her reactions to everything are perfectly normal. I mean, I love the supernatural world in my books…what if I discovered it was real? Insert spooky whooo here.

I haven’t read any books for the last 10 years or so until being gifted a kindle for Christmas. I’m delighted to find so many midlife fantasy series. These are not a genre I would have even thought about reading 10 years ago!I love the characters and the house! I want to visit it. Engaging and relatable (the midlife parts - not so much the magic!) I thoroughly enjoyed this one and looking forward to the rest of the series! Also, I have enjoyed similar series of the same vein but the writing throughout this one did not annoy me like some of the others and found it a pleasant and easy read full of fun and intrigue.

Love how each character has their own personality and witty ness they bring to the story. The banter and talk between each character has me looking forward to the character building and development in the rest of the series. So if you haven't started this then you should! As it starts out in the normal world and by the end we're seeing a whole new world, one which our main FC needs time to adjust but just takes it like the boss she is! And as it's only the first book, you already know it'll be one hell of an adventure coming up!

Loved this book! First one in a long while where I’ve thought about the story and characters while at work! Loved the quick wit of Jess. I’m intrigued to see what happens between Jess and Austin.

The only time I've read anything with Ms. Breene, was when she co-authored with Shannon Mayer on Shadowspell Academy. So I thought I'd give one of her books a try!!And I chose this one!!Right from the start you fall in love with Jess and I've got to admit that she is most definitely someone I would be extremely close to.....BFF's and all that boo 😂🙉🙉😂It's so funny, that even when they're in "danger" it just had you laughing out loud enough, that even my dog covered her ears and asked me to stop 😭😭I always get the audio with books and i don't know what's going on, but over the last few books, not only had the author been great, but so has their choice for who narrated the books for them.And this ladies and gentleman is no different!!I've come across her again, ANOTHER bloody fantastic narrator!!In fact I'm going to tell you quite categorically, that this young/middle aged narrator, is absolutely, without any doubt, The BEST narrator I've ever heard before!!Not only does she bring all the characters alive, but every single one of them has their own voice!! And boy, you can't help but imagine every single one of them in your minds eye and even get a feel for how they'd walk while their talking!!Sounds crazy?!?!?!Trust me,I KNOW,However it doesn't change the experience. Her vocal range is amazing and the way that she passionately portrays Jess when she's drunk, hungover or squawking due to finding a giant rat in front of her. Or the corner she thinks would be great for "Flat Too Scalps" 🙈🙉🙈🙉🤔🤔I know, you don't get it, but if you buy these two and listen while you read, I promise you, you'll not only get it, but you'll be extremely happy you did!!Now I'm supposed to say whether or not I'd recommend these two......I mean, seriously??? Hasn't anyone been paying attention??Look up ^^^^^^^^^ there, what do you think?? Sheesh 🙄🙄🙄🙄What are you still doing here?? Skiddaddle and get buying them and enjoy 🙄🙄🤦🤦😂😂

Everything I have ever read by K.F. Breene has been fabulous and this was no exception.Her side characters are hilarious and delightful. I’d read this book just for their antics. The romance side of things is a slow burn but I suspect it will be well worth the wait.This book is quirky and cute with a dash of serious representation for midlife women. After reading nothing but books with main characters in their late teens and early to mid twenties this was a really nice change.10/10 would read again