Review – Magical Midlife Madness (Leveling Up, Book 1) by K.F. Breene (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 376 pages
Publisher: Hazy Dawn Press, Inc.
Release Date: February 16, 2020
ASIN : B084VTC2P3
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in Leveling Up series
Source: Borrowed through Kindle Unlimted
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Happily Ever After” wasn’t supposed to come with a do-over option. But when my husband of twenty years packs up and heads for greener pastures and my son leaves for college, that’s exactly what my life becomes.
Do-over.
This time, though, I plan to do things differently. Age is just a number, after all, and at forty I’m ready to carve my own path.
Eager for a fresh start, I make a somewhat unorthodox decision and move to a tiny town in the Sierra foothills. I’ll be taking care of a centuries old house that called to me when I was a kid. It’s just temporary, I tell myself. It’ll just be for a while.
That is, until I learn what the house really is, something I never could’ve imagined.
Thankfully forty isn’t too old to start an adventure, because that’s exactly what I do. A very dangerous adventure that will change my life forever. I have a chance to start again, and this time, I make the rules..”
Series Info/Source: This is the 1st book in the Leveling Up series. Right now there are five books released in this series. I got a copy of this book to read through Kindle Unlimited.
Thoughts: This was a very fun read featuring a woman in her 40’s who moves to a small town to serve as caretaker of an old house after her divorce. The house (and the people in the town) are not exactly normal.
I really enjoyed this book a ton and it had me laughing out loud a number of times. I started listening to it on audiobook and then got the ebook through Kindle Unlimited so I could finish reading it at night when I got home; I was just having so much fun. So, yeah, I finished this one in a day (a few hours).
The characters are zany and crazy, but also have a lot of history and depth to them. The situations Jessie ends up in are hilarious. I love the strange setting of this quirky small town; a town centered around an even stranger creepy house (Ivy House). This was just a boatload of laughs and a fun and quick upbeat read. It is also a very creative story with a lot of unexpected elements.
There is a bit of focus on Jesse being older but not a ton. She doesn’t go off on man-hating rants, like happens in quite a few of these “women’s” paranormal fiction books. Yes, she’s not as spry as she used to be and she is carrying some baggage, but there is more focus on the good things about being older. Her confidence, wisdom, intelligence, and ability to get through crazy situations are what are highlighted more often than not. There are a number of older characters featured )not just Jesse) and it makes for a very nice balanced read. This is one that I don’t think needs to be classified specifically as women’s fiction, it’s a great paranormal genre book and would probably be best just left with that description.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I really enjoyed this; it was the perfect little light-hearted paranormal read I was looking for. I definitely plan on continuing the series. This looks to be a great series for when I am in the mood for a hilarious, yet intriguing and creative, paranormal read.
