I was so excited to find Magical Midlife Madness by KF Breene. Finally, a series which takes a woman in midlife and makes her the main protagonist rather than a dumpy side character.

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Was Jessie supposed to feel such relief after her divorce? But her marriage fizzled our years ago and now at 40 years old she finally feels like she’s free. Free to explore life and have some adventures. First though, she needs to get our of her parents house. However, when she takes up the offer to be the caretaker of an old house in a small town, a creepy, supposedly haunted old house, she didn’t realise quite how many strings it had attached. Oh well, she wanted some adventures anyway…

I have long struggled with books with young protagonist. As a woman in my mid-thirties I find their issues hard to identify with. Which is the polite way of saying that I have no patience for their problems. Is this the romance novel equivalent of me shouting and shaking my fists at kids going on my lawn? Maybe. But, this just explains why I was so excited to find Magical Midlife Madness by K.F. Breene. Finally, a series which takes a woman in midlife and makes her the main protagonist rather than a dumpy side character.

I really liked Jessie, she was a mature woman who had some life experience and after spending her life taking care of other people and in a dull marriage is not willing to compromise on what she wants. Amazing. Finally, a book with an older heroine who actually acts like a mature woman. In fact, the whole crew in this book are older, including Austin Steele, a bar owner known by the locals as the Uncrowned Alpha. Which is exactly as cool as it sounds. This leads us nicely into the paranormal elements of this book.

The reader discovers alongside Jessie exactly what the heck is happening in this odd small town and the weird old house that she is now the caretaker of. Hint: magic. The house has plotted a powerful destiny for Jessie, but it’s up to Jessie if she wants to embrace it. Luckily she has the, often hilarious, assistance of Austin Steele and the friends she has made to help.

Over all, I really enjoyed this book. It was a lot of fun and made me laugh countless times. It was also clearly and not particularly subtly hammering home the point regarding agism and sexism. That, as women’s age increases their apparent value to society decreases. None of which I disagreed with. However, like I said it wasn’t subtle and Breene in trying to make this point often had her characters talking in monologues. This made the dialogue in this book feel really unnatural and gave the whole book a really clunky feel.

I will be reading on in the series though. I want to see what shenanigans Jessie and her crew will get up to next and, as a romance reader, I really want to see Jessie and Austin’s relationship develop. If, you, like me, enjoy a book with older characters and want something fun to read this book is great place to start.

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