Wishing for a Magical Midlife

I wish I could escape my past. But when it catches up to me, I don't get to make the wishes-I have to grant them. Becoming a widow on my fortieth birthday was not what I had planned. Even worse? It's forced me and my teenage daughter back to Whispering Willows and the life of magic I left behind. I tell myself it'll be a short trip to sell my mother's shop of wishes. Until I kind of, sort of bind myself to the shop. With bills piling up fast, I gotta do something I swore I never would: open shop and start granting wishes, just until I can figure out how to undo this pesky binding spell. It doesn't help that the handsome mayor keeps tempting me with those kissable lips. Or that I have to hide from my daughter that magic is real. I wish I could leave my past behind, but in this line of work, I've learned one very important rule: be careful what you wish for. If humor and magic are your jam, then you will love this new paranormal women's fiction series, perfect for fans of K. F. Breene, Shannon Mayer, and Robyn Petermen.

Whispering Willows is a place where wishes come true, but at what cost? I didn't expect to be a widow at forty years old. I didn't expect to be a single mother. I didn't expect to inherit a mountain of debt. And I definitely didn't expect to return to Whispering Willows-or my life as a witch. But here I am: I've reopened my mother's wish shop, started granting wishes, and am teaching my daughter magic. Life is perfect . . . Almost. There's my ex, who's aged unfairly well and who also happens to be my daughter's teacher. My high school BFF, who has turned into a major bully. And then there's the golden lamp. After I find it in the basement, strange things start happening: the random rain showers in my shop, the ruined wishes, the seagull who can suddenly sing (off-key) showtunes. Just when I think it can't get any weirder, I throw the lamp in the ocean, and it appears back in my shop the next day. Something is trying to escape that lamp, and if I don't figure out what, our new beginning might be over before it's even started.

Witch, humbug. Forty and fabulous is my motto. It's been twenty years since I escaped Whispering Willows and my humble beginnings. Now I live in LA, working my dream job as head witch at a growing corporation, getting paid the big bucks to cast spells some might find morally questionable. Life is perfect. Until the night my boyfriend surprises me with a "romantic" getaway in the middle of nowhere, and I find a shovel and rope in his trunk. Romance is truly dead. Worse, I somehow cast a curse upon myself. Now some stalker ghosts want to force me into my past, present, and future. I have to return home, the only place I can get the answers I need. All while dealing with a mother who hasn't forgiven me for leaving and a childhood best friend who's aged into a sexy werewolf. Forget head witch, I'm going to be a dead witch unless I find a way to stop these ghosts from taking my soul, and any chance of redemption I may have along with it.

Clara is ready to unleash the mysteries of the past, but doing so might just unravel her future. It's been five months since Clara moved back home to Whispering Willows and started practicing magic again. Now, she's taking up her heritage and granting wishes, teaching her daughter magic, and dating her sexy ex from high school. She feels settled, like she's finally found her way. Until her dad arrives. The dad her mother told her was a one-night stand. The dad who was supposedly a deadbeat. The dad she thought had died. He's very much alive, and he wants to get to know Clara. But she's not ready to let him into her life, not when it means he might unleash secrets about her mother and herself, secrets that were never meant to be told.

Time travel, a sea serpent, and a long-lost aunt . . . what could go wrong? It's not that I thought life was going to be easier now that I've settled into being forty, happily married to the man of my dreams, living my best life as a witch, but, well, okay yes, that is what I thought. Reality comes knocking the day I try to open the door to my shop and the key doesn't work. Neither does anything else: bricks to the window, my strongest spells, an actual half-giant punching in the door-nada. This magical shop has been in my family for over a hundred years. It's our legacy, what I want to pass down to my daughter. Something sinister is brewing, a dark magic that's keeping me from entering. I thought my investigative days were over, but I've got to figure out what kind of magic is afoot. If I don't, I'm at risk of losing my entire heritage-and maybe more.