Shanna Swendon: Enchanted, Inc.

Ballantine Books (Trade Paperback), ISBN 0345481259

Sometimes ordinary can be extraordinary. Take former small-town Texan, Katie Chandler. Katie follows three college friends to New York City to escape a hum-drum life and to, hopefully, find the job and man of her dreams. Unfortunately, after a year living in NYC, "nightmare" more closely describes her current job and "comatose" her social life.

Then one day something even weirder than the usual Big Apple strange happens. Katie follows a woman with wings into the subway. Now, normally, this wouldn't be a cause for any perturbation, after all, the Big Apple revels in its weirdness quotient. But not only do those wings look awfully real -- but the gal seems to be floating too.

Immediately after her experience with the winged chick, Katie gets a too-good-to-be-true job offer. The offer comes from Magic, Spells and Illusions, Inc. -- a company that sells tricks and spells to the magic community. Katie finds when she accepts the job that MSI ain't selling to the usual birthday party sleight-of-hand crowd, but to real magic users. Elves. Gnomes. Honest-to-goodness practicing wizards and witches, all of whom rely on Katie to provide the one thing they need the most: ordinary.

Katie takes ordinary and makes it look good. Being the one fish in a bowl of magical guppies who can't be affected by magic makes Katie very special indeed. Katie loves her new job and tries to ignore the sparks she feels for one of her new bosses. But before Katie can say "abracadabra" she and MSI find themselves hip-deep in a struggle with a rival magician. Even Katie's extraordinary ordinary might not be enough to help.

Top hats off and a standing ovation to Shanna Swendon -- Enchanted, Inc. takes all the old, tired paranormal tropes and turns them on their ears. Her heroine is smart and funny and real. Swendon knows how to keep readers glued to their seats as they follow Katie down her very odd NYC rabbit hole. I read Enchanted, Inc. in one big gulp and I plan to go back and enjoy it again -- and very probably several more agains after that. Definitely a keeper.

I highly recommend catching a ride on a flying carpet to the nearest bookstore for a copy of this book. Enchanted, Inc. deserves to be listed among the top five best in the growing sub-genre of paranormal chick lit.

Teri Smith

Raising hell for fifty years from Alaska to the Azores and all points in between, Teri Smith was an Air Force brat who never stopped traveling. She was also a mother, a grandmother (of ten!), a help desk wizard, a financial assistant, acquisitions editor for Samhain Publishing and, most importantly, the Queen Nag of the Known Universe. A multi-published short story writer, her first novel, With Nine You Get Vanyr, written with Jean Marie Ward, was published in 2007. Contrary to common belief, she never stopped living.

Click here to read Patricia White's review of Enchanted, Inc.

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