I’m living Murphy’s Law with a magical twist.

If something can go wrong, it will. Monsters show up. And then I die.

And then I die again, and again, and again.

I’m stuck in a time loop, and the mistakes I have to fix aren’t even mine. Some idiot in the coven causes a hiccup in my plans, and I have to start over.

The only person who will listen to me isn’t a person at all. It’s a ceramic garden gnome.

It’s possible I lost my marbles on the road to Marshmallow.

But if I can’t figure out how to manipulate this ragtag group of witches into making the right choices, I know where this loop takes me.

To the end of the world.

I recommend reading this series in order, it seems something gets added at the end of each one. Especially the previous book, that one last thing to prevent the end of everything.

This book, opens going back in time about nine weeks, centering on Angela who goes back to this point every time she loses in her quest to save everyone. She wakes in her van and finds herself in a naked man’s arms. The first time she totally freaks out, as anyone would. The second she is more aware and then we begin going through the sequence of events as they occurred with Angela.

First with Brianna, a brief encounter with Remedy, then Molly and of course Jen, her coven. Then there’s that man she keeps waking up with. What a pleasant surprise that is.

This is a favorite scene.

I needed to record my new findings, along with all the old ones, because a reset meant starting everything over.

“Hey, guy,” I said, over my shoulder. “What’s your name?”

He took a deep breath in, expanding his chest against my back. In a sandpaper voice, rough with sleep, he said, “Xavier.”

He moved his arm and his leg, unpinning me from the wall. I rolled over to face him. He had his head propped up and his arm flexed. As I took in the sight of him, I was once again struck by his undeniable rugged attractiveness.

I tried not to stare at his sculpted muscles, the kind that were hard-earned from manual labor instead of a gym. I tried not to focus on his big hands, or think about how they’d feel on my skin. I forced myself instead to stare into his pale green eyes, eyes that sparkled with mischief and secrets.

“In my head, I’ve been calling you Mr. Nude-o,” I said through an uncharacteristically husky tone. “Xavier’s better.”

A smile spread across his face. “For the record, I did tell you my name last night, when we met.”

“Okay. Kind of messed up to get a lady drunk enough that she forgets everything, when you were clearly sober enough to remember.”

“I didn’t make you down that bottle of vodka. You insisted on it.”

“What? No….” I guessed when I thought about it, I wasn’t so sure. When I exhaled and sniffed it, my breath smelled like floor cleaner. Gross. “We were together. I was drinking, a whole bottle by your account, and you didn’t share any?”

“I’m not much of a drinker.”

“I’m usually not either,” I said.

“You were storming through the forest looking agitated. You said you’d gotten a phone call from someone named Chester.”

Oh. Well, now the vodka was starting to make sense. Out of all my foster siblings in all of the houses I’d stayed as a child, Chester had left the biggest impression on me, and left the deepest scars. He was the jerkiest of jerks, a total bully, and I wished I could forget him.

I pushed myself upright, climbed over Xavier, and pulled on some pants. A fiery energy bubbled through my system. “Chester’s the one who got me started on this trip, flaunting all his success. But why would he call? I didn’t think he remembered who I was, let alone how to reach me.”

Xavier rolled to his back, his gaze never leaving me. He didn’t even seem bothered that his manhood was out in the open, completely uncovered. Was it impressive? Absolutely. Did that mean he should whip it about without clothes on? Of course not. What about modesty? He needed a dose, stat.

“That thing you’re doing with your face now,” he said, “that’s what you were doing last night.”

“I look mad?” I asked. “Good. I should be mad.”

His expression remained patient, even though at any moment I could kick him, shove him out, as I had every other loop. A big part of me wanted to, but I didn’t. Not yet, at least.

I gestured between us, down to his very naked penis. “We didn’t—”

“No.”

“Of course.” That’s exactly what I thought. “But you thought it’d be fun to get naked anyway, with someone way too drunk to consent?”

“Whoa.” He finally sat up, showed a concerned expression, and put his hands up in defense. “It wasn’t like that.”

In the back of my mind, my conscience told me that maybe I shouldn’t take my anger out on this guy. He wasn’t Chester. But I plowed ahead anyway, because he had no right to be here, naked in my van.

“Really?” I scowled at him as I towered over him, half-standing because the van wasn’t tall enough to be one-hundred-percent upright. “Then what was it like?”

“You carried me into that bar,” he said, “Just like you carried me into the van.”

A burst of laughter boiled out of my throat. “You expect me to believe that somehow I managed to carry you?”

“Yes.”

“That’s not physically possible. I probably should have picked up on it sooner, but I hadn’t pegged you for a liar.”

“I’m not lying,” he said. He lowered his hands slowly. His voice was soft when he said, “You really did forget everything, didn’t you?”

I shot him a hostile “duh” look. He took it in stride.

“I remember I took off my pants to be comfortable and went to sleep,” I lied. I didn’t remember doing that. It was a total guess.

“Wrong. You tossed your pants in the dumpster when we left the bar.”

I chuffed. “Why would I do that?”

He shrugged. “If you took them off in here, you would have found them by now.”

I resisted the urge to glance around the floor. I had already looked during other loops, and looked hard. As much as I hated to admit it, he had a point.

“I’m a weregnome.” He lifted his brows and watched me, waiting for me to put something together.

My brain was caught on his words, surely I had to have heard him wrong. “Say that again.”

“I transform,” he waited a beat as if making sure I was getting it, “into a garden gnome.”

Hearty laughter burst from my lungs, catching me by surprise.

His expression dropped.

I tried to stop laughing, but every time I tried to express words, more laughter bubbled out. Tears blurred my eyes and it took a solid five minutes for me to get it together. Mostly.

With a flat expression, he waited. Eventually, he asked, “Are you done?”

“I guess that depends on what you’re going to say next. Did you see a rustling bush, bend down to check it out and then—” I snickered, sure I couldn’t finish what I was saying.

Xavier waited patiently, a dimple on his right cheek the only sign of what he thought of my breakdown.

Eventually, I managed to say, “Then a gnome jumped out and bit you in the face?”

His dimple deepened, practically disappearing into his lush salt and pepper beard. He showed me a real smile before putting it away and replying, “No, she bit me in the leg.”

Okay, so I cackled a bit, but not too long this time. “Do you transform on the full moon?”

“It’s my natural state now,” he said. “And unfortunately when I turn human, I have nothing to wear.”

“I see.” I could see every glorious hill and valley, the smattering of dark hair that created a path down from his chest into lands I should not have wanted to explore.

“And for the record, she wasn’t in a bush,” he said. Bush. I squeezed my mouth closed hard so I wouldn’t laugh.

He wrapped the top sheet around his waist, finally covering himself. “I went home with her from a bar one night.”

Any humor I’d found in any of this was gone in an instant.

“Like you did with me?” I squeaked.

“Don’t worry, Angela. Nothing happened between us.”

I checked my arms and shoulders, and wished I’d checked out my legs before putting my pants on.

“I didn’t bite you.”

“Cool. Yeah. Great.” I sighed and checked my stomach for good measure.

“You picked me up by the magic shop and took me to the bar, where you drank.”

He’d been over this already, more or less. It also explained why Mergel had looked at me so strangely when I dropped by the bar and asked him about Night Zero.

I said, “Alone.”

“Not alone. I was there, too.”

He hadn’t shared the vodka with me. But something about the way he said not alone made it seem like he was talking about more than the bar. Like he had my back in the tornado of mess that had become my life. That got me thinking of all the other interactions I’d had with a gnome over the last however much time had passed since I’d first arrived in Marshmallow.

I hadn’t been looping alone all this time. He’d been looping with me.
Blackwood, Keira. Presumed Hexed and Hazardous: Midlife Magic in Marshmallow Books 4 & 5 (Midlife Magic Box Sets Book 2). Kindle Locations (5020-5080). Paramour Press. Kindle Edition.

Now that we know who and what Xavier is things get even more interesting.

The way Angela records each version of these days and then figures how to fix things, although it doesn’t quite work the way she hopes. Each time she resets she hopes it’s the last time.

Everyone has a role to play in preventing the end of everything, Remi, Julian, Davey, Brianna, Jen, Baku, Ambrose, Molly, Lily, Fernando and especially Xavier and Angela.

This book is as much fun as it is frustrating. Each iteration bringing us closer to the end of this series.

I look forward to reading the next series in this world, Midlife Magic in Memoriam.

5 Contented Purrs for Kiera!

Kiera Blackwood

Sassy. Snarky. Supernaturally Sparkly.

Keyboard ninja, late-blooming bibliophile, proud geek, animal lover, eternal optimist, visual artist.

USA Today Bestselling Author Keira Blackwood writes exciting romance with all the snort laughs and all the feels.

Life’s a witch, and then you die.

Unless you’re me.

One hundred forty years in, my body won’t quit. Sure, I’m slower than I used to be, and I can’t complete a simple task without setting off a chain reaction of pain in my joints. But my heart keeps on ticking.

Immortality is my curse. It’s also my greatest blessing.

I’ve lived long enough to see my daughter come back from the dead. But she’s not the only magical being to show up in Marshmallow.

There’s trouble like our magical little town has never seen.

I fear my coven of fledgling witches aren’t prepared for the battle ahead. I must rise to the challenge or risk losing my coven, my town, and my daughter for the second time.

This book opens with Molly and Fernando at the farmer’s market. Fernando is disguised as a dog and she’s hoping he doesn’t mess up like last time. Last time he was a child and well let’s just say that didn’t work out very well. She’s buying apples and berries to make a dessert for the celebration with her coven later. Unfortunately, by the time they get home, she’s in too much pain with her arthritis and after taking pills falls asleep. When she wakes it’s time to go and the apples have all been eaten by Fernando.

She’s just entered Robertini’s and sees Remedy and Jennifer sitting together with their backs to her and Brianna on the other side of the table. She’s about to join them when the door opens behind her, when she turns, she’s shocked and can’t move. Standing there in the same clothes she died in is Molly’s daughter Lily. From the last book we know that this is totally possible, but Molly was convinced it couldn’t happen since she witnessed the pshachacha snap Lily’s neck.

As Fernando drives them home, Lily says she’s still processing what happened and Molly doesn’t press, but as they approach home, she feels a surge of energy, and she begins to shrink. Lily hands her a mirror and she can’t believe her eyes, she’s a child. When she tries to reverse it she can’t. It seems she’s stuck at least for now.

When they arrive home, a buru is loose and startles her more than it should have. Then Molly thinks she sees Lily’s father Oscar, but that couldn’t be. He died many years ago, before Lily was born.

Molly dreams of the time when Lily was a child and she found Fernando. It’s a pleasant memory and when she wakes, she finds she’s still a child. She goes to her storage area and finds clothing that fits. She has chores and a shop to open. When she knocks on Lily’s door there’s no answer. She finds a note on the shop counter from Lily, she’d gone back to work without talking to her.

We follow Molly through her day and a very uncomfortable encounter with Oscar’s brother Ambrose who says he’s come because of family. Meaning her and Lily. Molly considers that connection loose since she was only friends with Oscar, and they never married. We see Murray as he picks up his order and delivers a cookie to Molly, one to be opened on Halloween.

We meet Isla the muse in this one, she runs a paint night where she encourages people to find their true selves. Molly attends occasionally to find those they need to watch out for. This time Isla wants a read on someone who’s been attending but not participating. Attendance has increased since Molly’s coven became official.

We learned in the last book there is one more person who should be in Molly’s coven, Angela Louise Chambers. She thinks that’s who is coming to the class, and as it turns out Brianna comes with her. Ambrose is also in attendance and after they once again have words he leaves. Molly follows him and leaves Brianna to watch for the woman, Isla wants the read on. As she looks for him, his trail leads to an alley, where someone hits her over the head, and she falls unconscious.

While unconscious she has a dream about a long ago encounter with Ambrose over a music box gifted to her by Oscar. When she wakes, she realizes where she is but everything hurts. She quickly makes the discovery she’s no longer a child and as such is barely dressed. She also discovers she has no phone or keys.

Remedy finds her after she’d been missing for seven hours. At Molly’s the rest of their coven and their spouses waited. Fernando takes charge and gives them tasks so Molly can gather herself and make herself presentable. She tells them everything about Lily and Ambrose, and then Brianna stays with her for the night. They are interrupted by an appearance by Angela who once again says cryptic stuff. They do get a bit of an answer about Angela and her magic which she describes being stuck in a time loop much like the movie ‘Groundhog Day’. They don’t quite understand it. However, Angela is persistent in the fact that she has to stop the world from ending.

There is just so much going on and Molly’s dreams of the past are quite vivid. It’s also disturbing to her when Ambrose is with Lily when she comes home. Molly also gains control of her magic enough to turn back the clock so she’s forty. No pain and more energy but hot flashes from hell.

This is a favorite scene.

I’d forgotten about the hot flashes. I hadn’t forgotten that they had started in my mid-forties. But the memory of how intense they could be had faded with time. And this was only the start.

Still, I maintained that this was the best age in my life to be. My twenties were filled with doubt and uncertainty. By my thirties, I knew who I was, but I still didn’t appreciate what I had. All of my energy had gone into shielding Lily and hiding my powers from the world. So much of my experience was tethered to the memories of those times. But in my forties, life improved. My fifties were pretty great, too. But, that’s when the arthritis started, and the hot flashes had been worse.

When the heat cleared, I stood taller, content that I’d chosen right. And then I noticed the tree. It was a bald cypress, alive in this forest longer than I’d been in Marshmallow, possibly alive longer than me.

The leaves had fallen, and the bark was blackened and peeling. I felt for the tree’s life force, but there was nothing to find. I’d killed it. A knot formed in my stomach as sadness seeped through my limbs. If I could give back the life, I would. There was nothing to be done.

I carried my coat and headed back toward the house. I did my best to focus on the positives. I looked forward to checking out my reflection in the mirror and seeing the whole picture.

For a moment, I thought I was doing a fair job of resetting my mood.

And then I heard Ambrose’s voice.

“Margaret.”

He approached as I stepped out of the woods, apparently not having left when I clearly didn’t want him here. “I thought I told you to go away.”

He ignored me, put his hands in his pockets, and said, “Either you lied before about not having control over your presented age, or you’ve figured out the trick now.”

“My appearance has nothing to do with you. Lily’s gone. You have no reason to—”

His square jaw ticked as he clenched down. “I’m here to protect…her.”

That pause, it was so miniscule, yet, it was clear as day. He was lying outright or implicitly by omission. What was his true intention? Why was I indulging in this interaction at all?

I poked him in the chest. It was a hard, muscular chest, not that that was relevant. “I should drain your life and leave you as a shriveled husk. I told you to leave Marshmallow.”

“I can’t.”

I raised a brow and crossed my arms, waiting for whatever pathetic explanation he’d offer. It wasn’t because I wanted to hear what he had to say, so much as to laugh in his face over the absurdity of his lie. Nothing more.

After a moment of staring at me, he said, “Harriet is here.”

My fingers flexed instinctively at the sound of that name, digging into my upper arms. “Don’t be ridiculous. Harriet is dead.”

He raised a brow at me, mirroring the expression I’d just thrown at him. It was absolutely infuriating. “Are you sure?”

“I watched her die.”

She was the only person I’d ever killed. I’d been trying to save Oscar when she used her power on me. I failed to save him, even as I turned my magic on her. They both died.

Ambrose said, “No, you didn’t.”

She couldn’t have survived. I’d felt the life drain from her.

I glared at him, wishing I could bring myself to end the words from his lips, to stop this demon spawn from ever speaking his lies to anyone ever again. But as much as I wanted to, and it would be so easy, I couldn’t.

I hadn’t meant to kill Harriet. And I’d vowed I never would kill a human again. Even if he deserved it.

“She’s here in Marshmallow,” Ambrose said. “She was here, at your home.”

That was enough. I couldn’t take any more. The anger inside of me boiled forth in a war cry. I thrust my palms against his chest. I tried to shove him, but he didn’t move.

That only made me madder. “You infuriating, lying sack of—”

He put his hands on my shoulders. His touch was soft, his large hands warm. The contact was flooded with vibrant life force, and frustratingly pleasant. I shrugged him off and stepped back, unwilling to acknowledge anything positive about this terrible man.

“I’m not lying,” he said softly. “See, over there by the window, there are footprints.”

I didn’t believe him. I shouldn’t even bother looking. This was just another lie.

“I swear to you,” he said. “On my brother’s name.”

“Don’t.”

“Just look.”

The sooner I did what he said, the sooner I could tell him how wrong he was, and then he would leave. So, at his prompting, I walked over to the window.

The grass was trampled a bit, but it was impossible to see footprints in the grass. Even if there had been evidence, it would have proved nothing. People from town visited the shop every day. Lily had been back here. My coven had been here for the bonfire just last night.

“So?” He looked at me expectantly, like he actually thought I’d agree with him.

“There are no footprints.”

“You can see where she was standing,” he insisted.

“Flattened grass proves nothing.”

Again, he positioned himself in my personal space. Again, the air seemed too warm all of the sudden, thick and palpable. I should have backed away, but I stood my ground. This was my house. It wasn’t me who needed to move.

“Can’t you see?” His expression was almost open, like he had emotions he wanted to show me. “I’m trying to protect you.”

I laughed. “Protect me? You attacked me from behind.”

“What?” He lowered his brows and cocked his head slightly to the side in a look of genuine confusion.

“Have you attacked too many women too many times that it was difficult to keep track?” I threw up my hands. “In the alley, when I followed you out of the art class.”

“I didn’t see you follow me,” he said. “And I would never hurt you.”

“Snakes tell only lies,” I snarled at him.

“I don’t lie to you.”

I stared at him, at his slightly crooked nose that Oscar had broken in a tussle when they were kids. I stared at his mouth, a flat line that rarely smiled. I stared into his eyes, icy steel as hard as they were cold. If I didn’t know better, I’d say his expression was somehow earnest. Was it possible he hadn’t been the person who attacked me?

Uncomfortable with my wavering resolve, I changed the subject. “If any part of Harriet’s coven is here in Marshmallow, it’s you.”

“I’m not working with her.”

“Then how do you know she’s here? How do you know she’s alive?”

“I can feel it,” he said. “Can’t you?”

He could feel that she was here?

“No,” I said. “You were creeping around together outside of my home, or creeping around separately? Not that I’ll believe anything you say.”

“I wasn’t—” He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “Look, she’s here now. I know it, but I haven’t seen her and I have nothing to do with her. And she was alive when you left that day.”

I didn’t have to ask which day he was talking about. It was the day Oscar died.

I said, “I killed her.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“You saw me. You saw what she was doing to him, and you did nothing to stop her.”

“No, Margaret. I wasn’t there. I didn’t arrive until after. You and Harriet were both already gone.”

His words lingered in the air between us. Of course he was there. He’d been watching, like he was always watching. He’d let his brother die, and he’d let me kill Harriet without lifting a finger. Right? The memories should have been crisp in my mind, but now that he was talking, everything seemed blurry. Was it possible he was telling the truth?

If Harriet was gone, did that necessarily mean she had walked away? She could have been carried. It happened on her family’s estate. They could have attended to her body if Ambrose’s story was true, which of course it wasn’t. And it was ridiculous that I was even considering it.

“I don’t know why you’re here, torturing me again after all these years,” I said. “Shouldn’t you have found someone else to hate by now?”

He clenched his jaw and his fists. “What I feel for you is the opposite of hate.”

My jaw went slack and I stared at him, stunned. What kind of game was this? Why would he say—

He touched my shoulders and skimmed his fingers down the back of my arms. I lost all ability to think in the gentle touch. A line formed between his brows, and his gaze flicked down to my lips.

I held my breath, knowing I should pull back, or push him away, but I didn’t. He tilted his forehead to mine, and my heartbeat thudded in my throat.

What was I doing indulging this? What was wrong with me?

My breaths came faster as I waited for the kiss I knew was coming, and in some distant part of my brain could swear I didn’t want. My nerves were raw, every inch of my skin trapped in the anticipation.

An eternity of waiting ended in a snap. He thrust his lips against mine. It was a rough and primal kiss filled with need. It was a proclamation of long repressed feelings, a branding claim that promised he wanted me. He came to Marshmallow for me. I almost believed it, almost believed him.
Blackwood, Keira. Presumed Hexed and Hazardous: Midlife Magic in Marshmallow Books 4 & 5 (Midlife Magic Box Sets Book 2). Kindle Locations (1626-1704). Paramour Press. Kindle Edition.

The situation with Ambrose definitely grabbed my attention. He practically tells her he loves her.

To say there are many twists in this book is definitely an understatement. Angela turns up in all sorts of places, Lily gets an assignment that involves Molly and her Coven, Ambrose discloses how he is still alive and that also reveals a further connection with Lily. So much fun and so many surprises as we meet more residents of Marshmallow. Along with some visitors who are there for more nefarious reasons.

Once again, I couldn’t put this book down. Since I borrowed this as the boxset of the final two books, I am already reading the next one.

5 Contented Purrs for Kiera!

Kiera Blackwood

Sassy. Snarky. Supernaturally Sparkly.

Keyboard ninja, late-blooming bibliophile, proud geek, animal lover, eternal optimist, visual artist.

USA Today Bestselling Author Keira Blackwood writes exciting romance with all the snort laughs and all the feels.