Thanks so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me access to this book. Disappointing book - with characters that drove me crazy. I will not be recommending this book. But thanks again for letting have a chance to read it.

Irene Radford gives us an exciting paranormal romance in which the housewife has supernatural skills to save the world. Enjoy

Lots of magical fun and I loved the baking. Great characters and great story setting! This was a page turning fast read.

Something about this didn't click for me, and I really wanted to like it! The main characters were...annoying, and unrelatable. The wife is the strongest but still very whiney and annoying, but the husband mansplans and is a jerk, the best friend is under developed, and the kids are just there floating about. The writing style also leaves something to be desired - paragraphs are short and choppy, and the flow of dialogue doesn't feel real. The premise (magic! magical enforcers! magical family! intrigue!) was what kept me going, but ultimately wasn't enough.

"A delightful new urban fantasy about a kitchen witch and her magical family.

Daphne "Daffy" Rose Wallace Deschants has an ideal suburban life—three wonderful and talented children; a coffee shop and bakery, owned and run with her best friend; a nearly perfect husband, Gabriel, or "G" to his friends and family. Life could hardly be better.

But G's perfection hides dangerous secrets. When Daffy uncovers evidence of his infidelity, her perfect life seems to be in ruins. On their wedding anniversary, Daffy prepares to confront him, only to be stopped in her tracks when he foils a mugging attempt using wizard-level magic.

Suddenly, Daphne is part of a world she never imagined--where her husband is not a traveling troubleshooter for a software company, but the sheriff of the International Guild of Wizards, and her brilliant children are also budding magicians. Even she herself is not just a great baker and barista—she's actually a kitchen witch. And her discovery of her powers is only just beginning.

But even the midst of her chaotic new life, another problem is brewing. G's ex-wife, a dangerous witch, has escaped from her magical prison. Revenge-bent and blind, she needs the eyes of her son to restore her sight—the son Daffy has raised as her own since he was a year old. Now Daphne must find a way to harness her new powers and protect her family—or risk losing everything she holds dear."

Sounds like fun urban fantasy that is like Practical Magic!

Not a bad read if you want something fast and a little quirky. This had a different take on magic and I loved the wand idea.

http://kingsriverlife.com/01/06/a-spoonful-of-magic-by-irene-radford/
If a woman receives photos of her husband, “G” (for Gabriel), having sex with another woman, she kicks him out, right? If she finds out that the rat is actually a wizard marshal fighting magical baddies, and their children and his son are developing powers, should she let him back into her life?

That’s one of the problems Daphne “Daffy” Rose Wallace Deschants faces in A Spoonful of Magic, a series debut by Irene Radford. The baker of delicious goodies learns that her husband’s son, who she has raised as her own, is being sought by his presumed-dead, blind birth-mother as an eye donor, one of Daffy’s daughter’s can bewitch young men at will, the other girl hacks computers and cracks safes like a cat burglar, the boy can defy gravity when he dances, there are magical weapons hidden under her greenhouse, and Rose may have her own baking-magic abilities. She doesn’t trust her now ex-husband, but she needs the creep’s help to protect her family. Who can she trust? G’s wizarding partner, or her son’s not-exactly girlfriend’s dad (who is a good kisser)?book

Sometimes, Daffy comes off as wimpy, but other moments show her as a mother wolf, not to be provoked when the safety of her children is concerned. With G out of the house but an advisor in things magical, there is a lot of tension, as the serial two-timer wants to have Daffy back in his arms. G is unrepentant and has been unfaithful, manipulative, and doesn’t seem able to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

The kids are the joy factor in this urban paranormal opus. Their antics as new powers surface are delightful, as they go a bit too far, and learn control, except when those abilities are needed by the author to track down and battle the villains. The stories of how wands come to witches and wizards and what forms they might take, are quite entertaining.

The set-up is unique, the discovery of powers and how to use them draw in the reader, and the danger is plausible, but the ex-husband would make a better late husband.

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

2.5 hearts

A <strong>Spoonful of Magic</strong> looked fun with cooking and magic. I did enjoy those aspects. The start was just so sloooooow, so much data and so little information.  The world-building felt like mountains of details with no knowledge to be gained.

Daffy is the main character and when she got clued in to the situations, it was easier to learn about the world. She protected her children, while G put his efforts to solving the case. The rest of the characters got more developed and it got more interesting. The relationships between the characters were just kind of creepy.  Other than Daffy's love for her son Jason, and her best friend, everyone else seemed to be all about themselves with little regard for the consequences. I couldn't really connect to any of them.

There is a religious group causing problems along the way. Daffy's parents had some of the same mindless religious zealotry.  Religion never equals fun to me.

Solving the case, or rather catching the perpetrators who were murdering people and causing destruction, was good.  The whole team worked on aspects to both protect the children and bring down the bad guys. Daffy's baking and cooking made me hungry; she has a real talent.  Those were a pleasure to read.

<blockquote>"Training a teenager is a lot like training a dog. Speak their names very clearly to get their attention. Give them a specific chore, and only one at a time. Reward with food."</blockquote>

I hate writing one bat reviews, especially on a book I wanted to like so much, but A SPOONFUL OF MAGIC fell completely flat for me.

What made me pick up the book was the promising of cooking and magic. I’m a baker and I love cooking so that was right up my alley, and it’s different from the usual wand waving magic. I did find the magic system intriguing, everyone has their own specialty and slightly unique way of casting magic. One of the kids is effectively a computer mage, which is a concept I loved. But there is still a lot of wand waving, and while it’s structured like a hard magic system, it really wasn't when the plot needed the characters to be able to do something different.

My main complaint about the magic system deserves a whole paragraph on it’s own. A SPOONFUL OF MAGIC opens with Daphne breaking up with her husband because he’s cheated on her. He waves the cheating away by saying that using magic boosts your sex drive so if he’s away on business he just has to sleep with someone if he expended to much magic. However, Radford waves away that requirement whenever it gets in the way. The biggest time she does that is when she explains that the teenage kids won’t have those urges because … reasons. Seriously? I agree it wouldn’t fit in with the story, part of why I don’t like this aspect of the magic system. But you’re trying to tell me that teens, whose hormones are already off the charts, aren’t going to be affected by magic that boosts your sex drive? I found that hard to believe. If you're going to create a rule for your magic system stick with it or toss it out.

The worst part of the book was the plotting and structure. It took me until about the midpoint to figure out what type of a story A SPOONFUL OF MAGIC is. It’s a coming of age story. Sure, Daphne is married and has kids, but she’s really only just starting to grow up. In fact, Daphne even says at the end of the book that she’s still growing up. Now there’s nothing wrong with coming of age stories. Some of my favorite books are coming of age stories. The problem was that A SPOONFUL OF MAGIC wasn’t structured like a coming of age story. The focus of the plot was on her husband’s ex-wife trying to steal their son’s eyes. For me that plotline didn’t fit with the rest of the story. It felt like Radford thought she needed an action plot to sell A SPOONFUL OF MAGIC as urban fantasy, so she threw in this side plot and made it the main plot. Daphne and her kids would be going about their regular life, then the 1st plot point would show up out of nowhere with her husband and this side plot. Then he’d vanish with the plot until the midpoint. Once again gone until the 2nd plot point. Then even after the 2nd plot point and heading towards the climax, this side plot disappeared, until the actual climactic moment. That's not even touch the huge plot holes in A SPOONFUL OF MAGIC.

I loved the idea of mixing cooking and magic. A SPOONFUL OF MAGIC wasn’t at all the book I was hoping for though. If Daphne had actually kicked her husband to the curb instead of keeping him around, and if the “main” plot about her husband’s crazy ex-wife had been left out there would’ve been an amazing coming of age story here. Instead of all that I was left with a mix of bad plotting, bad story structure, with a fun cast of characters (minus the ex-husband.)

I was so excited to stumble upon A SPOONFUL OF MAGIC, a story that features a soccer mom named Daffy and her three kids. That’s right y’all: soccer mom urban fantasy. It’s really rare to find a protagonist in this genre with an established romantic relationship and children, so I was stoked. While the blurb mentions that Daffy’s husband G was unfaithful, I figured that it was either a misunderstanding or that he’d be out of the picture. Unfortunately, neither of my assumptions proved to be correct.

In the first few chapters, Daffy learns that not only is her husband a serial cheater, G also lied about his profession (he’s actually a Very Powerful mage who policies magic), and hid his knowledge of Daffy’s own magic from her. He’s a scumbag. This wouldn’t be that big of a deal had he faded quietly away, but he’s a central character who even has some POV chapters. Add in the fact that everything Daffy learns about the magical world comes straight from G’s lying lips and I struggled to power through his chapters.

There are some cool components to the world building in A SPOONFUL OF MAGIC, most notably the concept of wands. In this world, wands take the form of an object that calls to the magic user; one of Daffy’s children is a talented ballet dancer, and his wand takes the form of a ballet slipper. If only all the dudes in this story had been as cool! As much as I wanted to enjoy this story, I am not interested in spending so much time reading about a family who’s been taken advantage of time and again by a terrible husband and father…especially since it seemed like the door was at least slightly open for Daffy and G to reconcile.

This book was not my style, and I felt that it was best to set it aside. Your mileage may vary!

A Spoonful of Magic is a nice light read for fans of fantasy/paranormal fiction. If Harry Potter grew up and a story was written about his family and wife's day-to-day life, this might be it.

I was very curious to discover this new story. How to resist such a cover, as well as a story of magic and wizards?

I found it very nice for once to have a woman married with children. It is not necessarily the profile that we usually find and it was very pleasant to have it here. Daffy has always had the perfect life but everything will change the day she discovers that this is just a lie. Her husband is not the one he claims to be but a wizard, as well as their children. She also discovers that he has cheated on her several times and she can not forgive him! Asking him to leave their home, Daffy will have to face a world she did not know about. On top of that, the ex-wife of « G » escaped from the prison where she was held captive and she wants to recover her son whom Daffy regards as hers. Daffy’s entire family is in danger, and while she discovers that she has powers as well and that her divorce is underway, two men begin to turn around her in addition to her husband, but whom can she trust? Facing with her new life, we will discover Daffy’s determination, as well as her desire to confront the lies of her husband whom she does not accept.

I had a good time with this story and I found the whole very nice to read. However, I think that the story was quite disjointed and it is true that sometimes it was a bit complicated. I had the impression of having some inconsistencies also which puts a little in withdrawal in relation to the narrative.

You’ll understand, I had a good time overall though I think the story could have been much more.

A Spoonful of Magic by Irene Radford is set in Eugene, Oregon. Daphne “Daffy” Deschants has been married to Gabriel “G” Deschants for thirteen years and they have three children. She thought they had a great relationship until she receives photos of him in bed with another woman. Daffy is ready to confront him about his infidelity, when they are mugged. G handles the robbers with magic and Daffy learns that her husband is a wizard. Daffy is shocked to learn that G is the sheriff for Guild of Master Wizards and her children may also have magical gifts. Daffy makes G move out of the house and then chaos ensues when her children’s magic starts bursting forth—Daffy quickly discovers that they are not the only ones in the house with talents. To make things even more chaotic, G’s ex-wife—D’Accore (that Daffy thought was dead) has escaped from prison and is seeking Jason’s (her biological son that Daffy adopted) eyes for her own blinded ones. The family will need to band together utilizing their magical gifts to defeat this menacing foe.

A Spoonful of Magic was not what I expected. At times it felt like a young adult story. If the author had left out the parts about sex and infidelity, it would have fit into that genre nicely. The book really did not need this element. A Spoonful of Magic has one crazy antic after another (mostly involving the children who run amok after discovering their powers—all of them at the same time). I found many details repeated throughout the book. I never felt the suspense in the story with D’Accore coming after the family. It missed the mark. The book was too long and lacked a nice snappy pace. I ended up skimming through the dull sections to get to the end of the book. I was not taken with the main characters especially G. He uses people to achieve his goals for work and home. The characters lacked depth and development. They all felt flat. There were also contradictions. Children upset with their father cheating on their mother, and then they soon forgive him. G lied about many things over the years, but he felt it was justifiable. I did like the part about how wizard’s pick their wands. I found it an interesting tidbit. A Spoonful of Magic felt more like a rough draft than a finished manuscript.

Daphne "Daffy" Deschants is livid. She has photos showing her husband in a compromising position with another woman at a sleezy motel. She knows what drama her finally being tired of his fooling around is going to cause, but she's had it. She confronts him....and the drama starts. But it's so much more than she expected. Come to find out her husband is not a travelling for his job with a software company. He's a wizard....a sheriff for the International Guild of Wizards. His job is dangerous. Yeah....he's a letch and a cheater. But he's so much more. Then, her children start manifesting magical talents.....and even herself. Her perfect life is pretty well disintegrating.....and completely changing. But that's not all......her husband's ex-wife is an evil witch. Literally. She's going blind, and she wants her son's eyes. Daphne has raised the boy as her own since he was a baby. And she's not about to let his mother hurt him. Can she figure out how to use her new powers to protect her family?

I really really really (really x 10) wanted to like this book. But, I have to be honest and say that I didn't. The main characters are annoying. The husband is a jerk. The wife is whiny and annoying. The kids....annoying too. I just didn't connect with any of them. The writing style and short paragraphs weren't my cup of tea either. The premise itself was intriguing. But the story just never gelled for me. I can't find any one thing that I can say "This right here is the reason I didn't enjoy this book.'' I just think the whole thing was just not for me. That's life -- not everything is enjoyable for everyone. I gave it the best try I could....I read the entire book. Then I thought about it for a couple days before writing this review. My conclusion -- I really tried to like this story and the characters. There were some cute moments....and some enjoyable bits here and there. But overall, this was not the book for me. And as a reviewer, I have to be totally honest and rank it as truthfully as possible. I thank the author and Berkley Publishing for allowing me to review this book, but it just fell flat for me. It happens.

Other readers who like light stories with magic, humor and some family drama might like this tale better than I did.

**I read an advanced readers copy of this book from Berkley via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

3 to 3.5 stars for this one. I felt that the world building could have been stronger and clearer. I didn't care for some of the darker magic pieces, but that is just personal preference - other readers might not mind. But the sinker for me was the main character's estranged husband. G's ethics and cavalier attitude about his marriage and family really turned me off. If he was only going to be a minor, background character, that would have been fine, but he was a major factor in the story and I found him completely unlikable.

This book was not what I've come to expect from Radford. It was light hearted and fun, but the story wasn't as gripping as some of her past books have been.

I've been reading a ton of urban fantasy lately so when I read the summary for A Spoonful of Magic, I was so excited about what sounded like an intriguing new book. Unfortunately, the infidelity aspect of this book was extremely off-putting. I almost quit reading multiple times but kept convincing myself that it would get better. Spoiler alert- it didn't. However, if all the aspects of the book dealing with her husband's infidelity were cut, I think this would have been an excellent read. It's the story of a family discovering their magic and banding together to protect one of their own.

On her own, Daffy was an interesting character and I felt as if she grew a lot over the course of the book. She was practical, level-headed, and smart. I loved how her struggle to balance her work with her family obligations was included in the novel. Her discovery of magic alternated between touching and hilarious. I also loved her relationship with her children, it felt so realistic to me. The plot was relatively engaging, slowly ramping up to the final showdown with her husband's evil ex-wife.

Although I enjoyed some aspects of the book, there were also multiple aspects that gave me pause. The first was the concept that working magic led to uncontrollable hormonal urges. But only in adults. After working magic, the children were just left tired. Daffy's relationship with G, her husband, was horrid. I felt as if every scene they had together was unrealistic. He also continually kept seeking out other women throughout the novel, never seemed at all repentant, and treated her horribly. And yet she let him worm  back into her life, never calling him out on his misdeeds.

Additionally, their kid's reactions were absolutely absurd. A few days after seeing graphic pictures of their dad cheating on their mom, they're treating him normally again and acting as if nothing happened. Yeah, sure that would happen. Most of the other side characters felt one-dimensional and I didn't really care about any of them. The villain felt very one-dimensional and unbelievable. The ending also felt like a hot mess, I think it needed to expanded and developed significantly more.

A Spoonful of Magic had a lot of promise but the author's odd choices about morality ultimately made this one an extremely disappointing read. I would not recommend this one.

Daffy’s life implodes from the inside out when she finds out that her husband has been cheating on her when he is supposed to be away on business. He doesn’t even have the career she thought he had. To top it off, his career is as part of a magical policing organization, the International Guild of Wizards. Yes, magic does exist Daffy and it's closer than you think… Because she soon finds out that her entire family, including her children, are magical. If that wasn’t enough to deal with Daffy has had magic too and her husband knew it but kept her ignorant, never having the opportunity to train, leaving her open to all types of magical mayhem.

This is Daffy’s story, the story of self-discovering into a magical world that coincides with everyday life…until you get caught up in a plot of revenge and hate that could rip away everything and everyone she holds dear.

The storytelling was amazing, but I did have a bit of a problem with the persistence of infidelity and then relating to the characters after their decisions and nonchalance about the cheating. It made the relationship unbelievable, it was either upsetting enough to break up a marriage or not and it seems it went both ways which didn't work.

I was invested in the outcome and truly wanted to know how it would all work out. In the end I give A Spoonful of Magic 4 stars.

I received this ARC copy of A Spoonful of Magic from Berkley Publishing Group - DAW. This is my honest and voluntary review. A Spoonful of Magic is set for publication November 7, 2017.

My Rating: 4 stars
Written by: Irene Radford
Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: DAW
Publication Date: November 7, 2017
ISBN-10: 0756412919
ISBN-13: 978-0756412913
Genre: Humorous Romantic Fantasy

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Spoonful-Magic...
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-sp...
Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/a-sp...

Reviewed for: http://tometender.blogspot.com


11 likes

1.5 Stars

Will post on blog after release

Daphne Deschants life seems perfect, she has a successful bakery business, three children she adores and a successful and gorgeous husband. However, things start to fall apart when she discovers that he has been cheating on her...and that isn't the only thing that he is hiding from her. He isn't the software wizard she thought he was, he is in fact a wizard and more than that he's head of magical law enforcement and now the danger he faces at work looks like it has followed him home putting him and his whole family in danger.

Gosh, but I really disliked this book. I didn't want to as there were some aspects, such as the world that Radford has set her story in that I really liked. I have always found magic fascinating and I liked the way it had been set up, however, there was one huge glaring thing that I absolutely hated about this book and it drove me crazy throughout the whole thing: G, the cheating husband.

Now, I know people are more than just one thing and just because a person cheats that doesn't make them evil. And G wasn't evil, he was just an absolute freaking arsehole, let me give you a list of the two main reasons I couldn't stand him:

He basically bespelled Daffy when she was in college to fall in love with him so she would marry him. This wasn't because he loved her...it was because he needed someone to take care of his young child and look after his house. If he hadn't used magic and instead used drugs I believe we might be straying into the "rape" category, don't ya think?
The cheating. Now, he didn't just make a mistake once and he's really remorseful and wants to try and win Daffy back because he knows what he did was wrong. Nope, apparently magic makes you horny once you've finished using it. So, when he was away he would just randomly fuck people to get rid of the his magical boner. And, in fact he does this in a few time in the duration of this book as well. Is he sorry? Nope. Does he ever apologise. Nope. My impression was that if they got back together that this would just continue and she would just have to deal with it. What. A. Dick.
But, it wasn't just G that bothered me, although for the most part the more I learnt about G the more wound up I got, it was the weird way G and Daffy treated their kids, all of whose ages ranged from 8-15. They just randomly put them in danger. Face off with the big bad...lets bring the kids so we can use their power. It was just so weird for the normally protective and loving mother to put them in such blatant danger. G I could understand because he is a selfish bastard and seems to view things through the lens of how he could use them.

So, it's safe to say I won't be continuing on with this series, nearly everything in it annoyed the hell out of me, from the characters to the story line - but mainly the characters.

I want to thank Berkeley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. I appreciate this opportunity.

Synopsis: Daphne”Daffy” has what most would call the good life. She lives in Suburbia and has 3 awesome kids. She owns a coffeehouse and bakery with best friend and husband Gabriel, also known as “G”. To everyone on the outside life couldn’t get much better but little do they know that this picture perfect family are amiss secrets.

Daffy’s life suddenly goes downhill when she discovers proof that her husband is cheating on her. She decides to face him on their wedding anniversary but is completely thrown off guard when he uses some crazy wizard-level magic. Things seem unreal to Daphne as she discovers her husband is the sheriff of the International Guild of Wizards and her kids are also magicians.

When Daffy feels life couldn’t get any more insane she couldn’t be more wrong. G’s ex wife who is a crazy and dangerous witch, has escaped from prison. The ex wife is set on seeking revenge from the past. Daphne is faced with having to save herself and her family. Will Daphne bring order to all this new founded chaos?

Review: I give this book 4 out of 5 magical stars. I really enjoyed the storytelling and was captivated by the magic. I loved Daphne and the children’s characters but was very conflicted on how I felt about G. I thoroughly enjoyed this story but felt they focused on the infidelity a tad too much. Overall I am glad I read this story.