I really struggled with this book. As an almost 40 year old i wanted to love it, but as i had a hard time reading the first one i had to dnf this when i could no longer get through it.
The story felt messy and all over the place, making it so hard to stay engaged. I could not connect with the fmc still as she was so erratic and does she even care about her family? I'm not sure at all? Her mood swings and vague motivations left me frustrated rather than sympathetic even though its probably a hint towards perimenopasue and the regular life struggles of an ordinary woman. I've read other authors portray this far better even with humor so the ball was not just dropped but obliterated here.

The plot itself felt rushed but there were gaps and missing bits, parts of the story just stopped without a reason or final though and never mentioned again.

Sadly It was a disasterous mix of ideas that, like the first book never came together in the parts I read. leaving me disappointed and confused and needing to save my sanity i dnf, That's why I'm giving it 1 ⭐.

As a forty something myself, I found the entire premise of the story really attractive. But perhaps I set the bar too high because I quickly found myself struggling to stay engaged. It's not a bad book. In fact there are some great bits. It was just very different from what I imagined.

Paige Andrews and Bryon Cahill continue their tale of bookstore owner Angie Daly who discovered the fae in her city of Portsmead and with a magic sword and a warrior form kills the evil warlock Mordeth. Now the search for a magical pen over the holiday season sends her into a A Forty Something Frenzy (paper from Sterling & Stone) as her mother comes out of hiding, and may have been the one who stole the pen. There’s her twin kids, one of whom keeps changing majors at college, and the other won’t look for a job. Her husband’s got involved with the town’s bicentennial and she may be possessed. This is a giggle, I couldn't stop grinning as I read it.

I really struggled with this book. The story felt messy and lacked focus, making it hard to stay engaged. The female lead, a 40-something woman dealing with mid-life challenges, was written in such an erratic and overly emotional way that I couldn’t connect with her at all. Her constant mood swings and vague motivations left me frustrated rather than sympathetic.

The plot itself felt rushed yet incomplete. So much was crammed into a short span, but none of it really went anywhere. For example, the whole subplot about someone following her in a car was dropped without any real resolution. Her relationship with her family also lacked depth, and it seemed like even she didn’t care much about her kids or husband, so why should the reader?

I’ve read other books about mid-life heroines that successfully blend humor, emotional depth, and even paranormal twists, but this one didn’t come close. It was a chaotic mix of ideas that never came together, leaving me disappointed and confused. That's why I'm giving it 1 aka 0 ⭐.

I tried to like this, but I just couldn't get into it. The intentional confusion of two similarly-named characters at the beginning (which is later explained) did not help. I get the MFC is a 40-something female who feels like she is pulled in a lot of different directions, but her emotions were like a rollercoaster...again, like she said, maybe it's perimenopause - maybe it's her inner self. I don't know. A lot happened in a short amount of time, which generally I like, but in this book I felt like I was missing something(s). For example, who was following her in the other car (besides the other Angie)? Am I supposed to care about her kids & husband, because she doesn't seem to? I can understand that she is tough & is struggling, but there are a lot of other authors I have read who are more capable of combining struggles with humor and paranormal and sometimes smexy time, all with the mid-life MFC. Thank you for the ARC opportunity NetGalley and the publisher.

This was a strong sequel in the Forty Something Fury series, it had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed how it continued the story and the characters had that feel that I was looking for. I enjoyed the way Paige Andrews and Bryon Cahill wrote this and am excited for more.

I really loved the idea of a mature female main character. As a woman in my 30s she made the experience feel more real and relatable instead of reading about a young adult in early 20s. I also very much enjoyed her sassiness and attitude while dealing with all the issues she had to face. I enjoyed reading this book a lot and can’t wait to see what her and her strange friends get up to next.

An engaging read, though at times a bit confusing as it can be challenging to keep track of all the characters and body swaps.