"Joy is Pure Magic!"
Holly Fuhrmann's fairy godmothers return in this sequel to
Mad About Max. For new readers, the three fairy godmothers,
Myrtle, Fern, and Blossom were born from the imagination of
Grace MacGuire, a romance writer and the heroine of MAM.
After happily settling Grace with her true love Artemus
Maxmillion Aaronson, the fairies have moved on to Max's
little sister Joy. If practice makes perfect then the fairies are well on
their way. You see in the romances written by Grace, the
fairies had a tendency to, well, bungle things quite often,
though things always turned out well in the end. They
caused a quite a bit of commotion with Grace and Max's real
life romance, but they're getting better. They hardly
bungled this romance at all. Note I said hardly, NOT that
it makes it any easier on their new goddaughter who
naturally thinks she's losing her mind! This is a sweeter romance than the first, but I found it
light and uplifting. One thing that hasn't changed is Ms.
Fuhrmann's delightful sense of humor, which has transferred
from the slapstick antics of the fairies to the warm wit of
Magic For Joy's heroine, Delphinia Joy Aaronson. Though certain of her family's love, Joy has always felt
somewhat different from the rest of them. Her two older
brothers, Max and Nick are both tall, outgoing, and have
highly successful high profile careers. Max is a
psychologist, Nick a lawyer. Joy is short and round; in her
words - ordinary. Suffice it to say college didn't work out
for her, but she's the soul of kindness and a rock for
those who are in need. It is in this that Joy found her
niche, helping the helpless like battered women. For that
reason she founded Ripples and learned of her talent for
fundraising. Joy has spent the last several years living out of a
suitcase, her home merely a home base and Joy is beginning
to wonder if she'll ever have the things she wants most out
of life, a real home complete with husband and children. Her fundraising efforts find her in yet another wealthy
woman's home, getting ready to attend a fundraising party.
It is there that the fairies appear to her. Naturally she
thinks it's a joke. Who wouldn't? She believes that Max is
the culprit. Even after a call to her brother who confirms
their existence, she doesn't really buy it. But the fairies
have plans for Ms. Joy. Distracted by her encounter Joy is preoccupied as she heads
for the reception and collides with Mrs. St. John's cook.
It is then that she notices the adorable six-year-old girl,
the cause of the collision. The child is Sophie St. John,
her patron's mother, with the saddest little face that Joy
has ever seen. It isn't long before it becomes clear that
Sophie has been severely neglected by her mother and good-
hearted Joy immediately takes steps to put the child at
ease. Sophie soaks up Joy's attention like a little sponge
and quickly worms her way into Joy's big heart. Though not inclined to pay my attention to her daughter,
the shrewd Mrs. St. John doesn't miss the connection
between Sophie and Joy. The woman has the nerve to use her
endowment as a bargaining chip to coerce Joy into taking
Sophie to live with her father as she is about to marry and
will no longer have time to give to her child. Joy agrees for Sophie's sake and prays that Sophie's dad is
a better parent than her mother. Zing! She's fallen right
into the fairies master plan. You guessed it Sophie's
daddy, Gabriel St. John, is to be the man of Joy's dreams.
There are only three problems. After being married to
Sophie's mom he's understandable gun shy about marriage,
Joy thinks he's in dating one of his employees who happens
to share many traits with the ex Mrs. St. John, and he
thinks Joy is comfortable. Comfortable! Just the impression
she wants to make on the big handsome man. She wants to be
LOVED by the man that she loves. Ah but the fairies have
yet to make a wrong choice. Has Joy slipped 'comfortably'
into Gabriel's heart? She sure does have a lot to recommend her. If fact if the
fairy godmothers were to appear to me, I believe I might
just ask them to introduce me to Joy. She is a 'kindred
spirit'. Joy is incredible witty; she just has a way of
putting people at ease. She is the kind of person I would
want for a friend and hey, how can you not love a woman who
would prefer 'Friend's' wacky Chandler Bing over his studly
roommate Joey ? This reviewer declares Magic For Joy
to be another winner for Holly Fuhrmann. It was a feel good
kind of read and I just can't wait to see what the
godmothers have in store for playboy brother Nick, the last
of the Aaronson siblings. Did I mention there is an excerpt
from Miracles for Nick (ImaJinn 2001) in the back of the
book? One more reason to run out and buy Magic For Joy. August 2001
copyright 2001
Reviewed by Leslie Tramposch
Posted August 7, 2001
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