Saturday, November 5, 2016

Review and Giveaway: Everyday Magic by Emily Albright


Everyday Magic (Untitled #2)
by Emily Albright
Publisher: Merit Press
Release Date: December 2nd 2016
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Source:  ARC received from author for review
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Synopsis:

For once, Maggie McKendrick just wants to control her own life. Her overbearing Hollywood director father has it all planned out for her: UCLA, law school, then working as an entertainment lawyer, preferably for him. But Maggie has other, more creative-spirit friendly, plans. Namely, Thrippletons School of Fashion and Design in England, and then onto becoming a designer, preferably a wildly successful one. The big snag in her plan? Getting it past her dad.

A movie shoot takes the family to the Scottish Highlands for the summer, and closer to Maggie’s dream school. While there, she runs into the charming Preston Browne. Maggie is intrigued and decides to bend her no guys rule—instituted after her ex used her to get close to her dad. Forced to keep secrets from Preston in order to protect the future plans she’s made, Maggie finds herself falling for the tall Brit. And for once in her life she knows that he’s interested in her, not her Hollywood connections. When Maggie's father blackmails her into dating his lead actor, she isn’t left with a choice. The biggest problem isn’t having to date hunky, mega-hottie, Ben Chambers. No, it’s praying she doesn’t lose Preston in the process.

Excelling at her dream school, Maggie’s personal life is a tangled mess. She needs to decide if living a lie is worth losing Preston or chance going against her father and facing his wrath. When the tabloids expose the truth of her fake relationship with Ben, Maggie's world is thrown into a tailspin. Ultimately, Maggie must find the courage to take risks and forge ahead on her own path.

Review:
My rating:  4 stars

When the author got in touch with me and asked if I'd like to read this sequel to The Heir and the Spare, a book that I loved, I was so excited I immediately said yes.   While it did take me a chapter or two to get back into the story and remember exactly what happened in the other book, once I did, I was hooked again.  

The story is told from the viewpoint of Maggie.  Since we didn't really have her in the first book, that is probably what took me a bit to get into it, new character.  Maggie is in Scotland with her family, while her father, a famous Hollywood director, is filming a movie there.  Her mother is also a part of the movie, as always helping their father out.  Sounds like a wonderful time, right?  Well Maggie's family life isn't great.  Her father is a horrible, abusive man.  So much that Maggie is unsure to tell him how she has applied to a fashion design school in England, instead of going back to UCLA to be an entertainment lawyer like her dad wants her to.  

While spending time away from the house, to get away from her dad, she runs into a very cute guy named Preston.  We know Preston from the first book.  She definitely is interested in Preston, and he is obviously interested in her.  But she doesn't tell him at first who her father is.  In the past, boys have used her to get to her father for their own purposes, and then left her in the dust.  But when her father decides that she needs to date the current star of his movie to help promote the movie, and he basically blackmails her to do it, in exchange for "letting" her go to Thrippletons School of Fashion and Design.  When she tells Preston about the deal, he says he will be able to deal with it.  But soon, after the pictures of Maggie and the movie star, Ben, are all over the papers, of them kissing and dating, he decides he can't really take it and makes a break.

All the while her fashion dreams are coming true when her design is chosen for the prince's girlfriend's dress to a formal charity event.  This is when our characters from the last book start to join in.  Evie is who the dress is for, and Prince Edmund, Preston's roommate from before, is her boyfriend.

There is a lot of emotion in the story, and Maggie's dad, wow, he's just a total jerk, and it's nice when you see him get what he deserves.  The romance is sweet, and I love Preston and Maggie together.  I love all of Maggie's friends at the school as well.

I was left hoping for maybe more books, either with Preston and Evie and Edmund's friends, or maybe some of Maggie's friends, or even her brother.  I loved how Maggie went ghost hunting with Preston's sister.  Such a neat part of the story.  Definitely this is a highly recommended book for me!

Check out the schedule for the rest of the tour HERE.





Emily Albright's debut novel, THE HEIR AND THE SPARE, released January 18, 2016, from Merit Press.

She's a writer, a major bookworm, a lover of romantic movies, a wife, a mother, an owner of one adorable (yet slightly insane) cockapoo, and uses way too many :).





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