But the truth was, I didn’t feel accepted. I didn’t feel acknowledged for my service in raising the next generation, for my active role in the community, or even for being human sometimes. I felt utterly ignored. I felt invisible or, worse, frowned upon. Most of the time, when I looked in the mirror, I saw only my flaws. I saw all the things that advertisements and social media said was wrong with me. I wanted to focus on what was right about this version of myself, like the way I’d learned to take life a little slower and enjoy each moment. Like my appreciation for people’s differences, and for beauty found in unlikely places. For my friendships, new and old. I wanted it to be okay that I wasn’t worried about beauty anymore, or worried about looking young. I just wanted to look like me, however me looked in any given year.

Take your normal urban fantasy fair: our world, but with a few twists–gargoyles for one, this time. Add in your ’normal’ point of view about to get their world rocked. This time around make them a 40 year old woman recently gone through a divorce. Make sure that none of this really gets moving until the last third or so of the book (better if you’re going to read the whole series I suppose).

Magical Midlife Madness.

It’s fine and I expect there’s a lot more to like about the rest of the series, but to me the entire thing just sort of existed. Not that much happened, there was entirely too much wish fulfillment, and too much focus on ‘it’s okay to be 40’ (which it totally is, don’t get me wrong, just not chapters and chapters worth).

It’s not a bad book. It’s not the kind of book for me. I won’t be reading the rest of the series. Onward!