Christmas Magic (Christmas Magic #1)
Author: Alexandra Moody
4 out of 5 stars
Moody gives an interesting twist to familiar Christmas characters in this book. Clio is a claus, but her unusually strong magic caused her mother to leave the North Pole when she was young. Clauses, as users of Christmas magic, can only use their magic during the Christmas season, but Clio can use magic all year. On her way home from work one night, Clio is attacked by dark Christmas elves. Struggling to fight them off, Clio is saved by a reindeer shifter named Dash. He tells her that she is the latest target in a string of murders that he is investigating. Suspecting that she will be attacked again, Clio insists on helping in the investigation. Will they stop the elves before they kill another person? Why are the elves targeting these people? Does Clio’s magic have something to do with it?
The author did a great job with the world-building. There’s the clauses and their dark counterparts, the krampuses, elves, and reindeer shifters. The author was also able to insert history in a natural way during the course of the story, like the history of the sleigh lines that they use to, basically, teleport between places, and how the original sleigh lines used enslaved reindeer shifters. This was just one of the ways the author connected the book to our real life stories about Christmas and Santa Claus.
The characters were well-written. I liked Clio and thought she was an interesting character. She’s very independent and determined. That are still so many questions about her magic that are left unanswered. And I liked her ghost friend, Alfie. It took me awhile to warm up to the reindeer shifters, Dash, Coop, Blitz, and Vixen, but they all had different personalities. And yes, those are the reindeer names from the Christmas song.
There were a couple of negatives that were more down to personal taste. I found it a bit hard to get into the story in the beginning. Also, after Clio’s attack, Dash actually abducts her to protect her since she’s the only survivor of these elves, so he’s placing her under his protection. It’s understandable, but the way he goes about it annoyed me as much as it did Clio, so it made it harder to like him.
I liked this book, and I’m very interested in finding out where the series goes and the answers about Clio’s magic. Due to the couple of small issues, I decided to rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. If you’re looking for a Christmas themed story, then this is a great pick.
Merry Christmas!
Current price through Amazon Kindle: $0
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Magic-Alexandra-Moody-ebook/dp/B07KDTBT66
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