Petty Magic - by Camille Deangelis (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Evelyn Harbinger is a heck of a lot older than she looks. At 149 years of age, Eve can still iron out the wrinkles on a Saturday night, turning heads and taking more than phone numbers as the foxy, dark-haired girl she used to be. She and her sisters have spent the better part of their lives using their powers for only the highest good--Eve herself spied for the Allies in Paris and Berlin--but in their golden years, the beldames are free to enjoy themselves however they please.

When Eve meets Justin at her favorite curiosity shop, though, her games are over. Justin looks and acts uncannily like Jonah, her partner on the most dangerous mission of her career--and the great love of her life. Experts in espionage, Eve and Jonah gave up their one chance at happiness to advance the Allied cause, and no man has measured up ever since. Justin is unsuspecting but equally smitten, and Eve is much too headstrong to listen to the common-sense warnings of her coven. Meanwhile, another beldame has accused Eve's sister Helena of killing her own husband sixty years before, and Eve, disguised as her younger self, spends more and more time with Justin to take her mind off the growing pile of evidence that suggests her sister isn't the pure-hearted matriarch she appears to be.

Eve knows her family has every reason to disapprove and that falling in love with an ordinary man can only end in despair, but she can't give up the boy who might be Jonah--because this time, she just might be able to keep him.

A delightfully romantic adventure set between a supernatural version of present-day New York City and the epic backdrop of World War II, Petty Magic proves that the real fun starts when beldames and mortal men dare to fall in love.

Review Quotes

"Love, magic, history, witches: it's all here, between the covers of this lovely book. Updike might have written it, if he'd had a better sense of humor." --Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish

"A charming curiosity shop of a novel, packed to bursting with secret histories and glittering marvels. With Petty Magic, Camille DeAngelis has given us a glimpse into a strange and enchanting world. It's dangerous good fun, and well worth getting lost in." --Jedediah Berry, author of The Manual of Detection

"Part Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants, part Bedknobs and Broomsticks, DeAngelis's second novel uses witchcraft to illuminate a woman whose wrinkles belie the passionate, adventurous girl she still is on the inside. Recommended for fans of magical realism--emphasis on the magic." --Library Journal

"A moving and witty love story . . . Charming prose." --Publishers Weekly

"An amusing romp!" --Booklist

About the Author

Camille DeAngelis is the author of the novels Mary Modern and Bones & All (March 2015). She received an MA in writing at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and has also written a first-edition guidebook, Moon Ireland. DeAngelis lives in Boston, Massachusetts.