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I was doubtful whether another author would be able to do Monsieur Poirot justice, but I was pleasantly surprised by Ms. Hannah's story.

very different from the other C.M. Waggoner books I've read. Delightful nevertheless. The super-natural element is not too overpowering. The allusions to famous fictional detectives and their cases is fun but doesn't require us to recognize all of them.

I enjoyed this very much. I bought it as a Christmas present to myself. It is a very fun remaking of an older Christmas story but with robots and aliens and space elevators. It is also a story about things not always being the way we think they are. About trying to work towards things and finding out you might not actually want them.

After reading this book I looked up the author. And it is two people. Besides listing their husbands, kids, and pets they don't really say much about themselves on their website or in the book. I suspect this book was written by (Ex-)Evangelicals or Mormons. Reasons I suspect this (in the order of my becoming aware of them):

• the main character and love interest complement each other. They are "meant" for each other since the beginning. Everyone around them has known that they belong together. They complete each other. The main character's magical powers are hidden until she and the love interest are thrown together in extremis. Both their magical abilities are enhanced when they work together. Please look up Complementarianism if this doesn't make you think "fundamentalist Christian".

• the main character's personality consists of being a Business Woman and Being in Charge and Organizing Things and Having Feminist Opinions and Journalling With Stickers. The Feminist Opinions are presented in an almost Bridget Jones-y way, but without the humor. Until she admits her love for the love interest and he writes his sleep-overs into her journal and she understands that he will use macho posturing to protect her.

• the main character has "never gotten around to" having sex before she has sex with the love interest (who completes her and is the only one for her, remember?). His virginity status is not discussed at all. They are both in their late 20s (she is 28).

• the sex scenes are like in a movie from the 50s: they kiss and the camera pans towards the billowing curtains. And not even in a cute way.

• main character and love interest get engaged after being friends since childhood and lovers for ~2 weeks.

• the importance of the confluence (two rivers meeting) near the small Midwestern town that is the setting for the story and the fact that there is actually a third river that only those with magical abilities can see feels weird and makes me suspect that it is a metaphor for religious streams or influences. The two visible rivers being the Old Testament and the New Testament. I'm not so sure about the third, invisible river. Searching for "confluence christianity" on the internet throws up some interesting results. One references "mystical christianity" (but mystical in very non-Catholic ways) and another hints at democracy becoming "polluted".

Basically I think the aim of this book series is to introduce readers who enjoy Magic, Witches, and other Occult Things to some basic principles of the fundamentalist Christian worldview and make that worldview more palatable; to make the reader understand that having Feminist Opinions is OK in your twenties but when you allow yourself to fall in love with the Right Man you will see that those opinions are for Silly Little Girls who literally couldn't see The Way Things Really Are and then you can finally Grow Into Your True Power.

A very dissatisfying read because I think the premise (a witch who doesn't know she is one and has had her mind wiped of any knowledge of real witches existing) is pretty good and has potential. The themes of power, intergenerational conflict / trauma, non-conformity, interaction between the sexes, subcultures, and memory are barely touched upon. Instead a very boring and basically sexless romantic plot is highlighted. This novel doesn't trust that the reader is an adult and that makes it sound like it is trying to be instructive while also desperately trying to be cool. Like a teacher trying to ingratiate themselves with their highschool students.

Do not recommend. If I ever re-read it I plan on making notes in the margins.

After reading this book my inner dialogue imitated the main character's way of talking. A lovely romance with attempted murder, drugs, discussions of class stratification, and magic.

things I enjoyed in this book: - the non-issue of queerness in this world (as in: it is totally accepted) - the way family and marriage are presented in this world

The first time I read C M Waggoner's books I read them in the wrong order. That didn't diminish my enjoyment of either book, though. Because they are both set apart by ~30 years, it is quite easy to read both of them independently of each other. What I enjoyed in this book: - the world building with the various cultures and religions (troll & human) in different cities - the sex scenes - the murder mystery - the idea of magic being like a programming language, so that people without magic energy can still write magic parameters - the gender and race ideas in this world

a very entertaining book with so many references to reality that it was sometimes hard to distinguish what has an actual real counterpart (the National Jesus Brunch) and what is fiction (I am not entirely sure the Hos for Jesus "keeping the men straight, the race pure, and the religion Christian" are 100% made up). More hopeful than le Carré's Absolute Friends which is the last spy-novel I remember reading.