Like a Charm by Candace Havens

(No Series)
Paranormal Romance

From the acclaimed author of Charmed & Dangerous comes a sassy new paranormal romance about a gorgeous librarian who sees dead people.

Kira Smythe never thought she'd end up back in her hometown of Sweet, Texas. But now that her high-powered job, along with her five-year plan, have gone right out the window, she's back where she started, staying with her hippie, tofu- obsessed parents-except that somehow she's inherited the local library. At least there's a gorgeous guy in town who seems quite smitten with her. So what if he's got a few secrets up his sleeve? After all, Kira's got her own secrets. Like the dead people who won't stop talking to her. Or the magical books on the shelves. Or the fact that someone who's very much alive seems determined to push her over to the other side.

My best friend owned this and LOVED it. After letting me borrow it, I dug in happily. Magic books, a library, a cute synopsis, a high recommendation, how could I resist?

The plot is pretty creative but does fall off a bit sometimes. There was a serious death-like situation but then the rest of the book held no real danger or suspense until the very end. Despite not many plot bumps being here, the books holds the attention easily. It was fun to see the heroine go through changes with the development of the story, and how she's forced to adjust and readjust to her old hometown, seeing her parents again, meeting "the one" for her, and reuniting with her old librarian friend.

 Kira's just incredibly likeable. Her personality shone throughout the book no matter the situation - when facing the bad guy she doesn't try to act unrealistically tough, she's not sweet as honey all the time but can be snappish while still a pleasant, realistic person. She sounds cute and seemed to be, also a motivated woman struggling to adapt to changes. Her trauma suffered at the beginning of the book left a delicate balance for her to walk on, and it added another realistic notch to making her a three-dimensional character.

 A big bonus too is that while this is a Paranormal romance (kind of), the romance is realistic, sweet, and doesn't overdominate the story to where there is not one. Calebs fun, intelligent, and the sexual attraction between them actually makes sense and isn't over-saturated with eye-rolling chemistry. If anything he helps the plot progress. Also, the ghosts - what fun they were! Ghosts in a library wanting to check out books...could have been hokey, but wasn't because it was handled right.

The ending was great and tense, but there were some open-ended questions I was left with. The author overall is talented and I'm looking forward to reading more of her stuff, as her style instantly catches one up in its own unique magic and makes you feel alive and thrilled while reading her stuff.