Welcome to the book tour for Charlie Laidlaw's novel Everyday Magic. Read on for my review, more info, and a chance to win a paperback copy of the book!
Everyday Magic by Charlie Laidlow is a story about a woman – mother, wife, daugher who is going through a rough patch in her life. She’s not really sure where her life is taking her at this point. Her husband is off in New York (or is he?) on business, and she’s at home with her teenage daughter. For some reason, Carole decides to go and revisit places from her past. It seems to be that something is directing her steps/travels, but what and why? The task and journey of understanding who she was and who she has become is going to be strange, but will ultimately bring a sense of enlightenment at the end.
Everyday Magic is the first book that I have by Charlie Laidlow. I enjoy contemporary fiction from time to time, but typically isn’t not my type of book choice. Everyday Magic on a level is an interesting novel. Carole seems to be going through a bit of an “early mid-life crisis.” She’s given up quite a bit to become a stay at home mom, and it’s left her ultimately unfulfilled. It seems that her marriage is taking a different fork down the road than her, and it begs the question – where is this going? Really? Her relationship with her daughter isn’t exactly the best either. I feel bad for Carole, because on one hand she wants thing to be different, but then she doesn’t really want to “stir anything up.”
As I read this book, I couldn’t help questioning some of Carole’s decisions in her life. She wants things to be different, but it sounds like she just doesn’t want to put in the effort to change herself. Carole comes off as a very complacent character who just seems to just overall, go with the flow and not want to create waves. As the author takes me back through her history I find some moments engaging, and then other moments I find rather dull and question the point.
Her thought processes seem a bit scattered really. One minute she is offended when she hears construction workers catcalling another woman, but then she’s offended because they aren’t catcalling her. I really thought her going back in an attempt to get them to catcall her was a bit ridiculous, because why? She questions quite often whether men, in the present day, find her attractive. On one hand, I can understand the desire to be reassured of one’s attractiveness. On the other hand it seems like an excuse. She frets too much about whether one character who used to wink at her will still do so.
The pace of this story is okay, but if you’re looking for a page-turner this book won’t be that one. There are some sprinklings of humor throughout this book, but I guess I wanted more. The cat being run over by an electric car...if that was supposed to be a joke – it fell flat, for me at least. Honestly, before I knew it was a cat, when the author said Granny, I thought it was an actual person. When it comes to the humor in this book, I’d classify it more as a “dry” humor than actual “laugh out loud” humor.
In my opinion, the storyline is okay. I get the author’s point in the story if finding everyday magic in the little things. I appreciate that Carole begins to take steps in her life that take her in a different direction, but I just wish that she had done it sooner. But I get it, it takes time to find oneself and revisiting some of her past was and is a good thing for her at the end of the day.
For me, this book is a 4 out of 5 stars. There are some aspects that I liked better than others, and then there are some that I could easily have done without. The pacing was slower than I would have liked, because I don’t typically enjoy slower stories like this one. The humor was okay in places, but too dry for me in others. If you have read this author before and enjoyed his books then I’m sure that you will enjoy this book as well.
Everyday Magic
Publication Date: May 26th, 2021
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Publisher: Ringwood Publishing
Carole Gunn leads an unfulfilled life and knows it. She’s married to someone who may, or may not, be in New York on business and, to make things worse, the family’s deaf cat has been run over by an electric car.
But something has been changing in Carole’s mind. She’s decided to revisit places that hold special significance for her. She wants to better understand herself, and whether the person she is now is simply an older version of the person she once was.
Instead, she’s taken on an unlikely journey to confront her past, present and future.
Everyday Magic is an uplifting book filled with humour and poignancy, and reminds us that, while our pasts make us who we are, we can always change the course of our futures.
What Readers are Saying…
‘Everyday Magic’ serves as a wake-up call for us readers to find the sparks of joy we have lost along the way and live while we can‘ – Zany Bibliophile
‘It’s an uplifting read that shows us that if we want to change then we can but we have to do it for ourselves… [it might] help people realize they are not alone‘ – Echoes In An Empty Room
‘Charlie writes stories that touch a reader’s soul… I highly recommend you to read this book. Witty, thought-provoking and charming story‘ – Rekha, Goodreads
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Chapter One
When Carole was little, she found a magic clearing in the woods near her home. She had been exploring, surrounded by oak, birch, and hazel trees, picking her way carefully between bramble and nettle. There was birdsong, squirrels darting across branches, and patterns of sunlight on the woodland floor. She had been looking for bilberries, and her hands were full of small black berries. She stopped to sit on an outcrop of rock by a wide stream that, in winter, could quickly become a torrent of brown water. In summer, it was comforting; in winter, treacherous. She ate her bilberries, the stream cascading over a small waterfall; the sound of water in her ears. It was summer and the stream bubbled crystal clear. The woodland rose in folds from the stream, and she climbed steadily upwards. Here, the trees crammed in on her; it was darker. When she looked up, she could only see sunlight trapped on leaves far above. It was a part of the old woodland that she’d never been to before, but she pushed on, feeling that she was on an adventure and might suddenly come across a gingerbread house or wizard’s cottage.
At the top of the hill she found herself in a small clearing. It was only a few yards across, framed with oak trees, and perfectly round. Sunlight from directly above made the clearing warm, and she stood at its centre, wondering if she was the first person to have ever discovered it. Each of the oak trees around the clearing seemed precisely set, each one a perfect distance from the next, and she walked around them, touching each one, wondering if someone had planted the oak trees, or if the clearing really was a magic place. She still sometimes believed in magic. Then she stood again at its centre, wondering at its symmetry and why a long-dead sorcerer might have planted the oak trees. Then, realising that the sorcerer might not be dead, and that she had walked uninvited into his private domain, she hurried away, not sure whether to be frightened or excited. It was a place she often went back to that summer, and on following summers, sometimes alone and sometimes with her little brother. They would sit in the centre of the woodland circle, eating bilberries, hoping to meet the sorcerer who had built the clearing. She wasn’t frightened of him anymore; the clearing was too peaceful to have been made by a bad wizard. It was their secret place, but mainly Carole’s, because she had found it. It was a comforting place: it was somewhere she would go if she was sad or angry about something, because the woodland circle and its shifting half-shadows offered calm and new perspectives. She could almost hear the trees speak to her, the wind in their branches making the leaves whisper, but so softly that she couldn’t understand. She would listen, eyes closed, the leaves rustling, but she never understood what they were saying. The circle of trees stood solid and immovable, dark and stoic, old and wise, and each one the colour of stone.
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About the Author
Charlie Laidlaw lives in East Lothian, one of the main settings for Everyday Magic. He has four other published novels: Being Alert!, The Space Between Time, The Things We Learn When We’re Dead and Love Potions and Other Calamities. Previously a journalist and defence intelligence analyst, Charlie now teaches Creative Writing in addition to his writing career.
Charlie Laidlaw | Facebook | Twitter
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