Review by Booklist Review
Gillian Armstead-Bancroft is cursed. That is the only explanation Gillian can come up with as to why her once perfect life could have gone off the rails so rapidly. Returning home to Freedom, Kansas, a soon-to-be-divorced Gillian is now pondering the wisdom of doing something naughty and totally out of character as a potential way of breaking her bad luck, when she literally almost runs into Nicky Mendoza. Thirteen years earlier, Nicky was Gillian's first love, and he taught her everything he knew about sex. Could a temporary fling with Nicky now help Gillian recover some of the magic that has gone missing from her life? Lopez works her own brand of literary brujeria in the second vibrantly written addition to her Milagro Street series, following After Hours on Milagro Street (2022), by crafting a scorchingly sensual love story. Lopez not only artfully incorporates family and friendship into the plot, she also illuminates the essential role Mexican Americans have played in the Midwest past and present.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
It's a summer of second-chances in Lopez's sparkling standalone second Milagro Street romance (after After Hours on Milagro Street). After Gillian, a bruja and the eldest Armstead sister, divorces her rich East Coast husband of 10 tumultuous years, she finds herself broke, unemployed, and unable to access her magic, and returns to her family home in Freedom, Kans., for the summer with her two children in tow. Gillian hopes to lie low, but she's almost immediately roped into a part time job with the Freedom Historical Society--where she's forced to share her workspace with the gorgeous Nicky Mendoza, her childhood friend and ex-lover, now a famous artist planning a mural in town. The longer the pair works together, the harder it is to deny their rekindling attraction, and Nicky's support may be just the spark Gillian needs to regain both her magic and the life she wants. Gillian and Nicky's slow-burning relationship is sprinkled with sporadic yet steamy love scenes, and the injection of some supernatural elements into the series adds fun. Gillian reclaiming her brujeria forms the empowering heart of this tale, but there's unfortunately little room to develop Nicky as thoroughly, leaving him feeling comparatively two-dimensional. Still, there's plenty here to draw in small-town romance fans. Agent: Sara Megibow, KT Literary. (Sept.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Magical Gillian Armstead-Bancroft returns to her Mexican American family broken, unemployed, and ashamed. The husband who she flaunted turned out to be abusive and a cheater, and her stake in the family bar is now part of the divorce blackmail that also includes a nasty battle for custody of their two children. Returning to her large and boisterous clan in Freedom, KS, also means returning to her childhood flame Nicky Mendoza and the knowledge that her magic is gone and she is the curse ruining everything around her. Gillian will have to try to calm the ghosts, who seem to block her magic and good sense, and see if she can find her place with her family--and Nicky. Both spellbinding and sexy, this romance is an adventurous tale of the cursed and the blessed, and the community that raised them. VERDICT In this second installment of the "Milagro Street" series, Lopez (After Hours on Milagro Street) interweaves history, Hispanic culture, magic, and passion in a modern-day love story.--Judy Garner
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