Who Needs Magic?: A Chick Lit Wednesday Review

Delaney Collins is ready to embrace her inner fairy godmother (f. g.) and grant some big wishes. But three months after granting her first big wish, Delaney is no closer to finding her next client.

Aside from the f. g. confusion, Delaney has high hopes for her summer. She’ll get to spend more quality (read: alone) time with her boyfriend, Flynn. She’s working at a fantastic vintage store with tons of boots she can re-make and re-style. She’s even getting along better with her father despite his tendency to shift into self-help speak and his total lack of help in sharing his f. g. magic-wish-granting ways.

Unfortunately, while Delaney knows that wishes do come true, her dreams of a great summer do not. Flynn is distant, her father is distracted, and Delaney’s powers remain frustratingly mysterious.

When Delaney meets Ariella–an f. g. with a lot more experience (and power)–Delaney starts to feel even more uncertain about her own magic abilities. Delaney will have to work hard to harness her powers and make sense of her life if she wants to get her summer back on track in Who Needs Magic? (2013) by Kathy McCullough.

Who Needs Magic? is the sequel to McCullough’s debut novel Don’t Expect Magic.

Delaney is a tough-talking, no-nonsense girl. She is sarcastic and she wears all black. This contrast between Delaney’s exterior and her fairy-godmother background continues to provide a lot of humor (and some snark) in this second installment.

Delaney’s mother has been dead for longer in this novel, but her grief is sometimes still fresh. McCullough handles Delaney’s mixed feelings about her new life thoughtfully and honestly to create an authentic portrayal of a girl who is still trying to find her way.

Who Needs Magic? is introspective as Delaney tries to balance her personal life with her wish-granting. Moments where she tries to figure out what comes next now that she and Flynn are actually dating add another dimension to this story.

While Who Needs Magic? is a lot of fun, it’s sadly not quite as endearing as Don’t Expect Magic. Delaney loses some of her focus and forward momentum in the face of self-doubt and insecurity forcing her to relearn some important lessons about trusting herself.

Who Needs Magic? is a fun addition to a previously self-contained story. Recommended for fans of the first book. Check out this series if you are fan of fractured and remixed fairy tale tropes.

Possible Pairings: Waiting For You by Susane Colasanti, Donorboy by Brendan Halpin, Friends With Boys by Faith Erin Hicks, Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins, Vibes by Amy Kathleen Ryan, The Reece Malcolm List by Amy Spalding

Author Interview Kathy McCullough on Don’t Expect Magic

Kathy McCullough is here today to talk about one of my favorite books Don’t Expect Magic which takes a very unconventional spin on the Fairy Godmother stories you might know. I read this book back in 2012 and I still think about it quite a bit. When I found out a sequel called Who Needs Magic? came out in 2013 I was even more excited and reached out to Kathy to see if she’d talk to me here on the blog.

Miss Print (MP): Can you tell us a bit about your path as a writer? How did you get to this point?

Kathy McCullough (KM): I’ve been writing since I learned how to write. I wrote poems in grade school and began writing stories as well in middle school. I’ve always loved to read, of course. I took a lot of creative writing classes in college and then went to graduate school for screenwriting. My initial professional success was writing for film and television, but I’d never given up the dream of writing fiction. My TV and screen work tended to be in the family/teen/kids genres so it seemed a good fit for me to write novels for kids and teens.

MP: What was the inspiration for Don’t Expect Magic?

KM: I wanted to come up with a comic YA twist on a fairy tale character, and I liked the idea of focusing on a minor figure instead of the familiar leads, which is how I came up with the teen fairy godmother idea. The original idea had Delaney’s grandmother being the adult fairy godmother in the story, and the ability skipping a generation. However, that idea didn’t have a lot of humor in it, and that’s when I thought of making it her father. Having Delaney accept the skill willingly lacked conflict, so it was a natural development to make her someone for whom this is not a good thing: she’s a loner and this forces her to interact with people; she’s dark and sullen, and so the typical image of a sparkly, cheery fairy godmother goes completely against how she views herself. Part of her journey is accepting this destiny; in the process, she heals her fractured relationship with her father.

MP: Delaney’s story starts when she has to move in with her father in California–much to her East-Coast-Loving dismay. Which begs the question: Does your heart belong to the East Coast or the West Coast?

KM: I have a lot of great memories from growing up on the East Coast (and in the Midwest before that), but I’ve lived the longest on the West Coast and have made a home here, and since “home is where the heart is…”

MP: Working off the last question: As Delaney navigates her new life, she explores some of her California surroundings. Were any of Delaney’s observations or locations inspired by actual places or events?

KM: Yes, a lot of them were, most notably the mall, which is featured in Don’t Expect Magic, and where she gets a summer job in Who Needs Magic?, but in every case I took the original and made it much more extreme and surreal, to underscore the “modern-day-fairy-tale” feeling.

MP: One of my favorite things about Delaney is her talent at making boots into art. Did you always know that would be part of Delaney’s character?

KM: No, that developed in rewriting. Characters seem to expand and gain dimension when I’m revising, which is fun – they really do “take over.” One day, I just discovered that she had this interest and ability.

MP: Of course I also have to ask: If you could “Delaney-fy” your own pair of boots, what would they look like?

KM: Alas, unlike Delaney, I am not a visual artist, but if I did have any talent in this area, I’d add a lot of buckles and snaps, and some colorful spiral swirls.

MP: A big part of the story involves Delaney making sense of her father’s unusual work. If you were in Delaney’s shoes, would you want to try your hand at being a Fairy Godmother?

KM: Definitely!

MP: Don’t Expect Magic also has a sequel now called Who Needs Magic?. Did you always know Delaney’s story would continue after her first book? Will this be the last readers see of Delaney?

KM: I did hope to write a sequel, but the idea for it came much later, after Random House had made the deal to publish Don’t Expect Magic. I do have an idea for a third book, as well as ideas for prequels and spin-offs, but there’d have to be the demand for them. Right now, I’m working on a new, stand-alone idea.

MP: Can you tell us anything about your next project?

KM: It’s contemporary and realistic. It’s YA and the characters are slightly older teens than in Don’t Expect Magic and Who Needs Magic?, but it has a similar tone: comic with serious undertones.

MP: Do you have any advice to offer aspiring authors?

KM: Write a lot, write consistently, embrace revision, seek feedback and don’t waste time on doubt.

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Thanks again to Kathy for stopping by the blog. You can find out more about her and her books on her website kathymcculloughbooks.com.

You can also check out my review of Don’t Expect Magic here on the blog.

Don’t Expect Magic: A Chick Lit Wednesday Review

Delaney Collins knows that happily ever after is a joke. Things don’t end happily and she certainly isn’t living in a fairy tale. Not when her mom is dead and she is being forcibly moved across the country to live with her life coach father “Dr. Hank” in California.

Some happy ending.

Life in California is not what Delaney expected.  Everything is bright and shiny. Keeping a low profile at school is impossible when everyone from head cheerleader Cadie to yearbook geek Flynn wants to be her friend. (Until she disabuses them of such notions at least.) And Dr. Hank is keeping a secret about what he really does to help his “clients” in need of life coaching.

A really big secret.

Turns out Dr. Hank is really a fairy godmother–granter of wishes, inhabitant of fairy tales everywhere. And the fairy godmother condition is hereditary. Meaning Delaney Collins, the girl with the fierce attitude and boots to match is a fairy godmother with wishes of her own to grant. If she can ever get the hang of her powers, that is.

As Delaney struggles to help her first client she realizes that sometimes even a fairy godmother needs a wish of her own in Don’t Expect Magic (2011) by Kathy McCullough.

Don’t Expect Magic is McCullough’s first novel.

This story is really sweet hold the saccharin. Delaney is a no nonsense narrator with great taste in footwear even if it does take her a while to develop her taste for good friends. McCullough’s writing is spot-on capturing Delaney’s initial surly mood as well as her transformation throughout the story.

Though I would have loved more background about fairy godmother-ness, Don’t Expect Magic remains a clever reinterpretation of one of the most ubiquitous fairy tale characters of all time. In addition to having a fun setting and premise, this book shines as a story about adapting and moving on–even when it’s the last thing you want to do.

Part modern fairy tale, part journey Don’t Expect Magic is a delightful book for anyone waiting for their happy ending. (And even anyone who already has their happy ending too.)

Possible Pairings: Waiting For You by Susane Colasanti, Donorboy by Brendan Halpin, Friends With Boys by Faith Erin Hicks, Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins, Vibes by Amy Kathleen Ryan, The Reece Malcolm List by Amy Spalding