Small Miracles

A witty, irreverent homage to Good Omens, Small Miracles is a fun, fast-paced fantasy that examines the struggles of a single woman, Holly Harker, as she she attepts to juggle two jobs while raising her orphaned niece. We see it all through the eyes of gender switching Gadriel, a fallen angel of petty temptations who only needs to get Holly to sin a bit to be free of a pesky gambling debt. Of course, nothing goes right, or is what it seems, and soon Gadriel is using miracles to help Holly (and maybe themself) find a happier ending. if this sounds confusing, just go with it. The story is amusing, the characters are likeable, and everything is better with chocolate .

Another enjoyable book from Olivia Atwater, in a very different vein! Some of you may have read Half A Soul and her Regency Faerie Tales, but Atwater really did a terrific job with this departure from faerie tales. While no one will replace Pratchett & Gaiman, Small Miracles scratches the itch fairly well, with light humor, divine justice, sin and temptation (if not doomsday) all prominently featured here. (There's even a mention of Queen) Charming, light-hearted, and a quick read, this was a fun book- looking forward to more.

Oh this was so lovely. (I did enjoy Atwater’s Half a Soul regency fantasy/romance as well) A fallen angel must somehow tempt a seemingly everyday woman working in a clothes store after another angel calls in a debt. Only Gadriel is in for more than he/she can foresee, and will need every single one of her/his skills with small temptations (chocolate!) in order to save the day. I don’t know if I am gravitating more towards “cozy” fantasy a la T. Kingfisher etc. these days more as I get older or because of the world, but I have to say this fits nicely in the genre. I can’t say much about the kind of life Holly is living without spoiling the whole set up, suffice it to say that the stakes are not end-of-the-world, more sinking a small number of folks into despair. It turns out Holly is almost untemptable, and when Gadriel looks deeper into her life, it turns out there is a niece living with her at a school, and so Gadriel becomes a counselor and gets sucked into school politics and girl-friendship problems as well. All along there is a focus on the meaning of simple joys, and how those joys can sustain us along with caring friends. And there’s chocolate. And the stealing of chocolate. And biscuits. As a devotee of the sweet myself, I appreciated how this author framed this small pleasure as a sustaining one. And yes, if you like Good Omens, you for sure will love this book. There’s the same restrained self-aware humor, the angels at odds with each other who still have long,…

What a fun and quirky read! I recently finished a round of darker fantasy series and went looking for something lighter to flush my palate. Small Miracles hit the spot! The smaller stakes in the story were a nice break from the world ending stakes dominating so many fantasy books on the market. You have an aunt and niece navigating a new and comlex relationship when neither knew what they were doing. A failed and fallen Guardian Angel trying to tempt an untemptable woman while also navigating a complex relationship with their sibling. Angels, demons, chocolate, puns, pettiness, and high school, yikes! This whole booked worked for me on many levels. The premise was fresh. I adored the puns. I laughed out loud at the footnotes. Gadriel's pettiness was hysterical and the running joke with chocolate hit the spot. The story flowed really well, great pacing, and I felt good reading it, even during the heavier parts...everyone was so relatable. Oh, and the switching between being a man and a woman with such flippancy also created lots of laughs. Everyone just flowed with it while also being clearly confused but also not questioning because Gadriel was so unapologetically weird. I'll be reading more Olivia Atwater and I highly recommend this book.

This was a fun story — a bit silly, while still touching on themes like grief; lighthearted and mostly low-angst while still including some high-stakes problems to solve; and more than a bit irreverent in a way that didn't feel disrespectful. I particularly enjoyed the bureaucratic and points-based celestial culture / system.