The Peculiar Gift of July by Ashley Ream
Purchase Rating: 4/5 Spice: 0/5 Plot: 5/5 Primary Genre: Magical realism/cozy fantasy Blurb: With a dash of magic and an ensemble cast of oddball, small-town characters, this feel-good novel explores forgiveness, family, and the sense of humor it takes to live with the ones we love the most. Ebey’s End is a small town on an island off the Pacific coast, reachable only by ferry (assuming the gods are with you and it’s not a Tuesday). It’s a comfortable, familiar (but okay, fine, sometimes lonely) life for its resident grocer Anita Odom. That is, until fourteen-year-old July shows up on her doorstep. Taking in the recently orphaned daughter of an estranged cousin had not been on Anita’s to-do list. In fact, it’s a terrible idea. Anita is ill-suited, ill-prepared, and absolutely certain the entire enterprise will end in disaster—for both of them. From the moment she arrives, July seems to “know” what each customer at the Island Grocery needs. They’re small: a housekeeping magazine sli...