Magical Midlife Madness

A woman starting over. A new house with an unexpected twist. A cape wearing butler acting as the world's worst life coach."Happily Ever After" wasn't supposed to come with a do-over option. But when my husband of twenty years packs up and heads for greener pastures and my son leaves for college, that's exactly what my life becomes.Do-over.This time, though, I plan to do things differently. Age is just a number, after all, and at forty I'm ready to carve my own path.Eager for a fresh start, I make a somewhat unorthodox decision and move to a tiny town in the Sierra foothills. I'll be taking care of a centuries old house that called to me when I was a kid. It's just temporary, I tell myself. It'll just be for a while.That is, until I learn what the house really is, something I never could've imagined.Thankfully forty isn't too old to start an adventure, because that's exactly what I do. A very dangerous adventure that will change my life forever. I have a chance to start again, and this time, I make the rules.

"After finding my soon-to-be ex-husband with my soon-to-be ex-assistant, I realize his "for better or worse" didn't include my forties. A vacation on a remote Italian island sounds like the perfect antidote to a midlife crisis--until I arrive. I'm expecting Chianti and pasta, not a run-down bed and breakfast with the oldest Nonna in existence. There's something odd about this island, like how everyone calls me Mamma, or how I'm the first tourist in decades. And that's before I wake up to a talking chipmunk holding a glass of wine. He says I have something ancient in me, and for once, it's not my creaking joints. When I finally discover the island's deepest secrets, I know my forties are about to be fabulous, if only I can survive long enought to enjoy them." --

Life begins at 40 - but so do bad joints, wrinkles, and gray hairs.They say that by the age of forty you should have gained the skills and experience to have a better life. But the only thing I've gained is a job promotion to permanent desk jockey until retirement. I thought I escaped my mediocre destiny when I met my husband...until he died on our honeymoon and a series of unfortunate events left me with a strange mark on my body and my husband's corpse stolen right out of the funeral home! When I discover a mysterious invitation to a place called the Vale Estates at my door from a long-lost grandmother I had never met. I was ready to toss it away as a scam until I read the words: Your husband's death was not an accident.Desperate for answers, I pack up and go. But to discover the truth, I'm forced to live in a bizarre estate full of restless ghosts and a creepy goat-legged caretaker while enduring a trial of magic with death as a punishment for failure. But I'm not a mage! Or at least, I thought. I guess it's not too late to learn something new.

Divorce comes as a relief when you discover your husband is a walking cliche and having an affair with a woman half your age. When life gives you lemons... give yourself a magical makeover!One day I'm married, living in the triangle, and working as a head nurse at one of the country's best hospitals.The next, I've shed a hundred and seventy-five pounds of idiot and find myself encountering ghosts, dragons and pixies while taking care of a sick patient.Losing my sanity didn't seem like the worst thing to happen since I moved back home with my mom and nana.But I have to make the best of this mess for the sake of my children. And I refuse to give my ex the satisfaction of knowing he literally drove me crazy.I didn't mind rolling with the punches... I just never imagined those hits would come in the form of magic. Witches, shifters, and Fae don't exist, right?This new world I've discovered is dangerous. The Tainted want to kill me, innocent paranormals want my help, and the son of Hades needs me to find demons.Give me an Ibuprofen and watch out. I'm not about to stand by and let someone else ruin my life. I'm a middle-aged woman on a brand-new mission, and nothing's going to stop me.