The Magic Touch by Kelly Florentia
Published by Accent Press
Publication Date: 18 March 2016
302 pages
Genre: Womens Fiction/Contemporary Romance
My thanks to Kelly Florentia who invited me to review this book as part of its relaunch.
Having bought the e-book some time ago it's been sitting on my kindle for a while - I am so pleased for the invitation as it encouraged me to bring it to the top of the pile.
This review reflects my own thoughts and is unbiased in any way.
Would you read your partner’s texts? What if you thought he was having an affair?
Once bitten, twice shy Emma King is in no rush to join Harry’s bustling, big, fat Greek Cypriot family and become Mrs Georgiades. So it comes as no big surprise when, after plenty of Dutch courage, his proposal of marriage at a family gathering is met with rejection. Emma doesn’t think they need a piece of paper to prove how much they love each other. They’re solid – unbreakable. After all, Harry’s a loving and loyal partner whom she trusts implicitly. But when she accidentally stumbles across a flirtatious text message on Harry’s mobile phone from a female colleague alarm bells start going off in her head. Overcome with suspicion and an impending fear of losing the love of her life, Emma goes on a mission to get to the bottom of his secret affair with the help of her best friend Ola, her ninety-three-year-old neighbour Alistair, and Harry’s sister-in-law’s app, The Magic Touch. Because no one is going to snatch Harry from her – no one!'
Having been dating the gorgeous Harry for 5 years now, Emma is under pressure from his Greek Cypriot family to tie the knot and start producing lots of chubby, happy children. Emma however, having been married before, is wary of walking up the aisle again even though she loves the very bones of Harry and can't imagine life without him. Okay so real life is intruding on the romantic side of their relationship since they moved house, the bigger mortgage payments and a loan from Harry's brother Mas to pay back mean that they both need to work every hour they can. But their relationship is sound - isn't it? A throw away comment by Harry's sister-in-law and Emma's friend Caroline sows the seed of doubt in Emma's mind that Harry is less than invested in them as a couple, a fact which is further cultivated by mysterious text messages arriving on Harry's mobile in the dead of night.
Emma and Harry's 93 year old neighbour Alistair is Emma's sounding board later in the week when she pops round with his shopping to have their regular game of scrabble and a chit chat. She is underwhelmed with his response to her dilemma, and returns home feeling rather despondent that nobody believes her worries that Harry could be straying. His dismissal of her suggestion that Caroline's fortune telling phone app could help lead her to solving her problems also grates on her -he's not usually so unsupportive.
Just when Emma thinks life can't get any more complicated, cue the arrival of good looking stock broker Marc who has potential links to a publisher who could put plenty of work her way and ease her money worries. Marc's rather persistent and despite Emma's insistence that she's unavailable and happy with Harry he keeps pushing to meet up, dangling the carrot of work opportunities to force her into situations she would normally dismiss in an instant. The advice offered by Caroline's 'Magic Touch' app isn't helping either. Life gets increasingly complex between Emma and Harry and the doubts ramp up between them until things hit breaking point. How will they sort their lives and relationship? Can they work things out or would they be better off cutting their losses and moving on? Who is keeping secrets and why?
This book will be very relatable to many women - lots of women have had a bad experience in a marriage which will have made them cautious when it comes to future relationships and many of us will have read a horoscope and been influenced by the words therein. I felt for Emma in her quest to understand where Harry was at in their relationship, yet conversely I was cross with the way she handled the situation with Marc. I completely adored Harry's busy, bonkers Mediterranean family but whether I could live with them myself I really don't know, and can understand how overwhelmed Emma must have felt when Harry proposed to her.
As regards the title of the book, I was expecting the Magic Touch app to feature more prominently in the story but once I had finished reading I realised just how much subtle influence it had on the overall story. It is difficult to express what I mean by this without giving away too much of a spoiler, but suffice to say that I completed the book feeling very satisfied if slightly sad by the way the author steered the story. That said, there are some great amusing moments which counter the more serious side of the book. I was surprised to discover that this was the author's debut book and with that in mind I consider this to be a cleverly written, easy to read book which had me eagerly turning pages to find out how things would turn out for our couple.
About the Author:
Kelly Florentia was born and bred in north London, where she continues to live with her husband Joe. HER SECRET (2018) is her third novel and the sequel to NO WAY BACK (2017).
Kelly has always enjoyed writing and was a bit of a poet when she was younger. Before penning her debut The Magic Touch, relaunched and updated in 2019, she wrote short stories for women’s magazines. To Tell a Tale or Two… is a collection of her short tales. In January 2017, her keen interest in health and fitness led to the release of Smooth Operator – a collection of twenty of her favourite smoothie recipes.
As well as writing, Kelly enjoys reading, running, drinking coffee, scoffing cakes, watching TV dramas and spending way too much time on social media. She is currently working on her fourth novel.
Social Media Links:
Twitter: @kellyflorentia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KellyFlorentiaAuthor
Website: www.kellyflorentia.com
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