Mulligan Magic
Prequel: Mulligan Stew
By Deb Stover

     Popular author Deb Stover returns to Caislean Dubh in Ballybronagh, Ireland with Mulligan Magic. In typical Stoveresque fashion, she mixes a blend of the old with the new and throws in a good dose of the paranormal along with it. One of the things I always enjoy about Deb Stover’s books is the importance of her settings, which are as endearing as her characters.

     In Mulligan Magic, Maggie Mulligan gets her dream of a lifetime: to teach the children from Ballybronagh. She moves into a small cottage, which has as many secrets of its own as most families have hidden in their closets.

      Before long, former New York policeman Nick Desmond, his “aunt” Maureen O’Shea, and his “cousin” Erin take a trip to Ballybronagh, where nothing is quite as it seems. Nick is on a vendetta of his own to get revenge for his father’s death. Maureen O’Shea is in truth the widow of a mafia boss and Erin is—well, she’s Mrs. O’Shea’s granddaughter, who was supposedly kidnapped when she was an infant. Mrs. O’Shea herself was killed in an airplane crash, and there are still other family members who paint a very lively cast in this book.

     Nick and Maggie hit it off the first time they set eyes on each other, and soon they have way more than just eyes for one another. But they are plagued by strange voices from the past, odd icons that haunt them, and Maggie’s brother, who wants only the best for Maggie—and he’s not at all sure that includes Nick.

     The nearby castle, which is now a bed-and-breakfast run by Maggie’s brother and his wife, which is the tale that is told in the first book, Mulligan Stew, seems to have gotten rid of the ghosts that had haunted it for many years, but has the ghost moved on to Maggie’s cottage? The town historian, Brady (who is Nick’s cousin), spins an Irish yarn as fine as the best Irish lace about the witch who lived in the cottage, and soon all of the pieces begin to fall into place, revealing the delightful paranormal link of Nick and Maggie. Can they overcome the past enough to build a future?

     One of the delights of this book is the secondary relationship that develops between Mrs. O’Shea and Brady. Ms. Stover very successfully makes you believe that love is forever—no matter what your age.

     You don’t have to read Mulligan Stew to make sense out of Mulligan Magic, but by the time you have finished this book, you will have to read the first one—just because you want to!