The text is peppered with Pratchett-esque footnotes. These fall into two categories, the first being authorial asides that raise a smile, or an eyebrow or both, for example the one about how Gadriel, the fallen angel of petty temptations, is persuaded by her angelic bookie to pay off her gambling debt. No big deal; she has to tempt a sinless mortal, Holly Harker, into sin. Just a little bit, so her cumulative sin metric isn't so low. A piece of chocolate here, a white lie there, done. Only Holly doesn't like chocolate and seems untemptable.

There were components of the plot that I felt weren’t fleshed out enough, particularly regarding the math teacher interactions. Overall, that is the main reason my enjoyment wasn’t higher, I just wanted this book to be longer. The other component I felt that took me out of the story at times were the points tallies at the beginning of each chapter. Things like lying or eating chocolate are negative points but helping elderly people cross the street or holding open a door give you positive points. It just took me out of the story a bit as the math is presented in the footnotes that are especially challenging to read on a kindle and I ended up just ignoring them at times. Angels… chose a gender for the day, in rather the same way that you or I might choose a shirt or trousers…But as with any fashion choice there is always the danger that one might turn up at a luncheon meeting wearing exactly the same gender as the friend with whom one is meeting. This is considered both gauche and embarrassing.”True to pattern, I was an absolute mess the day that I won SPFBO. Mr Atwater tip-toed into the room to gently prod at me, and I said “oh, I must have got a nice review, because I feel wretched today.” And he said “yes, something like that.” Gadriel is a fallen angle who specializes in petty temptations. They’re not trying to bring down humanity, they just want to make sure we’re enjoying it sufficiently. They’re still a “fallen” angel, though, so they were surprised when their sibling, Barachiel, shows up and WANTS them to try and tempt a human into sinning. Just a little bit of sinning. This human, Holly, has lived such a joyless life that even the “good” angels are like, okay, wtf, that woman needs some happiness, STAT. I won’t dwell on the story details. It deliberately seeks out the small pleasures of contemporary life that occur everyday and help you wade through the daily grind. Chocolate being one major example. I had already read and very much enjoyed an earlier self published trilogy by the author (E.g. Half a Soul) which gently satirised Jane Austen/Brontë sister storylines by inserting a slightly harder edge to life in those periods, and with more contrarian characters. Maybe that harder undertone to the plot which I’d liked wasn’t quite as clear here as in that previous trilogy. My only other concern was the use of footnotes, which I’m not a fan of, especially when reading in my preferred ebook format. Fortunately their use wasn’t excessive and I saw why they were used in some instances. The endearing, smart, yet somewhat naive and slightly fumbling and flawed Gadriel was a wonderful main character. Once she finds out she’s out of her depth in provoking Holly to acquiesce to sin, she resorts to something different, but Holly’s intractability also leads to Gadriel and Holly forming a great relationship, as they get to know one another better.

Waite, Olivia (June 26, 2022). "Happy Marriages, Petty Temptations and Angel Sex". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 5, 2022 . Retrieved March 3, 2023. Overall, this is a very different but enjoyable take on the fantasy genre, with its entertaining examination of the everyday struggles of ordinary folk, all heroes within their own complicated and unexpectedly spicy lives. As one of the many footnotes points out God may show mercy, but capsaicin does not. Since this is an SPFBO 8 finalist (updated: This won the competition) I decided to give it a go, even though contemporary rom-com fantasy isn't my favourite genre. For a while, I had a job as a historical re-enactor. I actually learned a lot about Tudor England, specifically, but I also gained an accidental education in English history as a whole. I was surrounded, actually, by people with Masters degrees and PhDs in different English eras, and they loved telling me all about how the lower classes lived, because it’s so rarely discussed in mainstream media. If you’ve ever been around people who rant about their passions, you’ll know it can be very contagious. So I think on some level, I was always thinking about how I could work some of these interesting, lesser-known historical facts into a book.

I have provided an honest review of this book – “Small Miracles” by author Olivia Atwater – below for purposes of the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) Number 8 competition, in which this book is one of ten finalists. Before We Go Blog (where I am one of the judges) is assigned the book, along with the other 9 judging blogs, to help determine which one of 10 books will emerge as the SPFBO 8 Champion.

The second category of footnotes provide a running score update to quantify Gadriel’s successes and failures in de-miserifying Holly’s excessively virtuous existence. For example “+10 Points of Virtue (Holly Harker): Rescuing a Lost Kitten.” One can’t help feeling that Atwater must have had an excel spreadsheet open alongside the manuscript document as the precise accounting of these numbers is both the substance of Gadriel’s challenge and an important plot-point as the story approaches its denouement. It requires considerable skill to write a book that isn't actively a chore to read. A bunch more to write a book that can be swiftly devoured with zero indigestion. Although there is no impending, world-ending disaster lurking in “Small Miracles” – this is considerably lighter fare. But its lightness doesn’t mean it’s not a worthwhile, intriguing book. Atwater likes Terry Pratchett, in particular his novels Small Gods (1992) and The Wee Free Men (2003). [3] Reading Pratchett convinced her that her "love of fantasy wasn't lesser in any way" and inspired her to write young adult fiction. [4] As a child, she enjoyed the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. [3] She said her writing was influenced by Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers (2007), in particular her understanding of the structure of the hero's journey and the classic fairy tale. [4] Personal life [ edit ]

Nielsen, Rune S. "Author Interview: Olivia Atwater". runesnielsen.com. Archived from the original on October 15, 2022 . Retrieved March 2, 2023. I also loved the footnotes and the humour within them; it takes a good author to do these well and Atwater does homage to Pratchett (Jay Kristoff did quite well in Nevernight) in pulling these off. I must admit to some muffled laughter and nose snorting giggles on the morning commute whilst reading them. I think my favourite one was…

So, this is my 5th book of 2023, and amazingly it only took me 3 days to read. In part because I spent nearly 5 hours on various trains, in part because it's short, and in part because it's a very easy read. And I don't mean that last bit as anything other than a positive.There are numerous witty footnotes spread throughout the book, again like Pratchett, that amusingly prompt the reader to keep their own personal tally of the sin lost or virtue gained on the balance books. I loved this feature of the worldbuilding, and laughed out loud at some of the footnotes. This is a charming little book, impossible to categorise or to predict which way its twisting plot will go. Suffice to say the story often left me bewildered, but never unengaged.