Invariably, something that is bothering an author is going to make its way into the book they’re writing. That something for Jackie Lau in Magically Generated is GenAI. While I am largely on the side that Lau takes via her main character’s rants, I thought the note was hit too often and it wasn’t necessary because Lau already had enough character depth with Nora to have the reader empathize with her “done with the nonsense and not trusting anyone new or anything on the internet” vibe she is giving off strongly as this Christmas novella gets started (and throughout, really).
I love a prickly female lead – and the men that love them. I like that Lau doesn’t soften Nora, she is who she is at the age she is (yay for a female lead who is 40!). Her mother’s death and her being taken in by a romance scam in its immediate aftermath have affected how she interacts with the world (largely not) and how she views new people. So, when Everett her across the hall neighbor and she have a meet cute over misdelivered mail she’s not willing to entertain that there might be something there. He finds her grumpiness intriguing and likes that he’s able to get her to joke with him when they run into each other again.
Magically Generated follows the lead of Time Loops & Meet Cutes with the insertion of a little magical realism into the Romance setting. In this case it’s that Everett can control snow once its fallen. Which he uses to make intricate snow sculptures and has decided to stay in Toronto for Christmas so that he can unveil his plan of sculptures around the city in the lead up to the holiday to bring a little joy to everyone. So, we have a holiday sunshine type and a holiday grump hitting it off. It’s at the first of his sculptures that he and Nora run into each other again and they have an impromptu date-type hangout. Things go well and they continue to enjoy each other’s company as each has no plans for Christmas until her fundamental distrust and his necessarily hidden secret collide. This is where I wish Lau had left herself more space to unpack the trust that they need to build with each other, and sure magic snow powers are going to complicate that, but at the end of the say you can substitute any number of real life things there and the beats would be the same.
I received an ARC of this book via the author, it has not affected the contents of the review, only its timing. Magically Generated publishes October 21, 2025.
Bingo Square: Free (Replacing I): The book I had picked out for the I square is likely not going to get to me in time for Bingo (I’m currently 13th in the request queue for If It Makes You Happy, down from 16 a couple weeks ago…) so I’m swapping it out with this one.