a b Hamilton, Jenny (July 26, 2022). "How to (Not) Fit In: The Misfit Heroine and Olivia Atwater's". Tor.com. Archived from the original on August 18, 2022 . Retrieved March 2, 2023. I admit, Small Miracles was one of the books in our batch that instantly caught my attention. When I reached the “fallen angel” part in the blurb, I was sold. Mentioning angels is a sure way to perk up my attention. I’ve never read Olivia Atwater‘s books before, although I’ve heard a lot about Half a Soul and intended to read it at some point. An interesting, though perhaps underplayed aspect was the numerical sin-count maintained on two of the characters.

Associating virtue with misery and sin with enjoyment might take old fashioned weight loss messaging a little too far or too simplistically into the moral domain. However, it makes for an interesting set-up as Gadriel finds the simple challenge has some surprising complications. It also means that each chapter opens, like a Bridget Jones diary entry, with a helpful running score of Holly Harker’s cumulative sin metric. (She starts on “-932” sin points – positively brimming with virtue). Olivia Atwater writes whimsical historical fantasy with a hint of satire. She lives in Montreal, Quebec with her fantastic, prose-inspiring husband and her two cats. When she told her second-grade history teacher that she wanted to work with history someday, she is fairly certain this isn’t what either party had in mind. She has been, at various times, a historical re-enactor, a professional witch at a metaphysical supply store, a web developer, and a vending machine repairperson. In this world, which is essentially just our own + confirmed angels, sin and good deeds are measured in a way that reminds me a tad of The Good Place. When you sin you get negative points, and when you do something righteous or selfless/good, you gain some points. Chocolate is technically considered a sin, although Gadriel thinks that’s an injustice and has been fighting for centuries about it. Anywho, Gadriel accepts the mission since it will set her square with the angel, which as I understand has been outstanding for quite some time and they’re happy to be rid of the debt. What they hadn’t anticipated is how hard it would be to get Holly to sin. Small Miracles charmed me with its simple, effortlessly funny story and likable characters. It's whimsical, often amusing, and there is hardly a dull moment.

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Atwater takes slice of life, regular folk’s existence that has more depth than at first realized, combined with playfully misbehaving angels doing petty pranks that turn out to have bigger consequences, compelling themes handled light and very adroitly, brilliant characters, wonderful prose, satire, and that cozy feel that is so popular right now, to spin an absolute delight of a novel. First off I have to say that readers who are a fan of the above genre will like it more than I did. Atwater has a degree in technical writing and editing. [3] She lives in Montreal, Quebec with her husband Nicholas and her two cats. [3] Bibliography [ edit ] Regency Faerie Tales [ edit ]

Anyway, an angel and a fallen angel who are on friendly-ish terms vie gently over the fate of a woman (and later her adopted child) in a comparitatively low stakes (because it involves the happiness of at most a handful of people rather than the fate of thousands), cozy, tale. An uncomplicated plot but with complicated, conflicted characters that were so relatable. Over the years I've either been or met people like the humans in this story. The angels too also reminded me of some non gender specific friends and when I read excerpts of this book to them they too were impressed with the way Atwater smoothly writes of gender fluidity. No showing, no info dumps or "telling" it just was. I quote one paragraph that I particularly liked… 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.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. a b c d e f g "Author Spotlight Interview: Olivia Atwater". Hidden Gems Books. June 2, 2020. Archived from the original on September 27, 2020 . Retrieved March 2, 2023. Wilson, Nigel Robert (October 21, 2022). "Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater". The British Fantasy Society. Archived from the original on March 2, 2023 . Retrieved March 2, 2023. 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. This is an outstanding book for fans of humorous fantasy. Olivia Atwater has a new fan in me and I want more. Disclaimer: I am not friends with the author. I wish I were, though.

Holly is absolutely lovely, yet complicated, and her childhood traumas have influenced her adult life, and hold the sad key to why she is so staunch in her virtue. 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.”

The world is more or less based around the modern day without a whole lot added to it other than the religious aspect of angels being real and all that. This may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I didn’t personally mind since that’s fairly common when you’re writing kind of a biblical fantasy satire kind of thing. Kudos to how Atwater approaches gender fluidity in the novel! As per many interpretations of Angels from a Christian perspective, which denotes them as not being assigned a gender in the way humans can comprehend. Atwater notes in her work, casually,

Of course even a gentle chocolate infused story such as Small Miracles requires a villain and a threat, and there is more at stake for Gadriel than losing face with Barachiel. Those who have dabbled in C.S.Lewis’s The Screwtape letters may be familiar with the name Wormwood (or indeed if they have perused the Book of Revelations). Suffice to say the character is not a positive one and their arrival in the midst of Gadriel’s mission significantly ups the stakes, without losing the gently whimsical nature of the narrative.

Small Miracles captures the reader's attention with its engaging writing style and witty humor. I especially enjoyed the author's writing style, which is easy to read and captivating throughout the book. Atwater has a talent for creating vibrant, likable characters who are easy to root for and who draw the reader into their world. 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. This is NOT a review of that book. Yet unavoidably, there will be comparisons between “SmallMiracles” by Atwater, and that seminal work by Gaiman and Pratchett.