Amazing things happened; healing, angelic visitations, fallen angel, human, demons, magical abilities and a delightful unpredictable twist. The story line keeps you enthralled and it was pretty original. There are some terrific elements. Such as the scene a few feet above the ground and the new wand. It make me chuckle just thinking about this wand. The romance does not play a large role but was sufficiently present for a romance lover like me. I have enjoyed this book immensely.

Fabulous! Great world building, loving the characters, will be looking for more by this author!

Sadly I am not able to write a review because this title was archived before I had the chance to downlowad it. I'm very sorry.

Tamiel was a guardian angel. Claire was a fairy godmother and was called to the magic and it was in a sex toy store. The magic was raw and not filtered and refined like the Fairy Godmothers council- FGC- delivered. Claire had been around magic all her life but it had not been this potent or demanding . Claire Claire was not sure she could control it. Claire was a level one plus fairy godmother and always closed her cases within the time frame given to her. She was the golden child of the FGC. Abby was Claire's new client . When Claire first appeared to Abby she threatened to call the cops and thought Claire was crazy when she told Abby who she was. For the first time in her career Claire Claire was going to have an open case after her deadline had passed. The FAC was on the verge of becoming obsolete. Juliette was Claire's boss and gave her an extension on Abby's case but also gave her a second case and old Claire they would be working together on the case. Juliette felt the new case could make the FGC Relevant again after it was solved. The case had came from the director's office so it was an important case. THE FGC needed to be brought into the twenty first century but the FGC wasn’t into change. Then Claire went to the meet and greet with Frankie. Something screamed at Claire her to leave. Claire new it was a guardian angel- GA- but Claire refuses to give her case up. Then CLaire sees a demon going after going after Frankie. In the end both the GA and Claire killed the demon. The GA told Claire she wasn’t there for Frankie but for the demon they had killed but there would be two more coming after Frankie as they came in threes. Then The alarm went off for Abby and Claire went to Abby and had to deflect a man with no goodness in him that was hitting on Abby. Then the GA appeared again to Claire, she told Claire her name was Tamiel/Tam. Claire found she actually wanted to flirt with Tam. After being attacked again by two demons Claire took Frankie to the la headquarters of FGC.
I had mixed feelings on this story. It was a novella and I would have liked more background on the FGC as well as the GA and why they were against each other at least on the Fairy Godmothers front. It was a quick read and it keep me interested I didn’t really care for the girl on girl action so just skimmed over. I liked Claire’s idea of just helping people not necessarily just with finding their soul mate. It had quite a bit of action in it for the length of this story. The plot was good I just felt being longer and more in depth would have added a lotto this story. It just didn't’ WOW me.

4 - 4.5 stars

Claire is a top-level fairy godmother who’s been doing the godmothering gig for years. Bonded to her magic wand, Claire is in high demand to help the love-lost to find their true loves, or very nearly so.

However, the more modern sensibilities, and precocious demands of her clients, make the godmothering business trickier than it ever was. When Claire is given a VIP case by her boss, she winds up in hot water with demons, guardian angels and even a fallen angel.

It doesn’t help that her competition, a guardian angel called Tamiel, is gorgeous and clearly more interested in Claire than the client.

This is a fun tale of godmothering in the 21st century, with a lovely lesbian twist. It isn’t a long book, but Lane has given us enough depth to the story and the characters to feel engaged in their adventures, and not long enough to ever get tedious. Lane has managed the length of the story really well. It is a delight from start to finish.

Claire is fun, smart, and getting a bit bored by the consistency of it all. The new challenge presented by the VIP case, and having to deal with her ingrained prejudices from the Fairy Godmother Council, provide a refreshing spark to the day. Combine that with an unhappy boss, a hierarchy of colleagues, and competition from outside the firm, and we have a very modern take on on godmothering.

I really enjoyed this. It didn’t take long to read and was a delightful sojourn into an urban fantasy. I don’t know if Lane is planning to take the series further, but she has set it up well in case she does. I’d definitely read the next installment, should it come along. Enjoy.

Advanced reading copy provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

Not for me. Really short and easy read, but it felt very juvenile.

Sie begegnen uns immerzu als charmante Randfiguren in Märchen: die guten Feen, die ihren Zauberstab schwingen um aus Kürbissen goldene Kutschen zu machen und aus Lumpen festliche Ballkleider. In Tread Lightly allerdings wird die gute Fee zur Hauptfigur vor der Kulisse des 21. Jahrhunderts, und das ist eine mitunter urkomische Sache. Denn der Feminismus hat das Geschäft mit den Traumprinzen ganz schon leiden lassen und statt Dankbarkeit erhalten die Feen Forderungen nach Designerkleidern und dem neuesten iPhone. Noch dazu schnappen die konkurrierenden Schutzengel den guten Feen immer öfter die Schützlinge unter der Nase weg und sorgen damit für schlechte Erfolgsquoten im Feen-Büro. Das klingt nicht nur so als ob es amüsant sein könnte, Tread Lightly ist tatsächlich mehr als einen Lacher wert!

Der Weltenbau in dieser kurzen Geschichte allerdings ist simpel. Er lebt vor allem durch Claires Wahrnehmung ihrer Umwelt und der Schilderung ihrer Arbeit. Das FGC (Fairy Godmother Council) ist der Bürokratie anheim gefallen und für jeden Schwung mit dem Zauberstab gilt es mindestens ein Formblatt auszufüllen. Das nimmt dem Leben als Fee durchaus den Spaß an der Sache und die inkompetente Chefin macht es auch nicht besser. Claire hat einst die größten Liebesgeschichten mitgeschrieben. Von Cinderella über Sleeping Beauty bis hin zu Kate Middleton, hat sie die perfekten Liebespaare zu einem glücklichen Ende geführt, doch ihr eigener Alltag ist ziemlich dröge und glanzlos geworden. Erst als sie mit Schutzengel Tamiel aneinander gerät, kommt wieder Schwung in ihr Leben.

Tamiel ist ein Engel deren Zunge ebenso scharf ist wie das brennende Schwert in ihrer Hand. Claire hat Vorurteile gegenüber dem Engel, bringt man den Feen doch in speziellen Schulungen bei, dass die GA (Guardian Angels) Gedankenkontrolle beherrschen und ihnen nicht zu trauen ist. Entsprechend vorsichtig ist Claire Tamiel gegenüber. Aufgrund der Umstände sind Engel und Fee nun aber gezwungen zusammenzuarbeiten, was vor allem Claire klarmacht, wie wenig sie eigentlich von der Welt weiß und wie blind sie den Aussagen des FGC vertraut hat. Kaum etwas ist so wie es scheint in Tread Lightly.
Im Grunde geht es hier normalerweise locker zu, das Büchlein beschäftigt sich aber auch mit blindem Vertrauen, angelernten Vorurteilen und der Überwindung solcher.

Tread Lightly ist ein flotter, humorvoller Lesestoff mit teils erotischen oder absurd witzigen, aber eindeutig Erwachsenen Szenen. Entsprechend ist diese Kurzgeschichte nicht für Kinder geeignet. Der Weltenbau kommt dabei etwas kurz, hier und da hätte die Handlung etwas mehr Ausarbeitung vertragen, und gerade gegen Ende überschlagen sich die Ereignisse. Wer aber leichte Unterhaltung und Heiterkeit sucht, statt epischer Dramaturgie, dem kann ich diese Geschichte nur ans Herz legen. Aus meiner Sicht lohnenswert.

This story had me absorbed from the start as I have never read a story focused on the fairy god mother and it was definitely unique.

The story was fun and even though it seemed that a lot was going on and that it was fast past, it wasn't too complicated to follow or too bogged down in details.

I enjoyed the characters particularly Claire as even though the book was quite short she went through quite a bit of positive character development, coming more into her own and making her own decisions.

I would definitely recommend this for anyone interested in a retelling or even unique story with LGBT+ themes!

What a wonderful surprise this book ended up being! I love the combination of fairy tale elements with very light urban fantasy thrown in; it's a wonderful introduction to the UF genre. Although, this is novella length and apparently part of an entirely different multi-author series, I was wishing for even more story in this. I really hope Catherine Lane not only uses this in a series of her own but revisits and fully fleshes out this story to novel-length because she sets up an intriguing world that deserves much more. Really my only complaint is about the speed at which this story unfolds, but nothing is lost, it's just that the world is so interesting that I want to read more about the backstories and the characters. There is a love scene though that does feel tacked on at the end and while it's very obvious one would be coming (excuse the pun), it still doesn't feel quite right where it is and where the characters are emotionally. Again, had this been full-length, that would probably be quite different as well.
Great little story as is--but like any selfish reader, I want more!!

*I received this book from NetGalley, and Ylva Publishing in return for a fair review.*

Firstly – I do not know how long this story is, though I believe it’s in the ‘short story’ category.

Secondly – this story will be published February 15 2017.

And now on with the review.

This story stars two fantasy characters, though only one has a point of view. First up is <b>Claire</b> (we’ll get to Tamiel, the guardian angel, a little later). Claire is the point of view character in the story, and is a ‘fairy godmother level one plus’. The fairy part? Repeatedly mentioned in the story that, whatever she is (she’s uncertain, though knows she’s half-human and half something else) she isn’t a fairy. As in, Faerie creatures. That ‘level one plus’ has to do with her rank in the organization. She’s on the top tier of agents sent out into the field, though she has a boss, and then there are the unnamed ‘upper management’ people.

Several things to know about both Claire and what she does. Claire is roughly 400 years old and very very experienced in her profession. She’s like the gold standard, what with having such critters as Cinderella and Grace Kelly as successful clients (that’s what they call them, clients). In ‘modern times’ the ‘clients’ are a little less excited to meet their fairy godmother than they were in the past – what with having to break through the ‘not believing’ part. As noted, 400 years, much experience, and . . . . somewhat very naïve and inexperienced in certain matters. For example – until this specific story here, despite having lived and worked for 400 years, she wasn’t actually sure demons were real until this story. And, while she knew guardian angels were real (and that there’s a conflict between godmothers and angels), she’s never actually meet one before this story. That naivety and inexperience in certain matters (somewhat unbelievable inexperience), plus long age and deep experience in other matters, was beginning to irritate me. It seemed as if the author wanted the best of both worlds – someone super good, bright, experienced, but they also wanted to have them encounter new things, however unbelievable it would be for them to only know encounter them. Beginning, but then it started to become apparent <i>why</i> there would be this naivety – it gets indirectly explained in the story and becomes a lot more believable.

<b>Tamiel</b> is a guardian angel who Claire encounters while on a case. Being a character without a point of view, there is a lot less known about her than about Claire. Though certain things are known. Just like Claire, in her natural form she’s drop dead gorgeous (though Claire tends to use her powers to morph herself as needed, like into plump little old ladies, or as small children). The kind who wears silvery barely there clingy outfits. And has fire for eyes. Yeah that one threw me. Fire? Ah, hmm.

<b>Story</b>: The story follows Claire as she tries to help two ‘clients’, a Frankie and an Abby. One comes with tattoos, piercings, and a certain reluctance to believe; other is quite eager to believe a fairy godmother has turned up to help them. Both come with issues – Abby, the first meet, is disagreeable and seems determined to not help herself when help is offered; while Frankie has literal demons attacking her on and off.

While trying to meet Frankie for the first time, Claire teleports to her location. And finds herself in a dark dirty dingy alleyway. And the artist Frankie is ‘tagging’ a building. With graffiti. Then a voice begins screaming in Claire’s head, a demon appears, a guardian angel appears, and – well, hell breaks loose. And Claire has to overcome her prejudices against angels, and both the angel and the fairy need to try to help defeat the problems confronting them.

<b>Overall</b> - After I got past that issue of Claire being both experienced and inexperienced, I found her to be an interesting character. And Tamiel seemed interesting enough, though hard to ‘pin down’. I liked what occurred well enough, I might even have been a little tear-eyed at one specific moment (or two). I can’t say anything about the graphic sex scene, though, as that suddenly ‘attacked me’ while I was out and about in public so I mostly skimmed.

Rating: 4.21

February 10 2017

A fairy tale brought to our days.
With angels and demons, too.
To pass the time.

Wow, what a fun story. Fairy God Mothers, hell hounds, fallen angels, magic wands, fairy tales and folklore, a surprise twist of a guardian angel, all topped off with a little spice!

A jolly good romp, in deed.

Why did it always have to be a relationship, anyway? Juliette had been angry when she went off about the Fairy Godmother Council being obsolete, but Claire had actually been thinking about it for a while. The FGC needed to embrace results other than relationships as victories. That would launch them into the twenty-first century kicking and screaming."

I'm starting off with this quote to highlight what I liked the most about this book, which was the reflection about how the work of fairy godmothers has become harder because people nowadays have bigger worries than finding their soulmates. The main character, Claire, is an experienced fairy godmother who is frustrated that her superiors reject real innovation and instead just act like "a perfect match" is everything her clients need.

This was a delightful read, nice for a lazy afternoon — good entertainment during my day in bed fighting off a cold. That's all it is, though. Like a silly movie you're just supposed to watch for fun and not think too hard about it. If you stop and think, you'll notice the characters are barely developed beyond basic personality traits and the main plot is built up like this huge thing but it turns out to be just a minor inconvenience.

Claire's wand surprisingly gets a more interesting character development arc than anyone else in the book. In the end, Claire is supposed to be a master fairy godmother but doesn't really act like it (if the writer wanted her to be so confused about almost everything, why not just make her a newbie?). We don't know much about her besides that and the fact that she'd like the FGC to leave their obsolete ways behind and adapt to the real concerns of 21st century people. Tamiel, the Guardian Angel that Claire works with on the case and has a crush on, is even less developed. To be fair, there's only so much you can do with a story this short.

The nicest surprises came towards the ending: that plot twist about Tamiel I really didn't see coming, one very unique sex scene in case you've ever wondered what it can be like with an angel, and the hilarious new wand case.