this books consists of a few short stories all connected to the theme wizard, magic, fantasy. And the familiy is always a topic. If you like short sotries this is a book for you

This is an anthology of tales that are full of magic. A dead teacher for the first grade class? A coffee shop that relaxes you too much? Or how about a reality tv show about witches?

BooksGoSocial and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It has been published and you can get a copy now.

The stories contained are:

“Bellwethers Know Best,” by Marion Deeds
“Legacy,” by Joanna Michal Hoyt
“Coffee Break,” by W.O. Hemsath
“She That Was So Proud and Wild,” by Misha Burnett
“Dead in First Grade,” by P.L. Sundeson
“The Dragon Detector,” by Elana Gomel
“The Lake Cottage, by Michelle F Goddard
“To Find a Peach,” by Frank Saverio

I think my favorite is "The Lake Cottage". There's something living in the lake but it's his friend. And that's a good thing.

"To Find a Peach" is about an endangered kingdom and that one touched me, too. "The Dragon Detector" is sad but it'll stick with me for a while.

Which one is your favorite?

The Wand that Rocks the Cradle, edited by Oren Litwin, is a collection of fantasy stories that, as Litwin notes in the introduction, “ask the question: what makes family magical?” Like any collection of multiple authors, the stories vary in quality and impact, and while I would have liked more “good” versus “solid” stories, none were what I’d characterize as bad or uninteresting, which is relatively rare for an anthology. One fact I need to note for transparency: one of the authors, Marion Deeds, is my reviewing colleague at fantasyliterature.com. Though hers is the first story, I’m going to review that one last.

“Legacy” by Joanna Michal Hoyt is a moving story that despite being set in the mid-1900s is sadly all too timely. centered as it is on a group of exploited migrant workers who have crossed over illegally, particularly David, his son, and their young female friend Soledad. As the cruelty of their situation and their “employers” ramps up, David must wrestle with whether or not he should use a magical talisman given to him by his father with the instructions: “You can only use this once. For one person.” Hoyt does an excellent job in balancing people’s potential for cruelty and their potential for sacrifice and compassion.

“Coffee Break” by W.O. Hemsath was not as successful. A classic “magic shop” story, I found the premise it relied on at the end implausible and its logistics muddy in spots.

“She That Was So Proud and Wild” by Misha Burnett follows a young man returning to the isolated home he left years ago (on bad terms with his father) to introduce his fiancée to his parents. Beyond the familiar tension there’s something else a bit odd/creepy going on, and while Burnett does a nice job managing that tension, it had a few internal contradictions, and I felt the story really ended where it should have begun.

“Dead in First Grade” by P. L. Sundeson creates a world where an attempt to stop a deadly pandemic had the result of allowing the recently dead to be “called back”, which after all the pandemic deaths was a convenient source of needed labor. One such “deader” is Emma’s first grade teacher, which eventually puts Emma in a situation where she’ll need to choose side between her teacher and a cruel classmate. The premise is a good one even if we’ve seen it before, but I found several of Sunderson’s plot choice to be a bit too blunt or on-the-nose and the reveal a bit predictable. And I also was a bit confused on the timing, given some of the references, some of which seemed to point to a near-future and some which seemed to point to a 60s setting.

“The Dragon Detector” by Elan Gomel is a pretty dark tale set in a world where dragon eggs are used by terrorists. The eggs can take on the appearance of everyday objects, making them impossible to find (mostly), and when the dragons hatch they cause massive destruction. Because dragons can’t be killed (they do die naturally relatively fast), the only way to avoid the disasters is to find the egg before it hatches and destroy it, but so far only one person, Ashley, seems to have the capability of sensing an egg’s presence. The story had potential, but it felt too abrupt to me, and I wanted more depth to the characters, more time to explore who they were.

“The Lake Cottage” by Michelle F. Goddard centers on another young man bringing a girlfriend back to an old haunting ground to introduce her to the parents, who in this case are divorced, at least partially over differing attitudes to the family lake cottage where John nearly drowned as a child. Again, the story has potential, but moved too quickly and so lacked depth of character, and I though the dialogue had some issues as well.

“To Find a Peach” by Frank Saverio switches up tone from the prior tales, more of a traditional medieval secondary-world fantasy with royalty, castles, knights and a land that has been devasted by a Black Death-like plague. Cail, the Royal Steward, and his page Lande enter the town near the castle on a “quest” for a peach for the princess, sole survivor of her family though the people don’t know that yet. The ending didn’t quite nail it, but Saverio creates a richly felt world and atmosphere, a strong sense of character in Cail, and in terms of tone balances bleakness and hope in good fashion.

Finally, there’s the first story in the collection, Marion Deed’s “Bellwethers Know Best.” As noted above, Marion is a colleague of mine, which I’d feel compelled to note anyway due to ethics, but particularly because I thought it the strongest story in the collection. So I’ll leave you to take that as you may. The Bellwethers are a family with varying magical abilities who back in the day had their own highly popular reality TV shows: The Real Witches of Modesto, California and the titular Bellwethers Know Best. Eden was the “rebellious teen” in the first of the shows (her mother Euphronia’s signature line for the show was, “Eden, can’t we talk?”) and is now working for Magical Protection Services, happy to have left the entertainment world behind. Her sister Emmaline though, who misses the fame and money, has been pressuring her to get back into it, and now her family’s former agent, Aida, wants to do a new show (Real Witches of Modesto, California: The Next Generation) without Eden but with her mother Euphronia as the powerful mentor. Since Euphronia is dead now though, Aida needs a necromancer to “facilitate the meetings and help bring her through,” and is hoping Eden’s ten-year-old necromancer daughter Eulalie might do it. Eden adamantly refuses, but of course things are more complicated than a simple “no way” can resolve. The story is witty, moves along at a great pace, does a great job at poking fond fun at reality TV/celebrity culture, but also does an excellent job of characterization as well as portraying real-life family issues. As I said, it was my clear favorite in the book, though I’ll have to leave it to you as to whether you trust me when I say I firmly believe that would have been the case had all the names been removed and I didn’t know it was Marion’s story.

I received an electronic ARC from BooksGoSocial through NetGalley.
Diverse topics from a variety of authors. I liked some more than others but enjoyed reading these short stories.
Quick reads that can be read all together or when a reader has a short amount of time to read just one.

The tales in this book will pull you in. Ever wanted to possess special powers or know what it is like to grow up among witches and wizards? This is the book for you. With varying short stories with topics ranging from dryads, dragons, deaders, family, love and friendship. There is something for everyone. Some stories I wish would not end so I hope the authors delve deeper into them and another volume.

I enjoyed this collection of short stories, some more than others.
They were well written and had good plotlines, perfect for filling a little time. The stories contained within this book were widely varied and imaginative.
A good collection of fantasy, ideal for a quick bedtime read or a relaxing coffee break.

This was kindly given to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
All of these stories were unique but very separate from each other. I enjoyed most of them and I did like how quick they were, but it follows the same issue most anthologies have. There were a few stories that just didn't have enough to them leaving me confused. I gave each one its own rating with an average of 3 stars. Overall I did have a fun time reading these and I’d be very curious to check out what all of the authors have to offer for full length novels.