I enjoyed this book being about three women; their individual stories and their friendship all together. The narrator did a very nice job giving the women different voices. I'll be putting it on display in our library and recommending it to patrons.

I really really tried with this one after hearing such glowing reports about the author.
I liked the narrator's voice, but the story was all over the place and I was having to go back to re-listen as I completely lost the thread.
What a shame.

I wanted to give this audio a chance. I need some romance comedy and some fun in my life . But sadly this novel didnt do anything for me. I did love the person reading the story but i couldnt dig the storyline

I hardly DNF or criticize any book because I believe there’s something to learn from every story but this is one book I wanted to DNF after the first few chapters only.

The story focuses on three friends in their late twenties, each dealing with problems of their own. Sarah wants her handsome and manipulating boss to fall for her. Sarah, having an affair with a married man, is scheming to make him leave his family by getting pregnant. Deb, wants her over-bearing future mother-in-law to stop interfering in her life. One night, the three friends in their drunken state decide to cast a spell from an old book in order to fulfil their desires.

Honestly, the whole plot was outdated, predictable and cringe-worthy. None of the characters were likeable and the three MCs were made to look extremely dumb and self-obsessed. Even the kids in the story seems to be obnoxious. Deb’s storyline had potential but it was hardly explored. Instead, what we got was Cher being manipulated by her arrogant boss and Sarah bending over backwards to convince her boyfriend to leave his family behind so that she can attend events couple-up with him.

On a positive note, the writing was good, with a few entertaining moments in between. I can see why the author is popular and would probably read on her crime series.

Synopsis:
Three best friends Cher, Sarah and Debra living the life they always wished for but wait a sec, is it exactly the way they imagined it to be or is it just a false alarm. Journey of questioning what’s right and wrong begins with a magic spell done on a wimp. Cher will find out the right match while looking for the wrong one. Sarah will lose the wrong guy to find the right career and Debra will find the right family while marrying the right guy.

Characters:

Cher: Office assistant crushing over her boss
Sarah: Works in a bookstore and loves a married man
Debra: Sales Rep turned Sales Manager and engaged
Michael Hunter: Sr. Centre Manager
Dan: Colleague of Cher and Widower
David: Sarah’s love interest
Mark: Fiancé to Debra

Strong Points:
o Interesting plot
o Real life confusions and hidden feelings very well-written
o Light- hearted, romantic read.

Conclusion: Have you ever imagined what would it be like if all your wishes come true just by doing some sort of a spell with herbs & stuff!! Dah uhhhh !! But wait till you read this amazing novel with all the drama and romance. My first read Angela Marsons novel and I am hooked for as long as I continue to read. It is a perfect beach read or even a monsoon read with romance, drama and humor. With 3 female protagonist, the story always felt busy and something happening one after another in atleast one of their lives. I enjoyed reading it with every page being turned.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

It took me a while to write this review as it is hard to put my thoughts into words. I didn’t love this book but I didn’t like this one either. I think I went into it with really high expectations as I loved the premise of this one. Unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. The story was engaging enough to keep me listening but nothing overly exciting or captivating happened. I unfortunately didn’t enjoy the narrator for this one either.

Thank you to Netgalley, Angela Marsons and Bookouture for a copy of this audio book in exchange for an honest review.

Works great as an audiobook and really brings you into the story. I liked the characters and the plot line and would happily read more by this author

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for the free audiobook copy of If Only by Angela Marsons in exchange for an honest review.

This audiobook was underwhelming to me. I did enjoy the narrator and the premise of the book definitely had me interested, but there were quite a few problematic elements to me. For the first half of the book, I kept having to rewind the audio because it was hard to follow all of these characters and keep the distinction between these three different main characters and all the supporting characters around them. In this type of feel good women's fiction, you are supposed to care about the main characters, but I never got there. I felt like there were a lot of problematic relationships and they "worked out" in the end, but the fact that they were problematic was never addressed in any of these relationships. Overall, this audiobook was a dud for me.

Was I super generous I don’t know? 🤷🏼‍♀️ What I do know is I really do love it when you pick up a book and literally cannot put it down! I did listen to this via NetGalley Audio 🎧 and normally when I have an audiobook on the go I tend to listen to them for an hour before I’ve had enough and need to take a break but this was different? It wasn’t as if the story was overly interesting because it wasn’t but I just felt invested?! Cher, Deb and Sarah are 3 working women. Cher is single but rooting for her office boss, she is so needy it’s almost cringe! Sarah is planning on getting pregnant with an already married man to trap him into loving her and Deb is just sick of her interfering mother-in-law to be meddling with her wedding plans! They all meet for a girlie night at Cher’s to find themselves performing an old spell from a book as a boozy joke! Deb wants rid of the mother-in-law, Sarah wants David’s Child and Cher wants her boss to take her out! Be careful what you wish for ladies!

Humorous in places. It had me hooked anyway and I loved the ending! Everyone loves a happy ending though right?!

Thanks NetGalley and Bookouture for a copy of this Audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for the audio copy. Three friends Cher, Sarah and Deb have had a few drinks when they find a old book of spells. They each take part in a wishing spell. Cher wants her gorgeous boss to fall in love with her. Sarah wants her married lover to leave his wife for her and Deb wants the mother-in-law from hell to disappear. A amusing feel good read

This is a story of three girls, Cher, Sarah and Deb going through different things in their life.Cher is in love with her boss who hardly notices her, Sarah is in love with a married man and Deb is set to marry the love of her life but has a meddling mother-in-law.
One evening the three girls are drinking wine and try to cast a spell to fix all of the problems. Will it work? or create more issues?

If Only, by Angela Marsens, is a blend of Bridget Jones’ Diary and a bit of Hocus Pocus. Friends Cher, Deb, and Sarah are not happy with where they are in life. Cher has a mad crush on her big boss who doesn’t seem to know she exists. Deb is in a longtime affair with David and wants nothing more than for him to follow through with the promises to leave his family to be with her. Sara is so tired of her future mother-in-law’s interfering ways which have already caused her wedding postponement twice. After a bit more than enough wine the three friends find a spell in an antique book that they laughingly repeat, alter, and throw about herbs in the garden. They think nothing of the wishes they make, but should they have? Remember, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!

Much happens in the weeks to come creating a sometimes laugh out loud funny, sometimes poignant story as these three thirty something friends navigate what may be fate, may just be life, or may have a touch of magic. I did enjoy this book and I do recommend it!

I can’t say I was a fan of this story. I was immediately turned off by the narrator. I honestly turned it off and listened to something else and then forced myself to come back to it. I finished it begrudgingly, but I didn’t find the characters interesting or the story compelling. I wouldn’t listen again.

Firstly, thanks to Netgalley & Bookouture for allowing me to listen to this audio version of this book in exchange for an independent & honest review.

I understand that this was a new genre for this author & after reading some initial reviews I was a little wary of what I should expect.

However, as a rom com/ chick lit fan, I was instantly hooked & pleasantly surprised at the fun & ease the story flowed!

The story focuses on three friends, Sarah, Cher & Deb. One boozy fun evening they conduct an innocent spell game where individually they make wishes for their dreams to come true.

The story continues following the three of them through their very different lives.

Sarah is having an affair with a married man & wanting commitment.
Deb has a very annoying, controlling 'soon to be' mother in law from hell & is planning her wedding.
Cher annoyingly is in love with her smarmy boss which is not reciprocated & therefore has no interest in bagging a decent man. Cher also has a sister with two challenging sons who cause her no end of distressing (but funny) antics.

There are many adventures & laugh out loud moments! One particular scene did remind me of a scene from the classic film 'bridesmaids'.

I love the characters & enjoyed their antics. I even grew to love cher despite her frustrating naivity with the boss situation!
However, on reflection her character was depicted as a (healthy & normal) size 14/16 which produced insecurities. So maybe her character was more real life than I first assumed.

The friendships are strong and that's what I loved about this book & despite a slightly predictable ending, the author concluded nicely & cleverly connected back to the start of tbe book.( And this I did not see coming!)

Could there perhaps be a sequel?

I believe Angela Marsons has made a cracker debut chick lit novel & chose a fabulous narrator in Alex Trigger!

Alex did an amazing job with the variety of accents making the characters easy to distinguish & she brought this audio book to life!

If you like this happy, easy, girlie genre then I thoroughly recommend!

Well done all!👐🥰

2.5

I like a good ole Chick Lit/Rom Com sometimes to shake things up so I decided to give this one a try.

Three friends; Cher, Sarah and Deb are sharing wine and conversation together one evening. They are messing around and find an old Magic Spells book on the shelf. As they sift through it they thing it would be fun to try one of the spells on themselves. Why not? Cher is in love with her boss who hardly notices her, Sarah is in love with a married man and wants his baby (yes...I know 🙄) and Deb is set to marry the love of her life but has a meddling mother-in-law. Perhaps if they cast a spell then their wishes could come true?

Sounds like a fun storyline, right? Only it wasn't all that fun.

Bits of the story were interesting but after they cast the spell I kept waiting for something magical to occur. The spell was hardly referred to again as the women continued on with their goals.

The book is written well and the narration was pretty good too but the overall story was just not very interesting to me. I realize this may be the author's first time writing for this genre. Her writing is good though so perhaps I will check out one of her crime/thriller novels.

I'd like to kindly thank NetGalley and Bookouture for granting me access to this Advanced Audio Copy.

I did enjoy these 3 women's tales of love and life. It felt a bit cliche at the beginning and it was frustrating to have to hear about how dumb they were acting about men. I realized later on that I guess a lot of people actually act like this so I won't fault them for that simply because I cannot relate. Simply enjoyable 3/5.

If Only is an quick and easy read about three friends who are all in search of answers to their own, very individual problems. One night after a few drinks, they make a wish that their problems will be solved.
The women were not necessarily very likeable and their reasons behind the issues they had were a little immature considering the age they are all meant to be, but for a light read, this is worth a go.

1.5 stars I was drawn to this book based on the last couple of sentences in the publisher’s description. It suggests that something magical or fantastic is going to happen to the three characters. To my utmost disappointment, there was nothing magical or otherworldly in the plot of this story. I felt like it was a wasted opportunity for the author to really bring it on! There were SO MANY roads the author could’ve chosen to go with a “book of spells” yet she chose the I 95…straight and predictable.

If you are contemplating this read, just know there isn’t any magical realism weaved into the plot. And to add insult to injury, the plot line wasn’t spectacular either. The pacing was off - way too slow - and it was hard to relate to the characters. They were one note and boring people with trivial problems.

I listened to the audiobook and the performance was just okay. It was confusing sometimes as it jumped around between characters randomly. Sometimes spending more than a couple of chapters on one character and then suddenly switching to another character briefly. It needed more prominent warning when switching POV’s.

Sadly the execution didn’t work for me. I needed more emotional depth and was seriously disappointed by the lack of magical realism and fantasy that was promised. Perhaps that should be taken out of the pub description since it’s such a minor element.

I received an advanced audio copy from Netgalley and Bookouture in exchange for an honest review

I admit I choose this book because of “wishing spell” idea. I would love to see what the outcome for the three friends, Cher , Sarah and Deb. Sadly, it was not explored. Maybe, I am looking for something magical and hilarious adventure for these trio?

The characters are likeable and I see how each one was desperate enough to get what they really wanted. Is it worth it?

The story may be predictable , I admit I am tempted to put it down but the narration was just great. I just have to listen.

Overall, a light good romcom.

This was a hard book for me to really get into and enjoy. I think it would be better as a movie rather than a book. The main characters were either boring or irritating and I didn’t see the point of the story. There was a small amount of humor in this book, but it was not frequent enough to keep my attention.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced audio copy of this book.