Books: A magical read for a summer afternoon

“Damsel Under Stress”

By Shanna Swendson

(Ballantine Books, $13.95)

In Shanna Swendson’s first novel, “Enchanted, Inc.,” we met Katie, a small-town girl who is shocked to learn that the magic she sees all around her in the big city isn’t just stars in her eyes – there are really fairies, gargoyles and wizards roaming the streets of Manhattan.

Katie can see them because she is an Immune, one of a small percentage of people upon whom magic has no effect. This makes her a valuable ally in the big-time corporate magic world where spying, illusions and dirty spells are the name of the game.

In “Once Upon Stilettos,” Katie learns that this lack of magical senses also has a downside when an encounter with a peculiarly “charming” pair of designer heels leads her into conspiracy and danger. But they also lead her into the arms of Owen, the dreamy, powerful and astonishingly socially inept wizard co-worker whom she’d been crushing on all along.

As it turns out, however, keeping Owen may be even harder than winning him. As if his intense natural shyness wasn’t barrier enough, it’s hard to get in the mood when you’re working overtime to foil a group of rogue wizards who are hatching a plan that threatens the entire magical world.

Then Katie’s fairy godmother Ethelinda decides to pop in and lend a wing, despite the fact that her help is neither desired nor remotely competent. Is it any surprise that Katie isn’t exactly feeling like herself? Or could it be that her trouble is all in her head – literally?

Swendson’s Katie Chandler books are fun, quirky little cocktails of romance and adventure, and “Damsel Under Stress” continues to hit the spot. Katie’s Manhattan is a world where dragons roam the sewers, frogs really might turn out to be princes (or at least very rich) and nothing is quite what you expect it to be, spell or no spell.