Small Miracles

Product Information

After a lost bet with Barachiel, Gadriel owes the (still) angelic one favours. In this case Barachiel sets Gadriel to tempt a mortal named Holly Harker into a little bit of sin because 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,

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. Yet, true to her advanced sin metrics, Holly proves remarkably incorruptible, despite Gadriel’s initial efforts to inveigle Holly to live a little, and treat herself to some of the better things life has to offer. So Gadriel is forced to up his/her game, and use small miracles to achieve his/her ends. Gadriel, the fallen angel of petty temptations, has a bit of a gambling debt. Fortunately, her angelic bookie is happy to let her pay off her debts by doing what she does best: All Gadriel has to do is tempt miserably sinless mortal Holly Harker to do a few nice things for herself. And, I absolutely adore the theme of gods or demi-gods or beings such as angels, interfering with the lives of mortals, and producing unplanned-for results. The overriding sense here is one of hope and optimism, and despite Gadriel meddling to try and tempt Holly to sin, you know everything is going to work out for the best, in the end.

Blog Listing

Angels… chose a gender for the day, in rather the same way that you or I might choose a shirt or trousers… a b "Acquisition Announcement: Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater". Orbit Books. April 5, 2022. Archived from the original on May 24, 2022 . Retrieved March 2, 2023. Just as God created the platypus out of spare parts, Lucifer created the original chihuahua out of spare spite…one would be hard-pressed to find a more concentrated form of evil that the average chihuahua.” The writing is completely not my style, but there's nothing inherently wrong with it, it's just a conflict of tastes. I didn't like a lot of the humour in it, and particularly in the footnotes, which were annoying enough for me to listen to, without additional ones being added for unnecessary jokes. The change of tone to a snooty upper-class narration for the footnotes also did not work for me at all.

This is a charming little book, impossible to categorise or to predict which way its twisting plot will go. Suffice to say the story often left me bewildered, but never unengaged. I count myself amongst the fortunate to have discovered Olivia Atwater's work a few short years ago and she remains with each new tale, one of my favorite modern authors. Whether the story is framed in darkness or light, her signature whimsical tone never allows it to drift too far into either direction. The narrative is always fun, even when danger is at hand. Also, I just have to note that this book is a whole lot gender. Which ended up in one of my favourite, long-running jokes. (nodnod. So terribly gauche.) SPFBO Finalist Interview: Olivia Atwater". fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com. April 6, 2023 . Retrieved September 9, 2023. An uncomplicated plot but with complicated, conflicted chWhile the Fantasy-Hive is not participating in this year’s Self-Publishing Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO) – the eighth such event – we do have some overlap with people who are, which is how I got a recommendation to take a look at Small Miracles, a SPFBO8 finalist chosen by the Queen’s Book Asylum blog. And while this is indeed a less heavy book than “Good Omens” (featuring such portentous figures as the Anitchrist and the four “bikers” of the Apocalypse) the ominous character Wormwood – an inexperienced devil whose mandate is to tempt humans to hell – from C.S. Lewis’s “Screwtape Letters”, appears in “SmallMiracles”, to provide an antagonist, if there is one, for the book. Small Miracles is Team Queen's Book Asylum's SPFBO 8 finalist. Our group review can be read on Queen's Book Asylum, and our overall rating was 8.3/10. Burkhardt, Joanna M. (December 1, 2022). "Ten Thousand Stitches". Library Journal. Archived from the original on March 3, 2023 . Retrieved March 5, 2023.