I am all in favor of lightness and charm in books and of popular culture in general. I recall an argument with a colleague over who was the better songwriter – Lennon or McCartney? Now, this particular colleague was and is one of these pretentious and solemn types, so we agreed to disagree. (FYI, I was the McCartney fan). When I read the blurb on the back of This Magic Moment, I hoped to find a light and charming romance. I noticed the book had several elements that I am particularly fond of in romance fiction – the Road Romance and the reunion of estranged spouses. Well, This Magic Moment was light, but it lacked charm, and I found myself hard-pressed to finish a very slim book.

Viki and Reid Ferguson have two children. She’s a real estate agent and he is a charter pilot. When the book begins, they have separated but not yet signed the separation papers. Viki loves Reid, but is exasperated by what she sees as his refusal to settle down and act responsibly. From what I could gather, the focus of her anger is Reid’s MG. How can you fit child car seats into a sports car? She wants a mini-van and he does not. Reid is also into spontaneous gestures – a trait that made her fall in love with him, but now she doesn’t like those gestures. She wants him to behave in a more staid and responsible manner.

Viki and Reid are forced together when his Uncle Albert dies and the will directs them to take the MG and Uncle Albert’s ashes and drive to Seaport, California and scatter them into the wind. They are also to deliver a key to a Willy Randolph-Jones. Viki is not all that thrilled, but she liked Uncle Albert as much as Reid did, and a dying wish is a dying wish so she and Reid set off with Uncle Albert’s ashes.

Getting to Seaport is not the easy trip it seemed to be. Along the way, their car is stolen (and they don’t seem all that upset about it), they are forced to spent time in a motel, they gradually rediscover what they loved about each other all the time, until finally they get to their destination and find out what Uncle Albert had been trying to tell them.

This Magic Moment does not live up to its name. While short, it took me longer than usual to finish reading. I had to read it mostly at night after work. If a book is engrossing, I’ve been known to stay up until the wee hours to finish it, but this was not one of those books. To put it bluntly, the magic is missing from This Magic Moment; it was a boring book and Viki and Reid were two boring characters It’s not that they were bad, or evil or stupid – they were just bland, boring, vanilla, beige, dull, and uninteresting. Actually, I hoped they would do something stupid – anything to bring them to life, but they didn’t. After the HEA, I said, “That’s nice, but who cares?”, wrote this review and forgot all about them.