I heard lots of good chatter about this book and now I know why–it’s a treat! It’s got a celebrity romance, mistaken identity, lots of humor and a little bit of sisterly magic!

Clementine (Clemmie) returns home after losing her job as a medieval literature professor due to budget cuts. On top of that, she was not only dumped by her boyfriend of four years for another woman, the asshat took Tuna, their cat!  Clemmie and her sisters decide to lift Clemmie’s spirits by casting The Break Up Spell like they did when they were young–it involves granting three wishes and a curse.  They curse her ex and then they make three wishes for Clemmie: one for hot sex, one to find a job that she loves, and one for true love. They don’t truly take it seriously and think nothing will come of it–but what if they’re wrong?

Soon after, Clemmie, wearing her sexiest LBD, attends a funeral for an old family friend, where  she ends up having the best ever one night stand with Edward, the most beautiful person she’s ever seen. But the next morning he’s in the shower when she wakes up and she’s late for an appointment and they don’t get to talk – she just leaves him a note.

Clemmie’s father is a famous British rock star who wasn’t around much and she’s got some daddy issues.  She had a bad experience with paparazzi and an ex when she was seventeen and hasn’t wanted to have anything to do with her father or rock and roll music ever since. She dislikes pop culture and ignores all social media. So when her sister Serena, who is a record producer, asks Clemmie to help her out with a temporary job as a housekeeper at a summer home, on the Northumberland coast, while Theo Eliott, a famous British rock star, stays there for six weeks to finish writing songs for his next album, Clemmie, of course, has no idea who he is. Clemmie says yes to the job thinking it will give her time to figure out what to do next. She is of course absolutely stunned to meet Theo who, you guessed it, turns out to be Edward of her very hot one night stand.

Theo and Clemmie spend six weeks together at the beach house and get to know each other. They take long walks on the beach, listen to the seals sing and watch Clemmie’s favorite TV shows. The two are lovely together and these scenes are the best. When Clemmie gets the flu, we see how hard Theo has fallen for her as he takes care of her. (I really like Theo–he’s a dream hero.) This is a slow burn romance and tension builds through the summer until they both finally give in and it gets steamy. 

But of course, there are challenges ahead for both of them once they leave the beach house and head back into the real world. Most of those issues worked for me although there is a third act break up I felt slowed down the pace and I found frustrating. I did love how Clemmie and Theo both grew as they helped each other work through a lot of their issues (along with their therapists). I particularly liked Clemmie’s sisters and how they looked out for each other, bringing humor, heart and magic to the story. The parties they threw were epic with live music, good food and lots of champagne!

I recommend this sparkling gem to readers ready for a rock star romcom with a little bit of magic.