I grabbed The Shoppe of Spells, by Shanon Grey, off of the KDP free list.

Description from Goodreads:
When is a whole more than the sum of its parts? 

When it has ties to the quaint little town of Ruthorford, GA, as Morgan Briscoe discovers when a cryptic message threatens to change her life forever. Morgan’s relatively normal life is turned on its ear when she learns not only that she is adopted, but her birth parents are dead and she now holds half-interest in a business with their ward, Dorian Drake. 

Dorian is running The Shoppe of Spells and despite his riveting good looks, he can barely conceal his hostility toward his new partner. 

Morgan discovers that she is more than she seems and together she and Dorian have the ability to control a portal to another dimension. Unable to control their growing attraction, Morgan and Dorian dance around their desires and her burgeoning abilities, until danger forces them to face their destiny.

Review:
As a basic piece of fluffy entertainment I generally enjoyed this. The writing was pretty good and, though I noticed a few typos, it was fairly well edited. I liked both the main characters and Ruthorford, GA sounds like the kind of place I would love to live. I did have a couple problems with the plot, however. These may not be the sort of thing that bother everyone. I’ll just put that out there at the forefront. But I was annoyed.

First, I just didn’t understand the logic of the bio parents. They were happy with their lives, even if it was a rough life. On having a daughter born with the same abilities they choose to give her up for adoption with the expectation that at twenty-five(ish) they’ll invite her home and teach her everything she needs to know to take over for them. (Seriously? If you’re happy, why wouldn’t your daughter be?) They then take in a ward who they train all through his childhood, but as an adult he barely knows everything he needs to know to take over the family duty. Thus, inferring that a lifetime of training really is necessary to do the job. (So how was Morgan supposed to catch up?) What’s more, the abilities she was born with didn’t go away once she was put up for adoption. So they condemned her to a life as an outsider with no one to turn to for answers or explanations. NONE OF THAT MAKES ANY SENSE! Why would you do that to her? So, right off the bat I’m lost.

Second, I always have a little bit of a problem with story-lines based on the formula of ‘I’m a male so I have ability X. You’re a female, so you have ability Y. Together we have super XY abilities.’ I tend to spend a lot of time wondering how, exactly, those symbiotic abilities would develop in the first plea. Combine that with the whole paired mate element and I’m extra skeptical. It felt very much like any two moon touched individuals who got within close proximity would be attracted like magnets, regardless of their personality, personal wishes, etc. Certainly Ian inferred this to be true. How not romantic is that?

Third, there didn’t seem to be a beginning, middle and end. I don’t mean the book ended on a cliffhanger or anything. It didn’t. But it felt very much like Morgan found out she was adopted, met Dorian and then a lot of random things happened until they finally fell in love. I mean, what did Rob and all of his drama have to do with the rest of the plot, for example? I couldn’t pick out a single plot peak that felt like it marked the culmination of the action that afterwards tapered toward an ending of any sorts, if you know what I mean. It wasn’t necessarily boring, but I just kept waiting for the plot to take off and indicate what THE barrier to overcome would be…then kept waiting and waiting.

Lastly, everyone was just so darned pleasant all of the time. All parents are gloriously loving. All friends are loyal, dependable BFFs. All neighbours are friendly and helpful. The main characters flawlessly go out of their way to befriend the weak and help the needy (who then go on to become more lovely friends). There were bad things that happened in the book, yes. There was a bad guy, who in the end wasn’t all that bad, yes. But everywhere else the reader looked there was an unrelenting feel-good factor that felt incredibly unrealistic. This always irks me. I know I’m probably on my own on this one, but there you have it.

Again, as pure entertainment the book is pretty good. I just had to set some of my expectations aside to enjoy it. Some of those are personal to me and others won’t share them, so I don’t really have any problem recommending the book. Depends on the reader really.