Enchanted, Inc.

The title: Enchanted, Inc.
The author: Shanna Swendson
Publication: Ballantine, 2005
Got it from: Amazon, 2009

I enjoyed this book so much that I immediately went out and downloaded the sequel onto my Kobo and read the two books back-to-back. There's actually two more in the series but I'll probably hold off on them for now. I know that I usually profess not to like chick lit, but this was a little bit different. For one, the main character, Katie Chandler, only rates about a 6/10 on the Mary Sue scale. For another, there's magic!

These books are pure escapist, cracktastic goodness. I found myself unable to put them down. Katie is an average New York career girl from small-town Texas with a boss from hell and a dead-end job. One day, out of the blue, she receives an email from a company that wants to recruit her. The hitch is that the company is actually called Magic, Spells and Illusion, and it produces spells for the magical community. Katie is special because she is an immune, meaning magic doesn't affect her. She is perfect as a company verifier, because she can see the hidden truth behind any magical manipulations. Like Harry Potter, she is soon whisked from a tortuous situation to a magical world. It's every working girl's fantasy.

Because this is chick lit and not romance, the romantic elements in the story have to share time with Katie's career and her friendships. That's not to say the romance is unimportant. Katie has a big-time crush on her co-worker Owen, who heads the Research and Development department and also happens to be an extremely powerful wizard who's incredibly shy and nervous. There's a lot of fun characters and scenes in the book, like her CEO being THE Merlin and riding magic carpets through the city. One particularly funny scene involves a girl's night out with her co-workers (some of whom are fairies) where they go to Central Park and kiss some frogs to disenchant them back to princes. There's also a big threat to the company in the form of a rogue ex-employee who's trying to sell some rather nasty spells, and naturally Katie is on the case.

If you enjoy immersing yourself in a fun world a la Harry Potter, with a cast of amusing characters, then Enchanted, Inc. may be just what the wizard ordered.