How Not to Make a Wish »

Mindy Klasky learned to read when her parents shoved a book in her hands and told her that she could travel anywhere in the world through stories. She never forgot that advice. When Mindy isn't "traveling" through writing books, she quilts, cooks and tries to tame the endless to-be-read shelf in her home library. You can visit Mindy at her Web site, www.mindyklasky.com.

While cleaning an old lantern, Kira Franklin releases a genie. But this gender-morphing, appearance-bending creature doesn't do "big" wishes. So forget stopping world hunger or ending war. And still heartbroken from the jerk who dumped her, Kira doesn't believe in the perfect man.

So she wishes for her dream job. Stage manager at the hottest theater in town, the Landmark. And presto: she's running Romeo and Juliet. Except, like everything else these days, this is one crazy production. And now Teel, the genie, insists she finish her wishes so "he" can move on.

Her second wish is about her appearance, which isn't exactly catching her third wish's eye. And there's the rub.

Because that old saying about being careful what you wish for is so spot-on. And Kira is about to discover that moxie, not magic, is what can make all your dreams come true.

Publishers Weekly

A new job, look and lover are just a wish away in this middling series starter from chick lit fantasy author Klasky (Magic and the Modern Girl). Kira Franklin is about to lose her stage manager job when she discovers a magic lamp in the prop cabinet. Statistic-spouting genie Teel shifts from dominatrix to disco man to schoolgirl while coaxing Kira to make her wishes as quickly as possible. All Kira wants is a new job, so Teel lands her a position as the stage manager for a large regional theater, where she befriends set designer John McRae and lusts after star actor Drew Myers. Klasky's fans will miss her usually engaging characters—everyone other than Kira and John is cardboard-flat—and a series linked by inconsistent, intangible Teel seems unlikely to get very far. (Oct.)