A Wish and a Dream by Ingrid Weaver is a very welcome addition to the Magical Love series published by Penguin Putnam/Jove.

On the eve of his former fiancée's wedding Dylan Stonehouse decides that he will retreat to his former childhood hideaway in the attic of the Stonehouse mansion and get completely drunk.
 

On the verge of losing the family business Dylan confides his problems in Seraphina, the mysterious beauty of a portrait kept in the attic he knows he must have had even more to drink than he thought when the painting comes to life and grants him three wishes for helping to release her.

Convinced that Seraphina cannot really be the woman from the painting Dylan looks for any explanation he can find including an elaborate conspiracy engineered by his former fiancée's future husband or more likely that Seraphina is on the run from her family or some sort of institute.

But no matter how hard he tries to find an explanation for his houseguest he finds himself being slowly convinced by the engaging pixie that she is in fact a magical being who had been trapped in the painting until he helped release her.

After squandering his first wish on a lemon pie Dylan then wishes that he could marry his ex, Constance and thus keep control of the votes for his business and therefore save his job.

Seraphina is half mortal and half pixie and for 27 years has been trapped in a painting by her irresponsible brother.  Released by Dylan she grants him three wishes and knows she must wait in the mortal world until his wishes have been granted.  Only then will she be completely free of her prison and able to return to the pixie realm.

By manipulating luck Seraphina is easily able to produce a lemon pie for Dylan, but his second wish is much harder to accomplish, especially when the longer she stays in his company the more she wishes that she were the one to marry Dylan.  But a wish once made cannot be taken back and Seraphina is forced to put aside her feelings for Dylan and make his wish come true.

Dylan makes a thorough investigation of Seraphina and can find no trace of her family, until her mother pays him a visit.  Now with two pixies on his hands, one of which appearing while he is stone-cold sober, he has no choice but to believe the impossible has happened and that all the incidents he believed were coincidences were in fact Seraphina's way of bringing about his wishes.

Only when it is too late to take back his wish does he realise what a mistake it would be to marry Constance and that it is Seraphina he wants to spend the rest of his life with.  But how can he keep her with him in the mortal world when he knows that all she wants is to return to her home, and that a few minutes in the pixie world can be years to him.

This novel is funny, exciting and one of the most original novels of the year.  My only disappointment is that I would have liked to have met more of the pixies and seen a little of their world.  Seraphina's descriptions of the beings of her world make the reader long to see her world and I was a little disappointed that it was not shown as much as it could have been.

However the romance and the story line are well thought out and there is an interesting twist towards the end that helps to keep the reader guessing.  I think perhaps there is room for a sequel to this novel and perhaps it would be possible to see more of the pixie world in this way if there is.  I for one certainly hope so.

RATING : 
(if you need an explanation of the hearts ratings see my homepage)

Also by Ingrid Weaver:  On the Way to a Wedding, The Wolf and the Woman's Touch, Engaging Sam, True Blue and True Lies.

Links to  Online Stores

Visit Ingrid Weaver's Website.