Magical Midlife Madness

The first book in K.F. Breene's Leveling Up series follows Jessie Evens, a recently divorced forty-year-old woman searching for a fresh start. After her husband Matt ends their twenty-year marriage, Jessie feels relief rather than sadness, having spent decades suppressing her ambitions. With their son Jimmy leaving for college, she has no reason to stay in Los Angeles but lacks a job, a home, and a plan. She moves in with her eccentric parents, but the arrangement proves untenable.

Her best friend Diana offers a lifeline: a caretaker position at Ivy House, a gothic mansion in O'Briens, a tiny former gold rush town known for its boutique wineries. Diana's aunt Peggy Havercamp owns the house but lives in Europe. Jessie and Diana visited as ten-year-olds; while Diana found it terrifying, Jessie loved it and recalls a subterranean room with glowing crystals that seemed to whisper she was not yet ready. Feeling a strange beckoning, Jessie accepts the job.

In O'Briens, Jessie finds Ivy House at the end of a dead-end street: a three-story gothic structure that fills her with unexpected warmth. The butler, an ancient man named Earl who insists on being called "Mr. Tom," wears a moth-eaten suit with a tattered cape and speaks cryptically about raids and the town's "uncrowned alpha," its unofficial supernatural protector. The neighbor Niamh (pronounced "Neve"), an elderly Irish woman and breast cancer survivor, speaks enigmatically about the house being "prickly" and choosing its occupants before handing over a large iron key. When Jessie inserts it into the lock, something clicks inside her.

A chapter from Niamh's perspective reveals hidden context. Magical beings, including shifters (people who can transform into animals), vampires, and gargoyles, live secretly among non-magical people in this world. Ivy House contains ancient power from its creator, which passes to a chosen female heir and grants a fountain of youth to the house's protectors. Edgar, the gardener and a vampire, recognized ten-year-old Jessie as the potential heir decades ago, though no heir has been selected in generations. Niamh debates whether she wants the house to awaken, as it would draw powerful magical factions and threaten the peace maintained by Austin Steele, the town's uncrowned alpha and a shifter of extraordinary power.

On her first evening, Jessie meets Austin at the local dive bar. Broad-shouldered and intensely attractive, Austin owns the bar and exudes a commanding presence that turns tense when he learns Jessie is the new caretaker. When a patron insults Jessie, Austin punches the man off his stool; Jessie points out that the humiliated man will blame her, not Austin. Later, Niamh gets Jessie spectacularly drunk, and Austin walks her home. When three aggressive young men confront them, Jessie brandishes a Swiss Army Knife and delivers unhinged threats that send them fleeing.

Austin privately fears powerful figures will descend on O'Briens if the house chooses Jessie, and he instructs Niamh to prevent Mr. Tom from helping Jessie find the house's magical heart. Niamh pushes back, arguing that Ivy House predates the town and does not answer to Austin's authority.

Exploring the house, Jessie discovers hidden passageways, blue-lit corridors, and viewing orbs that let her spy on rooms. She becomes entranced by carvings in the archways that appear to move. Through a viewing orb, she overhears Austin tell Mr. Tom he hopes she does not acclimate, calling the house a magnet for "the wrong sort of people" (158). She discovers a room of porcelain dolls that Mr. Tom says come alive when the house's magic is active. That evening, two strangers intercept Jessie on a run, questioning her role in the house. Austin and the others arrive, and the attackers retreat after dropping a calling card for their employer, Elliot Graves, a feared magical figure. Edgar impulsively bites Jessie, stunning her unconscious. The group administers a forgetting potion, agreeing to explain the truth the next day.

Austin takes Jessie wine tasting and reveals the truth. A tasting room attendant transforms before Jessie's eyes to prove magic exists. Austin explains the magical world's structure and reveals that over a thousand years ago, the sorceress Tamara Ivy was murdered within the house, imparting her power into its walls. The magic passes to a chosen female heir, and the house has been dormant for roughly 300 years. It now appears to be choosing Jessie based on the signs: the moving carvings only she can see, the master bedroom selecting her, and the passageways revealing themselves.

Austin also shares his painful past. A manipulative woman once exploited his possessive shifter nature, goading him into rages until he nearly killed his own brother, the pack alpha. He was stopped only when his young niece threw herself over her father's body. Austin left his family and found O'Briens, where he became an unofficial protector but refuses the title of alpha. Jessie responds with compassion, telling him he became the best man he could be because of his past, not despite it. Overwhelmed, Austin kisses her, though they agree neither is ready for romance. He reveals the magic acts as a fountain of youth. Jessie cries, not from wanting youth but from frustration at a culture that makes women feel invisible as they age. Mr. Tom privately warns that Elliot Graves poses a threat beyond Austin's ability to counter.

That night, a shadow wraith, a soul-draining creature, invades the house. Jessie pulls the fear-frozen Mr. Tom into the secret passageways. He shifts into his gargoyle form, revealing his "cape" is actually wings, and flies Jessie through a rooftop trap door. Edgar joins them riding Niamh, who has shifted into a black alicorn, a winged unicorn-like creature. As they flee, Jessie hears Ivy House urging her to claim the magic so she will never have to rely on anyone else. She recognizes the voice carries darkness but resolves not to lose herself to it.

At Austin's hidden lakeside cabin, he pledges to guard Jessie regardless of her choice, warning that staying without the magic will leave her a permanent target. After reflection, Jessie announces she will fight for the house. She learns the magic can grant its heir retractable gargoyle-type wings among other physical transformations. The group plans a nighttime assault. Under darkness, Niamh, Edgar, Mr. Tom, and Austin, who shifts into an enormous polar bear, clear a path through the occupying forces. Jessie enters the house and follows the passageways to a cavern containing a blue orb suspended above multicolored crystals. She negotiates aloud, asking to keep her age and appearance but requesting relief from chronic pain and the physical toll of childbirth. She touches the crystals.

Shock waves blast from the house. The protectors feel their vitality restored: Mr. Tom's muscles fill out, Niamh regains full energy and her missing breast, and Edgar recovers lost abilities. The house unleashes defenses that blind enemies, fire darts that knock out invaders, and animate the dolls to attack intruders. Austin also feels stronger, though he never consented to the magic. Niamh explains the house accepted him by virtue of his genuine protection of Jessie. Furious at being bound without consent, Austin shifts into polar bear form and disappears into the woods.

In the aftermath, the magic's effects match Jessie's terms: the protectors feel decades younger. As police arrive with a noise complaint, Jessie notices a handsome man in a black suit standing beyond the property line. He blows her a kiss with whispered words, implying he orchestrated events to push her toward the magic. Jessie suspects he is Elliot Graves. That night, she texts Austin, who responds with warmth despite his earlier anger. Jessie reflects on her unanswered questions but decides to rest and tackle everything tomorrow.