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The endearing, smart, yet somewhat naive and slightly fumbling and flawed Gadriel was a wonderful main character. Once she finds out she’s out of her depth in provoking Holly to acquiesce to sin, she resorts to something different, but Holly’s intractability also leads to Gadriel and Holly forming a great relationship, as they get to know one another better. George wants to find love and break away from having to deal with his bitter and cantankerous mother. It seems that he will need to be brave. When miracles happen, it is because those involved have entered a higher vibration, allowing the experience of the true, natural state of human existence. This is usually sparked by a desperate situation, which allows the person to temporarily let go of their current belief systems. Once these beliefs, which hold one captive in their boundaries, are released, the person is then elevated into a higher potentiality of human experience. The result being, a fix, an adjustment to their reality, beyond that which is usually experienced in daily life. It is called a miracle. The writing is what I found most impressive. It is so hard to carry this kind of a tone without going too far and overworking and overburdening the prose. I think it’s so ambitious to try and be Good Omens adjacent, but create something unique to you and your voice, and not fall on your face.
Small Miracles is a nice book. It is a soothing balm for these troubled times, a patch of cheer away from real life. Set in the fictional university town of Fairbridge, Saint Philomena's convent used to run a secondary school but the school has been taken over and only three nuns remain. Sister Margaret, the new Superior, is a lovely caring nun but is denial about the depth of her grief for previous Superior Sister Helen, and has no clear ideas about how to manage the convent and the appalling state of its finances. Her fellow nuns, Sister Bridget a madcap enthusiastic cooking whirlwind, and Sister Cecilia, a gloomy historian who spends a lot of time researching the life of the convent's founder in the hope of making him a Saint, are dedicated to the convent but do little except drive Sister Margaret nuts. Sisters Margaret (a former teacher and now the despairing Mother Superior), Bridget (Irish, an enthusiastic cook), and Cecilia (90, and passionately committed to the convent’s founder, Sir Edward Mortimer) are faced with the prospect of selling up and leaving the community that they feel they are called to serve. Let me start by saying I was amused and entertained throughout Small Miracles. The idea of a Fallen Angel of Petty Temptation who fell from grace because of their own gambling problem is quite charming. Gadriel, said fallen angel, is in deep with their bookie, Barachiel, the Angel of Good Fortune. In the midst of the American Civil War we are introduced to Captain Robert Ellicombe in his home state of Virginia in 1862. During a terrible battle, Captain Ellicombe finds personal tragedy .but within that personal tragedy he finds something beautiful, something that has become a symbolic piece of American history.Divine origin aside, the stories are poorly told when there was a real opportunity to craft something special. Something that makes even the worst cynic in us believe in SOMETHING and smile.
Yet, true to her advanced sin metrics, Holly proves remarkably incorruptible, despite Gadriel’s initial efforts to inveigle Holly to live a little, and treat herself to some of the better things life has to offer. So Gadriel is forced to up his/her game, and use small miracles to achieve his/her ends.And now it's time for the younger generation to shake its noggins in amazement at these miraculous moments - IF it's still possible to chance upon a stray copy! Gadriel is our main character. A fallen angel of petty temptations, they really mean no one any harm despite their job.. satisfied instead with nudging mortals here and there into tiny transgressions that tend to lead to happier lives than futures of damnation. Honestly, they're absolutely charming and they break my heart a little in this book. For a story set around nuns, I did expect prayers and blind faith in God to be part of the plot. But most of this comes across as balanced and not fatalistic. The only thing that irked me was Sr. Margaret’s tendency to “talk to the Lord” after every few sentences. It was overdone. While companionably meeting up over a coffee, Gadriel becomes indebted to his/her non-fallen angelic bookie and sibling, Barachiel, after losing a friendly wager. Barachiel is the Angel of Good Fortune. As the children nod, we see the inside of the house. We see Jesus, a man and woman standing, and a paralysed man lying on a mat by Jesus' feet.
But Gadriel has an out. In what appears to be a simple task for the formidable powers of an angel, if Gadriel can successfully tempt a mortal without sin, named Holly Harker, to stray, his/her debt will be erased.That is, until ninety-year-old Cecilia decides to play the newly launched National Lottery and a series of small miracles begins to unfold... The story is full of small miracles that leads to joy, happiness, understanding of not just the sisters but those around them who lives all intertwine and need a miracle of their own.
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