title: Love Spells: A Novella
author: Linda Casebeer
description: Linda Casebeer lives in Birmingham, Alabama and on Lake Manitou in Rochester, Indiana. She is married to Edwin Casebeer, writer and professor emeritus. She is a cofounder of Serealities, an online new fiction site where stories are published weekly in a serial format and readers vote on what happens next in the story. She has also written The Last Eclipsed Moon, poems published by Cherry Grove Collections.
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  > To my husband.
  
  > I guess love spells work after all, and there are happily ever afters.
  > Thanks for being with me through every crazy, chaotic moment. Thanks for
  > keeping me halfway sane, being a fantastic father, and most of all, for
  > cooking dinner. I love you.
  
  > And to my fabulous, wonderful, amazing editors, Liz Pelletier and Libby
  > Murphy. This simply would not have happened without you.
  
  
  
  
  
  Chapter One
  
  Maggie Ryan tilted the margarita glass to her lips and took a long swallow.
  Tartness collided with the salt, exploded on her tongue, and burned through
  her blood. Unfortunately, not fast enough. She still had a shred of sanity
  left to question her actions.
  
  The violet fabric-covered book beckoned and mocked. She picked it up again,
  leafed through the pages, and threw it back on the contemporary glass table.
  Ridiculous. Love spells, for God’s sake. She refused to stoop to such a low.
  Of course, when her best friend, Alexa, cast 