LoveSpell, $4.99, ISBN 0-505-52405-8
Paranormal Romance, 2000

Oh, what a cute book! Meredith’s Wish features an adorable genie hero who could charm the panties off the most determined-to-resist lady (heck, they’d probably throw their panties at him), and the heroine is just as fun to read.

A fun, bubbly read, this one has overachieving career woman Meredith Montgomery trying to survive corporate backstabbing and getting a promotion when she presses her new cellphone and woosh! Jim the genie is at her service. Unlike other salacious women, Meredith’s idea of service is a more PG rated one: she wants Jim to fix her miserable love life (not that way!).

Along the way, she tries to save Jim from being downsized by the Big Boss (if Jim screws up his stint with Meredith, it’s bye-bye-existence for him). And of course, they fall in love too.

This story made me smile from ear to ear the way only warm lazy afternoons and a good book could. Jim is so roguish it is impossible to resist his charms. Meredith is a smart, only slightly neurotic woman who prefers her humor verbal than slapstick, and she’s no ditz. They fall in love too fast and too abruptly for me, but this is the author’s debut, so I’m sure there’s room for improvement in the future. But really, the laughter and the infectious grin of Jim, plus the fun, fizzy romance all make Meredith’s Wish a perfect lazy afternoon read to laugh and sigh over.

After closing this book for the first time, I pick up my phone and pressed a few numbers at random. How about 1800-IWANTMYOWNGENIE? “Stupid thing,” I end up muttering and picking up this book for another reread.