The New Year’s Man

by

Michael Scott Clifton

A little magic and a lot of heart!

The New Year’s Man by Michael Scott Clifton is a delightful romantic comedy about a man whose past has led him to wall off his heart from love and the magical forces at work in the background that aim to change it all for him. Successful Dallas attorney Landry LeBlanc doesn’t believe in love or long-term romantic entanglements. Every New Year’s, he breaks up with his current girlfriend to start anew with another one, earning him the nickname of ‘The New Year’s Man.’ However, a chance encounter (or was it?) in a mysterious antiques store may have magically altered his future love life for good. 

Landry LeBlanc is the epitome of ‘shallow’ and ‘player.’ Allie Beck, lead counsel for Berger Industries, a firm one of Landry’s firm’s more important clients wants to take over and dismantle, is his female equivalent in attitudes about relationships and love. They both may have met their match in fairy godmother, Stella. A comical figure with party-colored hair, a blue tutu, and too much spandex, she proves she’s got more on the ball than either ever suspected. 

The plot hurtles along as Landry experiences a swath of new, life-changing emotions. The interplay among the characters is absolutely delicious and the dialogue sparkles like the bubbly awaiting them on the upcoming New Year’s Eve. I was definitely behind this delightful like-meets-like pairing from the get-go and was bowled over with the comedy throughout. The main protagonists are supported by a fun and, at times, outlandish set of secondary characters such as junior attorney and Landry’s hapless sidekick, Creighton Townsend, and Stella’s buddy, Barnaby, and I enjoyed the connection to the author’s previous novel, Pringle Prawn, through the Mt. Pleasant antiques store and 4-foot-tall proprietor, Hank Harper. The mentions of Dallas-area locations also strengthened my feelings of comfortable familiarity with the settings. The resolution was an absolute stellar twist on an already wonderful HEA story. 

I recommend THE NEW YEAR’S MAN to readers of romantic comedies who enjoy a twist of the paranormal in their stories. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy from the author through Lone Star Literary Life Book Campaigns.