Jon Cohen (1)

Harry was a government forest worker. He had long wanted to quit his pencil-pushing job and begin his own nursery. While his wife encouraged his dream, Harry wanted to have a large nest egg before beginning: the type of nest egg that could only come from winning the lottery.

And he did win the lottery – unfortunately as his beloved wife stood outside the store while he was buying the ticket, she was killed in a freak accident.

Heartbroken, Harry headed to the forest to kill himself. He was saved by a precocious young girl, also grieving her father’s death.

There’s a town library with a heroic elderly librarian struggling to keep it open. There’s a mysterious hand-written book about a grum, a troll-like creature sitting on a pile of gold. There is an evil, entitled brother, and of course the little girl’s lovely grieving mother.

Harry and the girl devise a plan to take the curse off the money (which Harry no longer wants).

It’s saccharine and mostly predictable and until about three quarters of the way through I wondered if I would finish it. But then the characters took hold, a bit of magic happened and I was interested, although never quite charmed by this modern fairy tale.

Lots of promise, not quite realized.… (mais)