The Rub

A photoshoot for an antique dealer goes sideways when a bottle "disappears" into Nicholas Finch's bag, and the genie he lets out at home isn't interested in staying quietly grateful. The setup borrows its shape from an old American sitcom, but the genie's appetite is not exactly network television material.

Nickels now has to keep his career, his friends, and a magically powerful entity with pent-up needs from colliding into each other. That balancing act, more than any grand quest, is the whole story.

As a kinetic novel, there's no branching to manage; you read through Nickels' escalating predicament as photoshoots, friendships, and the genie's demands start overlapping in ways he clearly didn't plan for.