Review:
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher. This has not influenced my review.*
This was so cute!
I really adored the friendship in this book. Hands down my favorite thing. It was so fun and sweet seeing all Cam’s new friendships and the little group who wouldn’t have become friends if not for this situation. It started out tense, albeit in a way that was highly entertaining, but then they developed real bonds.
The romance was pretty understated, not the focus, and I didn’t mind at all because it didn’t need to be big when the friendships already shone so brightly. But it was still cute seeing them shyly growing closer.
The individual characters in the main group were all lovable. Imperfect, sometimes making a mistake or saying something hurtful, but growing and doing their best. I loved Reese as soon as he joined the group because it was funny how much he was reveling in everyone else’s awkwardness. But Gemma was a real gem. Not someone I initially expected to like, but she learned from her mistakes, she was on the ball, and they’re all lucky to have her. I really did like them all though.
The plot and mystery kept my attention and kept me guessing. And there were all different types of supernaturals involved. The friend group consisted of a clairvoyant, a medium, a witch, a werewolf, a sprite, and a human, and it was fun seeing their different magical and non-magical abilities.
Sometimes with teens and dangerous mysteries, you wonder why they didn’t go to an adult, but I thought the author found pretty decent reasons for that. And I wasn’t really sure who to trust in certain situations, so I could sympathize when Cam wasn’t sure either. And there were some times when characters made rash assumptions or had strong immediate reactions, but that’s believable, and there was always at least one character thinking more reasonably, or some acknowledgement of it eventually.
The hardcover has a beautiful dust jacket cover with a bit of pretty art on the back as well. The book itself is purple with shiny green text on the spine, which is a fun color combo to go with the purple and green in the art.
Overall, this book was fun and sweet! The friendship was delightful, the mystery and supernatural were interesting, and I was pulled in!
Recommended For:
Anyone who likes fun and sweet friendships, supernaturals, psychic powers, mystery, a bit of queer romance, and imperfect teens doing their best.
I have enjoyed Otherworldly and Spellbound by this author and am so excited for this one. After reading your review it sounds like it will be similar in vibes to those other two books. I like the sound of how you describe all the friendships in this book and I look forward to meeting the characters. And that sounds fun how they all have different magical and non-magical abilities.
I think sometimes it works to have the romance not be the most prominent thing if there’s plenty of other things going on and it sounds like the romance was still well done and cute. And glad to hear it makes sense why they don’t go to the adults, like you I sometimes struggle with that with Middle Grade and Young Adult books.
And that hardcopy looks so pretty! I have the audiobook pre-ordered as it was the same narrator as who did the other two books I listened to by this author. I look forward to listening to it :).
I had a lot of fun with this one. My favorite of Lukens’s book so far. I think you’ll like it 🙂 And yeah, the book definitely had enough to hook me that it didn’t need to have more romance, just a bit was good. Let me know what you think!