The Charmed List is an adorably sweet, touching young adult story about two teenagers and their families who were best friends for years until they were not. Although neither has forgotten the other the awkwardness they feel has made it difficult for them to connect again, let alone speak to each other. Oh, and to make the story more interestingly fun the families live in a secret area of town and use magic which mortals are forbidden to know about.
Ellie Kobata is awkward, with no self-confidence who believes she is non-existent to the other students where she is a soon to be senior in high school. She has one friend, a best friend named Lia who she could not live without. Lia unfortunately is mortal and knows nothing of Ellie’s secret magical life. Her best friend for years, Jack Yasuda from the magic community, suddenly ditched her for reasons she still does not quite understand, but as angry as she is at him, she still finds herself thinking about him constantly.
As their junior year comes to a close and Ellie and Lia are about to begin an exciting road trip to deliver merchandise to some of the magical shops her parent’s store services, (Lia thinks it’s just a fun road trip), Ellie has decided that she would prepare a list of items she would like to accomplish this summer to hopefully bring her out of her shell so she can have a fabulous senior year! She has made a list of 13 accomplishments she would like to succeed at even though they scare her to death. It is called The Charmed List.
But days before their adventure is to begin, thanks to Jack Yasuda, not only will Lia not be allowed to go, but she may have lost her only friend and she thinks it might be forever. To make matters worse, as punishment for what happened Ellie and Jack’s families decide that they will have to make the delivery trip together. Now she must spend time with someone she dislikes, does not want to talk to but deep down can’t seem to forget.
And just when she thinks it cannot get any worse, Jack finds her list! He offers to help, but she is mortified that he has seen some of the “activities” and makes him promise not to mention it ever again!
But as they begin the journey, they both start to see who they really are and what they have lost over their years of not speaking. They begin to understand how misunderstandings can happen and although they know they can never go backwards to what they had, you can truly move forward into a different relationship with better communicating and well, maybe a little bit of magic. Oh, and that list? Well, you’ll just have to read this “charming” book to see how it ends…
Thank you #NetGalley #WednesdayBooks #JulieAbe #TheCharmedList for the advanced copy.
Lisa's Cubby 