Amy Noelle Parks

A star-crossed YA rom-com that has the charm of Maureen Johnson's 13 Little Blue Envelopes and the magic of Now You See Me Seventeen-year-old Lia Sawyer is thrilled to get a mysterious invitation from her grandmother to compete in a stage magic contest--even though her parents object. But she's going to be judged by a bunch of old-school magicians who think that because she's a girl, her only magical talents lie in wearing sparkly dresses, providing distractions, and getting sawed, crushed, or stretched. And Lia can't ask her grandmother for help because she's disappeared, leaving behind only her best magic tricks, a few obscure clues, and an order to stay away from Blackwell boys, the latest generation of a rival magic family. Lia totally plans to follow her grandmother's rule--until the cute boy she meets on the beach turns out to be Beckett Blackwell, son of the biggest old guard magical family there is. Witty and romantic, Lia and Beckett's Abracadabra is a YA rom-com with a magical twist!

Lia and Beckett's Abracadabra

Hannah DCamp

I received an E-ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Magic is an area I've never really delved into very deeply, so it was fun to see it portrayed with such seriousness. As a musician, I appreciate this; "what value does your degree actually have?" The person asking wouldn't be able to understand if you told them. The way that Lia and her friends talk about magic is the way that I used to talk to my friends about music, and the community they've built centered on it was similar to the we had. I loved that her sister was a musician, and they were able to connect in some ways because of that. The only thing I thought was weird was that her sister was supposed to be the golden child, but they were disdainful of Lia doing magic because it wasn't practical like math or science. It is rare that I meet hardcore STEM types like Lia's parents that think music has any value, so this didn't make sense to me.

The southern Wisconsin vibes were strong I guess? What I mean by this is that the lake-side life and custard are accurate and real, but the only places they mention are Madison and Milwaukee. There is so much more Wisconsin north of Lake Mendota and Whitefish Bay (and there's more to the southern part of the state than those places too), but it's rare that I find it portrayed anywhere. Oshkosh being in Loki was exciting but hardly counts because there was nothing about it that was necessarily Wisconsin, much less Oshkosh. That could've been anywhere; it was unrecognizable to me. I did scream a little ngl, but that's largely beside the point. ALSO Lia makes the decision to go to Madison instead of some "fancy private school" but like, Madison is still crazy expensive and pretty elite/prestigious, especially for some of us with peasant status? In my mind, deciding to go to Madison instead of a fancy private school is rarely going to look like a downgrade. It's not like your future employers will look at your resume and say "Oh my gosh you went to the UW? But Edgewood is right there, why did you make that decision? Welp, I don't think we can hire you."


I thought the author avoided instalove here nicely. Rational brains for the win! Lia and Beckett are aware of their attraction to each other and talk about that, but they also discuss how they are focused on different things right now (and their families' history is too complicated for a relationship to be an easy decision). There's some annoying "you're easily the most fascinating person I've ever met" and "a cheerleader who does math, wow," but for the most part they acknowledge that they just have a crush on each other and want to try being friends before doing anything physical. This means that the story is more about them finding out about each other as they do their magic things, and shenanigans as they try to take down the town full of annoying people. I was especially struck by this around 48% of the way through, when he says something that makes her feel as though he actually values her thoughts and opinions as a person. Incidentally this is when Lia realizes this too.
Out of the blue, I remember Dad reading me and Emma The Ant and the Grasshopper when we were little. He exchanged this look with Mom over our heads that said as clearly as words that he thought this was a parable about their kids - their hardworking daughter and their flighty one. Every single thing Emma and I have ever said or done has etched this more deeply.
Speaking of Emma, I enjoyed the sister's relationship here. At the start I put them in boxes and thought it was going to be contrived and silly, and that the characters would have no other depth to them than that. Around the same time as the quote above, she has a conversation with her sister (view spoiler)[related to Elliott and his stupid, gross choices (hide spoiler)], and it's candid and loving. They don't actually compete with each other, and that was really nice to see. The friendship with Chase was nice too; male/female relationships seem to be going extinct sometimes, and (view spoiler)[even though they had to test it out with a kiss because attraction is the most important thing and must be tested out (sarcasm sign) (hide spoiler)] it was nice that for once there was no love triangle and minimal drama.

The drama we do get? (view spoiler)[When Beckett's parents come in to the brunch place with Chase and Beckett and they sit right next to Lia and Chase and Lia just kissed the night before and they're awkward and Beckett is awkward, and Beckett's mom is sweet and oblivious to all the awkward? (hide spoiler)] It made me chuckle. Until it didn't. But again, the way the characters handled it was mature. Communication is so important.

(view spoiler)[We learn eventually that the Grandma's deal all along was helping Lia win because she wanted credit for all the tricks she invented and all the years when she was the magician and her husband was the assistant (instead of the other way around like everyone assumed). She wanted in to that Inner Circle, and she'd been excluded because she was a woman. (hide spoiler)] I didn't think this was set up well at all. Lia kept jumping to conclusions about things, constantly mentioning how women were slighted in Mirror Lake, even though we didn't actually see it (view spoiler)[until the first checkpoint, when the judges straight up tell her she isn't cut out for magic work because she's a girl. That for real filled me with rage. Until that point (hide spoiler)] the only thing I could guess was because she'd only met Inner Circle members who were men (they were supposed to be kind of secret, so how would she know that there were no female members?). The existence of men in a given situation does not equal sexism. I prefer to assume innocence until proven guilty. Just seemed like a heavy-handed way to set up that conflict, when it was plenty potent without it.

Overall I thought the characters were refreshingly mature (even if they didn't always make mature decisions - what teen does?). They talked about their problems when they messed up, and that meant that the plot got to be fun and a little frivolous, and actually focus on things the characters' wanted besides each other. It was refreshing to read a book that wasn't so concerned with teenage sexual tension. 



Tl;dr, this was overall well crafted and a super fun romance. I have trouble with contemporaries sometimes, but the magic elements here made it really enjoyable without bogging it down. Communication is the best way to have a good relationshiiiiip!

*Penn and Teller: Fool Us is a show that exists? They mention at some point that there aren't any mainstream shows about actual magic (versus mentalism), but I am confusion. Unless Penn and Teller are, like, too mainstream or something?

Lia and Beckett's Abracadabra

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