‘The Charmed List’ is an utterly delightful, magic-steeped story that takes two childhood friends turned enemies on a fateful road trip that just may change everything.

Ellie Kobata is the epitome of a wallflower. Especially after her former best friend, Jack Yasuda inexplicitly started ignoring her once they hit middle school. She decides that she is no longer happy to sit on the sidelines, and so she creates an Anti-Wallflower List, and one of those items involves seeking revenge on Jack. When that plan goes awry, Ellie and Jack are forced to work together, road tripping through California selling their parents’ wares. And, as they spend more and more time together, the explanation for what happened all of those years ago might finally spill out.

Oh my goodness, this novel was an absolute joy to read. And the title is apt, because this story is fully steeped in charm. I love the way that author, Julie Abe, is really able to portray the uncertainty and angst and embarrassment of the teenage years in a way that feels both timely and timeless.

There are so many nods to tropes in this book that I absolutely love: road trip, forced proximity, only one bed (a G-rated version) and friends to enemies to lovers. It is a veritable trope feast without any of the elements feeling forced or over-the-top.

The way in which Ellie and Jack interact, as well as the ways in which they interact with the other characters in the story, feels so perfectly representative of the adolescent experience. The magical world Abe creates is lovely and captivating, as well.

This is the type of book that will put a smile on your face and leave you wanting more stories from this universe.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for generously providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 ⭐️ What a cute and fun book. I loved the unique magic system. The friends to enemies to lovers was a fantastic troupe! The end had some perfectly swoony lines that I inhaled fully! Such a fun cute book!

<i> "Your list is full of dreams and hopes, and that's only full of charm-anything but curses." </i>

A magical roadtrip with two former friends turned 'enemies' is bound to have some sparks fly right?

<i> The Charmed List </i> follows Ellie Kobata and Jack Yasuda on their trip to a magical convention. A summer story of friendship, love, growing-up, and of course, magic!

At the beginning of the summer, Ellie creates her Anti-Wallflower List, full of thirteen things that will help her be not invisible. When her plan with her best friend Lia goes magically wrong, she becomes stuck with Jack-her neighbor who used to be her best friend. Emphasis on the <i>used</i>. Through this trip to magical cottages and towns filled with the most decadent desserts and tea, past memories begin to cloud the present like magic dust, and maybe Jack's past will finally come to light and their relationship will finally mend.

Julie Abe wonderfully creates a whole new magical world, full of all the good things that brighten up this world, that keeps readers hooked and wishing for their own pair of spectacles to see the beautiful raw magic dust floating through space.

First chapter in, and I knew I would love this adorable romance! Ellie is a wallflower, and spent her high school years being the quiet girl. But things change the summer before her senior year. She decided to create a bucket list aka The Anti-Wallflower List. 13 things she wants to accomplish on a road trip with her best friend, Lia, by her side. A few things on her list are making her art instagram public, dancing under the stars, roller coasters, very fun summery things. But Number 4= revenge on Jack Yasuda, her sworn enemy and former close friend. But things don’t always go as planned. Ellie finds herself now on a road trip with Jack. Destination? Magic Convention. Can they put their differences aside and grow their friendship back to what it used to be? Or will number 13 on her list happen instead?

What I loved:
-Ellie! I instantly fell in love with her character. She is relatable, and I love her personality. I totally understand being shy and a wallflower. That was me in high school! Also one of her favorite books is a favorite of mine!
-AAPI representation!
-the magic elements were so fun! I loved how they weaved into every day life. The world building was strong and the magic unique.
-enemies to lovers 💖

This was a super cute read! The pacing was fantastic and the writing was well done. I absolutely recommend this book to any fan of romance books. 4 stars out of 5. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for this ARC!

I don’t usually read books with magic in them, but this one was different. The characters were (almost) perfect, the romance was adorable, and the magic cottage made me want to live there.

What else could you want?

Well, how about a best friends to enemies to lovers story and a beach read that had the right amount of cuteness and a happy ever after. Sounds good to me!

Basically, you should read this when it comes out.

Friends to enemies to lovers with magic!

The Charmed List was an adorable YA romance. The story was fast paced and kept me invested. There was good character development and the magic system was well done. However, at times, the writing style and dialogue seemed a little young compared to the content of the book.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and I fell in love with Jack and Ellie. I would definitely read more of Julie Abe’s books.

The Charmed List is a cute, light rom com read. I enjoyed the experience and thought it was a great light read between heavier books. The most enjoyable part to me was the elements of magic that gave it a fun twist on typical rom com type books. The village setting was also well written and transported you to it. It's not my favorite romance read of all time, but it definitely was a worthwhile read.

I received a copy from netgalley in exchange for an honest and fair review.

This one is a cute read with some fun elements to it: magic, enemies to lovers romance, a bucket list, and a road trip.

The magic element to the story is just kind of thrown in. Ellie and her family are part of the magic community, and Jack her ex-friend/enemy and his dad are part of it too, her best friend Lia – is not. There are some rules about being part of the magic community and we do see some mild magic being done. Ellie has a bucket list for the summer and I think it was nice for her to go through with it to help her get out of her shy-girl shell. Also there is the romance between Ellie and Jack, they used to be friends, until Jack closed himself off to her, with his dad’s encouragement. But on the road trip they are forced to spend time together which means they start liking one another.

The story reads more for teenagers so I didn’t quite connect to the story or characters, I’m not the audience for this one. But I think someone who wants a light hearted teen romance that has magic would really enjoy this book.


Why you should read it:
*magic, romance, a bucket list and a road trip
*sweet, coming of age story

Why you might not want to read it:
*this is more for teen readers

My Thoughts:

I’m not the target audience for this book but I thought it was a sweet story about a girl who is trying to break out of her shell. Some parts were a bit dramatic for me, like when Ellie’s best friend finds out about magic but like I said – I wasn’t connecting to the book or characters. I think if you want a light-hearted romance filled with magic, and some angst you will enjoy this one.

Friesnds to enemies to lovers with a magical twist?! Yes please!

I absolutely adored everything about The Charmed List. It’s a cutesy YA romcom that follows former besties Ellie and Jack, as they knock out her Anti-Wallflower bucket list while on a summer roadtrip. The banter between them was hilarious, and I loved watching their romance unfold!

I did hate that their falling out was over a miscommunication, and such a simple one at that! I hate that trope with a passion! Other than that I loved this book so much!

Friends to enemies to lovers, YES PLEASE! I love that this takes place in the Bay Area. I could visualize everywhere that was mentioned which made the book that much more special.

I love the magical elements entwined with a sweet contemporary romcom. This was such a unique story that made me fall in love with all the characters. I wish there was a sequel because I didn’t want to say goodbye!

Julie Abe has such a magical way of writing that always sucks me in. I hope we get more in this genre from her!

The Charmed List is a super fun and adorable contemporary fantasy romance and I need more stories like this in my life. This book has so many elements I love: ex-friends to lovers trope, road trip plot, bucket lists, modern magic, great sibling relationships, and more.

I adore the take on magic in the modern world. It was a super simple and easy concept to follow and was a lot of fun to imagine magic-y aspects in the modern world. I also love that the author focused heavily on supporting small and local businesses using the magic world as a background. I laughed at the Magizon reference.

The banter between Ellie and Jack is fantastic, and it has just the right balance of romantic tension to carry their relationship throughout the book. I also love how Jack helps Ellie complete so many of her bucket list items while on the road trip.

The two aspects that tripped me up while reading is the common miscommunication trope that I loathe. It just annoys me when characters refuse to just talk to each other about whatever problem has divided them. I get it. It’s an easy way to create conflict when characters finally get together. I’m just tired of it. It pops up in a lot of recent YA contemporary.

I also thought it was kind of odd that the author put in modern-day book references. It seemed like she was trying a bit too hard to be relevant, but that just made her book easily dated by referencing books and authors that are recently popular but probably won’t have much traction in a few years. It just was weird and I don’t think it worked or helped the story in any way.

But if you like these types of tropes with a whole lot of adorable banter and the “just kiss already” kind of tension, read this book.

Incredibly cute and sweet YA romance. A bit too much of both sweet and YA for my taste, honestly. Reads very young and, as the title suggests, there is a heavy dose of magic in this one.

This book was so cute! The main characters Ellie and jack are so loveable and it was so heartwarming to walk through their memories and learn about their best-friends-to-enemies-to-lovers story. My heart swelled hearing about their adventures and secrets and broke learning about the parts of their friendship that they lost. I also loved the sprinkling of magic into the plot line to spice things up! Overall a sweet, adorable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for an honest review!

3.5/5 dnf cuz i got busy and i had a lot of things going on im a busy girl dont judge me it was cute tho x im really happy i did get to read some of it

Oh my goodness, THE CHARMED LIST is a delightful and charming (pun intended!) story. This is such a strong debut for Julie Abe--so much so that I was genuinely surprised that this was a debut at all because it certainly doesn't read like one. The structure and pacing feels like it was written by a veteran writer (not that a debut is indicative of a writer's experience or talent). I finished the novel in one sitting.

Ellie and Jack have such a wonderful friends to enemies to lovers relationship transformation. The involvement of their family members throughout the story is also heartwarming and perfect. The allusions to contemporary YA novels just made the story feel truly contemporary (and a not-so-subtle recommendation of these awesome stories). I usually prefer these types of stories to be dual-POV, but it was perfect through Ellie's eyes.

Can't wait to pick up whatever Abe publishes next!

The Charmed List by Julia Abe gives us a perfect friends-to-enemies-to lovers story that is equal parts swoonworthy, hearthfelt, and realistic.
Our heroine, Ellie Kobata, and her family have magic--nothing powerful or life-changing, but a cute, helpful little magic that helps make the world a better place in little ways. Ellie's neighbor, Jack Yasuda, is also magic-aware, but he and Ellie haven't been friends since middle school, when Jack suddenly cut Ellie out of his life. Since then, Ellie has been a wallflower, struggling to let people in or let herself stand out in anyway, but this summer, everything will change because she's going to make this summer the one where everything changes--starting with revenge on Jack.
But when this revenge goes wrong, their parents force them to work together on a week-long road trip delivering magically charmed merchandise from both families' shops down the California coast. But Ellie won't let Jack ruin her plan to check off every item on her list.
This story has so many great pieces that all tie together wonderfully, beginning with the cute "charms" and the unique magic system the author has created, to the very real emotions Ellie experiences when experiencing losing a treasured friendship. Some of these scenes had me close to tears because of how much the writing and emotions resonated with me, as they surely will with anyone who experienced losing a friendship at a young age.
The approach to the budding romance in this story was also delightful, as it went beyond the usual "forced-proximity makes us like each other suddenly" that we see in some novels today. Both characters were able to grow and open up in ways that felt true to their character and organic to the plot.
This story was so fun to read, and I recommend it to everyone who's looking for a story of magic, romance, and heart.

I spy with my little eye a cover deception.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘓𝘪𝘴𝘵 follows former bestfriends Ellie and Jack on a summer road trip to a convention and are tasked with delivering 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 goods to customers along the way. Easy enough right? Wrong because Ellie couldn't possibly hate Jack any more.
But the miles are long, there are overnight stays and a past to be uncovered, so who knows maybe there'll be more than just a reconnection?

- ~ -

Have you ever read a book then wondered whether we all read the same thing?
Because here I am doing the very same. Everyone seems to love this while I'm not entirely convinced that this isn't a charmed book itself and I've read something different because my only reaction seems to be "huh?".

To be clear, this isn't a bad book by any stretch of imagination. It just that the writing reminds me of one of those teen shows that used to air on Disney channel, wherein they'd focus on various heavy topics which were swiftly dealt away with magic or in some cases love.

But who am I kidding? This is a YA book so I guess it works for it, although not my preferred cup of tea.

- ~ -

To be fair this is the quintessential summer read. It did have the perfect beach vibes with magical realism and a ex-friends to lovers trope, so do with that what you will.

I can't quite pinpoint the exact issue I have with the story other than the writing which gave me a sugar rush with all its cuteness (wierd issue to have I know). So I'd recommend anyone wanting to give book a try to read other reviews and not let their mood be dampened by this one.

- ~ -

3.01 / 5✩

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘚𝘵. 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯'𝘴 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘐 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 & 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘥. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

If you told me a YA book could feature a friends to enemies to lovers romance, I am not sure I would believe that. It seems like a lot to fit into a short life. And yet, that's exactly what Julie Abe did in writing The Charmed List. And she added magic, too!

Ellie and Jack grew up as best friends until Jack started ignoring her in middle school. Now it's the summer before their senior year, and she has created an Anti-Wallflower List, determined to not be invisible anymore. But it all goes wrong, and she ends up on a road trip with Jack.

This book was truly charming. I did not want to put it down. It's told entirely from Ellie's perspective, and I regularly wished for insight into what Jack was thinking, too. I found it fascinating how she saw herself and related to her feelings of being a wallflower.

Some of my favorite aspects were how magic worked in the story world. The distinction is between those who are magic aware and those who are not. And magic could only be used for small charms, rather than bigger, life changing events. That felt like a powerful metaphor that made me quite thoughtful about what can be fixed.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. These opinions are my own.

This is my first Julie Abe book, and I must admit, I was utterly charmed.

The magic system in the book was wonderful, and I was immediately interested in learning more about it. There weren’t people wielding magic all over the place, but rather the magic-aware charmed items to makes people’s lives a little better. Learning about each charmed object was a treat, and as a steadfast contemporary reader, I enjoyed the way the magic was simmering in the background while allowing the friendship/romantic plots to take center stage.

There were multiple friendships explored in this book, too. Central to the story was the broken friendship between Jack and Ellie. It was fantastic flashing back to their early years. Those were some warm and fuzzy memories until they weren’t. Though I feel like the break may have been one-sided, I was overjoyed to see them mend that bridge, and also become aware of some stronger feelings they harbored for each other.

Abe also focused on the relationship between Lia and Ellie. I always enjoy seeing a strong female friendship in the spotlight, and this was a good one with a lot of history. Lia was not magic aware, and things took a bit of a wrong turn when she learned of Ellie’s sorcery background. My heart ached for Ellie as she stressed over Lia’s silence and separation. Her love for Lia ran deep, and I was rooting for them to work things out.

Another standout element of the story was the Anti-Wallflower List. It was list of thirteen things Ellie was challenging herself to complete during the road trip (and, WHOO HOO, road trip!). These were things she greatly desired to accomplish, but was too shy or scared to attempt. It was great the way Ellie pushed her boundaries to complete some of these challenges, and it was also really sweet the way Beckett, on his own accord, sought to help Ellie with the list. One item was completed in such spectacular fashion that it moved me to happy tears.

The Charmed List was a story of family, friendship, and love with magical touches that delighted me.

The Charmed List is such a cute premise, and I love the blend of magic with the conventions of a contemporary YA romance. Unfortunately, I found the writing fairly pedestrian and the characters frustrating (I don't mind miscommunication as a plot driver when it makes sense, but it felt both overused and somewhat illogical in this). Still, a sweet, fluffy read that I hope others will enjoy more.

Thank you Wednesday Books for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!