This was a delightfully tropey young adult magical romance. Former childhood bestfriends, now "enemies" being forced on a road trip for their families. ALSO HIGHLY RECOMMEND AUDIOBOOK BECAUSE IT IS NARRATED BY THE ONE AND ONLY NATALIE NAUDUS

Things the book does well:
-The main character Ellie is a self described wallflower trying to check off her summer bucket list and the perfect female lead for a ya novel.
- The magic in the world is this sweet addition to the story but never the main focus. It contributes to the relationship dynamics between some characters and there are moments of pure charm but if fantastical elements aren't really your thing, they do not take front and center
-low stakes, sweet, easy read

Things I didn't love:
-I didn't enjoy the pacing. I found the resolution to be too short for all the build up. Also felt that the love interest really did some hurtful things in the past that he was never fully held accountable for.
- One of my favorite parts of YA is the relationship dynamics with the parents. Whether present or absent, adolescence is significantly influenced by that relationship and I felt oddly disconnected from Ellie's parents.

CW: death of a parent, bullying, toxic friendship

I go into books completely blind so I wasn’t sure what I was getting into but I loved the premise of this book right away. It’s witchy but unlike most witchy books it’s not just about identity and family but also about friendship and grief.
It was really cute and original, I kept wishing I could be watching this since it mixes the normal world with the magical world in such a charming way.
It could have benefitted from a few more chapters to expand into the romance and friendship part but I really enjoyed it.

This was a really cute story. I really enjoyed the magical elements within the storyline. It has a fun enemies to lovers element. It's definitively a young YA storyline. I thought that the characters would be a bit older, but it ended up working well for the story. I would absolutely recommend this one for YA readers!

Natalie Naudus could read the phone book and I'd listen to it the whole way through. This was an incredibly adorable audiobook! Naudus provided excellent inflection and tones for all characters and carried the story along perfectly.

The Charmed List by Julie Abe

I loved this one I especially loved the magical spin into this really cute YA romance. I liked it cause it was so different from other romance spinning in the magical parts made the story better then being your normal ya romance. It had a charming feel as well. I like the descriptions that the author gave especially when Ellie and Jack stay at the magical cottage.

Ellie and Jack use to be best friends until a tragedy hit Jack's family then all things changed between Ellie and Jack. Ellie felt isolated from everyone and Jack became Mr. popular playing tennis. Anyways moving forward these two end up on a road trip together to go to a magical convention in California. Will Ellie and Jack rekindle their friendship or will it become more you need to read The Charmed List to find out.

I highly recommend this book it was really enjoyable if you like YA and romance as well as magical twist into it this book is for you. It is a sweet charming YA romance that will entertain you.

Natalie Naudus did a great job with narrating the story she brought the characters to life and made the story sound so good especially the magical parts. I really love the creativity of Julie Abe she makes you wish to be young again to explore the creative side of being young and having wild dreams.

Thank you to Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for a free copy of this audio book for an honest review.

This is a cute, clean young adult romance. Where the main character Ellie, creates a “how to not be a wallflower list”, of things she believes will help her accomplish that over the summer, while road tripping with her best friend. When a prank against her enemy Jack goes wrong, and her best friend stops talking to her, she is forced to spend the road trip with Jack instead. Both Jack and Ellie have magic and know about the magic world and their road trip is full of all kinds of cool magic things.

This is a cute read that is great for teens and adults alike.

Melli’s Book Breakdown
🤍Young Adult
🤍Hate to Love
🤍Childhood History
🤍Force Proximity
🤍Clean Romance
🤍Magic
🤍High School romance

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an audiobook ARC.

Best friends Ellie and Lia and getting ready to go on the best summer road trip ever. In preparation for this amazing summer, Ellie creates her ultimate list of things to do before it ends: ride a roller coaster, fall in love, just to name a couple. After a prank goes awry on Ellie's former best friend Jack, their parents decide that Ellie's punishment will be to take the road trip - but without Lia and instead spend some quality time with Jack to solve their differences. Plus, Ellie and Jack both belong to families who can utilize magic and charms, so it is even more important that they get along. What could go wrong?

The Charmed List is a cute contemporary YA romcom. And there's magic! I can't for the life of me understand why a parent's reaction to their children's pranks possibly outing the magical community would be to still go on a super-fun-summer road trip but who am I to judge? This book was such a fun read and I'm glad I received this ARC because the waitlist at my library is already 14 weeks out. Definitely a book to add to your summer TBR.

This was the cutest YA enemies to lovers read. This book had me hooked right from the start. I loved the magical elements in this book! I thought it made it so fun and unique. I thought Ellie and Jack were such sweet characters, and I loved seeing where the story would take them. This is a very slow burn romance. I would say the romance was only a small portion of the book. Overall, I thought it was a really fun YA summer read, and I would highly recommend it!

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Charmed List
By Julie Abe
⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is a marvelous YA book. A friend turned enemies turned lover’s story. I honestly thought it was a cute story. Ellie wants to start off her senior year with a bang. She creates the ‘anti-wall flower list’ 13 things that she wants to complete over the summer to break her out of her ‘wall flower’ status.
First, I need to say, the imagery in this book really is a magic of its own.
“a flower lushly evoking a memory of a loved one”
“like tiny, infinitely small liquid fireworks”

I love the magic element of this book. It's such a fun element to the book. I love the thrilling aspect.

The only downside to this book and I noted it in my book notebook is ‘you don’t need to change yourself to be a good friend or a better friend’ I know that is touched on a bit at the end of the book. But it's such an emotional part of the book and just sort of downplayed in the romance towards the end. As an adult I can look past that, but in a YA book I think it's an important thing to distinguish.
I also need to note I’ve been dying to get to review a book narrated by Natalie Naudus. I’ve been a long-time fan of hers through TikTok. And it wasn’t until I went to write this review that I saw it was her narration. I’m a little excited!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC Audiobook to review. Thank you, Julie Abe for this utterly charming book. Thank you, Natalie Naudus for the wonderful Narration. And thank you, Macmillion Audio, for the opportunity to review this book!

THE CHARMED LIST by Julie Abe is a really cute YA novel! When I read this book is Sabrina the Teenage Witch meets To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before I knew I’d enjoy this one. It’s about two former friends turned enemies who are forced together on a summer road trip and there’s magic. I loved the Asian American rep, charmed cupcakes and enchanted bubble tea, cute dog named Mochi and the California setting. I listened to the audiobook too and the narrator Natalie Naudus was great. I really enjoyed this book!
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Thank you to Wednesday Books for my advance readers’ edition and Macmillan Audio via NetGalley for my ALC!

THE CHARMED LIST is a cute read about misunderstandings, loving from afar, and finally finding love. I love the magical elements in the story, and I wish I would be able to perform that sort of magic. The characters were well defined and realistic. As you embark on the road trip with Ellie and Jack, you will enjoy all the ups and downs of their relationship. It is a fantastic summer read.

The narration was good.

Magic and YA in one book sounds like it would be a disaster for me, but I'll be honest--the cover drew me in.
I thought the romance was adorable. Forced prox isn't typically my go to romance trope, but I liked the way it was done. I heard it was also enemies to lovers, but I didn't get it.
All in all, I'd recommend this to a YA audience, but it wasn't the book for me...which says a lot since I'm still giving it a 4 stars!

Family dynamics, a second chance friendship / romance, a summer bucket list, and a whole lot of magic made this book the super sweet YA you'll for sure want to add to your TBR. Plus, if you're an audiobook listener you'll be pleased to know that the amazing Natalie Naudus performed this one! You'll recognize her from One Last Stop, I Kissed Shara Wheeler, Home Field Advantage and so many more. The audio is also only 7 hours and 32 minutes so it's completely bingeable.

Ellie Kobata has always been a bit of a wallflower. She keeps her head down, focuses on her studies, and tries to avoid notice. This summer she's decided it's time to take some risks though, so she writes a list of 13 items to shake things up.

Not long into the list things go pretty wrong. You see, Ellie is part of the magic-aware community, but her best friend isn't. The magic-aware aren't allowed to let anyone know that magic actually exists, or there are some pretty dire consequences. When a prank goes wrong, Lia finds out the truth and Ellie stands to lose her magic as well as her best friend. The whole catastrophe does throw her back together with her childhood bestie Jack though, and it's time they mended the broken pieces between them.

I adored all of the characters in this book, and now I'm desperate to spend more time in the magic village they visited on their road trip—it sounds like heaven! Will I be reading more by this author? Absolutely I will.

I highly recommend some food while you read this or a road trip if you're listening to the audiobook. This may be the perfect reading vacation book, honestly, at least for me. It's cute, it's fast, it's full of love, but more full of romantic friendship than plain romance, which made it way more enjoyable for me. I loved this one! 10 extra points in my book for the pretty cover!

🔊Song Pairing: Rewrite the Stars - Zendaya, Zac Efron (sooooo good)

💭What I thought would happen:

I’m not certain, I presumed it would be super cute but I had no idea it was about magic. What a charming surprise!

📖What actually happens:

Ellie is done with being invisible, the friend of her magnetic friend Lia but otherwise unknown. She wants to spend summer break achieving goals she’s created for her Anti-Wallflower List. Ellie has a secret that she keeps from Lia and non-magic folks…she indeed has powers, small charms used to make the world a better place.

When her summer road trip is derailed, Ellie’s neighbour Jack will go with her. They are being punished and must prove themselves trustworthy to their magical society.

🗯Thoughts:

I adored this book! I love every character. Just so Friggin cute! If I was to hug a book it would be this one! A great YA summer read/listen.

I loved learning more of Ellie’s Japanese culture (much like Tokyo Ever After). Like hello…the amount of references to delicious foods had me craving mochi the entire time.

If you enjoy a little witchy magic, this book is for you. It’s in the teas and food that make people feel happy and who doesn’t like that kind of positive energy!

Lia and Ellie’s friendship just gave me so much love as well. So overall please pick this one up! The narration was stellar!

This has a really cute concept. A slightly magical world, where the magic is so unobtrusive that it's just helpful. But when you get too used to it, things can go wrong. Which is what happens in this book, and two childhood ex best friends are forced to go on a road trip together and fall in love.

It's been a while since I read such a sweet and not-too aggravating YA romance. I feel like most of the ones I've read are very angsty and I just want to scream, but this one had jus the right amount. I still wanted to scream a little, but it wasn't a constant.

#TheCharmedList: ⁣
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“just because someone else has slapped a label on me, it doesn’t mean that I have to accept their definition of who I should be”⁣
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I literally had no idea there would be a magical element to it. I don’t know why the fact “charmed” didn’t zing me into magical mode. When Ellie started talking about it, I literally did a screeching halt in the middle of the grocery store to read the synopsis to make sure I heard correctly. I did and became even happier than before. ⁣
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This was such a sweet romcom about two neighbors/ex-friends being forced as punishment to road trip to a magical convention. This was supposed to be a fun road trip to conquer her Anti-Wallflower list with her bestie, but things change. While I do feel like her bestie ignoring her was a bit too much, I did love the list and the new road-trip. ⁣
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The audio was wonderfully read by Natalie Naudus. I really enjoyed her Ellie and Jack. I felt that listening really helped me with the convention magic and all the magical places they visited along the way. It really added that element of wonder. I highly recommend the audio. Speaking of the convention, can you imagine a real magical convention? It sounded exactly how it sounds and it was described so well. I want to be able to go! 😂⁣
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Overall, a fun YA romcom to add to your witchy TBR. There are some trigger warnings so please be mindful! Thank you so much @wednesdaybooks and @macmillan.audio for the gifted copy. The Charmed List is out today!⁣
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QOTD: You own your own magical tea shop. What’s your favorite tea potion? Mine would be the tea that makes my kids listen to me the first time 😂⁣
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PS: You will want boba while reading this.

The narration was perfect! I loved the magic. Ellie's Anti-Wallflower List was awesome. Her and Jack are the cutest. I love enemies to lovers and this one had a twist. They used to be best friends. The story was so sweet. I really enjoyed it. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this audio arc in exchange my honest review.

Audiobook Review - This is an awesome young adult rom com with a magical twist. Two former friends are reunited on a forced road trip for their families' businesses. I love the way magic is presented in this story. Magic has its limitations and is meant to make common everyday tasks easier. Magic does not cure the dying, reverse time or bring people back from the dead. Highly recommended for those who enjoy their magic in small doses.

Ellie (a magic user) has her summer all planned out. She has a list of 13 things she would like to do, which includes revenge on Jack, her former best friend. Ellie and Lia (her current non magical best friend) are planning a road trip. Unfortunately, something goes amiss with magic and Lia can no longer go. Lia is instead stuck in a course designed for non magicals. Ellie is now forced to go with Jack instead so they can deliver all of each set of parents wares from their stores. The high tensions at the beginning of the trip melt as the two get to know each other again.
Opinion
I was lucky enough to get a copy of not only the ebook but also the audio version. Natalie Naudus, the narrator, did a great job keeping me engaged in the story (even while cleaning or driving.) She did a great job with inflection and changing tones when the characters are speaking, thinking or just reading what is going on.
This book is perfect for young romance readers. It has enough tension that the reader anticipates something but does not go too far. I would feel comfortable putting this into the hands of a young teen/adolescent.
The story is magical, both in subject but also in its quality. The story flows in an enchanted rhythm captivating the reader completely.
Many thanks to Net Galley, St. Martins Press and Macmillian Audio for providing me with an ARC of the ebook and the audio.