I really wanted to love this book so much. As the daughter of a Hispanic parent, I was so thrilled to find a book that not only incorporated magic, but a culture I grew up learning about (yes, I am aware this is Portuguese and not Hispanic/Latine), and was geared towards middle school aged kids. I didn't find much of these kinds of books when I was a child, so of course I wanted to read this to sooth a part of me that I never got to as a child.

I often wonder if I'd gone with the print version vs the audio version, my opinion of An Encantadora's Guide to Monstros and Magic, would have been different.

As it stands, I didn't love it nearly as much as I was hoping.

While 90% of Frankie Corzo narration was...good, I found her pronunciation of the Spanish/Portuguese words to be so grating and wrong. It felt almost as if they did not speak the language or tried to learn the proper pronunciation.

I know that's harsh to judge a book or even a narrator like that, but it completely took me out of the story. I struggled to get through this book because of it. No matter how much I tried to not judge to harshly on that front, it just didn't work for me.

For the overall story, the world building was spectacular. It was honestly one of the strongest parts of the book, and I can tell that Sarah Mendonca put a lot of thought into the world she was shaping.
But it also fell super flat.
I didn't vibe with the characters and at certain points I wanted to smack some sense into Rosa. Then again a lot of the elements of the story, when looking at it through a child's eyes, is about how volatile friendships can be, and how different classes (or even popularity) isn't worth losing those closest to you.

For me as an adult, not my cup of tea. But I know that had I read this when I was a kid, I would have enjoyed this a lot more.

All this with saying that overall, this book was a solid 4 stars but the audiobook was a 2.5-3 star rating for me.

Thank you Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for the advanced electronic audio review copy of this book. I loved this fun middle grade story with awesome world-building, great characters, adventure, and monsters! Can’t wait to share it with my students and based on the ending, looking forward to the next volume.