The cover, the title and the Blurb was great than the story. I was so intrigued by seeing the synopsis about witches and magic. But nothing more happened than what is in the synopsis. Not much impressed with the writing style.

The story mainly focuses on teen drama and it revolves around three friends. Liss and Dan were best friends. Liss was more obsessed with the magical book and couldn't even bother to know what was happening in Dan's life. She was such a self-obsessed, toxic character I have ever come across. I don't like any characters except Alexa who was more caring towards Dan. I felt like Dan didn't give much importance to Alexa who was there for her when she has no one else.

The plot was really good and different but it wasn't execute well. There was this "ancient creature" the girls were talking about throughout the book. Finally, when it arrived, it was not as frightening as it would have to be. I don't know where the girls summoned the power to resist his manipulation because they were not portrayed as strong characters save for Liss.

The story was moving so slow at the beginning and it got interesting after crossing 3/4 of it. It was starting to make sense but the climax fight ruined it all. The only reason that kept me to continue the book was Alexa. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

Wishing A WICKED MAGIC
A Very Happy Book Birthday
#BookBirthday
by Sasha Laurens @sashalwrites
Razorbill @razorbillbooks
Pub Date 28 Jul 2020   

Thank you so much to @penguinteen for the chance to read and review this book
This book was received from the Author, and Publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Content/Trigger Warnings: self harm/ anxiety / depression / drug use / brief mention of a underage relationship

Sasha Lauren debut book is set in the atmosphere wilds of a sleepy foggy California northern coast. Liss and Dan are besties, in their sophomore year of high school. Waiting for something magical to happen. They come across a antique magical book.
When a magical spell appears within the book, to make them witches. They think nothing of it, and cast it. From that moment their lives change, and not all it is good. They unintentionally summon something dark, and with it comes disastrous complications. Ultimately it shatters their once bond of friendship and drives a wedge between the two.
Fast forward, Liss has been trying, without any success to right the wrong. Seeking to bring back her boyfriend, Johnny Su, who went missing during the spell that both Liss and Dan cast. Liss has a breakthrough and finally makes contact with Johnny, and tries to draw Dan back into magic. Dan has moved con and has a new best friend, Alexa. Alexa is grappling with her own magical awakening.


This captivating tale is about the complications of friendship, and ultimately taking back power. The author has written memorable character driven novel with complex female friendships along with tongue-in-cheek narration. A urban fantasy that uses magical realism as a vehicle for what the storyline is really about. Creative and written in such away that had me flipping the pages as fast as I could.

This book is a contemporary fantasy about three girls who live in a small town with lots of magical secrets. When two of them (Dan and Liss) stumbled across a book of spells and accidentally got a local boy kidnapped by a demon entity, their friendship fell apart. But now they have to work together with Dan’s new best friend, Alexa, to fix their mistake, or else they might all end up dead.

I absolutely adored the writing style in this book — it’s kind of a whimsical, slightly tongue-in-cheek voice that reminded me of many of my favorite books growing up. That's not to say that the writing is simplistic or childish, but it has a certain air of timelessness and nostalgia that I fell in love with immediately.

The pacing was a little slower than I expected, but I think that was because this book focuses a lot on the friendship aspect. It was a really interesting way to explore close female friendships through a fantasy lens. I personally would have liked the main plot to move a bit faster, but I wasn’t disappointed by the extra character development. By the end, I felt like Dan, Liss, and Alexa were my best friends too!

There are also several little mysteries in this story which get unraveled over the course of the narrative, which I totally loved. Some of the twists shocked me in the best way!

Overall, I’d recommend this book to anyone who loves witchy stories and doesn’t mind a slower pace.

With my favorite character being Dan, Daniela, a young Mexican girl with depression and a love of rock music; I’d say yeah this book was kinda hard to relate too. Nope nothing to relate to here…

Okay, but seriously I never read a book with my name in it when I was a teenager so this was kind of huge for me. Especially in a book so surprisingly dark and full of magic, it’s lowkey a dream- so just be happy for me. In any case, Dan is my favorite, but that’s not to say that other characters didn’t grab my attention.

Liss was this character that I kept going back and forth on before deciding that nope! I don’t like her. I felt for her, but then she would say something super toxic or just too selfish. She’s definitely a character that’s meant to grate on you though. Honestly, they all are written to be flawed in their own ways. But it was really interesting to read through the shattered pieces of Liss and Dan’s friendship. It’s this really broken dynamic that you can’t decide whether if it’s better that way or not. Alexis was also a character I went back and forth on. I wanted so badly for Liss and Dan to be friends again and I didn’t always trust Alexis at first. But she quickly became one of the most interesting characters in the book. And Domino was incredibly entertaining.

Speaking of Alexis, dang this book can get pretty scary. I guess I was expecting this book to be more of a cutesy magical quirky fun times. Nope! This book had me quaking at times. I know I’m just a big scaredy cat, but I had to actually turn on the lights to read this book. When it said a “wicked magic” she meant it! Part of it is the descriptions of the setting. Northern California isn’t exactly my definition of scary, but the writing in this book is so atmospheric and it just pulls you in. The book is so frank with the reader at times and tragically vague at others. It really pins down ordinary, but unsettling things and capitalizes on them. It just makes things uncertain and creepy. I will officially never go jogging at night because I’m officially scared of pavement.

Also, this book gets very dark in it’s subject matter as well. I got BIG triggered in this book, which I don’t consider that big of a deal, but I will be adding some Trigger Warnings at the bottom for those of y’all who may need them. Don’t get caught slipping like me, lol. But this book just goes places that are very true to the experience of so many teens and are just as disquieting as the magical horrors at play.

I’ll also say that this book had a super slow start for me, but really picked up about half-way through and became very interesting after that. Basically, as soon as people start actually communicating with each other, lol. The plot really starts to roll itself out.

TL;DR: Part teen horror and part girl gang adventure, this book frights and excites and frights some more. The characters are messy and complex, plus the magic just makes things worse, and in the end- isn’t the real magic the friends we made along the way?

I was recently approached by Sasha Laurens and TBR & Beyond Tours to read A Wicked Magic by Sasha Laurens. It's been a really long time since I last had the opportunity to read a book about witches, and so naturally I was very excited and dove in pretty much right away.

One of my favorite parts about this book was how atmospheric the writing was - it took all of ten pages before I felt fully immersed in their small town in Northern California. That level of atmospheric writing worked really well for this kind of story: it helped the magic shine and put the focus on the characters. A Wicked Magic had witchy vibes in all the best ways - you should definitely read this book on a cozy, dreary day with a good tea.

My favorite character by far was Alexa - I thought she was a fantastic friend to Dan and really exemplified what I like in friendships in YA books. She had by far the best growth arc, and really elevated the rest of the characters. Even though she wasn't necessarily one of the main characters, she still felt fully fleshed out and well developed.

As several other reviewers have found, I found the main villain to be a bit lackluster. Without treading too close to spoilers, I was expecting them to be a bit more intimidating. Altogether, I found the ending to be the weakest part of the book - after all the build up, the story really didn't payoff the way I hoped it would.

If you have a witchy void in your life (RIP Charmed and The Secret Circle) - A Wicked Magic will definitely hit the spot for you. Be sure to check out the trigger warnings here before diving in. Overall, I'll give this one a 4/5, and I'm looking forward to whatever Sasha Laurens writes next.

A wicked Magic - review
A Wicked Magic is a story of two best friends who find a mysterious book containing a spell that transforms them into witches. It all seems like fun and games until one night they cast a spell and Liss’s boyfriend gets taken. This causes Liss and Dan’s friendship to fall apart, as Liss is desperately trying to find a spell to save her boyfriend but Dan wants nothing to do with magic. When Liss discovers a spell that helps her speak to her boyfriend, she draws Dan back into the world of witchery in hopes that they can fix their mistake. Before that can happen, the characters must first overcome their differences and face their own inner demons.

The book focuses around Dan, Liss, and Alexa. Dan and Liss are ex-best friends, and Alexa is Dan’s current best friend who recently moved to their small town in Northern California. I didn’t really connect with the characters until close to the end. I began to like them more as they started to overcome the things that were holding them back. I did really love Domino, but he wasn’t in the story as much as I would have enjoyed.

It took me a little while to get into this book. The beginning included a lot of background story with flashbacks and not as much magic as I wanted. About halfway through, the story started to pick up as more mysterious things started to happen. I really began to get into the story and couldn’t wait to see what happened next. This is when the magic started to pick up and become more of a focus, which is what I was waiting for. I will admit I was disappointed in the final showdown with the villain, which felt too rushed and almost easy. I thought for sure something would go wrong to make it more interesting, but I was left wanting.

A Wicked Magic is a witchy story with some similar vibes to The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, although it takes some time to get to that point. The majority of the book felt more like a contemporary with a lot of hard hitting topics than it did a fantasy or thriller. I wish that there had been more magic from the beginning, but once it got going I was happy with it. Overall, I did enjoy this debut novel by Sasha Laurens, and I hope to read more from her in the future.

Thank you so much to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book.

Content warning: self harm and suicidal thoughts

If you’re looking for a spooky read involving modern witches and ancient demons, then look no further! Sasha Laurens’s debut novel, A Wicked Magic, is a spell-binding YA fantasy-thriller that is out today that will have you wrapped up in every twist and turn.
Set in the wilderness of California's northern coast, this novel has all the witchy/spooky vibes any reader would want in a book about self-made witches. The plot was engaging and will keep readers intrigued as to what will happen next! Additionally, the novel wraps up really nicely and all the loose ends get tied up at the conclusion of the book. However, Laurens hits upon dark topics, including self-harm, suicide, mental health issues, and violence. While it never felt too forced or excessive, there are some major trigger warnings for this book!
Being a young adult book, there was an overarching theme of friendship and the relationships between Dan, Liss, and Alexa. The mending of these girls’ friendships was really well written in that it wasn’t just “forgive and forget”. Liss and Dan had to work to gain each others’ trust back as well and work through their own demons. Even Alexa had her own issues to grapple while trying to maintain her friendship with Dan. However, this novel shows that the bonds of friendship are very hard to truly break and how through hardship, true friends can find their way back to one another.
I am not someone who reads a lot of thrillers, but I found this book to be a great read! Fans of Ninth House or The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina would enjoy this stand-alone and become entranced by this stunning debut!

*I received an ARC from Penguin Teen in exchange for my honest opinion.

I’m very much into witches at the moment, as much as other YA readers seem to be, but this book just didn’t do it for me. It felt somewhat juvenile, and for a younger YA audience than I am used to. I did enjoy the fact that there were nods to actual witchcraft elements and it was accurate in that respect. I was expecting a little more excitement and drama, but the storyline and plot were a little muddled and confusing for me. I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters until the end which was also a negative for me.

First, let's talk about the witchy ambiance; it's witchy all right and I love it. I can totally feel the spells and the mystery and the creepy feeling from what's going on to the three girls are just awesome. I love how the world building was written.

Okay let's go to the pretty sketchy part... After I read the book, I still don't know what to feel or what I really read about it. I really don't know either if I love it trully... Yes it is witches' but there's missing something in it...

Where would I start? Reading the synopsis got me hooked because yes it's witches and I love reading witches. I love the mysteries of the three POVs, each of them has a unique story and I just really love how the author wrote them. The book is witchy and all, the spells and the mystery behind it is just good. The plot is there and it's broaden every single time and I can totally feel the presence is getting stronger there.

However..

There are scenes in the book just throw it in the void. I was like "what did I just read?" or "what happened there?" I mean, it's like puzzling me somehow when reading it. It's like they're in a mission but they're having side quests that it shouldn't be happening if you know what i mean. It's just that I badly want to love the book but it didn't really get me there. There are parts in the story got me unhooked and I think very childish attitude, especially to Dan and Liss POV. I just can't bare the two characters together and sometimes it irritates me. There's also some annoying things happens that I skip it most of the time reading the book.

Hmmm okay, exchanging POVs is a huge plus for me because I would really love to read every characters side story. But in this case, i feel like this could be done just by one POV. I mean, I kinda feel it more intense if this one will be written in 1 persona only. Then the ending is pretty lame for me (i'm sorry!) I just don't really get it what happened there.

Overall, I have so much hyped for this book. Like I was really expecting so much of it, but yeah my expectations got me really down. This book is a slow paced but the story was there (I know i can feel it), it's not just for me.

Ever just read a book and go 🤔 ‘that wasn’t what I was expecting’ ... If you have then you and I have been on the same boat. Most recently I finished Sasha Lauren’s YA debut fantasy A WICKED MAGIC. The opening had a great hook to it and the author used detailed writing to build scenes in the beginning. I felt that as the novel went on, however, her orientation and organization of the story and some of the characters fell apart. There were good ideas started but not finished and an overall plot summary that would leave most readers feeling like the author left them hanging (when it came to the magic.)
The book has a very attractive cover which will gain the attention of those that purchase books based on covers and well-written back cover summaries. Over all this is a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

TW: Depression and self-harm.
Thank you Penguin Teen for providing me with an e-arc of the book.
I found this book to be slow paced at the beginning, which made it difficult to get into. I just felt like it took awhile for the plot to really start moving and get interesting. That being said, once the search for Johnny started, the book did quickly became more enjoyable and I couldn’t put it down. Alexa’s POV was the most grasping at first, but as I progressed further into the book Liss and Dan’s POV really started to grow on me too. If you like witch gangs and paranormal creatures I recommend picking up A Wicked Magic!

You can check out my blog tour stop here! www.yourwordsmyink.com

I wanted to like this book. The cover completely pulled me in, as well as the synopsis. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed.

Trigger Warnings: Cutting, Suicide Ideation, Parental Neglect/Abuse and Death, Depression, OCD, Underage Relationships.

Characters
I wanted to like these characters, but I couldn't. Liss is just a straight-up awful person and her friendship with Dan is incredibly toxic. All of these teens need some serious guidance.

I understand why they are the way they are, there's some serious parental neglect and abuse. It's very hard to read and root for the characters. I was very close to DNFing this book because of it.

The only saving grace was Domino, because who doesn't love a talking black cat?

I will say that the end of the book sort of makes up for it. They all learn a lot and their arcs are very satisfying in the end, even though there wasn't enough build-up toward it in my opinion.

Characters = 5

Atmosphere
I was disappointed in the atmosphere and worldbuilding of this book. Repeating the words "North Coast" and "Dogtown" does not help me orient myself in the world. I've never been to America, so I have no idea what the North Coast looks like. I need more description.

I was also constantly confused about where the characters were since it seems like they all live in four different towns and I just couldn't keep up.

Atmosphere = 4

Writing
This is a debut novel, so I didn't go in expecting much. That's not to say that debut books can't be beautifully written, I just tend to go into all of them with an open mind.

The writing was average. It didn't exactly pull me in and I had to reread several parts because I was confused about the geography of the scene or where the characters were.

Writing = 4

Plot
Here's where the book really disappoints me. The book should have been better structured with regards to the flashbacks. The plot goes in circles for most of the time and none of them ever really have a solid plan of action.

The whole last part of the book just kinda happens to the girls, and they don't actively do anything to take part in the events happening.

Plot = 3

Intrigue
As I said, I picked up the book because the premise really intrigued me. Unfortunately, it couldn't keep me intrigued for the most part.

I wanted to DNF the book at 40% because nothing was happening other than the characters being really awful to each other. The only interesting part of the book was Alexa's story, and even it frustrated me at some point.

Let's just say that I absolutely loathe the miscommunication trope, and it's used in this book for no good reason.

Intrigue = 4

Logic
Writing this review is just making me tired. Not much about this book makes sense, and we don't get a lot of information on the magic system either. Magic just sort of happens in the book, and we only get a few throwaway lines to explain it.

Logic = 3

Enjoyment
I wouldn't recommend this book. It could have been a really great look into magic, friendship and mental health, but I don't feel like it was done well and I didn't enjoy it.

Enjoyment = 3

CAWPILE = 3.7
Stars = 2

First and foremost, thank you so much to Penguin Teen for sending me the e-ARC of this witchy novel. While I always appreciate the chance to work with Penguin, this one ended up not exactly being my cup of tea. However, I'll tell you more because it's possible it will be your cup of tea. 

It may come as a surprise to a few of you (because I can be a little ruthless at times), but I actually don't like writing negative reviews. I know a lot of hard work goes into writing a book, and I always enjoy discovering great new works that I can recommend to people. But at the end of the day, what I do like is being honest, and my honest thoughts are that this one was not for me. 

A Wicked Magic is a fantasy-thriller by debut author Sasha Laurens that was billed as "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" meets "The Craft", in which best friends Dan and Liss become naive witches by summoning their powers from a mysterious spell in a mysterious book that they find mysteriously abandoned outside a local store. But when their forays into magic end with Liss's boyfriend getting snatched by a demon henchwoman, their friendship splinters. But Liss is determined to save her boyfriend, roping Dan back into her orbit along the way. A third character, Alexa, comes by her magic in quite a different way, and after becoming Dan's new friend at school, gets tied into Dan and Liss's magical expeditions as their lives and spells and pursuits all intertwine. 

There are pros and cons to everything. The pros of this book? It had a wonderful setting, a cool concept, mental health rep, and an animal companion character that was probably my favorite since Bone Goat the undead goat in The Bone Houses. 

So let's begin there, shall we? With the pros. I loved that this novel was set in the North Coast of California and thought the author did an excellent job with the descriptions and setting the scene. The foggy nights, the dangerously twisty roads, the dark ocean looming in the distance, the pygmy forest where they summon a spirit. I could see it. I could smell the salt air. The locals made the town come alive. The setting was amazing. 

The concept of this is, on the surface, exactly the type of thing I would usually be into: witchy adventures, ordinary lives being infiltrated by magic, and trickster demons. But in execution, I just didn't end up liking it much, for several reasons I'll get into later.

There was some LGBTQ rep in this novel, as well as actually a lot of mental health rep, which is refreshing and important to see in YA novels. While I can't speak to the accuracy of some of the rep, such as in the case of Liss, who suffers from OCD, I thought a lot of the anxiety and depression representation was very accurate, especially the spiraling, cyclical thoughts that Dan battles on a regular basis. Dan also struggles with self-harm, and Alexa has her own battles with the trauma caused by the awful things her family has done in the past and the way she was raised up until moving in with her aunt Lorelei, who she lives with in the book. I really liked that there was mental health rep here, and that and the setting were my two favorite things about the book, honestly. (For those of you looking for trigger warnings, I'd say anxiety, depression, PTSD, self-harm, suicidal ideation, and suicide.)

Other than the MH rep, I just had a hard time getting into this book, and a big reason for that was the characters. Even though they had some realistic struggles, a lot of times they didn't seem like real characters that I could get on board with so much as they seemed like stereotypes. Part of it is that I don't want to see characters who are only their mental health struggles, and at times that was the only thing that stood out about the girls while everything else was just kind of a cardboard cutout.  As you know, I'm a very character-driven reader, so when I don't really care what happens to the characters, I can't get into the plot, either, and that's kind of what happened here. Liss oftentimes seemed like the stereotypical Regina George mean girl, Dan often seemed like the stereotypical kind of punky counterpart to Liss, and Alexa was just kind of...there a lot of the time. There was this whole passage where Liss was internally bitching about how Dan just didn't understand that she couldn't put time into their friendship because she had a boyfriend now and she had to commit her time to her boyfriend and it just felt so...flat. It felt like some mean girl trope from a 90s movie or something, and I found it hard to suspend the disbelief that anyone is really like that. I usually enjoy flawed characters, but these girls were at times so unbearable that I crossed the line from "flawed in a way that makes them interesting and makes me want to keep reading" to "so awful I have to force myself to keep reading because I'm not emotionally invested in anyone here." Maybe other people will like them a lot more, but they just fell so flat for me.

Honestly, the best character in the book is definitely Domino, Alexa's familiar cat, and perhaps that's why he got the cover. I'd read a whole origin story on Domino, to be honest, before I'd invest my time in another journey with the three human girls. 

I also found the "magic" portion of the book just...underwhelming. Some books describe magic in such a beautiful and lively way but this was another case where it was just sort of there, and I wasn't very excited by it at any point. Perhaps it was just in the way it was written, because I found the writing to be at times somewhat clunky and awkward for my tastes. 

So again, I feel kind of bad, but this one just didn't pan out for me. However, I think this might be one of those books where maybe it's just not my taste and most people end up loving it. It just didn't end up being the fantastically witchy, beautifully magic journey I'd hoped for. 

Star-wise, I'd say maybe like two and a half out of a five, putting me solidly in the middle. The redeeming qualities of the beautiful setting and the good MH rep brought it up, but the clunky writing, otherwise flat characters, and underwhelming magical aspects weren't enough for me to give it more than that. 

You may like this one if you're looking for a witchy YA where otherwise normal teen girls find themselves roped into magical and demonic happenings. Probably a good fit for you if you liked books like These Witches Don't Burn or The Babysitter's Coven.

First of trigger warnings for: Self-harm, depression and anxiety.
I have to admit I went into this book with low expectations. And then I ended up really enjoying this one!
We read this book from three POVs, and I enjoyed all three of them! If I have to choose a favourite, it would definitely have to be Alexa, I liked her view of the world and her background the most! Liss was slightly annoying at times, always assuming people would/have to do what she wants! Although she, and the other, definitely have some character growth throughout the book!
At the start of the book we read about how Dan and Liss become witches, and how this sparked a train of events. We read this in flashbacks, the current time is their Senior year and we kept going back to their Sophomore and Junior year! So we slowly learn how we get to the current events, and why they have to solve certain problems! This switching back and forth between times confused me a bit in the beginning, but after a while I understood the different timelines!
So something went wrong when Dan and Liss do a spell, causing Liss’s boyfriend to disappear and they stop talking. Dan becomes friends with Alexa, but then something happened and Dan and Liss are trying to get Liss’s boyfriend to return. And for this they can use Alexa’s help!
Every time I started reading this book I would be like ‘just 30 pages’ but I always ended up reading more! I was just enjoying the story so much and I needed to know what was going to happen! I just could not put the book down!
I just really enjoyed this book, and I really recommend this one!

My Review: Promising a story about witches and magic, this novel felt right up my alley. Although it is categorized as YA, it does touch some extremely sensitive more mature topics. It’s described as a blend between The Craft, which I totally agree with. The friendship, witches and magic are all included, and Sabrina which is a little more light hearted but along the same lines.

The story is filled with important lessons on friendship, and a mystery with clues you have to decipher! A story with a unique set of characters who bring something different and valuable to the table, but I would’ve liked to see a little more character development through it all. I understand however, we have all been through the age where we are just a little prouder, and tend to reason with not enough information. So we end up make silly choices, or saying things we should’ve thought twice about.

I love the way the writer tied even the smallest details at the end of the story, and it all came together very well. I’m not sure if I would change anything about the story, I think I would’ve added more, maybe more about each of the characters. I definitely would’ve liked to understand each of them a little better.

Overall great, quick read, for the lovers of magic, friendship, and unexpected turns.

A Wicked Magic is a young adult paranormal witch tale by Sasha Laurens. I love a good witchy story, and A Wicked Magic really hit the spot for me, but I will say right off the bat...this book is a lot darker than I expected it to be. I did not expect it to be a light and fluffy read since the summary says it's a mixture of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and The Craft and it also makes mention of a character being taken by a demon and held captive, but even so it was a dark creepy tale. And I loved it for that! Just be in the right mindset when you are going in. There are potential trigger warnings in this story as well, so if you are triggered themes including self harm, abuse, depression and kidnapping this might not be a suitable read for you. Proceed accordingly. But if you are a in the mood for a dark witch story, I think A Wicked Magic is a great novel for you to pick up.

In A Wicked Magic, we meet our main characters Dan and Liss. Dan and Liss are witches who experience a spell gone wrong, where Liss' boyfriend Johnny gets taken by an evil spirit. This puts a huge strain not only on Liss herself but also on their friendship. So when Liss finds out her boyfriend is being held captive, she sets out to rescue him. Learning about the dark magic in this story was one of the highlights for me. I am always fascinated by magic, and dark magic is just as interesting for me to explore in novels because there tend to be so many shades of grey and interesting lessons in morality with dark magic. The villains tend to also be more dynamic and interesting. In A wicked Magic there were certainly bad guys, and while we heard a lot about them, we didn't get to actually see too much with them and interact with them as much as I was expecting. The characters were the star of the show here. Whether you loved them or hated them, they were all very well developed and they each had very interesting character development and thinking. I really liked getting to know more about each of the characters, and they all felt very distinct to me. This will be a big plus for character driven readers.

I enjoyed that author Sasha Laurens did some unexpected (and at times strange) things with this story. I never quite knew what to expect and where we were going to go next, which as a reader, I really enjoyed. At times, the book lost me a bit, but then something else would happen and I would find myself reeled back in. If you are a fan of dark atmospheric reads that are not scared of dark magic and have plenty of creepy evil elements, then A Wicked Magic is a book you will want to read. I was in the mood for a chilling read and this was certainly that and more. I think it would be great for fans of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and for character driven readers.

I received A Wicked Magic by Sasha Laurens for free by the author and the publisher Razorbill in exchange for an honest review. It will be published on the 28th July 2020!

Content/Trigger Warnings: self harm/ anxiety / depression / drug use / brief mention of a relationship between a 17 year old & 31 year old.

In A Wicked Magic by Sasha Laurens we join our protagonists, Dan & Liss, as they find a book of magic and find a spell that will turn them into witches. However, they soon realise that magic comes with a steep price when a spell goes awry and Liss' boyfriend gets taken by a horrific creature they accidentally conjured. The police have given up the case believing him to just be another runaway, but when more kids start going mysteriously missing, the girls know that they are the only ones who'll be able to save them.

I thought this was a really intriguing concept and I can definitely see why it's been likened to the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina! It's a dark fantasy involving witches that doesn't shy away from heavy and important subjects. Another amazing show that this book reminded me of was Charmed and I absolutely loved that. Three young amateur witches who get their spells from a special book and go on magical adventures..right!

Dan and Liss are practically two halves of a whole - the best of friends until the spell that goes wrong. Now they're not speaking, Dan has sworn off of magic whereas Liss craves magic like a drug.

Dan is the more anxious one of the two and the guilt from what happened is weighing heavy on her shoulders. She's got a new best friend, Alexa, and she wants to keep her as far away from the magic world as possible - in fact she wants to forget that magic exists entirely but this will prove harder than it looks. Whereas Liss is determined to do everything in her power to get her boyfriend back. She's strategic, self obsessed and always has a plan for every situation but under the surface we see that there is also so much more to her. Neither of these girls have had an easy life and I really liked that the book showcased that they are young and flawed, they're nowhere near perfect, they're genuine teenage girls.

The magic system throughout the book was unique and enjoyable. There are very interesting differences between the types of witches in the book. For example, Dan & Liss are 'naive witches' as they performed a spell to give them magic rather than inheriting and practising magic like the 'wardens'.

The story has a medium pace and is an easy read, I got halfway through without realising! Plus I really enjoyed the feminist themes, women empowerment and theme of friendship showcased throughout the book!
It is a great story for older teens and YA readers. A story of friendship, fixing what's broken and takes the idiom "be careful what you wish for" to the next level!

I was really looking forward to this book because of the synopsis. Liss and Dan are best friends and discover this mysterious black book that turns them into witches. Everything is great until they cast a spell that makes Liss’s boyfriend, Johnny, disappear. Having to deal with what they have done, they can’t be friends anymore and move on with their lives. A couple months later Liss figures out Johnny is just stuck in a magical place, she needs Dan and her new friend Alexa’s help to free him.

I mean that sounds super exciting and I love magic in books, I didn’t get any of that. This book literally went nowhere the entire time. I thought this book was going to focus mainly on the magic, but that didn’t happen. We follow Liss and Dan trying to mend their broken friendship, and we follow Alexa and Dan’s friendship and also their home lives. It was very dreary in parts and this book should have some trigger warnings for self-harm, suicidal thoughts, mental, and physical abuse. Another part that made me super cringey was the writing style, it felt very repetitive and childlike. The author uses the same words over and over again, it was to the point that I was skimming a lot of chapters. I just am drained from reading this book. I really wanted more magic and I wanted to know a lot more about this place that Johnny was being held. Even the ending was a letdown, there was no big reveal or twist. It was just kind of typical.

Please note that this is 100% my opinion and while I may not have liked this book, I know others will love it.

First and foremost I would like to say thank you to PenguinTeen and Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. This is a YA thriller, said to be similar to the craft!

The first thing I would like to point out before getting started are the trigger warnings for this book. These warnings include self harm, a high schooler dating a man twice her age, mental illness, cults, suicidal thoughts, loved ones dying, and kidnapping. I think that it's important for us to acknowledge these triggers beforehand in case people have issues with reading about heavy topics like this.

I think that I had a personally hard time reading this book because it had a lot of triggers for me. With that being said, I'd like to rate this book critically rather than personally, because if this were a book that I picked up from the library, I would maybe DNF it. I do think that the issues that the characters went through were so important for the development of this particular story, and I think a lot of young people who like darker books like this will really enjoy the experience. I think that this had a sense of honesty, a real look at the mental and physical struggles teens go through (minus the magic/witchcraft), and I think that this book will work for many people. I do think the ending was a bit underwhelming, but again, I am 32 reading a book for teenagers. So with that being said, I am rating this a 3.5/5 for plot development, writing style, and overall story! Enjoyable but rough around the edges!

First of all, thank you to Penguin Teen for sending me an eARC of A Wicked Magic!

Dan and Liss are witches. It's been months since either of them have spoken to each other, and Dan has kept hold of the Black Book that granted them their power. When a spell goes wrong, Liss's boyfriend disappears and is presumed dead, and Dan wants absolutely nothing to do with magic.

But she's kept the book, and Liss reappears after months of not speaking, asking for the book. Because Johnny is still alive, and in order to free him, Liss needs the book. With the help of Dan's new friend, Alexa, they work together to free him.

I was originally interested in this book because :
1). That cover! (Cat and magic? Yes please!)
and:
2). Witches.

i'm basically always here for witchy stories, but unfortunately, even from the beginning, I was pretty bored. I really had to push my way through this book, and it jsut wasn't as magical as I hoped it would be! I'm willing ot give it another shot through audio, so I've reserved a copy at the library to see if it's any better in audiobook format, but this book just was kind of meh.