It took me a minute to get into this but once I was I couldn't put it down. Ellie had an all-too-relatable falling out with a friend, and it was so nice seeing them come back to each other. The world building was simple but effective, and it made me want to eat everything on the page! I cannot wait to see what's in store for Julie Abe!

this was a sweet, slightly-witchy, romance that's perfect if you want a great palette cleanser after reading high fantasy. but, while i had fun with this one, it's unfortunately a book where i might forget about what even happened in a month or so.

additionally, what's stopping me from giving this book a four star review rather than a three star, is how heavily it leans against miscommunication between the main characters to further the plot. it's all a bit unfortunate, as it's one of my least favorite tropes/story devices. but ignoring that factor, i did generally enjoy the ex-friends/second chance story line.

The Charmed List is a YA friends-to enemies-to lovers romcom with a dash of magic. Ellie lives in a magical community hidden in plain sight in Palo Alto. Unfortunately, only magic aware can know about it, so Ellie is forced to keep the secret from everyone including her best friend Lia. The only friend she ever had that could understand was Jack, but they haven’t been friends for years since he changed and started ignoring her.

Jack and Ellie are forced to take a road trip together for their parents’ businesses after a prank on Jack goes wrong and Ellie’s friend Lia can no longer go. Much to Ellie’s embarrassment, Jack finds the summer checklist she wrote to help her come out of her shell and decides to help her complete the items. Ellie is convinced her list is cursed, but after spending time reunited with Jack, she finds out it is charmed after all.

I’ll be honest, when I first picked this up I only read a few pages before switching to something else. I think that is because even though I read other YA fiction, this one read a bit younger than I am used to. However, after I finished another book I came back to The Charmed List and read it in one day. It is a super sweet story and the element of magic added a lot of interest. Some of my favorite parts were the different magical shops and communities we see throughout the story. It plays on the forced proximity, and enemies to lovers tropes while touching on grief management, family relationships and finding yourself to round out the character development.

Overall, it’s a cute and easy read. I would caution that it felt more appropriate for a younger YA audience, especially if you are used to reading YA fiction with more adult content.


Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the chance to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this!

Ahhh! A best-friends to enemies to lovers road trip with magic and tropetastic vibes, this was so, so fun. I think maybe their issues were slightly glossed over in favor of a quick resolution, but overall I really enjoyed it! A fun summer read :)

This is the story about Ellie Kobata and her ex-best friend Jack Yasuda. They both are part of magical families but something in their past had them drift apart. The Summer before her senior year in high school, Ellie and her best friend Lia have big plans for a summer road trip however when a plan for revenge backfires on her, Ellie finds herself stuck on a road trip with Jack instead. While on the trip Jack finds Ellie’s list of things she is determined to do over the summer. That is when things start to happen.

This was a very good book about friends and family. It also teaches us that things don’t always seem as they appear.

OMG magical Palo Alto! Day trips to Santa Cruz getting treats at Marini's, riding the Giant Dipper. Ok this settles it. I need a trip to Santa Cruz. Trips through San Jose, Gilroy down south to San Luis Obispo. Love this! I know all these areas and I loved the added magic!

There are a few places mentioned that I need to go and to try! Shuei-Do Manju! I want to go there!! And I really want to go to all those magical cottages but those are probably fictional.

So yes this is exactly the read that I needed this week as I am in a little funk. This had the second chance friendship and high school angst plus magic and friends to lovers that I didn't know I needed.

These magical stories always seem to be places that are already a bit nature magical but to enchant the Bay Area is sublime to me. Please do it again!! I want to hear more about Remy and Cam or Lia. I love looking for those hidden doors, fairy houses, and crystal shops. But now I will be looking for tea and stationary shops!

This is a perfect summer read and such a sweet coming of age story. It's enemies to dating/friends to dating, it's in between that, frenemies to dating?. I love when there is so much childhood history of friendship and then the pain of growing older and apart then being forced back together to work an event. Claps hands love!!

It is also full of really hard topics and the difficulty a family has to endure after and the fall out of the friendships in the wake of the horrible grief wave that takes out a person. We all grieve differently, you can never get over the loss of a parent you just have to learn to live without them. There is always someone to talk to even if you might think you will overburden them with your pain. As in me I am here so DM me. It's been 5 years since my Dad passed and I still get taken out by a random song he sang to me or a smell of a treat we liked. 

Thank you stmartinspress and netgalley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

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!

I love a good "coming out of your shell" story since I can really relate to that! I think other introverts will really relate to this as well. It's also the perfect enemies-to-lovers magical story! If you're looking for a cute, magical read, this is a great pick.

3 stars ☆ If you’re looking for a perfect summer read, this would be the one for it.

childhood friends to enemies to lovers
forced proximity
and with magic? yes, please.

This was such a cute and quick read. What I loved was the tension between Jack and Ellie >> and what intrigued me the most about this book was the magic since I haven’t read this concept in a ya romance ykwim.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC !!

What a cute little YA romcom!

I truly loved this book. Everything about was cutesy and magical.

This has everything you’d want in a young adult romcom. It even has an added bonus of magic. I love books with magic and witches and fantasy-esque elements. It added to the book, in my opinion.

The characters were lovable. Their story was cute and I felt like they had growth throughout the book. It’s a second chance romance and I was here for it.

The Charmed List

The Charmed List is an adorable contemporary romance with magic. Ellie and Jack are best friends to enemies to lovers due to a quarrel between families. I loved how the magic works through emotions and how Ellie catches the magic particles to make spells had me actually laughing out loud. Not only did I enjoy Ellie and Jack’s story, but I also loved how the younger siblings did not let the enemy families ruin their friendship.

Thank you NETGALLEY and St. Martin's Press for the digital ARC. I will definitely be recommending this book to all my book besties!

The Charmed List is a delightful YA romcom! Ellie hates Jack. Ever since he ditched her at school and their families began competing, their friendship has disappeared. Both Ellie and Jack come from families that can do small forms of magic that make life more joyful. Or at least, that’s what Ellie’s family focuses on. Jack’s family is more interested in power. Despite these differences, they are in equal amounts of trouble when they accidentally expose magic to a non-magical person. To make up for it, they set out on a road trip together to a magical convention. Can they mend their friendship- and maybe find something more- along the way?

I absolutely loved The Charmed List! This book was filled to the brim with beautiful magic, scheming siblings, and friends-to-enemies-to-friend-to-lovers…my favorite! The Charmed List is simply magical. While concocting magical cupcakes and good luck charms, Julie Abe tackles grief and the pain of lost friendships. As she weaves these serious topics in, the focus remains on joy and finding ways to restore broken friendships. The Charmed List is a lighthearted, swoony YA romcom that I would highly recommend to anyone. This would be the perfect escapist read- only make sure to have some delicious treats on hand when you read! I’m looking forward to what Julie Abe writes next! I’m hope to see more from this beautiful magical world.

The Charmed List is available now. Thank you to Julie Abe, Wednesday Books, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, Wordpress blog, and Barnes & Noble etc

#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 Charmed List is a Young Adult Modern Fantasy Romance Novel by author Julie Abe. The story advertises itself as essentially an enemies to lovers novel (or well, friends to enemies to lovers), featuring Asian-American characters in California in a world with secret little magics, and well a lot of that sounded real fun to me - making this an easy request on NetGalley.

And The Charmed List is an incredibly cute young adult romance novel, even if certain aspects are very predictable. Main character Ellie is adorable as an anxious someone introverted high school girl trying desperately to come out of her shell, who is forced by a series of coincidences onto a road trip not with her best friend as planned, but with the boy who used to be that for her until they became enemies. Add in a touch of a magical world, and well you have a very enjoyable sweet romance - even if it's a very chaste one that only even has a kiss at the very end. This will be an excellent romance for younger young adult (or even middle grade) readers.

-------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------
Ellie Kobata has spent her high school years in her own shell, with only her best friend Lia really seeing her for who she is - a fun loving artist who is a bit terrified to reveal her art by making her instagram public, who is a bit afraid to do things like get her first kiss or go on a roller coaster or get an second ear piercing...etc. With Lia's help, she's made a list of thirteen things that she's going to do on their road trip down to southern California to finally break out and reveal herself to the world.

There's one part of her life she can't show off to Lia - the fact that she's part of a secret magical community, one which Lia isn't allowed to know about. But when a prank Ellie plays accidentally reveals the magical world to Lia, her whole summer plans go badly awry: Lia is badly hurt and not talking to her for keeping the secret, and Ellie's road trip plan gets a horrifying change: she'll now be going down with Jack Yasuda, the magic-knowing boy who was once her best friend until he gave her the cold shoulder and became her enemy.

Yet as Ellie and Jack go down the California Coast and do errands for their families' rival magical shops, Ellie begins to realize she might actually achieve the goals on her list after all....and that the Jack she grew up with might have changed into a more interesting person than she realized...and one she might be falling for.
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Let's be honest: The Charmed List is in many ways a book that is full of clichés. You have an "enemies to lovers" plot that features a boy who used to be friends with the protagonist before he seemed to go cold for no reason - of course he has a reason she doesn't know about, and of course he has far more depth than she realized. Of course Jack has a potential other girlfriend - or so Ellie thinks, and of course there's a misunderstanding there, and there will be one later in the book that will throw her growing attraction for him in a loop. You even have one of the absolute classic romance tropes - "only one bed" - thrown in here as well (although this is such a chaste romance that that last one is kind of wasted).

But Clichés exist for a reason: they can be pretty good when deployed effectively in a story, and The Charmed List deploys them effectively. This is helped by Ellie being a very believable shy girl desperate to break out of her shell whose list of things to do to do that feels very believable and realistic, her growing feelings for Jack being done very well, and the other characters (like Ellie's and Jack's meddling best friend siblings) being very enjoyable. There are also a few subversions here and there, particularly in how the two characters' family stores are setup as a rivalry of supposedly cold and impersonal vs personal and heartfelt that instead goes a different direction, and this also helps quite a bit.

And then there's the magical setting to foreground the tropey plot, which is really well done. Here magic is a thing that's hidden...but in large part because it isn't some super powerful force, but is instead best used to do small minor things, like provide extra joy or bravery in a food/drink item, or provide magical cottages that can turn a roof into the night sky, etc. The magical community here isn't one that's better than the non-magical one, nor is it held secret because of some thought-about superiority - it's held in secret whenever possible because otherwise it'll lead to misunderstandings about what might be possible (as well as some minor but sometimes significant mayhem). It's a nice and different touch from the usual hidden magical world, and it helps color the growing relationship between Jack and Ellie with, well, magic - and it makes everything about it very charming. And Abe uses that magic in combination with modern ideas (There's one part with an Escape room in particular) to really create interesting ways for the characters' relationship to grow and grow until it finally culminates in the end.

Really my biggest problem with The Charmed List is that not only is it a Chaste Romance, it basically saves that culmination for the end - like literally this book ends just on the kiss, which you'd expect might've happened earlier than that. So if you're the type like me who sometimes yells "just kiss already!", well this might frustrate you a bunch! But it's a short book, and this'll work well for the younger YA readers who aren't ready for a more mature romance, so this isn't really a complaint lol.

So yeah, the Charmed List is a really delightful romance for younger young adult readers, even for middle grade readers (and for those looking for Asian American characters, this will be an additional plus). I wanted a light and enjoyable book when I started this one, and I got it.

This was such a fun and cute and sweet read, the world Julie Abe had created was very well written and very much relatable, it wasn’t anything extreme that needed too many details, it’s like she had filled up a missing space in our real world, like this is actually there only we can’t see it. An extremely cute best-friends to enemies to lovers that had me going for a whole hour and I finished the book in three. I also loved the nice touches of topics like finding one’s real self and gaining confidence in who you really are, the character development was slow and steady. Just how it should be. . I loved the scenery she had explained, and imagining them alone made me feel like magic was right there at my fingertips.
It was a nice pg-rated read when you need something light and fluffy. The whole tea and books atmosphere did help as well.

The Charmed List is a very cute, fluffy story that is perfect for those who need something fun to read. There's not too much melodrama or angst. Some misunderstandings and romance scenes revolve mostly around kissing. The magic in the story is not that prevalent. It's more like a light dusting of powdered sugar on freshly cooked donuts.

Sure, some of the characters' actions may be annoying as well as their thought processes but it's not unbearable. The writing is quick and easy to read through and is a nice summer read in a cozy nook. If you haven't read the author's middle grade books I highly recommend those as well!

eArc provided by NetGalley.

actual rating: 3.25/5

This is a fun, quick read that I flew through in a day. It was super cute, and I thought that the magic system was fairly simple to understand. The magic is just a nice touch to the setting and atmosphere, not really the main point of the story which simplifies things.

The one thing that really bothered me about this book was Ellie’s best friend, Lia. I felt like she was not a great friend to Ellie no matter how many times Ellie told us that she was. She’s Ellie’s only friend after Jack, but she holds Ellie hostage over a secret that she couldn’t share with anyone.

I wish we had more moments of depth between Jack and Ellie because I feel like we only scratched the surface. I loved the flashbacks to when they were younger because they helped develop their relationship, but I still like something was missing to really grow their relationship. Despite this, I thought that they were really sweet, and this book is a great choice when you need something light to read.

3.5 stars

So so sweet!

A friend mentioned what a cute and sweet book this was, and she was so right!

This book was bunches of fun with a road trip and forced proximity trope between two friends, Ellie and Jack, that had a falling out but always cared for each other in the time they weren't together. And let's not forget about magic!! I wish there was more of it but the places that Jack and Ellie visited were certainly magical!

This is a great YA book to get lost in and soak up in one sitting!

That cover is just the cutest thing I've ever seen, the boba and cupcake constellations are just the best!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday books for the earc in return for an honest review.

Abe's The Charmed List is a sweet summer read with an interesting magical world interlaced with everyday, normal California. Predictable but everything you want in a quick immersive read that keeps you smiling. The friends to enemies to kindled romance roller coaster that Ellie and Jack take readers on as they quickly road trip down the coast of California from Palo Alto to Huntington Beach is work the read. The touch of magic made me want to know more about the magical aspects of their world, and I wouldn't mind having the opportunity to delve further into that world.
I think this book firmly rests within the YA, maybe even young YA, romance genre, and with a little suspended disbelief pertaining to the super sweetness of this story I think lots of people can/ will enjoy this quick, delightful read.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the eGalley of this work in exchange for my honest review.

I received an e-galley of The Charmed List by Julie Abe from St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review.

Cute, magical, charming, fun, and just the right dose of young love - this is what I found as I was reading The Charmed List. In this young adult contemporary romance novel, Julie Abe introduces a magical world that lives alongside our less-than-magical one. Those in the magical community must keep their powers a secret, or face consequences that may take away their magical abilities and connections. Ellie finds herself on a dreaded road trip with her childhood friend-now-enemy when a prank goes horribly awry. Her current best friend is now mad at her for keeping secrets and she now has to spend time with Jack, the last person she wants to spend it with. Along the way, Ellie and Jack discover that there may still be a chance of friendship (and more) as long as they figure out how to navigate the past and the family tensions that still exist.

This was such a perfect start-of-summer read as I was taken away on this road trip with Ellie and Jack. I loved that magical elements interspersed into the world that Julie Abe created. I love the idea of charmed bubble tea and desserts - I could definitely use a charm of luck or joy when I indulge in those treats. I think I'll be reading The Charmed List again this summer when I'm wishing for a fun road trip of my own.