The Charmed List is a quirky, genre-bending book. It’s romance mixed with magic. Ellie lives in a city full of magic gatherers and spell makers. Most of them want to help others by making their lives a little happier, better. Jack’s father seems to just want to make money using the magic. Ellie and Jack used to be best friends until his mother died and he distanced himself from her and chose other friends that make fun of her. Ellie and her now best friend Lia plan a prank on Jack and he uses magic to get rid of it. He doesn’t realize that anyone is watching him. Lia doesn’t know magic exists and the magical community has strict rules about sharing magic, information or anything, with those who don’t know it’s real. When she sees Jack use a spell, she’s overwhelmed and everyone in Jack’s and Ellie’s families find out what they did. Jack and Ellie get in trouble and are sent on a work trip for their parents’ shops. They’re told they have to work out their differences and being wisely magic-aware. The first part of the trip, Ellie is frosty towards Jack. They won’t open up to each other but their siblings planted charms in the lunch they packed, so Jake and Ellie have to compromise if they’re going to eat. They start to relax around each other and actually enjoy their time together. When both families arrive at the convention, Jack’s father blows up and says cruel things about Ellie and her family. A roller coaster ride of emotions, crossing items off a bucket list and cute charm make this a fun read, 5 stars!

I've read Julie Abe's other stories and ultimately find that the author's writing suits middle grade more. To me, the main character was slightly immature and lacked character depth. I loved the side characters though, they definitely added a fulsome account to the story. While I didn't love it, The Charmed List is a great summer coming-of-age for teens.

this had so much potential but unfortunately was a let down for me. Friends to Enemies to Lovers is always a trope I can get behind but I couldn't continue reading this book past 40% because of the fact that the main character was just not enjoyable to read about. I wasn't able to make that connection and had to put down the book multiple times because of that. Apart from this, i'm sure it would've been an enjoyable read for anyone else but this book just wasn't for me.

- thank you to the publisher for an early copy !!

This is a very cute YA contemporary read. If you are looking for a heartwarming romance I would definitely recommend this one.

Apparently, I'm really on a second-chance kick. Jack and Ellie are adorbs. Ellie is a wallflower who would like to start branching out during the summer before her senior year of high school. She makes a list of 13 things to do to not be as much of a wallflower. When one of those tasks (pulling a prank on Jack, her neighbor, and former best friend) goes awry, Jack and Ellie are forced to complete a road trip together.

I enjoyed reading this book so much. I love the way that it showed how oftentimes the people that we knew during our transformative childhood years are the people who know us at our core the best. They’re also usually the first people that get pushed away when life challenges happened and people don’t know how to process them.

My favorite quote is from the end of chapter 28 “Some friends are here for a day, a weekend. And you learn something from those friends, for sure. Some friendships are toxic, and you have to walk away. But there’s some friendships even if you’ve been away from each other for day, a few months—even if it’s been years—when you two meet again, it’s like you two never missed a step. Those are the friendships worth fighting for. Because a friendship that doesn’t have some rough patches isn’t really that real, it’s just a suck-up contest.”

Thank you St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for giving me access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a cute YA story. I would add this to my classroom and think student would be interested in reading this book.

Unfortunately a DNF for me, I tried a few times but I couldn't get into it. The MC was my vibe, very insecure and just ehhh. I understand at the characters age that's pretty standard though.

I imagine there are many other people who would enjoy a rom com with a touch of urban fantasy!

I’ve finally caught up on reading all of Julie Abe’s published novels after finishing The Charmed List! Abe’s YA debut is, as the title suggests, utterly charming. It captures the feel of a magical shojo anime with touches of whimsy (in the form of magic that I 100% existed in real life, please and thank you), and it also has a simple, heartwarming tale at its core that made a tear or two appear in my eye towards the end. That said, there does happen to be a touch too much teen angst (and repetitiveness) for my personal taste, so if you’re not into that, consider yourself forewarned. Still, I enjoyed the time I spent reading The Charmed List and will definitely read anything and everything Julie Abe writes!

After the initial pages, I found myself not connecting with the story or characters, so I decided to pass on this book. Did not finish

The Charmed List is just such a sweet story about first love, magic, and life not going entirely according to plan. Loved Jack and Ellie's journey together!

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

Well, I was fully charmed by this story. I loved the magical world it was set in, and Jack and Ellie were just too cute.

This was an adorable read!Its honestly everything I wanted this to be and more. The magic system in this book was honestly the most practical and enjoyable I have seen and I wish I lived in this world! The romance between the characters was amazing and I just loved the enemies to lovers bickering banter they had (jealousyy). This just checked all the boxes for me and I wish there was more because I am not ready to say goodbye to this story, these characters, and this world.

The Charmed List was a good contemporary debut! However, it kinda felt unoriginal in that it was a story I have read before. A main character with a list of stuff to do, it definitely reminds me of Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson I think? If you’re unfamiliar with this type of story though, I highly recommend this book!

Loved this! So cute. The angst is everything! 4/5 stars. Jack and Ellie’s story was that of every one of us has gone through with someone at some point in our lives. The HEA was everything we needed.

This book was a decent summer read, for me. It was charming and fun, although the enemies to lovers was lacking a bit. Did they really hate each other? Nope. But I did really enjoy seeing their relationship unfold.

Overall, this was a cutesy, quick read. I wasn’t immediately hooked, finding the beginning descriptions of the magical/normal parts of the town confusing and the characters difficult to like. My interest increased as I continued reading. I liked the romance enough, and loved the magical components, especially the village, cottage, and escape room. Solid 3 stars.

Cute, simple and a quick easy read...nothing super memorable but it was a good read. Forgettable but not horrible

Its so cute I just want to give this book the biggest hug. Like astrology mixed with romance perfection. Thank you Wednesday books for the ARC for my honest review.

december already! how did that happen?! coming at you today with a sweet ya cozy witchy book called 'the charmed list' by julie abe. this book follows ellie, a girl in high school who is planning on having the most life-changing summer of her life, starting with her 'anti-wallflower list', thirteen things she wants to do before the summer is over, including a roadtrip with her best friend lia. but when she tries to enact revenge on her neighbour jack (number 4 on the list) and it goes horribly wrong, suddenly her summer is looking less than epic. instead of her roadtrip with lia, ellie has to drive with jack to a magical convention on behalf of their parents. but as they drive and make stops along the way, maybe ellie realizes there's more to jack than she gave him credit for, and just maybe she'll be able to check 'fall in love' off her list, too.

this book was sweet, but honestly that's kind of the only thing i have to say about it. there truly wasn't anything that memorable about the characters or the plot, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. the book was fun and easy to read, but just isn't one that made any sort of lasting impression on me -- a week after finishing it, i'm already having troubles remembering specifics of the story. the magical world abe created was awesome, a good blend of magic and non-magic. this book is like a little dessert, a bite of something sweet but nothing more.

3.5/5 stars (rounded to 3)

I received an ARC of this book, and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

First of all, the cover of this book is so cute! It definitely influenced my decision to read this book.

There were several things I enjoyed about this book. I loved that it was an urban fantasy! A YA contemporary rom-com that also had magic? Yes please! I genuinely wish we had more books like that. I also liked the forced proximity and bucket list tropes since I think those are fun to see in YA books. The bucket list combined with the road trip aspect made for an interesting plot and introduced some magical settings that I thought were cool!

Unfortunately, as much as I wanted this to be a 4- or 5- star read, there were a few things that stopped me from rating it higher. The main one was that this was less enemies-to-lovers and more miscommunication trope than anything else. I'm not a fan of the miscommunication trope, so that was frustrating for me. This actually contributes to my other main issue, which was the amount of time spent reflecting on Jack and Ellie's lost friendship. Ellie spends the first half of the book trying to convince herself (and the reader) that she hates Jack while also reminiscing on their friendship frequently.

Overall, this was a light-hearted rom-com that had enough magic and bucket list shenanigans to keep me reading! While I had my qualms with it, I still thought it was fun and enjoyable. I could see this being a good beach/summer read for anyone who likes YA rom-coms.