I became a fan of J.Elle's after reading her Wings of Ebony duology, and it was exciting to see her write a middle grade fantasy and to see how that would be similar and different. It's got a younger protagonist and younger edge, but it has a lot of the same flavor as Wings of Ebony. I like the magic being set in the real world because I think it makes readers feel like they could fit in right along side these characters. And what I love most about this book is that it gives young Black kids from communities like Park Row the opportunity to see themselves in a fun, magical, and honest way. Many kids can relate to Kyana, a girl who has things she struggles with (like understanding her math class – me too, Kyana), but also has things she's excited about (discovering magic!) and people she loves to death. Sometimes Kyana struggles to balance it all, but I definitely think readers will enjoy this kid's heart. This book has magical mishaps, hidden society drama, strange creatures, and potions, but it feels really grounded and relatable. And the coolest part is that the core of the story is about a young girl who desperately loves her community and will do anything to fight for it. Young kids can read this story and see that people like them, people their age can do a lot to make a difference in their communities, and it has far more to do with Kyana's heart and courage than her magic. Overall, it was an enjoyable read. Fans of Wings of Ebony will definitely want to share this one with their middle grade readers!

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, Bloomsbury USA Children's Books, and Bloomsbury Children's Books in exchange for an honest review.

As someone that enjoys cooking and especially baking, I loved that J. Elle used that as a way to connect the main character, Kyana, to magic. It's a real-life intuitive skill that lends itself well to being connected to magical elements. I thought the overall concept of A TASTE OF MAGIC was good, but wish that there was not so much responsibility put on these tweens (while acknowledging that there are many children in America Kyana's age or younger that have had to take on adult responsibilities, or are growing up with a keen understanding of the financial inequalities in this country). It broke my heart that at her core, Kyana wanted to excel at magic just so her mom didn't have to work so hard all the time.

The characters are interesting, the writing style and dialogue is engaging, and this is a magic in the every day world type of setting which will definitely appeal to readers who are hesitant about reading straight up fantasy novels. I felt like the magic system could have been explained better, but am not sure this will impact readers of the targeted age demographic like it does me as an adult.

Overall, a pretty great start to a new middle grade series!

Kyana knew her twelfth birthday would be special, but she never thought it would be this special! Now that she’s twelve, Kyana learns that she’s a witch and has amazing magical powers that she has to learn to control at the Park Row Magic Academy every Saturday. Yup, Saturday, the day of her best friend’s birthday party. But already, Kyana is dreaming of all the cool things she’ll be able to do to help her mother and grandmother out. It’s not always easy to make ends meet, but Kyana is determined to help out. If she can specialize in flashy Charms, she’ll be set! Too bad she’s much better at Potions. Also, the academy has been dealing with funding issues, and it’s not looking too good for the school. If the school shuts down, all the students will have to go across town and pay a hefty fee to be able to keep their magic! Kyana is determined to find a way to save the school, and all her neighborhood’s magic!

I received an advanced reading copy of A Taste of Magic in exchange for an honest review.

A Taste of Magic is a middle grade fantasy novel by J. Elle. If that name sounds familiar to you, it’s because she’s also the author of the Wings of Ebony series, which I reviewed here on my blog. This is J. Elle’s debut in middle grade, and I was so excited for the chance to read it!

From the very start, we’re immersed in Kyana’s youthful voice, and her first person POV leads us through the whole novel. This means the novel is very easy to read, and moves quite quickly throughout! I found it incredibly easy to sit down and read, and the pages just flew by! Of course, Kyana herself had a lot to do with that.

I loved the character of Kyana. She can be very excitable, but, like any twelve-year-old, she makes mistakes and often doubts herself. But she makes up for it with determination and by dreaming big. I also loved how much of her personality was ingrained in her cooking, but it wasn’t cooking in isolation. Kyana cooks with her Memaw throughout the story, and you can really see how much it means to both of them to have that time together, to not just make tasty food, but also share experiences and history through recipes. Food can be so special, and can even bring people together. I think we often forget that when cooking at the end of the day, when we’re tired and the last thing we want to do is stand over the stove. But Kyana reminded me of that, and I loved how much she loved cooking!

The plot was also exciting! Kyana has a lot to deal with in this book, some normal kid stuff, and other stuff most kids definitely don’t deal with! We get the usual friend drama, because, after all, Kyana is not allowed to tell her non-Magick best friend about her new witchy abilities. We get some family drama, with Memaw starting to get forgetful, and her mother struggling to pay the bills. We even get school trouble, where Kyana struggles to make sense of math! But also there’s the fact that the Park Row Magic Academy is being shut down, and also the fact that not all of Kyana’s spells work the way they’re supposed to, and often cause much more trouble that she has to fix later. It made for a jam-packed book, and I kept wondering at how Elle kept piling on problems on poor Kyana. But Kyana is a strong character, and I never should have doubted her.

A Taste of Magic is a book full of heart and magic, and one I’d recommend to middle grade readers and older! Maybe even younger too, if they can read at this level! In fact, I think it would be a great book to read as a family, and my copy had some recipes at the end that could be fun for the whole family to try together after turning the last page. I know I’ll definitely be trying those recipes myself!

A Taste of Magic will be released on August 30. You can preorder your copy from Bloomsbury here.

Kyana has just found out that she is a witch. She has to balance her new weekend witch training, middle school classes, and her friends. What happens when all of a sudden her witch training school is going to be shut down, she makes a mistake while trying to save it, and she her best friend is mad at her? Well that’s a lot for one 12 year old girl.
This book isn’t just about magic and cooking. There are so many great things discussed like owning your mistakes, apologizing when your wrong, and so many others. I think this would make such a great middle school book club book. (I might even do it for my middle school library.) I will definitely get a copy and recommend it.

A charming story about a magic school, baking, friendship, and determination. When Kyana discovers she's a witch she finds herself lying to her BFF, trying to learn spells that will help her overworked mom around the house, and entering a baking competition to save the magic school in her neighborhood. I loved the determination Kyana had to fix her mistakes, prove adults around her wrong, and show that even though she and her friends are young, they can solve big problems. Middle school students will truly enjoy it!
Thanks, NetGalley!

I loved loved loved this middle grade! The ,magic and plot just swept me away and all the references to food was just so fun to see in a middle grade. Our maiin character is loveable and you root for her from the start. I think over all this is exactly what i would recommend to new readers and readers who love fantasy.

Let me start with this, J. Elle never fails. This book was delightful! We meet a sweet main character thrusts into a world of magik that she wasn’t even aware of. Her heart is pure and her connection with her beautiful grandmother is such a rich addition to the story. As it did in Wings of Ebony, food plays a critical role in this story. For my HEA family, this one is for us!

A magic school in a real world setting and some baking too!

I liked that this book is set in a regular town and focuses on some middle school kids instead of creating a fantasy land for witches. The characters are relatable and their struggles can be translated to real world issues.

This story isn't overly complex and a bit predictable, but a good amount of content for the intended age group.

I hope Kyana has some follow-up adventures now that she has figured out her magic more.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a copy of this ARC for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. Kyana is a great character and I forgot that she is only twelve sometimes. Getting to go through the discovery of her magic as she does was wonderful.

I want to start by saying this is my first J.Elle book and I’m so glad that I read it. I have tried to read Wings of Ebony but couldn’t get through how annoyed I was with Rue. While I did find myself annoyed with Kyana, I loved her even more. Thank you Netgalley and Bloomsbury USA Children for providing me an eARC in exchange for a honest review. A Taste of Magic was full of lessons for adults and children.
First, I love magic schools and I really want to see what happens to PRMA. This novel was full of fun moments as often as heavy moments. It has the perfect mix of living and learning that is perfect for children and middle grade readers. Being able to see a healthy household of Black women is also something that I loved about the book.

I honestly do not have any negative comments about the book. I’m not a hate reader an me finishing says a lot. But, I do feel like I would love to see Kyana and the gang develop as witches and wizards.

I definitely recommend this book; I left considering themes of forgiveness, consideration, and servicing the community.

Thanks to Bloomsbury/NetGalley for the ARC! I really enjoyed how magic imbued the neighborhood and came from quotidian places in Park Row. Can't wait to see more of that worldbuilding in the next book! 3.5 stars

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Touch of Magic focuses on a young girl named Kyana that on her birthday discovers a family secret: she is a witch. Soon Kyana has to balance regular school, hiding her new secret from her best friend Nae, going to magical school, and more. All while is she is discovering this new world of magic around her.

Pros: K. Elle creates nuanced characters with deep relationships to each other. The relationships created in the book feel real and contribute to the a greater sense of conflict when these relationships are strained. I think that the plot of balancing what feels like two separate worlds is something that will always be relatable to middle grade readers. Elle did a good job of showing the internal and external conflicts Kyana was having.

Cons: Overall, the parts of the book that didn't work for me were very minor. I felt like the world-building focused a lot on the products or types of spells available, but it could have built the organizational or lore of this world a little bit better. Like the mentions of this Board of Magick were there, but it didn't explain how it worked. Why are Magick and non-magicks communities kept separate. It's probably being saved for a sequel, so I didn't bother me too much, but just something I noticed.

Such an easy read! J. Elle hits all the right points with this one. The sense of adventure is here throughout. The subtle sense of humor is on point. The stakes are clear and relevant to the character. The imagery is beautifully painted through the words.

J. Elle's transition from writing YA to this MG debut is flawless. The strength with which she writes girls like Hyana are inspiring and they too deserve to be heroes.

A Taste of Magic was a book I extremely hyped about, and I am so glad it did not disappoint whatsoever! It was so good that I consider it to be one of the best books in 2022, and one of my all time favorite books! A Taste of Magic really brought out my love for fantasy and middle grade especially since I loved magic, magic schools and food and this book, had everything I loved!

J. Elle wrote such a magnificant book that I am now awaiting for both this book to drop, and the sequel to especially if you love magic Black girls, food, and learning about the magic that resides in your neighborhood! It also shows some potential about the magical world that I really hope will be explored in the next book!

Thank you to #NetGalley, J. Elle, and the publisher of this book for the eARC copy in exchange for an honest review.
Kyana just celebrated her 12th birthday and found out some crazy news.....she's a witch! Being a witch in her town requires going to magic school each Saturday for six months. The only thing Kyana is not allowed to do? Share her information with her BFF, Nae. Soon, the secret starts causing a rift between friends and to make matters worse, the community magic school may have to close! What is Kyana going to do? What she know best...baking! Kyana decides to enter her town's baking competition in hopes that she can win the prize money and save her school. The only questions is, will she be able to do it?

What a great idea for a middle grade novel! I thought Kyana was a very relatable character and one young girls could relate to. She has her struggles, but she also has many talents that shine bright when she lets them! While my students are younger, I will definitely recommend this book to the kids I tutor at a local center.

J. Elle used only the best ingredients in "A Taste of Magic: A strong and brave heroine finds herself trying to protect her newly found school of magic and her mother and grandmother who come from a strong line of witches. I hope this is only the beginning of the story for Kyana and her family and friends.

<p><em>A Taste of Magic</em> is a fun middle grade fantasy that will bring a touch of the familiar to readers who love a good story about a child discovering they have magic and then learning how to use it.

The book starts out with elements similar to middle grade stories, but a few chapters in, it branches out in something a bit more unique. And Kyana helps the book stand out with her strong personality and determination to excel at magic and help her family. There's also a new take on the idea of a magic school here in that, one, there's a small school for each neighborhood in the city instead of one large school and, two, Kyana's school has the misfortunate of being painfully underfunded compared to some of the other school's. The story becomes one that is as much about Kyana's community and her mission to get her school its fair share of funding as it is about the magic of, well, discovering you have magic.

Add in a subplot about baking, which ties in a bit to Kyana's skills with potions, and some cool magical cats, and you have a book that is sure to please a ton of readers. (And there are recipes in the back of the book! Not that I ever personally remember to get around to trying any recipes listed in the back of books . . .)

There are a couple of what I personally consider to be major plot holes in the book (which I won't elaborate on here because I want to avoid spoilers, but you can DM me on Twitter or something if you really want to know!). I assume the hope is that the target audience won't notice or care. Considering none of the current reviews on Goodreads mention these plot holes either, I also have to assume I am, once again, the only person scratching my head at the clear lack of logic in a book.

Overall, the book is solid, and I think it will really resonate with its target audience. I love the main character and her heart, and I love that there's a slightly different take on how to learn magic here.

Great message for middle graders, learning about differences, true magic, good character development. The characters are relatable and varied. Added bonus of recipes at the end!

This book was really good! I adored J. Elle’s young adult books so I thought I’d give this one a try.