Felix Silver, Teaspoons & Witches by Harry Cook is an exhilarating mid-grade story about the power of friendship and family. When Felix goes to stay with his Grandmother Aggie he expects to learn a bit of his family history and maybe a little magic. Instead he is thrown into a dark mystery that threatens to tear his family trust apart and unleash a curse decades old onto the sleepy town of Dorset Harbor. This is a magical, light book that keeps the pace quick with funny anecdotes and a bit a sweet summer romance. It's a great book for kids who love Percy Jackson, Lemony Snicket, or The Witches. I would recommend to any mid grade reader who loves fantasty and witchcraft with a grand helping of heart and family love.

This book was an okay read. It's well written, and there are some good characters - I particularly loved the quirky witchy granny. I feel as though this book reads more like a middle-grade novel than YA. Because I was expecting YA, I was a bit surprised at how immature the characters were.

This book could definitely benefit from some editing. I found the POV switches to be very confusing. The voices were quite similar and there were no chapter headings to give me a clue. This may change for the published version - so there's that.

There were some odd references to things that would have been pop culture more than a decade ago - the one that comes to mind is Jerry Springer. I know it wasn't directly from someone very young - but I doubt anyone in the targeted age group would know the reference.

Lots of imagination in the plot. I loved the magic, the way it was learned and described. The story over all was good. Fixing the POV would make it much more readable

Thanks to Netgalley for sending me a review copy of this book.

I was promised a queer story of witchy adventure, which I was super excited for, and I was just as disappointed. Much as it pains me to say this...the book delivered poorly.
Let's just look at the problems one by one:
- The dialogue is stilted. Characters hardly have their own voice and aren't expressive, everyone talks the same and there are no moments that make anyone stand out
- Characters react to events depending on plot demands. The main character makes a huge deal out of one thing, but easily forgives two very similar things, one of which I found extremely disagreeable but was never discussed
- The style simply fails to bring the world to life, which is a death sentence for a book based on whimsical magic. A lot of times, the main character just robotically states his obvious thoughts in the middle of narration, interrupting dialogue, and most characters are only ever described by their clothing.
- Nothing happens in the first half (which would be ok if the characters were interesting) and the plot of the second half turns out to be pure buffer, with an ending that renders it all unnecessary
- The twist in this book was so predictable that it became painful to watch the characters disregard a glaringly obvious option
- This book is also unnecessarily mean spirited towards women who like fashion, every antagonist girl or woman is compared to a fashion model of some kind
- Almost every important conversation is interrupted by another character just as someone is about to say something important. I'm not even understating if I say that happened like 20 times or so, if not more. Feels like it happened every other chapter or so.
- The "message" at the end is heavy handed and has little to do with the rest of the story
- And why is the grandma too cool for seatbelts????

The romance was alright. There were cute moments, but the problems I've mentioned made it hard to enjoy it fully. Thumbs up for the biphobia callout and bi rep. Some chapters in the middle I found myself enjoying, but sadly, it didn't last. As much as I want to say good things about this book, because this IS the kind of book I want to read and see published and succeed, this one just didn't deliver and is in dire need of edits that could turn it into the lighthearted charming witchcraft adventure it wants to be.

witches, magic, missing people! yayy
okay this book was so good! i got an e-arc from netgalley, but once this comes out on august 30th, read it! it's a decently short book, 300 pages. well I guess not that short, but it felt extremely short due to how fast-paced it was.
kinda got those harry potter vibes going on with charlie being ron and fern being hermione-and then there's aero. speaking of characters though, all of them are extremely likable, aero and felix both being super cute, and the cutest of them all, GRANNY! (felix's gran ofc not aeros)
its not a super epic fantasy; although there are dragons and mermaids, it doesn't go into detail and is only worth like at most one chapter of the whole novel. going back to the harry potter vibes, the book is modern with references and such, making it more relatable. there was one part when they talked about HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON so yep <I>bonus points</i> (how to train your dragon is prob has the best soundtrack in existence)
anyways yeah, it was super funny and a really quick read with very entertaining characters :)

Felix Silver has come to stay with his aunt in Dorset Harbor as his parents are going through a divorce and its time for him to learn to control his magical powers; his Grandma Aggie schools him in the ancient arts. He meets Aero but tries to fight his attraction as he has been let down before. He forms a friendship group and they get drawn into investigating the mysterious disappearance of teenagers from the village. There are a lot of elements I enjoyed about this book but it is hopelessly confused about whether it is set in the US or UK. Also, themes seem to conclude too easily so it lacks depth in places but maybe that's because its a YA book.

I was given a free e-copy of this novel by NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

After his parents announce that his bizarre, emerging abilities are getting in the way of their divorce, Felix Silver relocates to Dorset Harbor and becomes the charge of his Grandma Aggie. As Felix adjusts to life in a new school, Aggie decides that it's time he learn The Silver Way, and teaches him all she knows about sorcery and magical arts. When Felix and his new friends decide to solve the mystery of local teenagers who have gone missing, Felix learns that his crush, Aero, has a big secret. Is dark magic creeping into the town, and can Felix learn enough from Aggie and the witches of Dorset Harbor to combat it? (Goodreads Synopsis)

I have not read anything by Harry Cook prior to this.

The best way to describe this novvel is cute, adorable, magical, but that’s it. There was no major awestruck moment for me. I thought the POV’s changing with each chapter made it a bit confusing, especially since both boys were calling their grandmothers by the same nickname “Grams”. Maybe change one or put at the top of each chapter who’s POV the reader will be experiencing. I was also confused as to timeline. If he just started school, then how was it the weekend in the next chapter?

The romance felt rushed. I understood it’s importance but it seemed like a joke towards teenagers and how they “always fall in love”, which just made it annoying. The friendships were nice, and the welcomeness from Aggie’s fellow witches was sweet.

I guess I just expected there to be more development with Felix and his magic. More lessons and less skip around.

Overall I rate this novel 3 out of 5 stars, because the lot was interesting, but the execution needed just a tad bit more description.

I'm very mixed on this book.

It's a light read, easy, fast and fluffy, much like a gay take on a kids fairytale.

Which is exactly its problem: the writing is Middle-Grade level. Too simple, the dialogue too childish, the plot very basic and the characters lacking depth.

If we weren't told they were 17, I would have thought they were 13 or 14.

This book would be a 4+ starts read if it was written as a kids story, but since it isn't, it's rather average for a gay YA story. A pleasant read nonetheless!

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Felix Silver, Teaspoons & Witches definitely had promise. Things were definitely cute, quirky, and highly entertaining for such a small town. I also really enjoyed the magic. Especially when it came from a certain grandma. If she had a fan club, I would definitely fight to become president or vice.

Other than that, we do get to meet some pretty interesting characters. Felix, Fern, Charlie, and Aero had their pros and cons. Maybe I'm being a little harsh, but it was a little annoying trying to figure out which point of view I was reading from. Also, it took me a while to figure out who I could or couldn't trust. At least with that friend group because everyone else was highly suspicious in my eyes.

We got some cute little romantic scenes but not much really happened. Then there's the overall mystery and side quest adventures. Some of it confused me but honestly, I was just here for the wild ride that this book was going to take me on.

In the end, I'm really happy that I got the chance to jump into this. The adventure was really cute, but things had potential to be developed a bit more. I also kind of wished that this was a bit longer since the ending felt rushed.

I love this title and it's definitely what drew me to the book initially. So cute and quirky that I had to know more about it. I found the story entertaining and the setting of a small English town by the sea was perfect for a witchy plot. There's a nice friendship and a sweet little romance that I also enjoyed. I think this was a good base, it just needed work on a couple things.

The pacing is almost breakneck speed, with things happening so quickly that it hindered the writing a bit. Felix has just discovered his magic, so his parents send him to live with his gran to learn more and gain control. He proceeds to become almost a master within a couple weeks, even though we barely see his gran teaching him. Even in a story with magic, I thought this was too unbelievable and wish the author would have taken time to develop Felix's journey more. The romance was also super rushed and again, would have benefitted from slowing down and giving us another hundred pages to see everything come together.

Some of the things the friends did to solve the mystery of the missing people ended up being a bit pointless and felt like filler to me. I think the author wanted to put a lot of action and adventure in, but skipped over world-building and character development. I wanted to know about Aero's past and learn really anything about Fern and Charlie other than them being friends.

This is definitely a great start and fun overall. It just needs a little more world and character development.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own. Thank you to Duet Books and NetGalley for the copy.

As Felix adjusts to life in a new school, Aggie decides that it's time he learn The Silver Way, and teaches him all she knows about sorcery and magical arts. When Felix and his new friends decide to solve the mystery of local teenagers who have gone missing, Felix learns that his crush, Aero, has a big secret.

Is dark magic creeping into the town, and can Felix learn enough from Aggie and the witches of Dorset Harbor to combat it?

Felix Silver, Teaspoons @ Witches is a quick, nice read. Felix has moved to a small seaside town to study magic with his Gran Aggie while his parents work on getting divorced. But kids are disappearing from the town. And then there's this boy....

I really enjoyed the set-up of this book. I liked the characters and the town, I liked the various little uses of magic throughout. The characters, if not deep, were fun. The milieu the author created is fun.

Once the story gets going, the plot races along. Sometimes it races too fast. I would have enjoyed a more leisurely pace and the change to dig in deeper on some of the relationships between the characters. Still, it was a good enough plot and the book held my interest.

This was like a cute fan fic version of harry potter and worst witch - two series I was obsessed with when I was younger. I love the relationship we see build between the Grandma and the main character, over all the entire book was a great easy read.

This was a cute, sweet, story. I really enjoyed the character building and the story. Would definitely recommend

Okay … That’s the first word that comes to mind after finishing this story. Sweet, cute, adorable, magical, easy to read, and overall … okay.
 
Felix, Silverspoons & Witches is Harry Cook’s sophomore YA book, and I adored his debut. And after that debut, I expected something more, something fabulous, something mesmerizing, something glorious. So, it was a bit of a bummer for me that I found this story just okay. This doesn’t mean that this story is bad or boring or whatever. I just found the characters a bit underdeveloped, the romance weirdly rushed, and the writing too simple.
 
This story will appeal the most to people who love cute and easy-to-read stories with HEA’s, adore a fantastic granny, want to turn off their minds for a while, and love to dream away on the magic and the love in this story. I think, though, that this book could be better if it were edited a bit more. I even believe that if Felix and Aero were about fourteen instead of seventeen and this book would have been pitched as an upper MG, Felix Silver, Teaspoons & Witches would easily have been a five-star read for me. But it’s YA, so I’m going to rate it as a YA.
 
I still can’t wait for what Harry writes next, and I secretly hope that it will be a contemporary YA again because that’s what he writes best, in my opinion (or an upper MG).

the story was great, I liked the plot an the characters.. but I felt like it was missing something? I cant really put my finger on it but it didn't have that lingering feeling of wanting to keep reading which might also have to do something with the many mistakes in the book that made it hard to follow the story time to time.

overall this is a 3.5 star read for me, I hope the author fixes the mistakes

this book definitely wasn’t aimed at the audience i would fit into, so i am writing this review with that in mind. 

i only set this book aside to sleep. i was very curious. so much so that i raced through to solve the unknown. i appreciated the mixture of topics with the magic, the fantasy, and the mystery aspects. there was a lot neatly packed into this adventure. i was attached to the characters very quickly and hope there’s a continuation of their stories in the future. 

it is categorized as young adult since they’re approaching college, but has a younger tone to it at times. i was reminded of the magic tree house, but with occasional obscenity and more romance than you’d expect in lower levels. considering the young feel to it, i loved that there were lgbtq+ main characters. it opens that perspective for younger readers and gives them the opportunity to see themselves on the page.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All Thoughts and opinions are my own. I enjoyed this book and the Story of Felix and his friends and seeing Felix fall in love and find his magic. It was aa very quick read for me, but I think if you give it a change if you like magic you will like this story.

First of all, please whomever is in charge of this arc, have it edited and fixed. There are random numbers, words, and even a random image that seriously throws you out of the story. The story itself needs to be edited. There are misspelled words, wrong words used, and putting in actual chapters with the name of whoever's POV it is going to be in would be great.

Onto the actual story.

The story itself was awesome. Absolutely over the top and full of magic.

Felix is a young gay teen who moves somewhere to be with his grandmother when his parents decide to divorce. Within a day, he meets his new best friends - Fern, Charlie and his love interest, Aero, who is bi and unashamed of it. He also finds out that teens are going missing in this magic friendly town and he and his friends are going to get to the bottom of it. Things happen, Felix gets real close to Aero, Felix finds his familiar (spoiler: its a baby dragon), things go boom and the bad person get stopped.

For some odd reason, at around 50%, the POV goes from Felix only to both Felix and Aero. Dunno why, and sometimes you have to wait until the person the POV is in says the other ones name to figure out who's head we are in. And we also have the weird pop culture items pop up. These are supposed to be teens, yet they talk and think like 30 year olds. I mean does anyone use Jerry Springer or Golden Girl references in YA anymore?

But over all, this was a good story and if it gets edited prior to launch, I would love it in audio.

This book was cuteeee! I really enjoyed the first half when we were introduced to the characters and the setting, but I admit I was a bit lost at times with where the story was going. I think the magical part would have benefited from being a tad more fleshed-out and the romance bit a little more slow burn. Do not read this when you are hungry, because the food mentions sounded delicious and it was torture on an empty stomach. I didn’t really mind the POV switches but I agree it would’ve been easier to stay in the story had there been any indication of when it was happening. Otherwise, it was easy to read and I finished this super fast.

While his parents are getting divorced, Felix Silver goes to live with his grandmother, Aggie, with the additional bonus of learning to control his magic. In Dorest Harbor, Felix finds new friends and Aggie's welcoming magical community. But everything isn't as it seems. Teenagers around town start go missing in what seems to be a repeat of events generations ago.

This was a quick and easy read. Harry Cook's story did best when dealing with sitcom esque town and its eccentric residents. But the pacing of the mystery was not as tense as I had wanted, nor was the pacing of Felix's relationship with mysterious Aero. I found my interest more drawn towards they older members of Dorest Harbor and their delightful and kind relationship with the town. Cook does a good job of creating a world that feels very much like a Sleepy Hallow or Halloweentown which is where I think this book is at its most charming. It was that charm that I wanted more of, especially in contrast to the idea the mystery side of of the story was offering. All in all, Felix Silver, Teaspoons & Witches wasn't a bad way to spend an evening.