I personally, didn't enjoy this book too much. I don't think I'm really the correct audience for it and I had to push myself through the book. I ended up skimming a lot of the descriptions as they didn't really interest me that much. I felt like there were too many characters with similar personalities that it drew me out of the book. I also am not a fan of books swapping narrators without it being really clear so that did bug me a bit while reading. Overall it isn't a bad book, but not one I would want to pick back up again or recommend to those in my circles.

The Disney Channel "Halloweentown" (1998) vibes I got from this book : Immaculate.

We are introduced to Felix Silver who is going to spend a year with his magical grandmother in a cute english town while his parents sort through a divorce. We soon discover this cute town has some secrets and teens begin to disappear at a startling rate. It’s up to Felix and his new friends (and a very cute boy with pretty eyes) to figure out what's up. And of course, there's lots of magic!

My main critiques of the book are more so in the formatting. Firstly, the book took place in England but there were not only a lot of Americanisms used, but also the spelling was American English not British English - I think it would just be easier at this point to change the location to a fishing town in Maine or something. Secondly, when the point of view started to switch between Felix and his love interest Aero I started getting a little lost as to who was talking and would read a solid page before my brain comprehended the switch (having them both live with a grandmother they refer to as “gran” did not aid this.) - Just having the name of the point of view under the chapter title would solve this!

This is a super cute and fun YA about magic, friends, trust, and teaspoons. I definitely recommend this to anyone who’s a hardcore "Halloweentown" fan like myself.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Interlude Press or the Advance Reader Copy of this book!

(Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review)

2.5⭐️ rounded up because I’m nice

Felix Silver, Teaspoons & Witches was not a good book. It definitely wasn’t a terrible one and not necessarily a bad one either, it was just very meh. I never cared about the characters (except Aggie she was awesome) or the plot. I had a few issues with the writing as well; the pov switches were very confusing, and I never actually understood whether the book was set in the US or England.

Still, it was a quick and easy read and if the description interests you then sure read it, I will just never personally recommend it.

Felix Silverm Teaspoons, and Witches by Harry Cook was a quick fast paced read. If I had to accurately rate it, I would give it a 3.5, but will round it up to 4 stars. It was a fantasy that involves seventeen years olds and it read as novel written for a much younger audience.

Although the characters are a bit older (17), this story could easily be a middle-grade read. There was solid bisexual representation and an enjoyable plot with magic grandmas!
This book is an adventure fit for a younger audience.

Two points that lowered my rating were:
The POVs switched for different chapters without being labeled. It took a couple paragraphs to figure out who was speaking since they were both written in first person and they didn’t sound different. This leads me to my second point - both grandmothers were named Gran, which made it extremely confusing to read and figure out who was speaking.

I read this with the older children and they thought that the protagonists seemed nice but a bit immature. They thought that some of the storyline would have suited their younger siblings better. They were rather confused by some of the American terminology and questioned where the book was set /where the characters came from. But overall we enjoyed the story and were glad that we had read it.

This was a cute novel that I think others will enjoy if you want a quick fantasy read that you don't have to take too seriously!

I had fun with this novel until about halfway through, and that's where it kind of lost me. The POV's start switching between Felix and his love interest, Aero, and honestly there wasn't really a way to tell their voices apart. It was also pretty easy to guess the ending from there. And I will say that some of the pop culture references used weren't exactly my favorite, some of it just felt forced. I won't lie, I started to lose interest in this about 70% of the way through.

With that being said though, I do think it's a cute novel, and it has a good ending, so I think a lot of others will enjoy it!

I'm not the hugest fantasy reader, because the books often feel overly dense and complex to me. This is why I really enjoy middlegrade fantasy, because it's more fun and whimsical. There's a reason I'm saying this, even though Felix Silver is YA, because it has the exact same feel to it. And at the same time, it very much feels like a YA, which I find impressive - it would be easy for the story to feel too young. This book more or less reads like a fantastical cosy mystery, and I had so much fun reading it. It was so cute and wholesome and fun.

Thank you NetGalley and Interlude Press for this eARC, these opinions are my own. I enjoyed Fin, Rye, and Fireflies very much so when I heard Harry Cook had another book coming out I couldn’t wait to read it! I was not disappointed! Felix Silver ends up staying his final year of high school with his grandma while his parents sort out there divorce. This also gives him an opportunity to study more about magic and develop his powers. It’s not long before he finds out something is happening in Dorset Harbor, kids are going missing, with the help of his friends Fern and Charlie and mysterious boy Aero he’ll set out to solve the case. But will they survive in the process? And what if the person doing it is someone they know? Is something happening with Aero when Felix swore off love? This book was super fun! There was a touch of mystery, which I am really into right now so I loved that! I also really enjoyed the take on magic and the adventure they go on to figure out what’s going on! Then there’s Aggie, Felix’s grandma, she’s so patient and caring, we all could use an Aggie in our lives! I loved the relationship between Felix and Aero, it was fun reading about their growing relationship and the ups and downs! An added bonus as well there are even chapters given from Aero’s point of view, which was really nice to read for both sides! For those who might be looking for a different series with witches and magic to read I highly recommend this book! I couldn’t put it down! I can’t wait to read it again when it comes out!

Felix Silver is quite the burgeoning young witch! Aggie Silver, on the other hand, is both the best Grandmother and witch that can be in Felix's life. One of the best parts about this book is the radical acceptance that permeates from Aggie to Felix. Their relationship is full of respect and genuine love for each other. Felix is also a easy character to love as he sets his sights on conquering some big firsts in his life, his first new love, his first familiar, and plenty of new friends in Aggie's town. This was an enjoyable book from start to finish with cute characters and a fun final fight scene. Check it out!

I had problems with this book and it was such a shame because the premise was so promising.

It was a quick and easy read and I had no particular problem finishing it. But the writing irritated me right from the start. It was very cliched, basic and bored me quickly.

The main character was supposed to be 17, but he felt very immature for that age. He felt more like a middle grade protagonist, which isn’t a bad thing, but when you’re expecting YA and it comes off younger, it’s rather frustrating. Other than that, I thought the author did well with the character’s voice and personality. It just didn’t feel as realistic as it could have done.

Another thing I found super annoying was it was supposed to be set in England. However, as a British person I was confused and disappointed to hear things said/referred to as American. Just to pick out a couple, Felix refers to the year groups as ‘senior year’ instead of ‘year 11/sixth form’, and spelling differences.

I loved the LGBT representation, and the plot was interesting enough. But unfortunately for me, it wasn’t for me. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher, for a chance to read and review this book.

Ugh. I don't even know where to start with this. I received it as an ARC, so I know that some things will be changed between now and the publication date (Aug 30th), but I can only review based on what I received...

First, what I loved: Harry Cook introduces readers to a set of characters with very modern views on sexuality and relationships. Not only is one character gay, and one bi, but he even suggests alternative relationship styles, such as polyamory.

What I didn't love: This book needed a lot more editing and polishing before going out to beta readers. There was no punctuation to designate paragraph divisions. Some sentences were split by line breaks. There were a couple instances where the wrong word or tense was used. The POVs are not designated, leaving the reader to try and figure out, from context, who the “I” is referring to. Two characters are referred to as “Gran,” which lends to the confusion without a properly designated POV. The characters felt underdeveloped and could have almost been interchangeable.

Even though this book is marketed as YA, I don't think that the actions/reactions of the characters were particularly indicative of high school students. They felt considerably younger. Even the writing style felt much more suited for a Middle Grade audience.

A special thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you, Duet Books (Interlude Press). for allowing me to read Felix Silver, Teaspoons & Witches early.

I adored Fin & Rye & Fireflies and had high expectations for Harry Cook's sophomore. Sadly, I didn't enjoy this book as much as his YA debut and I feel conflicted about it. Maybe it's because this is a fantasy whereas Fin & Rye is a contemporary story, or maybe it's because of the dual narrative that wasn't that distinctive. Overall, an okay read.

The writing was kind of all over the place. I wanted it to be more like The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna. Fun, cozy, empowering, escapist... Unfortunately it wasn't. I couldn't tell how old the character was--it sounded like 8 or 12 but then he's in high school so it turns out he's older? And then not all the British elements sounded right, so I wondered if it was actually set in America? But then no, it was supposed to be Britain. Also some word usage errors, e.g. "intrinsic grooves" on a handle. Grooves are indented or incised or impressed or something like that, but not intrinsic. DNF at 21%.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This was a great quick read, I thoroughly enjoyed Felix and Aero's relationship, and the fact that they just... go together. They had some conflict, but not very much, and most of the book I just got to read about them being cute together. The plot and all the different details of this story were just perfect. For me, the pacing was a bit slow in the beginning, but it was such a quick read for me that it didn't matter that much.

Felix is sent to live with his Gran while his parents sort out their marital woes.

He’s not expecting a whole lot beyond learning more about his newly discovered magic from his grandmother, but finds friends and romance.

When teens start disappearing it mirrors a situation from hundreds of years ago when a Silver ancestor was accused of the act.

With doubts about his Gran’s involvement, Felix and his friends set out to figure out exactly who is behind the disappearances.

What a wonderful bit of escapism from everyday life this book is!
Admittedly I felt there were quite a few similarities here to other famous Wizard/magic stories (familiars from His Dark Materials, best friend sidekicks 1 male, 1 female for example) HOWEVER, this still retained enough originality to be refreshingly new and exciting.
I can see it adapted for film or TV for sure.

This was such a fun, cute, and entertaining magical YA story that I found it hard to put down.

What I loved: 😁

❤ Felix and Aero were both pretty adorable and I easily grew to care about them both.

❤ Felix's grandmother was so caring and her magical abilities were insane.

❤ The group of friends helping their less talented friend, Charlie, with his magic.

❤ The baby dragon, even if it felt pretty underutilized.

What I did *not* love: ☹

❌ The unlabeled point-of-view swaps, which came out of the blue and were confusing as to who was currently narrating.

❌ We weren't specifically told where the story was taking place, which I assumed was somewhere in England, if for no other reason that the insane amounts of tea. And that they thought *instant* coffee was even the slightest bit "good". *cringes*

❌ For the story to have been ~300 pages, I expected more deeply-layered character backgrounds, versus a just a few superficial facts about past events.

❌ The romance was ankle-deep, at best, and was more akin to teenage infatuation or insta-love.

❌ The Big Fight Scene at the end ended way too quickly, *poof* and it was just over, without any explanation of the specific spell used to defeat The Big Bad Bitch.

Overall, I did thoroughly enjoy the book; however, I would've appreciated more in-depth character building and a more challenging final battle, instead of feeling as though the story had one more round of fleshing out to do, but got sent to the publisher before that happened.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. This is listed as YA and the main characters are seniors in high school. But in a lot of ways they act much younger. (To the point where when they mention college acceptance letters at the end, I was surprised because I had forgotten they were that old.)

In some ways the adventure they go on feels more like a middle grade adventure (except for staying overnight at places). Things also just seem to go too easily for them. And magic doesn't seem to have a "price"--no drain of energy or anything. Felix can literally pull items out of thin air.

The book starts out in 1st person POV with Felix. But close to the halfway point, Aero also becomes a POV character (also 1st person), and there's no indication with each chapter who the POV character is. So there's an abrupt addition of the other POV and then it's not always clear which one is the POV of that chapter until several paragraphs in. Also compounding the confusion is that both boys call their grandmothers Gran. There are plenty of possible names they could call their grandmothers. Why use the same one? Sometimes that got me confused about whose POV I was reading mid-chapter.

And **SPOILER** what happens to Felix's dragon familiar? It seems like just a convenient plot point for transportation purposes and then doesn't get mentioned again at the end of the book. How did his grandmother feel about him having a dragon as a familiar? Where did the dragon sleep?

I do think that younger YA readers might enjoy this book, but it just didn't resonate with me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC.

Sometimes, the book that you need the most in a particular situation will arrive in your life just in time.
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That‘s exactly what happened with Felix Silver, Teaspoons and Witches for me. When I started to read it I was grieving (and still am) and this wonderful little novel made my heart feel lighter.
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If you like magic, this is for you. This story is so incredibly wholesome, funny and endearing, that i could not put it down. Harry Cook‘s writing has a lightness to it that makes his books (if you haven‘t read Fin & Rye & Fireflies, this is your sign to do so) feel like a warm hug on a cold winter night. It is beyond charming and I immediately fell in love with it after only a few pages.
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There is not only witchcraft to charm you, but a romance that is to die for. Trust me, there will be swooning. You still need more reasons? How about eccentric, quirky grandmothers? A kickass group of besties? Early morning coffee hangouts? Magic quests? And my favourite: The familiars. Every magical person has an animal to be with them forever and ever. What a wonderful thought.
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Felix Silver, Teaspoons & Witches is out on the 30th of August and if you pre-order one book until then, let it be this one.
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Five glowing stars and my eternal love for this book ❤️