Thank you to @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

A Magical and Heartwarming Tale

The Charmed List is a delightful young adult romance that blends magic and friendship. Ellie, a young woman with a hidden magical ability, embarks on a journey of self-discovery and personal growth.

The story is filled with charm, humor, and heartwarming moments. The author skillfully balances the magical elements with relatable teenage experiences, creating a captivating world that readers will love. The budding romance between Ellie and Jack is both sweet and exciting, and their chemistry is undeniable.

The novel also explores important themes of friendship, family, and the power of believing in oneself. Ellie's transformation from a shy and reserved girl to a confident and determined young woman is inspiring.

Overall, The Charmed List is a heartwarming and magical read that will appeal to young adult readers.

4 stars

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This book was archived before I was able to download it onto my phone and I'm unable to leave a review.

This book was ok. It had some cute moments. Nothing was wrong with it but it wasn't for me. The narrator did a great job.

This book wasn't for me, so I didn't end up finishing it. I do think it was well written, so I'm giving it 3 stars!

Thank you to #Netgalley and #JulieAbe for my advanced reader copy! My thoughts and opinions are my own!

This one took me a little bit to get into, The premise was super adorable, Once I got into it, I started hating and loving characters, When you catch feelings like that you know you're into a book. I began to hate our MC's love interest, then I loved him, then I hated him again. Then I found myself rooting for them in the end. It was a cute and quick read. If you're looking for something different with a cute rom/com feel, give this one a try.

So stinkin cute!!! I loved to the friends to enemies/ rom-com / magicky story. Most of the characters are magic aware (cute phrase) and the magical elements are so fun. It’s not in your phase Magic so even if you aren’t a fantasy fan you’d enjoy this.

Adorable and Magical. This one took me a little longer to get in to it. I’m not sure if it was the narrator or the characters. A cute and lighthearted read. Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read in exchange for a review.

What an adorable story!

The best friends to enemies to lovers story, THE CHARMED LIST utterly enchants with its delightful characters and heartfelt themes of family, friendship, and first love.

Funny and sweet, with a bit of angst, The Charmed List was such an overall heartwarming read for me, and I adored the audiobook which was narrated by Natalie Naudus, and done so well.

*many thanks to Wednesday Books and Macmillan Audio for the gifted copy for review

I don't know WHY I was annoyed by so much of this book, so I am sorry. I didn't enjoy it on audio at all and ultimately borrowed it from my library to finish and it was okay? But there was so much weirdness not understood by the reader that I couldn't just enjoy a fun magical YA romcom.

THE CHARMED LIST
Julie Abe @ julieabebooks
Natalie Naudus @natalienaudus
YA/Supernatural Romance

This book follows two teens on their adventures in a secret magical community during the summer before their senior year of high school. After exposing the community to an outsider, they must spend the whole summer together.

Once you see YA as the genre, don’t stop reading there. This book was really good and not at all shallow like some YA books. Although the characters are in their summer before senior year, I really didn’t realize the age difference throughout the book. Some of the things they do I still do as a grown adult. I give this book a solid 5 out of 5 stars and recommend it to anyone who wants a bit of magic in their life.

This book was adorable! I don't know what I was expecting when I picked this up, but I was pleasantly surprised. The description of the book mentions magic, but it doesn't mention in the way that I though the characters would actually be using magic, or that there was a magical world, but there was, and it was beautiful. I loved the characters in this book and their arcs, it was the perfect coming-of-age story. It had love, loss, friendship and magic. Everything you need for the perfect YA love story. Will definitely recommend this one. The narrator also did a great job on bringing this book to life.

Natalie Naudus narrates Julie Abe’s The Charmed List about neighbors and former childhood best friends, Ellie Kobata and Jack Yasuda, who have drifted apart that take a road trip together down the coast of California to a magical convention. A quiet, shy artist and planner, Ellie’s ready to take some risks and have a life-changing summer. Her Anti-Wallflower List has 13 items she longs to check off—i.e., ride a rollercoaster, share her art on Instagram, and take an epic road trip with her best friend, Lia. Unfortunately, getting revenge on Jack (#4) takes a disastrous turn, throwing her summer plans off course. Will a road trip with cupcakes, magic tea, magical sparks of joy, enchanted villages/cottages, dances together beneath the stars, and a charmed to-do list help Ellie and Jack find their way back to each other, catching Ellie by surprise with #13 (fall in love)?

Naudus’ emotional and dynamic narration complements and elevates Abe’s novel, bringing the magical and romantic elements soaring to life. Her narration brilliantly expresses the emotional beats of Abe’s story, as she effortlessly changes tones within scenes and from one scene to the next. Naudus’ exceptional skill with vibrant narration gives characters distinct voices that reveal their personalities, moods, feelings, and quirks for each scene using cadence, pitch, dialects, accents, and emotion. Her voices for Ellie and Jack perfectly fit their characters. Naudus’ narration for Ellie is filled with longing, sadness, anger, and confusion, grabbing hold of your heart. Jack’s narration features uncertainty, mixed emotions, frustration, affection, and concern for Ellie that slips past his façade and tight control. The whimsical, airy, and buoyant opening music makes you think of magic and fairies, fantastically setting The Charmed List’s tone.

Ellie’s creative List gives her the chance to take risks to accomplish goals, face things she fears with courage, and take her outside her comfort zone. Abe’s creative mythology, deft worldbuilding, and vivid description wonderfully pair with Naudus’ animated narration to draw you into the novel. While Abe creates a story about magic, people who can wield magic, and magical places, the characters are still bound by some natural laws and experience the ups and downs of human existence, which leads to heartbreaking chains of events. Consequently, the novel’s tone is a bit more angsty and emotional than I expected, but Abe nicely balances this with sweet, lighthearted, and humorous moments.

She develops complex, imperfect, relatable characters through colorful, snarky, witty, and funny dialogue and interactions that make me ache for the loss, grief, and pain they struggled with and Jack and Ellie’s separation. The characters evolve organically with Abe’s fascinating story. Ellie longs to be seen and break out of her shell—free to be herself—but sharing her magic use/knowledge of magic could get her kicked out of the magic world. Unfortunately, Ellie hasn’t been able to be herself since she and Jack drifted apart. Abe beautifully examines the difficulty of losing a friend who’s been by your side for most of your life—like losing part of yourself. Naudus’ narration shines in these moments. Jack seems to still care deeply about Ellie. But it’s hard to reconcile that with his cold, aloof treatment and abandonment of her and their friendship. Jack’s reasons are complicated and heartbreaking, and the pain he caused is palpable. In his defense, parental pressure from his father interferes with their relationship. To make things even more complicated, Ellie struggles with not being able to share the truth with Lia and keeping secrets from her because she’s nonmagical.

Angsty, funny, introspective, and sweet, The Charmed List is an enchanting, entertaining, fanciful YA, enemies to lovers, ex/friends-to-lovers road trip romance about taking chances, self-discovery, rejecting labels, forgiveness, grief, loss, healing, and making changes in your life to be happy. I highly recommend the audiobook for Naudus’ performance which wonderfully complements Abe’s novel.

Advanced review copy provided by Macmillan Audio via Netgalley for review.

This novel is a sweet romance that got me away from my regular readings of angst. When I started to listen to the narrator of the story, my first thought was that the main character is going to sound like a "know-it-all" teen. And that this may be a long audiobook that I may not finish.

I was horrible wrong. While there were times in which, I just wanted to skip forward in the audiobook (this was because of Ellie's bad choices at times or the weird moments), the book was good. It is definitely a sweet, romantic change filled with a lot of magic.

The forced road trip was something that I saw happening from the start as there has to be something that makes the both of them come back together again. I loved the highlights on their relationship from when they were kids, a few of them made me think back on when I was a child and the fun that I had.

Overall, the narrator is a great pick for this book as she conveys a teen learning to get through the world and learning to love. I would not change this book for anything. It was a little jarring at first, since I try to shy away from romances like this, but this book was great!

I absolutely adored this book. I thought it was the perfect book for the "holding on to the end of summer but also looking forward to fall" feeling. This cute YA romcom with a dash of magical realism had me grinning like a fool. It follows two teenagers as one is trying to complete a bucket list of items to help her branch out of her wallflower-ness. Of course, when one of the items on her list (get revenge on her enemy) goes wrong, she has to embark on a road trip with said enemy. I ate it up and read in two sittings.

Superb audiobook as well!

This was such a cute, magical story! I really enjoyed how both characters developed throughout the book. I loved the side characters as well.

This magical coming of age with a small hint of romance is absolutely delightful. Ellie lives in a world of magic but with some restriction due to those who are not magic-aware. Her best friend doesn't know about magic and, as they plan for a road trip to South Carolina during summer break, a slip up occurs.

With forced proximity, an enemies to lovers, who once used to be friends, have to work through their troubles and get to know these new sides of each other. Ellie is a typical wallflower teen so is trying to break out of her shell. Jack is a troubled teen who's priorities changed due to a tragedy. These two distanced friends provides some drama and tension.

I love the idea of a wallflower adventuring out and getting to know herself better. Along with learning some tough lessons along the way. It speaks to my inner introvert!

I liked this audiobook. It held my attention and seemed to go by quickly. I loved the magical aspect - something different!

This is a sweet charming friends to enemies to lovers while in forced proximity on a road trip. What's not to love? I enjoyed the banter and the touch of magic in their story. .Ellie and Jack will steal your heart while finding out what lies in theirs.

This was my first Julie Abe's book. The Charmed List is beautifully written. Ellie and Jack are interesting characters. This is a great best friends/enemies to lovers romance. I loved to follow them in their road trip. The magical twist, is unique and original. The storyline is funny, sweet, and heartwarming. I enjoyed it! Natalie Naudus did an outstanding job with the narration. She definitely is on my list of favorite narrators. I enjoyed it!

Super cute YA romcom with a sprinkle of magic. Ellie has created a list of 13 items to complete over the summer so she can stop being a wallflower. She's enlisted her best friend Lia to help check items off the list as they take a road trip down California's cost. The problem? Before they leave, they tackle item #4 on the list -Revenge on Jack Yasuda - which doesn't go as planned, instead turning Ellie's world upside down. Now she's got to make her road trip with none other than her number one enemy - you guessed it, Jack - and try to face her list on her own.

Like I said, this is a cute, lighthearted YA romcom. The enemies-to-lovers storyline is driven by miscommunications and ultimately themes of forgiveness. Palo Alto felt like a perfect setting for this secret community of magic that lives side by side with the non-magic world.

I received an audiobook from NetGalley, the narrator Natalie Naudus does a great job. Listening to The Charmed List was a delight!

This is a fun book that will add a little romance and magic to your summer reading.