THE CHARMED LIST......UNFRIENDLY FORMER FRIENDS....LIGHTLY DUSTED WITH MAGIC

 The Charmed List by Julie Abe (2022)

Kind of perplexed on this one.

           I'd guess 85 per cent of it centers around a well known predictable, but nevertheless sweetly entertaining romance. Traditional YA tropes are all in place here......Ellie and Jack have taken that familiar journey from childhood friends to toxic teen estrangement. Of course we know they're soulmates meant for each other and it's going to take a forced compulsory road trip throwing them together to make that long awaited falling-into-each-others-arms happen. 

            What I didn't quite understand........ the book going to all the trouble of  framing  this story around the world-building of a contemporary magical universe......sort of a kinder, gentler Harry Potter-Lite world,  where the magic folk mostly function as benevolent retailers marketing all varieties of supernatural charms.

              To its credit, "The Charmed List" does in fact use all of the magic stuff that Jack and Ellie use, sell or encounter in service of their rekindling of affection for each other.......and their inevitable but wonderfully conceived and written reconciliation. 

              But I couldn't help thinking that this story could just as easily been told without all the accumulated bric-a-brac of the magical world surrounding it.  To put it this way, I would have found Jack and Ellie's bumpy road back to each other still charming even without all the charms.

              For everyone who can't resist yet another "friends-to-enemies-to-swoony-kiss'  novel, "The Charmed List"  still ends up as a satisfying 3 star read. (***)