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Lia and Beckett's Abracadabra by Amy Noelle Parks

Review by Adriana

lia and beckett bk cover

This book by Amy Noelle Parks provides a new perspective from  a teenage girl named Lia,  who loves magic, but her parents want her to study for the SAT more than they want her  to practice her magic magic tricks.  Emma, her older sister,has always been there for her and sometimes has her own troubles with which Lia tries to help out with. Lia has recently been through a break up and is looking for a fresh start to move on. When the opportunity arose for her to visit her aunt who was staying at Mirror Lake, a city with a history of magicians, she immediately wanted to go. Even though Lia had been to Mirror Lake before, she had always gone when her grandma had been there but since her grandma had recently mysteriously disappeared so Lia was hoping to find out where she had gone by visiting her aunt who was staying at her grandma’s  house for the summer.  After coming she meets Beckett, Chase, and Elliot Blackwell who were  a part of the rival Blackwell family with whom they would be competing against in a magic contest hosted by Lia’s mysterious grandmother. Her grandmother’s rule was to never date a Blackwell boy, but after Lia meets them she starts to rethink that rule. Over the course of the book Lia overcomes challenges such as gender discrimination, romantic difficulties, and more, but she finds creative and fun solutions to the problems. In the end there is always a happily ever after. 

 

     My favorite character in the book is Emma because I can relate to her the most. She is talented and smart,because she plays the piano, creative and kind, because she almost always has  a solution to Lia’s problems. but sometimes she doesn’t have the confidence to say what her true feelings are. When she wanted to confess to her crush she ended up going home and crying because he wanted to ask her for romantic advice for another girl.Emma was also willing to help Lia with her magic performances and motivated her to continue when she felt like giving up. This is a very important character trait that I think that everyone should have because of the positive effect it has on people. She also opened up to Lia and told her about her past experiences even though it may have been hard for her. This made the bond stronger between her and Lia. Without Emma, the story wouldn’t have been as interesting. 

      

     I think that this book would be more appropriate for readers 14+ due to some of the content being more appropriate for that age category. People who like romantic novels and people who like magic would love this book as it perfectly combines both into one magical story. This is the first time I ever read anything by Amy and reading this book makes me want to check out some of her other books. She used great vocabulary and wrote in a unique style. I also liked the storyline and the ending. Overall this was a great book and I give it five stars! 

 

Spoiler Alert!!: I had no idea that abracadabra meant ‘what I say/want, it will be

     

 

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