Reviewed by Carissa
TITLE: Recipe for Magic
AUTHOR: Agatha Bird
PUBLISHER: Harmony Ink Press
LENGTH: 62 pages
BLURB:
Connor Roth is a fire mage who’s going places. He’s powerful, popular, and he has a plan. But his plan for fame and glory is disrupted when the Oracle sticks him with Landyn Glendower for Senior Trial. This is an act unprecedented in their school’s history. Landyn is a water mage, and everyone knows mages with opposing elements can’t work magic together.
Connor is left with a choice: work alone and fail or swallow his pride and work with Landyn to find a way to combine their magic in a display the Archmages will never forget—if they don’t get kicked out of school in the process.
REVIEW:
I had totally skipped over this book originally because I had seen that it was YA, and that really isn’t something I go out of my way to check out. But a few weeks later I was looking around for something different to read, and this book came up again, so I thought I would give it a closer look. I loved the cover, and the blurb sounded interesting, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try. It’s only 60 pages, so what’s the worst that could happen?
Thankfully this book turned out to be really good. And I would have happily read for another hundred pages. In fact, I hope that Agatha Bird decides to write more stories in this world, because not only were the MCs really good, the world and magic here are worth a closer look.
Connor has a bit of an ego problem, to begin with, seeing as how his father is some bigwig mage who works closely with the King. And just about everyone expects him to do as well, if not better than dear ol’ dad. He was a bit of a ass to Landyn in the beginning, but as the story goes along, and Connor sees exactly what his ‘friends’ are made of, they start to have something resembling a friendship (and maybe a bit more) growing between them.
The enemies-to-lovers aspect of this book was very well done. And I quite enjoyed the magical hissy-fits they threw at each other. With them being of opposing natures magically, they are quite evenly matched (much to Connor’s consternation), but it is their more personal natures that are quite similar. They work very well with each other once they get over themselves, and while the whole Misunderstanding at the end felt a tad bit forced, the solution was rather cute. And much in keeping with their growing feelings for each other.
I might not read a lot of YA, but I do know what I like when I read it. And this I like. Even if YA is not really your thing, I would suggest giving this a look.
RATING: 
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