The quick cut: A teen girl on a winter break trip with her male best friend to Japan tries to work up the courage to admit her romantic feelings. Chaos ensues when it goes south due to a potion.
A real review:
Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing the arc for an honest review.
Friends falling in love is a common writing trope, but how far would you go to express yourself? For Remy, she would take a magical potion to get her best friend Cam to fall in love with her.
Remy and Cam have known each other as long as they can remember. Growing up, they made prank potions together and went as a just friends date to homecoming. Remy has secretly been wanting to tell Cam that her feelings for him are more than friendly, but she's struggling to get the words out. Can magic save her?
I loved this author's prior book, "The Charmed List", so seeing this one made me automatically want to read it. Unfortunately, where Charmed List has characters that were dynamic and well written, this story has superbly flat characters that couldn't be more dense if they tried. It's not a pretty sight as a reader.
Remy and Cam are obviously in love from day one, which is actually what ruins the story. If the love already there was slowly revealed instead, it would have been far more intriguing to read. Everyone else around them knows they love each other too, which only makes it worse. I quickly started to loathe all the characters involved.
The magical element is different and fun, but the characters truly ruined a great structure. More focus on character development could have saved this book from a lower rating.
A fun concept ruined by flat characters.
My rating: 3 out of 5