Parties and Potions

Title: Parties and Potions

Author: Sarah Mlynowski

Pages: 341

Delacorte Press, 2009

Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Fantasy

Recommended to: Teen girls, 12-16, who want a magical read

Rating: A!

   Life's good for high school sophomore Rachel Weinstein: last year, she learned her mom and sister, Miri, were witches, and over the summer developed powers of her own. Her longtime crush Raf Kosravi is finally her boyfriend, and together they take the place of the class's cutest couple. 

   Except this year, there's a new girl, Wendaline, in school--and she's a witch, too! Except she's totally clueless about the "notch" (non-witch, think "Muggle") world, and thinks it's perfectly acceptable to wear cloaks and pointy hats to class, along with disappearing in the blink of an eye, zapping herself into the cafeteria, and blabbing her secret to the whole school!

   But as well as being an all-around pain, Wendaline teaches Rachel and Miri about the teen witch world when the sisters sign up for Samsorta lessons--classes that prepare them for a magical type of debutante ball that introduces them to the witch world! As well as learning spells, potions, and witchy etiquette, Rachel and Miri meet other teen witches like them whose idea of "hanging out" is going to Paris for dinner, partying on the Golden Gate, poofing over to the Swiss Alps for skiing (on a school night!), and zapping themselves to Hawaii to catch some waves. The sisters even meet cute witch boys (aka warlocks)....but what about Raf, who doesn't even know Rachel's secret?

   I love this series. For instance, this book (the fourth in the "Magic in Manhattan" series), was fun from start to finish. I loved all the quirky new characters introduced in this novel, the creative spells, the funny witch lingo (norlock! Brixta! Samsorta!), and the sparkling creativity that made this book such a blast to read.

   Let's start with the atmosphere: Mlynowski created an awesome witch world that just glowed with so much originality that I wish I could be a witch so I could see all the fun places and experience all the things that went on in the story, from all the Simsorta parties, to Lozacea, back to Manhattan...

   I'll admit, when I started this one, I was thinking, The previous three books were so amazing, what if this one is terrible? I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, it was the best out of all of the books! I was worried about this book being repetitive, about Mlynowski not having anything new to write about, but the new characters and plot threads just made the novel so much more refreshing and unique from the rest of the series! Rachel really developed as a character, from kind of immature and whiny to realistic and fun to read about.

   At a glance, Parties and Potions looks like a big novel, but the plot moved quickly. There was always more action to come (I guess that's what life is like when you're a witch)!

   Overall, I am dying for more books in the series. *drops to knees* Please, Sarah, please!  One word to describe this one? Amazing. Or fun. Or hilarious. Enchanting. Fast. Light. Awesome! People who haven't read this series yet, you have a magical read in store for you! (:

PS. I won't be here for the next four days, but I'll be back on Sunday...So expect the weekly Monday Muse, giveaway (last one of March Madness!!!), and more reviews to come...Have a great end of the week! (: