*This Review and more can be found on my blog Love at First Write

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

So the very first qualm I have with this book is that I thought it would be a cool story about a teenage witch, but this girl is a completely un-relatable, pretentious rich girl. And by rich I mean “both of her parents are famous movie stars, her family is rolling in it” rich. She’s used to servants and chefs doing everything for her and her mother dictating where and when she ate and of course has a bit of culture shock when she moves in with her Aunt in NYC while her parents are both filming in Egypt.

Olivia starts her first day of ninth grade of right (yeah ninth grade, and she’s a REALLY immature ninth grader) by befriending the two school outcasts and charming the hottest boy in her grade, Alex, to pretty much follow her around and be her loyal servant. And by charmed I mean literally. This boy is written to be was weak-minded and dumb as possible. His only apparent talent is his large collection of X-Men comics which he knows like the back of his hand. Aka he reads a lot and has an incredible memory. Two skills that Olivia and the author seem to dismiss. Yeah comics have pictures, but they also include lots off words and complex thoughts and he obviously absorbed all of it so how is it that a character like this is also portrayed as dumb? How is it that a character that reads so much and so easily is consistently made fun of for not being able to spell of know the right word for things? The way Alex is depicted is absolutely ridiculous! Olivia even stoops so low as to think that Alex is an animal who can be her Witch Familiar. It’s disturbing really.

Additionally, Olivia is written as extremely racist. For example, her first taxi driver wore a turban, which seemingly always reminds her of terrorism. Additionally, her next taxi driver, René, has an apparent French accent, but according to her he can't possibly have a french accent because he's black. Cause obviously there's not a single black person who can speak french. Because the French colonialism of Africa and the Caribbean clearly never happened, and there are evidently no people of color living in France. Seriously, this is a disturbing mentality to read.

The two friends that she made, Dulcimer and Paul, were quite interesting. Dulcimer is the daughter of two amazing, professional musicians, yet she can’t play anything herself. Paul seems to be the only person of color in the story and also happens to be gay. My first impression was that at least they tried to be diverse, but then about 2/3 of the way through the book Olivia decides that both of her friends would be happier not being themselves. So she decides to cast a magic spell on Dulcimer to enable her to be an awesome musician like her parents. Surprise, Surprise this ends up changing Dulcimer’s personality because people aren’t like machines where you can replace one singular part. What really pissed me off about this book is that Olivia, even after seeing the fallout from Dulcimer, decides to bring Paul in on her Witch secret and offers to use a spell on him to make him straight. I though this was going to be a semi-nice book about accepting diversity but nope, she wants to “fix” her gay friend and turn him white while she’s at it. It was a pretty disgusting scene. When he angrily turns down her proposition (thank god) she gets angry that nobody appreciates her and curses the school. When literally the entire book so far was her Aunt Tilda and her neighbor Eva telling her to pretty much not do magic and, if she does, to only use magic that won’t hurt anyone else. So now on top of EVERYTHING ELSE this ninth grade girl has decided to unleash 7 demons upon the school until everyone in the building is deceased. Wow. Great Going. Totally didn’t see that coming. At the same time I totally though she wasn’t idiotic enough to do that.

I honestly thought from the blurb that this book had some intriguing potential. Tone the girl’s background down a bit, create some 3 dimensional characters and add a bit more intelligence/general reasonability and this could have been a fabulous book. I will say the pure silly ridiculousness of the story line kind of made this book enjoyable. If you’re looking for a mediocre YA read to break up the dullness of your day, or are interested in a book including Wicca (though I personally don’t know how well represented the subject is) then this book may interest you. ( )

Be Careful What You Witch For by Thomas Hoobler
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 3/5stars
My Review:

Most kids would find it pretty spectacular to be the daughter of not one but two world-famous actors. Olivia is not most kids and she certainly finds it far, far from spectacular being the child of two world-famous actors. What the world doesn’t know is how much her parents fight, how much they drink, and how much they ignore her in order to pursue their own interests. Yeah, being the kid of two world-famous actors isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

When Olivia’s parents both sign on for a film in Egypt, Olivia is meant to be left behind. Rather than going to some swanky boarding school, Olivia chooses to live in New York with her eccentric aunt, Tilda and her beyond-curious cat, Julius. From the moment Olivia arrives in New York, she suspects there is something quite different about Tilda. She warm, charming, kind, and people seem to always do what Tilda needs done. Additionally, Tilda seems to always know what Olivia is thinking and often answers questions that have only just popped into Olivia’s head. Finally, there is the school Tilda has enrolled Olivia in, the Knickerbacker.

The Knickerbocker is a weird school that is populated by the wealthiest kids from in and around New York. To say these kids feel and act entitled is a harsh understatement and Olivia immediately understands, she is an outcast. Olivia has no intention of telling everyone who her parents really are which means she is relegated to the lowest of low on the social ladder. Olivia couldn’t care less and immediately befriends Paul and Dulcimer, the schools two biggest outcasts. As Olivia gets to know her new friends and sees how they are all treated by the schools’ popular kids, Olivia looks for ways to improve their lives. Enter, aunt Tilda and her weird Wiccan ways.

Tilda and her most ancient and delightful friend, Eva begin to instruct Olivia in the ways of Wicca but, like most kids, Olivia is impatient. She and her friends need help and the popular kids, especially Madison need to pay for their bad behavior. Without her aunt’s knowledge or consent, Olivia begins to dabble in witchcraft. Though her intentions are pure (sort of!) Olivia just isn’t knowledgeable enough about the craft to really understand the harm she can and does cause. Spells have consequences and before she knows it, Olivia has caused a significant amount of damage and managed to lose the only two friends she had.

The Bottom Line: Be Careful What You Witch For is decent YA read that I can certainly see appealing to actual young adult readers. With the exception of her über-famous parents, Olivia is a pretty typical kid who just wants to help her friends and fit in at school. She is young, naïve, impatient, and ultimately, impulsive. Olivia’s actions have very real consequences and you can clearly see the pattern of escalation as the novel moves ever closer to the end. Though the book doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, you can clearly see there is room for more story, perhaps a trilogy would do it. I didn’t jump up and down and rave about this read but I got through it easily and at under 200 pages, it isn’t a hardship to read. ( )

I received a free digital version of this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers in exchange for my honest review.

When I started this book, I didn't think I was going to enjoy it, but I pushed on. I ended up continuing to read just to find out what happens, and although I did enjoy the book, it definitely wasn't something I'm excited to talk about.

The main character (Olivia) didn't come across as particularly likeable at first, but she began to grow on me. Although she's naive enough to qualify for too-stupid-to-live, she somehow manages to stumble through. Her lack of experience in the world is taken a little far for my tastes, but she does end up feeling like a real character.

As a young adult novel, the plot is not especially complex, and problems are solved fairly simply. Some of the characters do receive enough flesh to come across as real people, and some of the characterizations are funny, but overall, this is a very skeletal sketch.

I would have liked to have seen more growth from the main character, and possibly a better ending - the ending seems to just drop off startlingly. The longer passages about Wicca seemed out of place within the broader scope of the novel, but I understand their necessity; so many treatments of Wicca end up focusing on the candles and super powers, without any understanding that there's actually a form of religion there.

Overall, I think this book is good for the age it's intended for, but not a lot of meat for an adult reader. ( )

Olivia Bettendorfer has parents that are famous actors. She has decided to go stay with her Aunt Tilda in New York while her parents are in Egypt making a movie. Olivia wants nothing more than to blend in at school and be a normal teenager. She will attend the Knickerbocker School with other students whose parents are wealthy, but most of them won't know her parents are famous. Olivia discover that her Aunt Tilda can read her thoughts and Eva, a lady who lives in the same building, helps Olivia place a spell on a boy named Alex that makes him a bit committed to Olivia. It turns out they practice the craft of Wicca. She also discovers an ancient book with coded text in it and it will be Alex that helps her discover how to decipher the text which turns out to be magic spells and curses. Olivia will use spells and curses against others and will discover why her Aunt keeps warning her not to do anything to harm others.

This was a fairly quick read. The story itself moved quite quickly and I found it interesting. There were a few parts that had me laughing a little bit and there were some characters in this book that I liked but I just couldn't connect with Olivia. I had to keep reminding myself that she was a teenage girl that came from famous parents. Her thoughts and actions towards others really irritated me at times. I liked Paul and Dulcimer but didn't like how Olivia treated these two people by wanting to change them when they were the two people who were nicest to her at school. I definitely liked the concept though and the author did leave room for a sequel. I found the author to be quite descriptive and I really liked the cover of this book.

I received a free digital version of this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers in exchange for my honest review. ( )

I'm a long way from a teen/young adult but I did enjoy this book. The main character-Olivia asks to spend time at her aunts when her famous acting parents are doing a movie in Egypt. She has always lived in her mothers famous shadow and feels inferior. She learns about Wiccans at her Aunts. A book of spells finds Olivia and the plot of the book is about her using it to cast spells and the fallout from the spells. The book rolled along well and kept me interested. One main question isn't answered so if a sequel is in the works I would be happy to read it. ( )