This Book Is The One Secret That Should Be Shared! | The Secret Science Of Magic Book Review
When Hardie Grant sent me this book, I was SO SO SO excited,
to say the least. Not only was it so beautifully and lovingly packaged, it was
by an author whose work I had previously read and loved (Life In Outer Space
AKA the cutest book ever – read it if you haven’t already friends!) and it was
an #ozya I was very excited for!
For more thoughts, just keep reading!
About the book.
Author: Melissa Keil
Pages: 328
Publisher: Hardie Grant Egmont
Publication date: 1 April 2017
Publication date: 1 April 2017
Synopsis: Sophia is smart, like genius-calculator-brain smart. But there are some things no amount of genius can prepare you for, and the messiness of real life is one of them. When everything she knows is falling apart, how can she crack the puzzle of what to do with her life?
Joshua spends his time honing magic tricks and planning how to win Sophia’s heart. But when your best trick is making schoolwork disappear, how do you possibly romance a genius?
In life and love, timing is everything. (source)
Joshua spends his time honing magic tricks and planning how to win Sophia’s heart. But when your best trick is making schoolwork disappear, how do you possibly romance a genius?
In life and love, timing is everything. (source)
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Thank you to Hardie Grant Egmont for providing me a review copy however this is an honest review and all thoughts and opinions are my own.
My thoughts.
{ WRITING }
The writing made this book a little hard to get into. It was
well-written but at times very confusing. It didn’t really take time to
introduce the situation and just threw you into the action, which didn’t work
for this because I spent the first half of the book quite confused and trying
to play catch up.
It also didn’t really catch my attention at the beginning. The
pacing was slow and I wasn’t really connecting with the characters the way I did
in Life In Outer Space so it took me a while to get through the first half.
However, the second half picks up a lot and it gets better
from there.
{ IDEA }
Okay, the premise for this book sounded so cute and I am
such a huge sucker for books that incorporate a theme to them such as maths and
physics and magic. I though the idea of this wasn’t very original but Keil made
it work by adding her own spin on things! I liked the uniqueness of the
characters, both in personality and the diverse aspects wise because Sophia was
Sri Lankan and her best friend, Elsie was Indian and it was so great to see
that rep!
{ PLOT }
The plot of this was
quite slow and it was boring at times. I know most contemporaries are more
character driven than plot but I found there wasn’t a huge amount of character
development either and it was all romance focused, which would have worked if
the romance didn’t feel slightly forced and a little insta-lovey. I didn’t feel
the characters really had chemistry either and they didn’t seem to have that ‘clicking’
factor I look for in my favourite couples!
{ CHARACTERS }
I thought the characters were great. They were unique and
had identifiable personalities and I really liked them both. Sophia was quite
focused and quiet, not really wanting to push beyond her comfort zones,
something I can really relate to! Josh was such a ball of sunshine and I loved
that about him!
However, as mentioned before, I didn’t really love the
romance and I didn’t connect with the characters meaning I felt pretty meh
about them overall, quite sadly.
In saying that, I adored the side characters because they
were so much fun and even though they weren’t main characters, they were still
huge parts of the stories and seemed like real people instead of just there for
the story line. There was lots of good humour between Elsie’s family and they
seemed like such a lovely bunch!
This was a cute and fluffy read overall but still slightly
disappointing because I had expected more after Life In Outer Space! The lack
of connection with the characters and the slow beginning threw me off sadly,
however I quite liked the diversity included!
I should also mention that this book is #ownvoices because
Keil is Sri Lankan herself I believe so please do try and read this if it
interests you because it’s super important to support #ownvoices reads!
OVERALL RATING:
★★★½
Have you read The
Secret Science Of Magic? What did you think? Or are you planning to?
20 happy thoughts
I have a copy of this to read, I'm glad you liked the rep & characters. :) At first I didn't know it was a contemporary since it had magic in the title! I'm looking forward to reading it. It seems like something light and enjoyable. :)
ReplyDeleteAHA I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT BEC!
DeleteThis seems so cute, but I think the romance and characters might not work for me based on what you said. We'll see☺ Wonderful review!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Lenna! <3
DeleteThis sounds like a cute book, but it's a little bit of a bummer about the pacing and it being hard to get into at first. I hadn't even heard of this until now, but it sounds like something I might enjoy - definitely adding to my TBR. Great review!
ReplyDeleteYou're too sweet Kelly <3
DeleteI actually have a copy of this to review but I wasn't sure whether I would get around to reading it (it was unsolicited). Although, the fact that it is Aussie YA, #ownvoices, and diverse might tip me towards reading it.
ReplyDeleteI always find it quite disappointing when I can't get into a ship because shipping characters is one of my favourite things to do! And so when the ship isn't great but there's a big focus on romance the book can lose some of its pull, I guess.
I'm glad you were able to enjoy this one overall, Anisha! I've heard really good things about the author's other books, so I might give them a try, as well. :)
YES OMG I NEED TO BE ABLE TO SHIP A CHARACTER TO FALL IN LOVE WITH BOOKS (because I am such a romantic at heart!). I do hope you read it, even if you end up DNFing it because you never know, you might like it more than I did! :)
DeleteThis sounds so fun! It's too bad it was hard to get into. I have little patience for slow beginnings these days. I'm happy you still enjoyed it! Great review!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Lori!
DeleteThis does sound like a lot of fun! A bummer it was a little disappointing though.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting Sara!
DeleteThis book is so pretty! It's also awesome that it's #ownvoices! I'm sorry it didn't live up to expectations, but I'm glad you still managed to enjoy it :) Fabulous review!
ReplyDeleteBrittany @ Brittany's Book Rambles
Thank so much Brittany! <3
DeleteIt's always sad when books end up being a little disappointing, isn't it? The romance does sound kind of annoying, but I really love when books have physics as a theme. And that cover is absolutely GORGEOUS! Awesome review!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Erin! And yeah the cover is a serious stunner!
DeleteOh my goodness, I am getting so behind in my OzYA reading! Another gem I've missed!
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy it Verushka!
DeleteI completely agree with you, it was such a cute read but could have been better. Even so, I'm planning to read her other books since I've seen great reviews for them.
ReplyDeleteLife In Outer Space is the cutest! Start with that one!
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