Synopsis from Goodreads:
The moon shines bright for the fifteen year old Caitlyn Cross as she discovers her true identity as a witch. Her mom strictly forbids her to use magic, but being bullied in school because of the way she dresses and her messy orange hair, she has no other escape but her powers.
She’s always been in love with one boy in school since the fourth grade, the dashing Angelo Pinzon, who comes from a Spanish family with perfect genes. She has been cutely stalking him ever since but enter Phoebe Conway, the spoiled rich mommy’s girl who will make her junior year a burden and hinder her from happiness.
With all the madness and drama in school, partnered with her uncontrollable powers, Caitlyn finds out about her destiny and learns to fall in love for the very first time.
Review:
A teen witch is has a bad crush on the hottest guy in school. When she finds a spell to make someone fall in love with her, she can’t pass up the opportunity to use it. What could go wrong? Apparently, nothing. Meanwhile, she’s dealing with a new friendship that makes her feel temporarily like less of a loser, although she kind of keeps it in the back of her mind that these mean girls are not real friends. Still, Angelo keeps falling in love with her. Now, the guilt eats away at Caitlyn. Can she continue keeping this boy under her spell?
I read Gabrielle Dela Cruz’s Teenage Love Spell: A Halloween Romance in a day. The author commented on one of my Tweets, advertising her (free) Kindle ebook. It is advertised as a Halloween book, but I didn’t see anything Halloween about it beyond two witches. It is a romance, but it didn’t feel meaningful. The plot is nearly indiscernible. I expected there to be actual consequences for the love spell, in the form of Angelo breaking up with her or never trusting her.
There was no character development. Not even Yuri changes — she was always willing to change for her “friends” at the cost of losing herself. I can’t say Caitlyn changed because she didn’t even learn that it’s a bad idea to use a love spell. She doesn’t learn control, over her powers.
The cover was most likely chosen to better advertise for Halloween. It does not, at all, match the content of the book. Also, none of the paragraphs are indented. The only clue to telling the paragraphs apart is from the space after(?) each paragraph.
While this is a fast read, I do not recommend this book.
Genre: Teen Romance
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Cat on the Bookshelf 