[Blog Tour & Giveaway] The Midnight Spell By Rhiannon Frater And Kody Boye & Kobos Coffee Best Friend Blend

Title: The Midnight Spell
Series: ?
Author: Rhiannon Frater & Kody Boye
Publisher: Permuted Press
Publication date: February 28th 2013
Page Count: 226 pages
Age Rating: Young Adult (violence, blood, and gore)
How I got my hot little hands on it: Received a copy to review
Purchase: Amazon B&N

Best friends since kindergarten, Adam and Christy have always been the perpetual outsiders in their small town in Texas. The other kids call Adam gay and Christy a witch.

On both counts the bullies are right.

Their junior year in high school seems destined to be the same old same old until Christy decides to cast a love spell for Adam at the midnight hour. The next day an alluring and mysterious boy enrolls at school and sets hearts aflutter, including Adam’s. Meanwhile, Christy’s mad crush on the handsome football player Ian seems to be going nowhere fast and her witch puberty is making her life miserable.

When a great evil arrives in town that threatens everything they hold dear, the best friends realize that finding a boyfriend is the least of their worries. Soon Adam and Christy will have to battle a force of darkness that has killed in their town before, and will again.

My Review

The Midnight Spell is the story of two outcast best friends, Adam and Christy. Christy, a witch from a long line of witches and just coming into her powers, wants to do something nice for her BFF Adam, who, as the only gay kid in their small town, is seriously lacking in romantic prospects. She decides to cast a spell to bring him his one true love and the next day their school just happens to get two new students: a quirky blonde girl with pink highlights and a retro fashion sense and a devastatingly handsome and charming boy who seems to be into Adam. What follows is paranormal tale of being careful what you wish for (since you just might get it) and love gone horribly (horribly) wrong, but also a tale of the strong bonds of friendship and family.

Adam and Christy share the spotlight equally as dual main characters and the story is told through their alternating first person perspectives. Outside of the fight with the evil that arises, these characters both have their own ongoing struggles that make them vulnerable and relatable. Christy’s main conflict throughout the book is internal; she suffers from extremely low self-esteem (she calls herself fat and ugly on more than one occasion) and feelings of failure (when it comes to her newly budding magic powers and trying to catch the attention her life-long crush). Adam’s conflict is mostly focused externally, dealing with homophobia and bullying from his classmates. It is easy to see how two such people would form a deep and lasting friendship and how they would bolster each up when needed.

I loved this book. Like really, really adored it. The Buffy references sprinkled throughout only served to cement my love. The characters are fantastically relatable and likable and the dialogue is snappy and witty. I was particularly fond of Olivia, the lollipop-addicted, retro-darling, pink-haired new student who makes an instantly wonderful and sassy addition to Adam and Christy’s duo. Her brash, bold confidence is just what these two needed in their lives.

The paranormal aspects of the story are subtle in the first half of the book and grows more and more obvious in later chapters. The action in the later half of the book comes fast and furious and I found myself flipping pages feverishly in the grips of the climatic scenes.

I highly recommend The Midnight Spell to anyone who likes YA paranormal books and stories built around the strong bonds of friendship. I am really crossing my fingers that the authors write a sequel, because I’m just not ready to let these characters go yet and would love to read more stories with them in it.

I’m recommending Kobos Coffee Best Friend Blend, a medium dark blend with a smokey, spicy flavor, since I was really proud of the friendship in this book between Adam and Christy and that it didn’t take a backseat to any romantic entanglements, which is really seen much too often.

**GIVEAWAY**:

I loved this book so much you guys, and now one of you lucky readers will get a chance to love it just as much as I do! Leave a comment below (along with your e-mail so I can contact you if you win) before May 25th and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free (1) ebook copy of The Midnight Spell (Open Internationally)!!!

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