Teaser Tuesdays: Enchantment, by Charlotte Abel

Enchantment, by Charlotte Abel
Available for the Kindle and for the Nook. Printed edition coming soon.

Sixteen year old Channie Kerns leads an idyllic life of magic, deep in the Ozark Mountains, until her family is forced to flee from a powerful rival who wants them all murdered. They leave everything and everyone behind, uproot their lives, change their names, and disappear to Louisville, Colorado. But when her parents catch Channie flirting with a group of “sex-crazed,” non-magical, city boys, they slap a powerful chastity spell on her to protect her virtue. And the spell has side-effects no one expected. Then Channie begins to fall in love with Josh Abrim, a BMX racer with dangerous secrets of his own. She rebels against her parents and turns to dark and forbidden magic to break the chastity spell, with disastrous results.

In the spirit of full disclosure—and a little bragging—I discovered Enchantement when Charlotte Abel commented on BeTheStory.com: ‘If the early reviews for “Enchantment” are any indication, I’d have to say “we” nailed it. I’m including you in that “we” because it was your article that gave me the courage to write what was in my heart.’ That’s when I began to suspect that I might like this book. And I was right.

I immediately grabbed a copy of the ebook and put it next in my queue. I began reading Enchantment this past weekend, and all I could say was “Wow!” Actually, that’s not true: what I said was “Clearly allegorical, but with wonderful, deep characters.” What I ought to have said: “This book will make you believe in magic.”

By the second day, the “Wow!” had worn off a little, but I still managed to read more that day than the first. Now that I’m about a third of the way through, the momentum has wound down a little, though I expect it to pick up again. Charlotte has a wonderful grasp of what makes her characters tick, and that enchants me. I had almost forgotten what it was like to feel like a teenager, or to sympathize with one. Already, I can see that this YA title is headed for 5-stars and a review on my ebooks site.

Today’s teaser, from page 136 (randomly selected by Random.org) of the (now defunct) Smashwords edition ePub Enchantment:

“What are we doing in here?”

“Momma keeps her spell books in that trunk under the window.”

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just follow the directions at the “Teaser Tuesdays” post.

-TimK