Jinx

When Jean moves from Iowa to live with family in Manhattan, she hopes the bad luck that earned her the nickname "Jinx" doesn't follow. Unfortunately, even if she could move on, her sophisticated but malicious cousin Tory won't let her. Both girls have magical powers, but there can only be one witch in the family. Amber Sealey develops Jinx from a naïve country girl to a confident witch in this magical story. Sealey is most believable when portraying Tory as a conniving witch with a capital "B." Her voices for the supporting cast of family members, the German au pair, and the cute guy Jinx and Tory fancy are equally believable in this tale of high jinks in a Manhattan high school. M.M.O. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

July 30, 2007
Jean, aka Jinx, has been a “bad luck magnet” since the moment she was born, when a freak thunderstorm caused a hospital blackout. Now, due to a vaguely described incident involving a stalker, she has moved from Iowa to stay with her aunt’s family in a ritzy New York City townhouse. Jean’s regular bad luck gets worse thanks to Tory, the snotty cousin who is now her classmate at an exclusive private school. After Jean mysteriously prevents a cute neighbor from a terrible accident, Tory is convinced that Jean is a witch—just like herself, and as proof she dredges up a story their grandmother used to tell about magic in their bloodline. Jean refuses to join Tory’s coven, saying, “I don’t think messing around with magic is such a good thing, you know” (though she soon performs a binding spell to prevent her cousin from hurting the family’s au pair). Tension between the girls rises, causing Tory to ominously declare, “I have a very special thank-you I’ve been saving up, just for Jinx.” With its assurance of a satisfying outcome despite the odds, predictability is a virtue in a Cabot (Princess Diaries
) novel, and readers will guess most plot points, including the truth behind the stalking story. Readers will enjoy the premise and the naiveté of the heroine, and they’ll wonder, as Jean does, how much magic is actually at play. The final supernatural showdown proves that Cabot can do harrowing just as well as she does pop romance. Ages 12-up.

December 1, 2007
Gr 6-9-Jean Honeychurch hopes to leave her Iowa pastand her nickname, Jinxbehind when she moves to New York City to live with her aunts family and finish her sophomore year in high school. But living in a Manhattan townhouse and attending a ritzy private school with her cousin Tory are not the Cinderella experiences she had anticipated. Glamorous Tory has been dabbling in witchcraft. Not the delightful stuff of Hogwarts, but the pentacle-and-coven variety that may unsettle conservative parents. The plot breezes along fairly predictably, with Torys treachery, the cute boy next door, and a callous coterie. Although Jeans mother is a minister, the girl seems to have no spiritual or religious moorings when confronting evil. Amber Sealeys reading is competent with the ingénue voices, but Torys character is read in one unrelenting smirk. The German au pairs accent is all over the map, and a character from Iowa has an inexplicable Southern accent. Meg Cabot fans may like this tale (HarperTeen, 2007), particularly if they fancy black magic, but others will be impatient with the cardboard characters and uninspired setting.Julie Dahlhauser, Jackson Central-Merry High School, TN

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.