Hit Me with Your Best Charm by Lillie Vale

 The occasionally magic, always superstitious town of Prior’s End is famous for three things: whimsical charm at the annual Fall Festival,

the legend of the wishing well hidden in a forest bristling with secrets, and Nova Marwood’s missing hiker father.

Every year without him, it gets easier to pretend Nova doesn’t believe in myth and magic. Easier to pretend she’s doing okay. Easier to pretend she doesn’t have a secret crush on the girl she fake-hates.

Kiara Mistry is the luckiest girl in town and the thief of every crush Nova had her heart set on first. In theory, Nova should resent Kiara. But it’s getting harder to deny her feelings.

When Nova lays an unintended hex on Kiara at the Fall Festival, and one misfortune after another swiftly follows, soon Kiara’s very survival is at stake. To reverse the bad luck, Kiara’s exes turned BFFs commence a quest for the miraculous wishing well. There’s only one person who can get them there . . . Nova.

But to save Kiara—and maybe find her dad, too—she’ll have to believe in something much stronger than magic. Nova will need to believe in herself. 

I think this was meant to be a rite of passage paranormal adventure. A father lost, a mother about to declare him deceased after 7 years, an angry grieving teen, and a town that (I’m still trying to understand) believes in wishes and hexes. I will admit that I am confused to what the town does and does not believe. There are various mentions of the well as a “legend”, but then everyone is scared of going into the forest unless they are truly desperate…..?

Then Nova (the angry grieving teen) accidentally puts hex on her crush, and now I’m even more confused. I feel like when it came to the magical bits everything was wishy washy “it's real but it's not” feeling. Which made for me the pacing a little slow. The ending has also left me scratching my head. If there is a second novel, I think I’ll get it from the library and skim it to see if any of my questions are answered.

Overall, I rate this novel 3 out of 5 stars.