Book Review: The Magic We Made by Meg Cabot
Fun Mystery/ Romance Blend. This is a book that could take a bit of an adventurous reader, but for those readers who do enjoy it... you're *really* going to enjoy it. Yet again we have a romance where the couple such that once they're together, they - shock, gasp! - *actually enjoy being together*. Before marriage. So for those that have a problem with the last two words before this sentence... maybe not the book for you. Spice level is north of warm glass of milk but south of jalapeno, really.
Witches and magic are a major part of the tale here - literally part of the subtitle as I write this review days after the book released, so if you had a problem with that aspect... why are you reading this review, much less contemplating reading the book? The use of magic here is solid in that it presents a fairly balanced view - there are some people doing some at worst benign things, some doing some genuinely helpful things... and some using it for various criminal and abusive things, all set in a "real enough" world that does a solid job of threading the needle between absolutely real world and too fantastical to be remotely real.
While there is at least some tension in the romance, particularly as the couple is coming together, this "tension" is mostly of the fun variety, particularly with the barbs and misunderstandings between them. The real tension of the book - that explodes in the final quarter - is from a third perspective included sporadically in the text that provides both interlude for the romance and story progression that builds into that explosive final quarter of the book, where the new romance is put to several challenges at once.
Overall a truly fun book in a lot of ways, but one that a lot of readers will have various issues with as well. But for those more adventurous readers, this really will be quite an enjoyable read in many different ways.
Very much recommended.
This review of The Magic We Made by Meg Cabot was originally written on August 14, 2026.
