The Best Kind of Magic

A missing person leads the mayor of Chicago to call on the supernatural community for help in debut author Cestari’s enjoyable first book in the Windy City Magic series. High school senior Amber Sand is a wannabe baker with a gift for matchmaking, but her powers pale in comparison to those of her mother, a witch, and Amber’s psychic best friend, Amani, a “precog.” Even so, Amber and the mayor’s son, Charlie, are thrown together to help, leading to plenty of consternation when things start to take a romantic turn, though Amber knows she’s not his soul mate. Cestari adds amusing magical underpinnings to familiar growing pains: feelings of inadequacy in school, trying (and failing) to meet parental expectations, and botched romantic entanglements. (That girl who always seems to have Manchester Prep’s students and teachers falling all over her? A siren.) Amber’s doubts about her abilities—both in the magical community and in the kitchen—and her sharp wit make her an authentic and relatable narrator as she’s forced to learn how to see the magic in the everyday. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jess Regel, Foundry Literary + Media. (May)