December 01, 2007

What's In A Name?

This book is a 2007 Fantasy & Science Fiction Cybils Award Nominee

Jinx Honeychurch might just be the clumsiest girl in the world. Her real name, Jean, doesn't really suit her any better than her nickname, because it's boring and safe -- everything Jinx would prefer not to be. Still, she is who she is -- nice, but clumsy, a girl living under a Jinx. She's hoped that moving to New York to stay with her aunt and uncle would have changed all that.

It has -- but it hasn't.

Jinx is still clumsy, but she's got friends now -- sweet Petra, the nanny, and cute Zach, the one of Tory's friends who doesn't make Jinx cringe. Jinx also has an unexpected ally -- her cousin Tory, who claims she knows the reason for Jinx's unpleasant clumsiness. It's not a curse -- it's because Jinx is a witch. And if Jinx doesn't join her coven, and fully come into her power, which is, after all, practically a family heirloom, so it's half Tory's anyway -- then Tory's going to be sure Jinx doesn't share her magic with ANYONE else.

The poisonously mean cousin Tory and a sweet and naive Jinx don't seem to have anywhere to go but where the plot leads them. Tory is all evil -- to the point of psychosis, and Jinx is all good, even though her past has a tiny blemish. Perfect Zach also lends a shiny Ken-doll smile and a handsome hand as the Hunky Neighbor in this lightweight and predictable but fun-for-an-airport read from Meg Cabot.

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