Title: The Secret Science of Magic
Author: Melissa Keil
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Contemporary romance, Easy reading
Dates read: 27th June 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Hardie Grant Egmont
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: Joseph gives me what I think is a sympathetic smile.
Sophia
She’s smart, like genius-calculator-brain smart. But there are some things no amount of genius can prepare you for, and the messiness of real life is one of them. When everything she knows is falling apart, how can she crack the puzzle of what to do with her life?
Joshua
He spends his time honing magic tricks and planning how to win Sophia’s heart. But when your best trick is making schoolwork disappear, how do you possibly romance a genius?
Holy crap. I have been in a bit of a reading slump lately (relying mostly on short stories, rather than novels to keep me slightly interested). And then I picked up this book. Which was quite possibly a mistake, because now I have a brand new author to obsess over. It is the first book in a long time that I struggled to put down. And read cover to cover. It’s also the first book in months that I stayed up way past my bedtime to read a book because I JUST COULDN’T PUT IT DOWN.
Although I often become emotionally invested in the characters that I meet in the pages of a book, I don’t often literally shed a tear. Let alone lie in bed with tears streaming down my face. There was just this one moment in this book that almost felt like a punch to the solar plexus, and it made me weep. This was surrounded by moments of smiling and laughter, so overall the mood of this book was incredibly cheerful, even though I had a moment of tears.
Everyone thinks that they’re a bit of a misfit in high school, which is why I can see how this story would speak to the masses. I’m sure even the popular kids kind of feel a bit uncomfortable, especially at the very ending of high school when they’re about to spread their wings. I assume, I had friends, but I was more like Sophia than any other high school character I’ve ever read about. It was also amazing to have a dynamic like Joshua in the story. In school he is quiet and reserved, but he has a fun filled, happy and thriving social life out of school that reminds you we can all find the place where we fit best… it just took me a few years out of high school to realise that personally.
I may not be quite genius-level smart, but I do understand all of the pressures that Sophia experiences throughout this book. There seems to be this idea that because you are smart, you should know what you want to do with your future. Have everything planned out and a goal in mind. For me, that has never been the case. I’ve never really had a future plan or goals. I just have a huge sense of curiosity and a drive to learn more, although sometimes I want to know more about how to interact a little better with others.
Earth and Skye 
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