User Profile

Enchanted to Meet You by Meg Cabot was a funny and enjoyable fantasy romantic comedy with excellent fall vibes in a cozy small town, perfect for the Halloween season.

Enchanted to Meet You stars a witch named Jessica who lives in a small Connecticut town and owns a cute clothing boutique. The fun begins shortly before Halloween when Derrick comes into her shop and tells her about a prophecy that might involve her.

This book had delightful main characters as well as great side character friends. It also has some flashbacks to events from Jessica’s high school days, and has chapters from the perspectives of both Jessica and Derrick. Meg Cabot’s narrative style is friendly, light, and funny.

If you’re looking for a fun romantic comedy to read this fall, Enchanted to Meet You is a great choice.

Tropes/themes: fake dating, witches, small town in peril, Halloween season, forced proximity, mid-2000s high school flashbacks, dual timeline, multiple POVs, romantic comedy

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books for my digital Advance Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.

While reading the History Smashers book about The Mayflower, I remembered this Baby-Sitters Club book that I read as a kid. In Claudia and the First Thanksgiving, they put on a Thanksgiving play at the elementary school. They do lots of research to make it more historically accurate, but then parents get mad and make them change it to a “traditional” Thanksgiving story. They stealthily write “Censored” on all the posters.

That’s what I remembered from my childhood reading of this book. But I couldn’t remember what they did in the play that made people mad. I didn’t have my childhood copy, so I looked up the book and downloaded the Kindle edition.

Claudia and the First Thanksgiving felt surprisingly relevant to 2021. When I was a kid, I remember wondering why adults would censor and protest a Thanksgiving play with more historical accuracy. I’m now an adult with kids, and I definitely recognized those parents who are protesting more historically accurate critiques of those who came before us. 25 years later, we’re still having the same problems.

As far as what enraged parents and some faculty about their Thanksgiving play? They brought up women’s rights. They also stated that not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving and Native Americans observe a day of mourning. They pointed out differences between then and now. They got to keep the more accurate costumes and foods. I guess those didn’t anger the parents.

I’m actually looking at the book cover right now, and wondering if the cover artist read it. Lol.

I hadn’t read a Baby-sitters Club book since middle school, and didn’t have super high expectations for Claudia and the First Thanksgiving to hold up for an adult, but this book was kind of amazing. I remembered a surprising amount of weird details, like when Claudia decides to stir marmalade into her oatmeal, but also considers the option of grape jelly.

One thing that surprised me a little bit was the release date. Claudia and the First Thanksgiving was published in November of 1995, when I would have been in 7th grade. I’m guessing that I must have read this book very soon after its release. I think I started reading BSC books in 4th grade and kept reading them through 8th grade, so this was relatively late in my Baby-sitters Club reading era. I had definitely read at least one hundred Baby-sitters Club books in my life by age 14. I definitely learned about lots of things from BSC books, including diabetes and autism. Re-reading this book reminded me of the idea that maybe we could understand each other better if only everyone read more books.

A delightful collection of short stories by Rainbow Rowell. A few that I had already read. 

• Midnights - New Years Eve story. Have already read and loved. Also in My True Love Gave To Me. 

• Kindred Spirits - Previously published, but I hadn’t read it yet. About a girl waiting in line for Star Wars The Force Awakens in 2015. Really cute. 

• Winter Songs for Summer - Set in what must be, like, 1999/2000ish on a college campus. Really cute story featuring mix CDs. 

• The Snow Ball - (skipped because it seemed Christmassy and I wanted to save it until after Thanksgiving) Cute. I like the weird best friends and Star Trek is obviously better than Prom. True Story: The day of my senior prom, I was at a theatre festival. 

• If the Fates Allow - Read last year and loved. About Christmas 2020. 

• The Prince and the Troll - Weird and fun. A sort of fantasy story about a bridge troll who I think turned out to be a mermaid, but her river had dried up. Because of the road. 

• Mixed Messages - I decided to read this, even though I haven’t read Attachments. It was an enjoyable story that was mostly a text message conversation between two friends who are women nearing their fifties. 

• *Snow for Christmas - the Simon Snow story. Haven’t read those books, but have read Fangirl. I skipped this one. 

• In Waiting - This was like being inside of Rainbow Rowell’s head. It was really funny at the beginning. It was really interesting and reflective as it progressed.