Penelope Delmar\u2019s selection for the reality TV show Cast Judgment has come at the perfect time. Not only will the prize money help her dwindling bank account, but the winner gets a residency at a prominent magical arts studio. Spending a year in the program could be the key to finally making sense of her late abuela\u2019s spellbook. Unfortunately, her partner for the contest is Leandro Presto, an influencer who gained a following doing wacky magical hijinks. What people don\u2019t know, including Penelope, is that Leandro\u2019s real name is Gilberto Contreras, and he\u2019s a magical theory professor and blogger who happens to be Penelope\u2019s anonymous online pen pal. Gil wasn\u2019t expecting the character of Leandro to be such a hit on social media, and the role has gotten away from him. Having to pretend to be Leandro for the entire filming schedule feels daunting. Penelope and Gil\u2019s persona as Leandro couldn\u2019t be more different, especially with Penelope\u2019s need to make sure every spellcasting detail is perfect. The magical elements blend seamlessly into the contemporary setting here, making them natural to the characters\u2019 daily lives. There are magical social media platforms, television programs, college majors, and retail shops for the characters\u2019 spellcasting supply needs. The romance between Penelope and Gil is relatively low stakes\u2014perhaps a little too low\u2014and a majority of the conflict comes from the different ways they approach spellcasting while dealing with the pressure cooker of a reality TV show. Because the storyline of Cast Judgment takes up so much of the action, there\u2019s little to keep the romance moving outside of that environment, and the book suffers from an abrupt ending.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Penelope Delmar\u2019s selection for the reality TV show Cast Judgment has come at the perfect time. Not only will the prize money help her dwindling bank account, but the winner gets a residency at a prominent magical arts studio. Spending a year in the program could be the key to finally making sense of her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}