Mandy is a quiet teenager who just wants to blend in with the crowd rather than stand out as anything or anybody. Mandy's pretty successful at this until her parents decide it's time to move from Boston to the quiet seaside town of York Beach, Maine, to "be closer to Nana". Although Mandy has been vacationing in York every summer since she was a child, she has no desire to live there and is worried about fitting in and finding friends during her senior year of high school.
Nana owns a flower shop in town and while working alongside her, Mandy makes a few friends and observes the oddities of the little town and its inhabitants. When she finds some old and cryptic correspondance hidden inside an antique trunk handed down from her Nana, the "oddities" turn into full fledged mysteries. As she unravels the forgotten and hidden history of the town, she simultaneously unravels her own family's past and current secrets while writing her future. With bits of romance and paranormal along the way, she is able to figure out the puzzle of the correspondance, the magic she never realized was surrounding her, and visions of the past and future. Will she walk away from her personal history and her future or will she realize it's ok to be somebody, even if that somebody is nothing like everybody else?
My Thoughts
Epic story about a seventeen year old girl named Mandy who goes to stay with her grandmother and finds herself caught up in a centuries old mystery and learning that things are not always what they appear to be.
I loved this story it was very exciting and caught and held my attention from the beginning. It had some great imagery. Mandy was a great character and I had fun finding friends and figuring out the mysteries from her past with her. I highly recommend this story to anyone who loves a good YA fantasy novel.
Interview with author Rachel Wells
What got you into writing?
Really I think it was my love of reading. I’ve always loved to read, and I found out I enjoyed writing at a young age. I love to lose myself in a story but I also love to make them up for other people to get lost in.
Coffee or Cappuccino?
Regular basis, coffee. But I do like a nice cappuccino every once in a while.
Do you have any other projects you are working on that you would like to tell us about?
I just recently finished the sequel to Enchanted, called Hexed, and I’m currently working on the third book in the series. I’m hoping to have it out before Christmas.
Did any of your characters give you a difficult time in writing them?
Lucas did a bit. He wanted to be good, but I guess it just wasn’t in the cards for him. It was a bit of a struggle though. I started out writing him in a positive light, and I thought that he and Mandy would end up together. Slowly but surely he started to show his true colors and it just went downhill from there.
What would be a perfect day for you as a writer?
A perfect day…well I’d wake up and find my house fully staffed—like a maid, a chef, and a chauffeur. So then I could just focus on writing and not have to worry about everything else I normally have to tend to first.
Roughly how long did it take you to write Enchanted?
It took me about a year and a half, but that was because I worked on it sporadically. When I began writing Enchanted I had a very vague idea of the sense of the story. I knew who my main character was, and I knew a bit about the plot. But that was all. The rest unfolded as I wrote, and sometimes there were days or weeks when I had no idea what was supposed to be happening, and I would just take a break and wait for it to come to me. So working like that takes a bit longer than writing each day no matter what.
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers that you would like to share?
I think the best advice I ever read or heard was to write what you know. You at least have to know something about what you’re writing about.
What is your favorite genre of music?
Alternative, although I do listen to pop as well.
Did anything from enchanted come from an experience you have had in your life?
Well I vacation in the town where it takes place every summer, but other than that, no.
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