Love Spells Trouble

Because her witch mother married a human, Houston teenager Cayden Maya Jackson lives on the outskirts of witch society. She busies herself by helping at Cayden’s Confections, her father’s financially struggling bakery, and Lucky Paws, an animal rescue. After Cayden is tasked with grooming Hades, a temperamental poodle she believes detests her for being a witch, she meets Hades’s owner, Mekhi. The teens form an instant connection and agree to go on a date. But when their romantic outing ends in humiliation for Cayden, she learns that Khy is also a witch. Worse, he’s royalty, and part of her mother’s former coven, which turned its back on her for marrying a nonmagical man. As Cayden and her human cousin Mercedes plot revenge against Khy, they decide to kill two birds with one stone: while they organize an event to drive traffic to the bakery, Cayden pretends to forgive Khy and agrees to date him, hoping their publicized relationship and Khy’s royal status will put Cayden’s Confections on the map. The magnetic Black characters’ affectionate dynamics—despite her attempts to remain aloof, Cayden warms to Khy as a fellow “sneakerhead”—lighten thought-provoking examinations of class differences and intracommunal conflict in this upbeat romance by Davenport (Out of Body). Ages 13–up. Agent: Emily Forney, BookEnds Literary. (July)