Nest Pitch SJ6: The Love Spell

Category/Genre: YA Magical Realism/Romance 

Word-Count: 71,000

PITCH: At a witch shop in modern-day Salem, sixteen-year-old Ivy becomes entangled in a love spell gone horribly wrong. Broken hearts and black magic revenge ensue, along with the threat of losing her one true love.

If the MC was an Easter Egg he/she would be: I’m a mocha egg because chocolate muffins and coffee from Adam’s café are my favorite!

Excerpt:

A fleeting glimpse was all I caught through the falling snow as he positioned the sandwich board outside the new café across the street. My heart quickened, and I turned just as he looked my way. Not wanting to look back in his direction, I hung the flag and stepped inside. I peered out the frost-covered window, but he’d disappeared.

I sat behind the counter and grabbed my sketchpad when the front door flew open. A girl with hot pink streaks in her hair walked up to me, tears leaving a roadmap of mascara down her cheeks.

 “I have a reading … with Luna,” she said, wiping her eyes with a gloved hand.

 “Are you okay?” I handed her a tissue.

 She nodded and blew her nose as her friend, who’d walked in behind her, looked at me and mouthed, She’s fine.

“Come on back,” Luna said, popping her head into the doorway. Her long braids dangled in the entryway, the little bells she weaved into them tinkling softly as the pink-haired girl walked up to her. “Now, what’s the matter, love?” I heard her say, as she led the girl to her reading room. I sat back down behind the counter as her friend meandered through the store.

“Her boyfriend dumped her,” the friend said after a long while, as she flipped through the intention herbs.

“Whose boyfriend?” I said, looking up at the girl. She had a stud in each cheek and a star tattoo near her right eye and seemed like she’d rather be anywhere but a witch shop on a Saturday morning.

 “My friend. That’s why she’s here. She wanted a reading to see if they’re going to get back together.”

 “Oh,” I said, not sure what else to say. Luna’s clients often came in crying and if things went well, they’d leave happy … or at least happier.