They use all three to play their games.
They blow the dust,
the boys are crushed,
and no one is ever the same.
Each year the Noah girls play a secret game— Crushed. The rules are simple.
1. Use wisdom to pick your target. The boy can't be too weak or too strong-willed.
2. Blow the enchanted dust into your target's face to enchant (Crush) him.
3. Give verbal commands and assign them tasks to perform throughout the year. The more tasks completed, the stronger the witch's power grows.
4. At the end of the year, the witch with the most power wins cold, hard cash.
As if being a witch in high school isn't complicated enough, Kristen picks the wrong boy to Crush. Zack is tall, handsome, and a little scary. Her Crush spell isn't working on him like it has with the others. In fact, he is behaving the opposite of every other boy she's Crushed, hating her instead of adoring her. Something is definitely wrong. After someone attempts to kill her, Kristen realizes there is more at risk than a few hundred dollars. She may be betting with her life.
Sara's Review
On a dare, Kristen “crushes”, or enchants him into a relationship. There are subtle hints that things didn't go as expected, but in time, they find that they are truly falling for each other. I don't think Kristen was as well developed as she could have been, but Zach, in contrast, was someone I wanted to know more about. I think it was him, along with Grandma Noah, that were among the most interesting characters in the book.
One thing that definitely stood out was how crazy Brittany seemed to be. I've heard of competition between siblings, but the farther in I read, the more intense it got between her and Kristen. Cyndi, on the other hand, seemed to be the most level-headed sibling out of the three.
I can also say that I thought this book was well written and flowed quite easily for a YA book. Overall, I'd give it a 4/5 platypire rating.