I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review for my stop on the blog tour, which can be found at Donnie Darko Girl.
INVOKING NONNA is a tale of a young girl named Maggie who begins searching for answers regarding her family history and who she is. Told from multiple POV, the story is mostly from Maggie's point-of-view and explores the issues with which she comes face to face - finding out who she really is and her family roots, handling the different reactions to her beliefs, and building the relationship she wants with her mother.
Maggie and her mom, Laura, have an unusual mother-daughter relationship - they're both witches but don't acknowledge it to each other. In the beginning I had a hard time understanding their relationship. They aren't close though Maggie desperately wants to be and seem to rarely interact. They definitely never talk about family - Maggie knows next to nothing about her roots, but once she's assigned to do a genealogy project for her history class, everything changes.
Not only does Maggie begin to find out more about her family, but Laura also recognizes her daughter wants to learn the craft and begins practicing openly and teaching her. The more Maggie learns, the more complicated her life becomes. As if being a teenager wasn't already complicated enough! But she handles it better than I would have because she's resilient and unafraid.
There's a great mix of heavy emotions as well as lightness and fun to balance out the heaviness. Ruby was a character who added humor to the story, and I adored Maggie and Ruby's friendship. They reminded me of my friendships in high school. Everyone needs a Ruby in her/his life! INVOKING NONNA is a story I loved every moment and found myself wishing the story had been a bit longer as I'm anxiously waiting for the next book!
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