The Not So Chosen One
Kate Emery
Lucy is just a regular teenager with regular worries: homework, friends, getting home for dinner on time. Oh, and there’s the small matter of how she’s going to tell her mother about her unplanned pregnancy.
When Lucy hears she’s been enrolled in Drake’s College, a school for students with magical talent, she’s sure someone’s messing with her. But despite her scepticism, she’s soon swept up into a new double life—and now she’s got something else to hide.
At Drake’s, Lucy befriends the handsome Jack, a teacher’s assistant who has secrets of his own. More concerningly, Lucy’s ‘talent’ doesn’t seem to be materialising, and one of the other students collapses in a mysterious incident. There’s danger in the air…
Clever, laugh-out-loud funny and sprinkled with romance, The Not So Chosen One is utterly charming.
INTERVIEWS and REVIEWS
ABC Perth: Afternoons (0:08:00)
Booktopia blog
LoveOZYA
NZ Booklovers
Paperbark Words
ReadPlus
Storylinks
Sunday Times Magazine ($)
West Australian ($)
West Australian: The West live podcast
West Australian: Are the Roald Dahl changes a slippery slope for future generations of authors? (op-ed)
Writers Off the Page podcast
andThe Not So Chosen One
‘The Not So Chosen One has everything I want in a portal fantasy—a protagonist with a strong, relatable and likable voice; a setting that feels real and grounded, both in our world and the magical one; and a plot that feels like a genuinely fresh take on a beloved trope. I loved this book to pieces.’
‘Lucy’s voice is funny…[The] combination of a school for magic (in Perth!) and a mystery works well…The suspense is kept up right to the surprising conclusion.’
‘Emery writes with a sharply ironic sense of humour and a knack for creating characters that combine comedic exaggeration with emotional authenticity.’
‘With a sharp, shrewd, self-deprecating humour.’
‘[Kate Emery] manages to maintain a sense of pace without ever breaking into some of the more obvious tropes of the YA genre…[The Not So Chosen One is] a great addition to the…genre, and a thoroughly enjoyable, pacey and funny book that will entertain even the most reluctant of readers.’
‘[Kate Emery] writes with beautiful clarity…[The Not So Chosen One] is immensely enjoyable and laugh out loud funny…Fresh and original with a touch of Hogwarts and teenage angst.’
