About Do You Believe in Magic | Book 1:
Recommended Review by Kirkus Reviews (top 25% of Indie books):
“A delightful beginning to a promising series that’s sure to appeal to teen readers who feel like outsiders.” — Kirkus Reviews, October 2024
The winner of 11 international awards.
In this exciting and enchanting fantasy novel, readers are invited to journey into a world where magic is not merely a fairy tale but a powerful reality.
This gripping story revolves around an everyday boy leading an ordinary life until a chance encounter transforms his world forever. Suddenly, faced with inexplicable happenings and being able to perform magical feats, Charlie grapples to understand his newfound abilities. Little does he know, he has become central to a battle between forces beyond his comprehension, a war underway in the invisible realms around him.
Book 1 of the teen fantasy adventure “Dark Circles” explores the timeless human question – do you believe in magic? – in a context that feels entirely fresh and unpredictable. It takes readers on a fantastic adventure, filled with wit, mystery, action, and a touch of romance to tie it all together.
Targeted Age 13 and older
Written by: Jim Melvin
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Author Bio:
I grew up on the shores of western Florida and spent much of my childhood swimming in shark-infested waters long before the movie Jaws put a scare into everyone. At the time, I was too skinny to attract a shark’s attention. About ten other boys my age lived on my same street, and we hung out morning, noon, and night playing the usual sports that young boys love — football, baseball, “kill the carrier,” etc. — but as a group, we also played fantastical games that contained magic, monsters, and superheroes. It was in this setting that my imagination as a writer of magical fantasy was born and nurtured.
I moved from Florida to Upstate South Carolina about twenty years ago and drove from Tampa-St. Pete to the Clemson area on Interstate 75 many times. It’s about a 10-hour drive, which is quite wearisome. And the traffic around Atlanta can be horrendous. I’ve always found the rest stops to be a bit spooky, especially at night. My MC Charlie Magus also found them to be spooky. If you read Do You Believe in Magic?, you’ll get the picture.
My first home in SC was on forty wooded acres that included a creek that wound through a forest to a waterfall. It wasn’t as magnificent as described in my books , but it did serve as the inspiration for the story.
I am at home in the mountains. It’s where I now live, and I do long hikes at least three days per week. Characters in fantasy novels tend to wander around a lot in the wilderness, so I feel comfortable writing about natural surroundings.
I have written “Dark Circles” with young teens in mind. I tell potential readers that it is appropriate for 13 and older, though readers as young as 10 and as old as 80 have enjoyed it. When I say appropriate, I mean that there are no sex scenes and only very limited profanity. But like most epic fantasies, the series has its violent moments — sort of like the later Harry Potter books.
But just because a series is appropriate for young teens doesn’t mean that it has to be sophomoric. To the contrary, “Dark Circles” is a sophisticated work with a lot going on between the lines in terms of themes, allegorical elements, symbolism, foreshadowing, literary tropes, etc. My newsletter (Jim Melvin’s Realms of Fantasy) goes into extensive depth about this.
Some of the themes in my series are obvious: bullying, good vs. evil, coming of age, heroism. But in the end, the most important theme of all is the idea that only the best among us are willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good — the literary equivalent of a soldier throwing himself on a hand grenade.
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