In small-town Willow Falls, nothing is a coincidence.

It’s all thanks to octagerian resident, Abigail whose distinct duck-shaped birthmark and her perchant for appearing everywhere, all at once throws the lives of these kids into a tailspin on their birthdays.

For instance, Leo and Amanda, best friends literally from the day of their birth experience a groundhog day loop on their eleventh birthday.

Rory finds out that trying to rush through childhood leads nothing but problems on her 12th birthday.

Tara gets into trouble when she tries to dupe Abigail herself and must go on a town-wide scavenger hunt to find 13 gifts before her 13th birthday.

And Grace. . . well they all have to come together to figure out the secrets of this town and help Grace on her tenth birthday in order to fulfill her destiny.

I have previously encountered Mass’ writing with Every Soul a Star, a thoughtful tale that expounds on the vastness of the universe and uniqueness of each individual finding their place when she brings three disparate teens together in a coming of age tale under an eclipse.

Her Willow Falls series is much more whimsical and humorous as one can tell by the premise of each novel. It falls under the realm of magical realism with more magic as the series continues forth. Well magic mixed with physics.

But that starts getting into spoilery territory so Ill focus on the characters which are the real draw of the series. While Abigail and the town fall under the magical side, the kids are three-dimensional and realistic in their strengths and flaws.

She totally gets how kids might react in these situations from Amanda and Leo happily taking advantage of the groundhog day loop in order to fix friendship problems and skip school or Rory’s insistance on following through on her list no matter the amount of physical injuries she encounters. The kids misunderstand one another while making fun of the crazy situations they get up to.

They’re not bastions of maturity but they’re endearing in their awkwardness and confusion while trying to be supportive of their friends and the magical mishaps they are thrown into by Abigail.

I’ll admit Finally, Rory’s book feels like an outliar in the series as the magical events seem more like orchestrated coincidences but it’s the funniest so I don’t mind. It still fits as Mass continually ages up the characters and incorporates them into each other’s lives in order to bring the series to its conclusion in regards to friendships and growing up and the interconnectedness of community. Magic or not.