MAGNETIC is a powerhouse of a novel from rising author Carissa Miller. With the very attractive title, this book focuses on the pulls in our lives, whether it be family, friends, or things out of our control. When Elle causes her father to be ostracized from a church, they must move to her aunt’s house in Oklahoma. This leads Elle to begin to have trouble with two boys, one being the son of a wealthy man in the town, and falls for Maverick. Their relationship is like a magnet, where there’s strong attraction to this handsome boy, but there’s also repulsion because of some problems that followed Elle to Oklahoma.

Dark secrets from the past never can be buried and, through extreme emotion only Miller could craft, Elle faces her demons that have come to surface: the truth about the death of her mother. Elle faces a challenge many of us face, which is wanting to know the truth and wanting to keep it away.

This intriguing novel pulls on your heartstrings with the father-daughter relationship along with Elle and Maverick’s relationship. With touching moments like a hospital bed and three kisses, a hard-to-swallow truth pill, and the solving of a mystery that’s plagued a family, this novel brings the forces that makes a family and breaks them.

Carissa Miller brings a new kind of magnetic to the forefront of modern novels that interweave genres like romance, thriller, and a mystery bigger than the characters in this fantastic work. Miller should be praised for her character development of Elle, Maverick, and even the smaller characters, who all have some force that pulls or pushes in this novel. Intertwined with great characters is a plot worth investing time in, catching small details that lead up to a big finale that’ll leave you wanting more from Carissa Miller.