"Parties & Potions," the fourth installment in Sarah Mlynowski's "Magic in Manhattan" series, continues the story of witch sisters Rachel, 15, and Miri, 13.

Rachel has a harder time accepting life as a witch than her younger sister does; Miri sees the magical world as a place to finally fit in, while Rachel struggles to maintain a relationship with her boyfriend while discovering new friendships in the witch world.

The plot focuses on the girls' preparation for their Samsortas, the witch equivalent of a bat mitzvah.

As the sisters prepare for this rite of passage, they must learn witch culture, history and Brixta, the language of magic. To complicate matters, they must hide these studies from their father. Rachel's parents are divorced; her father never knew of her mother's magical powers, and so Rachel must keep her own powers secret from her father.

Rachel has to deal with the stress of leading a double life as she juggles a social life with her witch friends and commitments in the "normal" world. As she struggles with hiding the truth from those she loves, Rachel learns a valuable lesson about honesty and staying true to oneself.

While "Parties & Potions" is a lighthearted, often funny read, the author seems to be writing from the perspective of an adult who doesn't have much personal experience with teenagers and has perhaps forgotten what it was like to be that age. She describes things as an adult might imagine a teenager experiences them, and so those characters come across somewhat flat and inauthentic.

When Miri first meets her boyfriend, Corey, the author describes them gazing at each other as if "they just turned on the TV and discovered a new favorite show" -- this, along with the numerous references to "tongue gymnastics," may be cringe-inducing to young readers as well as adults.

As with any story, a parent should determine if the subject matter is appropriate for his or her child. I find the novel relatively harmless. If your 'tween needs some light summer reading, this story will provide a nice bit of poolside escapism.