Suddenly, it caught her eye. Unnoticed before was a worn, leather-bound book resting on the mantel above the fireplace. Somehow knowing that this was her reason for returning to the house, Amanda rushed forward and snatched it from its perch.

Amanda Casey is forced to move with her family from San Francisco to a small rural community in northern California the summer before her freshman year in high school. On the weekend before the start of the new school year, Amanda makes a shocking discovery. Inside an old house in the woods, she finds a corpse and an old book that is full of magic spells-a book that will change her life.

On the first day of school, Amanda is immediately labeled as a troublemaker even though she's done nothing wrong. Her teachers and classmates start referring to her as 'city girl'-a nickname she despises. But Amanda will show them. Surely, she thinks, there's a spell or two in the old book that will put an end to her problems at school.

Amanda, however, plays with powers that she does not fully understand. With each spell cast, she too pays a price. Almost too late, she begins to wonder whether her book of spells will help her or ultimately destroy her.