Lucy is just a regular teenager with regular worries: homework, friends, getting home for dinner on time. Oh, and there’s the small matter of how she’s going to tell her mother about her unplanned pregnancy.

When Lucy hears she’s been enrolled in Drake’s College, a school for students with magical talent, she’s sure someone’s messing with her. But despite her scepticism, she’s soon swept up into a new double life—and now she’s got something else to hide.

At Drake’s, Lucy befriends the handsome Jack, a teacher’s assistant who has secrets of his own. More concerningly, Lucy’s ‘talent’ doesn’t seem to be materialising, and one of the other students collapses in a mysterious incident. There’s danger in the air...

Clever, laugh-out-loud funny and sprinkled with romance, The Not So Chosen One is utterly charming.

Kate Emery lives in Perth and works as a senior reporter for the West Australian. The Not So Chosen One is her first book and was shortlisted for the 2020 Text Prize.

‘The Not So Chosen One has everything I want in a portal fantasy—a protagonist with a strong, relatable and likable voice; a setting that feels real and grounded, both in our world and the magical one; and a plot that feels like a genuinely fresh take on a beloved trope. I loved this book to pieces.’ Jodi McAlister