The Stats
📖 BOOK REVIEW⠀📚
BOOK: Spellbreaker
AUTHOR: Charlie N. Holmberg @ cnholmberg
Publisher: 47North
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Published: November 1, 2020
The Review
✨ The Title/Cover Draw:
- I have loved this author’s past Paper Magician series. I meant to read this one when I saw it come out, but didn’t. However, I did get approved for the sequel so this gave me an excuse to read it.
💜 What I liked:
- The world painted here, while fantasy, is easy to understand so anyone can read and not get lost. At first I wasn’t sure how the 2 characters were going to come together but when they did, it was great.
😱 What I didn’t like:
- The beginning started slow but I was pretty sure I was in a reading slump for that. It comes together nicely though.
💁♀️ The Characters:
- Elsie Camden is a spellbreaker, and an illegal one. She meets Bacchus Kelsey who discovers her secret. Elsie also lives with Ogden who is like a father to her.
🚦 The Ending:
- Sets us up nicely for the second book in this duology, which is out in March. In process of reading that one now, so stay tuned for a review.
💭 Consider if you like:
- If you like young adult fantasy or even light mystery, consider this!
All thoughts and opinions are my own.
📘 Summary:
The orphaned Elsie Camden learned as a girl that there were two kinds of wizards in the world: those who pay for the power to cast spells and those, like her, born with the ability to break them. But as an unlicensed magic user, her gift is a crime. Commissioned by an underground group known as the Cowls, Elsie uses her spellbreaking to push back against the aristocrats and help the common man. She always did love the tale of Robin Hood.
Elite magic user Bacchus Kelsey is one elusive spell away from his mastership when he catches Elsie breaking an enchantment. To protect her secret, Elsie strikes a bargain. She’ll help Bacchus fix unruly spells around his estate if he doesn’t turn her in. Working together, Elsie’s trust in—and fondness for—the handsome stranger grows. So does her trepidation about the rise in the murders of wizards and the theft of the spellbooks their bodies leave behind.
For a rogue spellbreaker like Elsie, there’s so much to learn about her powers, her family, the intriguing Bacchus, and the untold dangers shadowing every step of a journey she’s destined to complete. But will she uncover the mystery before it’s too late to save everything she loves?