magic

Audiobook: Eric

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by Terry Pratchett
Read by Colin Morgan, Peter Serafinowicz & Bill Nighy
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Others in the series: It’s in Discworld, and the fourth in the Unseen University series. But, like all of Discworld, you can read it out of order.
Content: It’s Sir Terry. There’s nothing objectionable. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Eric is your typical demon summoner, except that he’s 14 and not very good at it. He’s attempted to summon a demon to grant him three wishes, and all he got was Rincewind, who isn’t a very good wizard at the best of times. And, in attempting to grant Eric’s wishes, they unravel time and space back to the beginning. Before ending up in hell, of course.

There’s really not much to say about this, mostly because it’s Terry Pratchett. It’s funny, it’s sweet, the footnotes (read by Bill Nighy!) are hilarious, and it’s an utterly pleasant way to spend 4 hours on a road trip. Highly recommended, especially if you’re driving somewhere.

Audio book: Kill All Wizards

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by Jedediah Berry
Read by Raphael Corkhill
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some swearing, including a few f-bombs, and a lot of fantasy violence. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

A barbarian – Gotchamus (not sure of that spelling, since I listened to it) – and a thief – Huxley – walked into a dining establishment, meeting up to do an exchange. What comes out of it, is the barbarian’s tale of loss and revenge, of how he came to lose his eye, and how he’s going to get his revenge on the wizards in this town. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but this is a short book, so there doesn’t need to be a lot.

What it has, though, is humor in spades. It got me early on when there was a whole bit about how the publisher should code the gory parts in red so people would know to skip them but then there would be people who would only read the gory parts, and no one wanted to encourage that behavior, and I was hooked. it’s a weird little place that Berry has created, but I adored the characters, I adored the tone fo the book, and Corkhill was superb as a narrator. It definitely can stand on its own, but if there’s going to be a series, I am 100% there for it.

So much fun.

The Dream Thieves: The Graphic Novel

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by Maggie Stiefvater
Illustrated by Sas Milledge
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: August 4, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher
Others in the series: The Raven Boys
Content: There is violence, drug use, and some swearing, including f-bombs. It will be in the Teen Graphic Novel section.

This follows the novel pretty closely; there are some scenes that are cut, some that are collapsed, but the highlights are there (I do miss my “furiously red tie” though). I think this one lends itself to graphic novel adaptation really well – there are a couple of serious antagonists and the plot is fairly straightforward. And the art, like before, is gorgeous. (Though I’m not sure Kavinsky looks like what I thought Kavinsky should look like.) I enjoyed this one more than I liked Raven Boys; it just felt more cohesive as a graphic novel (which does leave me a bit concerned for Blue Lilly and Raven King, though).

I really enjoyed it.

Haven and the Fallen Giants

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by Jen Xu and Kate Rhodes
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher
Release date: June 16, 2026
Content: There are some depictions of violence and some intense moments. It will be in the Middle Grade Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

Haven has grown up outside the town of Raqmu in the desert. She’s never been unhappy with her life, even though she has to sneak into the town to get at the parts she needs to sell her wares. As she is scavaging, she finds an ancient relic – but the Guardians of the town are after her. The majority of the book is her running through the town’s festival evading the Guardians, but she isn’t alone: a town girl, Lin, helps her out. It sounds unintersting, but believe me: it’s not.

While I liked the plot – Xu and Rhodes deal with the class issues between the city-dwellers and the desert-dwellers – it was the art that took my breath away. I haven’t seen a graphic novel this beautiful since Amulet, and I don’t say that lightly. there’s a spread near the beginning, as a young Haven sees a Giant, that is absolutely gorgeous. I can’t wait to see this in print. And while the book ended in a bit of a cliffhanger – it captivated me enough that I’m going to be invested in this series as it comes out.

It’s one of the best graphic novels I’ve seen in a long time.

Audiobook: Red City

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by Marie Lu
Read by André Santana, Eunice Wong, Natalie Naudus & Sid Sagar
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a lot of violence, much of it graphic. There is also sexual assault, on-page sex, and lots of swearing, including many f-bombs. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Growing up the child of a strict single mother, Sam wanted more for her life. She is smart – she has a perfect memory – and she had a promising future. That is, until her mom was in an accidental fire at the restaurant she worked at. Then, Sam turned to the syndicates – the organizations that control the drug Sand, and the magic in this alternate reality. She learns to be an alchemist and falls deep into this dangerous world.

Ari, on the other hand, was brought to Angel City from his home in India, recruited because of the strength of his charisma, his soul, to be a part of Luminos, one of the syndicates. He’s taught and trained since he was 10 to be a bioalchemist, someone who can persuade pretty much anyone of anything.

Ari and Sam were friends growing up, unaware of their involvement in rival syndicates, until they re-meet as adults, on the opposite side of a brewing war.

I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I really enjoyed this one. I was talking to K about the book and describing how they used alchemy as the magic system, and she was like “Oh, like Full Metal Alchemist”? And yes, exactly like that. Except mashed with the Godfather, and you have a good sense of this. But I liked the characters, I appreciated the way Lu developed the world that she set the story in, and I didn’t even mind the ending – there is still an opening for another book (hopefully, only a duology) but the story of this one is wrapped up. I loved the audio version; the narrators were amazing, capturing the emotion of the book as well as the action. I probably would have liked reading this, but I really enjoyed it on audio. Perhaps I’m being overly generous to this because I was listening to it while reading Spark of the Everflame, and it was just refreshing to have good worldbuilding and a unique, fully developed magic system.

I’ll definitely be on the lookout for the sequel to this one.

Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter

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by Heather Fawcett
First sentence: “I paused on the threshold of the shop to stamp the frost from my boots.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: February 17. 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher
Content: There are some dangerous situations, including murders. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Agnes is a widow who has had one dream: to run a cat shelter for the feral cats of Montreal, Quebec. She and her husband operated the struggling shelter until his death, and she’s been attempting to keep it going. But after a magical disaster (two magicians were dueling in the street and her shop was in the crossfire), she’s been forced to find a new home for her store (and cats). It proves difficult until she stumbles on a really cheap place for rent. It’s perfect, until she realizes that it’s a front for possibly the most notorious magician in Montreal, and his dealings in magical artifacts. Things get even more complicated when his nemesis finds him, breaks through the wards, and attacks Agnes (and the cats!). How is she supposed to deal with this? Even better: how is she supposed to deal with his clutter?

This has the same tone and whimsy as the Emily Wilde books, and I did like it, just not as much as I adored Emily Wilde. Maybe it was the cats (so many cats!), or maybe it was that Agnes was a widow mourning the loss of her husband. I do like the human and magical being pull, and Agnes was feisty enough to keep me entertained. I guess it just wasn’t everything I was hoping it would be.

Still worth reading, though.

The Bookshop Below

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by Georgia Summers
First sentence: “
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Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work.
Release date: November 18, 2025
Content: There is a lot of violence and swearing, including many f-bombs. There is also one closed-door sex scene. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Cassandra Fairfax never expected much out of her life once she left Chiron’s bookshop. She was a thief – dealing mostly in the magic books that had once been her livelihood at the bookshop- and, with one bad night, she was a killer. But then she got a letter from Chiron willing her his bookshop – again, something she never expected. Except, he was murdered. And the magic bookshops on the river are failing. And maybe Cassandra isn’t cut out to live a non-criminal life. Then again: maybe she’s the only one who can save the magic from disappearing from the world altogether.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I really liked the magic system – there are magic books (not ones with instructions, but regular books that just happen to have magic properties) that can be bought (not necessarily with money) in bookshops that you can only find if they are needed. There are readers – Cassandra is one – who can read from the books and make the power come out. It’s dangerous – there’s an instance early on when a reader read a sleeping-beauty-like book, and it was taking over the house and the owners had to go in and fix it. It wasn’t hard to follow, and Summers did a good job implementing the benefits and detriments as she went along, so by the final conflict, there was a lot at stake.

And it kept me interested. I liked the characters – and there are many intriguing characters to like and dislike – and while I thought for a while that Summers wasn’t going to be able to wrap the story up, she did in a very satisfactory way.

I’d love another book in this world, not because it needs one, but because I’m fascinated with the world she created.

Highly recommended.

Audiobook: A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping

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by Sangu Mandanna
Read by Samara MacLaren
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, instances of emotional child abuse, and one fade-to-black sex scene. It’s in the Romance-Fantasy section of the bookstore.

I know: I said a few posts ago that I don’t do romantasy. Let’s put it this way: a slightly magical book set in contemporary times is NOT romantsy, and I think I prefer the latter.

Sera was an up-and-coming, talented witch when she was younger, but when she was 15, her great-aunt, whom she loves and lives with, died. Sera was talented enough to bring her aunt back from the dead, but she lost most of her magic and was exiled from the British Guild of Magic as a result. Now, 15 years later, running an inn full of wayward people (both magical and non-), she finds the resurrection spell, something that will help her get her magic back. It’s a historian, Luke, who happens (sort-of) to be stopping in at the hotel with his younger sister, that puts Sera on the right path, and maybe together they can get her magic back.

This was absolutely delightful, especially on audio. The narrator was perfect (Luke is Scottish, and her accent for him was delightful), and the story just silly enough and charming enough to make me happy. It was exactly what I needed, and I can’t complain.

The Kiss Curse

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by Erin Sterling
First sentence: “Given that the spell had been ‘Turn this leaf into something else,’ and Gwynnevere Jones had indeed turned that leaf into something else, it seemed extremely unfair that everyone was now screaming at her.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: The Ex-Hex
Content: There is a lot of swearing, including multiple f-bombs, as well as a few on-page sex scenes. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

All Gwyn wants to do is live her life in Graves Glen, run her little witch shop, and enjoy her family being in charge of the magic. So when Wells Penhallow shows up and has the nerve to open a witch shop across the street from hers, she is more than upset. She’s livid. She’s okay with her cousin’s husband, Rhys, but she wants nothing to do with Wells. At all. Except, they can’t seem to stay away from each other (“friendly competition” and all), and when a weird coven shows up, Gwyn needs Wells’s help to figure out why her magic has weakened.

I didn’t really think The Ex-Hex needed a sequel, but once I got back into the world of Graves Glen, I was quite pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying being back there. It’s such a delightful town, with such delightful characters, and I really liked the push-and-pull of Gwyn and Wells. (Also: props for a bi queen!) It’s not a deep book, but it is a lot of fun.

Maybe I’ll even read the third book in the series.

The Raven Boys: The Graphic Novel

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by Maggie Stiefvater, Stephanie Williams, Sas Milledge
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: Much like the source material, there is some mild swearing and references to teenage drinking. It’s in the Teen Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

I’m not going to rehash the plot here because I read the audiobook earlier this year. My thoughts on this can be boiled down to this: I loved the art, but I missed the words. Milledge did an excellent job of capturing the boys and Blue. She was able to portray their personalities in the art (though I’d always pictured Gansey as a blonde, but oh well), and I loved seeing her interpretations of the locations in the book. The art is, in fact, quite lovely.

But I don’t read Stiefvater for the plots. (Unusual for me, but there it is.) I missed her words. The book -because it’s a graphic novel – it boiled down to the plot and honestly, there’s not much there there. Which means I didn’t get the soaring descriptions, the lovely turns of phrase, the things that make me truly love these books. It was…. just okay.

That’s not to say I’m not going to collect these for the art. It’s just not as good a read as the original is.