SPELL BOUND

Two teens apprenticed to rival sorcerers start to fall for each other as the world around them implodes.

Nonmagical almost-17-year-old Edison “Rook” Rooker just wants back into the world of magic that he lost when his grandmother passed away. And while being magicless himself is a major obstacle, his optimistic scheme to develop an illegal yet scientific way to access magic while being apprenticed to powerful sorceress Antonia Hex is pretty much going according to plan. Until, that is, the Magical Consortium gets wind of his detection device. Given how Antonia—due to previous run-ins with the Consortium—is not technically allowed to have new apprentices, she is arrested alongside rival colleague/accomplice Fable. Rook is now on the run, hiding from those who want to prevent him from accessing magic and determined to rescue Antonia and Fable with help from Sun, Fable’s introverted, annoyingly cute, and extremely magical apprentice. While the strong worldbuilding and the overall arc about magic, oppression, and overcoming obstacles are well done, the true highlight of the novel lies in its cozy sense of humor, relationships, and theme of belonging, explored both in terms of working families created by apprentices and masters and the endearing grumpy-sunshine romance that develops between Rook and Sun. Both Sun and Fable are nonbinary. Antonia is brown-skinned; Sun is implied Korean, and Rook is assumed White.

A delightful novel about magic and belonging.