Spellbreaker Paperback – November 1, 2020

I love Charlie Holmberg stories, so I've been looking forward to this duology for a while. I'm happy to say that I wasn't disappointed after the wait! Spellbreaker had all the classic elements of a unique magic system, hate-to-love relationship, and realistic period setting of a historical fantasy that she excels at, but somehow they're never the same story and always exciting and wonderful.I enjoyed the magic in this world, but I want to know so much more! We get a good idea of how spellbreaking works from Elsie's point of view as an untrained and unregistered spellbreaker. (Fascinating that spells are like different knots to her that she loosens and unravels!) But what about how the different types of spellmaking work? I hope I get to learn more about that in the second book to satisfy my curiosity! It's also interesting that they can use more than one type of spellmaking, though they can only master one and don't usually have spells from anything other than that one focus. Imagine an Avatar-like character who could use all the spellmaking spells! And maybe we'll see that Elsie can do more than just spellbreak in book 2??The magic in this series is often used as a way to separate the classes of society, since it requires a good deal of money to attend an academy and purchase the materials necessary to learn new spells. Even if poor people showed the potential for it, they rarely have the opportunity to receive training unless a wealthy person deems them talented and powerful enough to sponsor them. Even when becoming a Master Spellmaker, the academy leaders are extremely prejudiced and hoard the best spells. This social inequality plays a huge role in the story and in Elsie's justification for her unregistered spellbreaking assignments from the rebel group she calls The Cowls. Elsie sees them as rebellious heroes of the underprivileged, and herself as a modern Robin Hood, but the entire time they seemed to me to be shady at best...I really liked Bacchus, how respectful, honorable, and gentlemanly he was, despite not being treated the same way because of his ancestry. That made me appreciate his behavior even more, taking the higher ground and not succumbing to the prejudices of others. I also liked the way he treated Elsie. Despite them being from different social statuses and the suspicious way they met, he still treated her like a respectable lady. Bacchus is a classy guy.I liked Elsie, though she was a bit annoying at first with her self-righteous behavior and secret defiance of the upper class just because they were upper class. I think this was part of her character progression though, to change her views as she learns more about her benefactors, her spellbreaking abilities, and the targets she is assigned to. When she gets off her high horse to actually get to know others and consider their circumstances, she gets better.Love the twist at the end! Whoa! Don't worry, no spoilers - just read it! Thank goodness there's a second book to track down the whole story, fill in the details of what's really going on, who the bad guys really are, and how Elsie is involved. With that, let's start book 2 in the duology, Spellmaker...

I got this book through Amazon's first read's program for Kindle; having saw the author's (and promptly added them to the queue) books with their fascinating covers, I figured they'd be a nice fantasy to settle into for the winter. And I was right! This was a delightful little story and kept me up past my bedtime.Spellbreaker's undo spells. As opposed to Spellmakers who develop and apply them. Elsie has been a spellbreaker for a very long time. Every since she accidentally undid a spell and caused a lot of trouble. But a benevolent caretaker took her out of that situation (and the workhouse she was in) and placed her somewhere else, on condition that she help when asked. Since then, she's done the tasks for that person/organization in the hopes of making her world a little bit better. But new situations and people are making her question everything she knows.Elsie was a decent character. I think she had some switches in personality and confidence at times, but she also had a lot of stress and personal issues that contributed, so it's almost believable. Bacchus is the read standout character. Although we don't know quite as much about him, I did like how his character was developed and look forward to seeing more of him. The other characters were really sidenotes, and I think that her boss especially was given a bit of a disfavor by rapidly giving his character more at the end and not hinting at it more throughout the novel. It felt too rushed.And that rushed ending was really the only flaw of the book. I would have liked it to slow down a bit more and appreciate what was happening with the characters and the mystery. That being said, there is a second book, so it will probably wrap up and add some detail there. The rest of the pace of the book was good and as said before, I read this in one sitting and stayed up way too late. I look forward to the next!Review by M. Reynard 2020

Lovely read.original storyline and fantastic characters, ready for book 2!!! A joy to spend my time with this book. Entertaining!!