Kristin K. (escapeartistk) - reviewed on 6/30/2016 + 207 more book reviews

I discovered this title on PBS' "Where to start in fantasy" list. If I actually had "started in fantasy" with this book, I never would have returned.

I've never before read a book with "magic" in the title in which so little magic actually happens. In the first third of the book, Faris, the protagonist, and friends are attending a college of witches/magicians where no magic is actually taught and no one is allowed to practice magic. There are vague references throughout to the "structure of the world" and "anchors" and "wardens," but none of these magical elements is ever really elaborated.

Faris is petulant and contrary and not very likeable, while her Greenlaw College friends are so nondescript as to be indistinguishable. Faris is convinced that her uncle/guardian is out to get her, but other than him not having maintained Faris' wardrobe during her childhood, there are no clear reasons to warrant her suspicion that he actually wants to dispose of her.

Finally, Stevermer manages to make her tale's most exciting moments utterly anti-climactic. As a result, though the writing (style) was good, the story was just really uninteresting.

Overall, this book felt like a sketch or an outline that somehow made it's way into a published novel before the author had flushed out any of her ideas.

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