I was drawn to this debut novel by the hauntingly beautiful cover, and I couldn't stop reading thanks to the impeccable worldbuilding and eerie, almost dark plot. I expected it to be a lot lighter for a YA novel, but the creepy vibes were not unwelcome. Once I started reading the book, I could not put it down -- the characters and the new fantasy world drew me in straight away. My favourite part was analyzing the implicit themes in the book because this is a very layered novel. I couldn't help but empathize with the MC, Elika, as she made the choice between going into the unknown with nothing but hope versus staying and fighting to the end. An excellent debut; I can't wait to see what Thornbury publishes next!

I received this book as an ARC for an honest review and I was pleasantly surprised at how appropriate for the times this storyline was. I love YA books but not all of them have deeper themes that will draw me in. This one absolutely did. Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Elika struggles with survival throughout this book, surviving the streets and then the various motivations of men as an all consuming force draws near.

This book has fully fleshed characters from the start, even side characters. Thornbury weaves a well built world that is a character in itself.

There are still mysteries left to learn in follow up books, but this was a riveting first.

Elika is an orphan on her dying world of Terren. Elika is part of Bad Penny's gang of thieves and Eli stalks the Bridge to the Deadlands waiting to take the possessions of those who cross it. The bridge appeared from magic years ago when those who were magic left Terren. Now, mankind blames magic for the deadly blight that is destroying their world. Eli blames the bridge for her troubles and takes out her anger on it, only to discover that she is magic as well. With Eli's discovery the blight creeps closer and people begin to distrust everyone around them as magic. Eli must decide if she wants to use her magic to fight for the survival of her world or try to purge it from herself.

The Bridge to Magic is an excellent fantasy highlighting the choice between accepting a new life and leaving behind everything you know. I was immediately taken in by the amazing world building. I could easily imagine the complex web that made up the bridge into the Deadlands and well as a busy city surrounded by a neverending chasm. The characters were all fully developed and memorable. I loved Eli's dedication to her gang and her steadfastness in her decisions. Although, this steadfastness is also part of Eli's problem with moving on. I enjoyed Bill Fisher's character as well along with his stories. I really liked Eli's time with Igla and I wish Igla could have taught Eli more about her past and magic. The ending was fast paced as the blight quickened and Eli was forced to make a decision between what is left of her world and what is beyond the Bridge. Overall, a thrilling fantasy of hope, fate and magic. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

A stunning novel about the lens with which we view history.
Dropped into a world where magic is feared, we follow an orphan through the streets as a blight grows ever nearer to the city. It is believed that magic causes the blight, because magic is evil, so the city aims to purge all "infected" of magic.
Personally, I love books that bring you into a world that clearly has a rich history, but doesn't over-explain it. The narrator just assumes you know certain things, and if they aren't relevant to the story, doesn't go into detail. This kind of narration really sucks you in, and that's exactly how The Bridge to Magic is written.
Not an overly action-packed novel, but there was enough intrigue to keep me reading the whole book.
If you liked A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab, I believe you will like this book.

The author does a great job of baking up some truly unique lore, unfortunately, everything feels like it came out the oven all too soon. Here are my thoughts:


PRO: it's been years since I've seen so many ORIGINAL concepts in a recent fantasy book. The BRIDGE in here is a simple premise that feels fresh.

CON: For every good idea is one on of half thought through. I.E., salt is the main way of protecting oneself from magic, however, its never explained why it's not until the "enemy" arrives that everyone starts using salt lol

CON: Salt pendants are meant to show who is magic sensitive. Its odd that no one has tried anything in hundreds of years to find out who had magic in them Even though it was common knowledge that salt could reveal so.

CON: The "Enemy" arrives to the city at a high-speed...... Then nothing? For weeks. Mind you, we're told that the enemy arrived quickly and was visible from the city walls. We're never told why it would take son long for the enemy to attack. This is Double Duo when a secondary character games the bridge. But it seemed as if they could've waited another month or so lol

CON: A priestess arrives in the story who knows the another character's origins. The priestess' reasoning s are so ridiculous. Question: if you found a child of grand importance would you choose not to take care of them because "the child never did anything for yiu" ?
This was so ridiculous especially since the priestess knew the importance of the child and weirder that she told no one. This excuse felt like plot armor that was inconsistent for a priestess who was primarily presented as being proactive.


CON: The protagonist is told "Eat whatever you want in my store" , she then goes and pickpockets for food lol

CON: A character named Bill keeps the protagonists' secret, she tells his a to the priestess casually. Her character is likeable for the most part, but this was weird considering she could've gotten him killed and he was loyal to her. (The blackmail part of the story was a bit far fetched, but not a big complaint)

CLOSING THOUGHTS: I was thinking this was going to be a 5 Star book. It probably would have been if the author had better beta readers who read fantasy. This is a YA book with adult themes and violence. This book would've benefited from a change in themes and maybe catering to the Middle Grade fantasy, they would be more forgiving to the errors of the plotting and world building.

I wanted to give this higher, but it did not deserve it imo. I think the author has a bright future , but this is a 1 star for me. I gave it 2 stars since I DNF'd at page 196/197

2 STARS
D+

The Bridge to Magic was my introduction into fantasy novels and it has succeeded in getting me absolutely addicted. I am floored that this is Alex Thornbury's debut book as the storytelling, the dialogue, and the writing are all so rich and fascinating. I was entranced within the first few minutes of reading and for the mere 4 days it took me to devour the whole thing, I spent my days just looking forward to the next time I could sneak in a few more pages. The plot is so complex and cleverly interwoven without being confusing - enough to expertly build a whole world, a whole millenia of time, and yet still able to make us as readers feel satisfied when we put some puzzle pieces together. The characters were brilliant and the dialogue was just awesome. Every time I picked up the book I felt like I was diving into the city of Terren -- Thornbury does such an incredible job at describing details for all senses that you genuinely feel like you're standing on those cobbled streets. I just can't say enough good things about this and I believe that Elika (and Mite, and Bad Penny, and Bill, and Igla, and Anten, and all the tsarens, and even Peter Pockets) will always have a special place in my heart as the story that made me realize how wonderfully transfixing magic can be.

I was provided with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Bridge to Magic follows Elika, a street orphan living in a world where men and magic have been at war for centuries. The Blight ravages their land, killing anything in its path. Elika's home of Terren is also home to The Bridge to Magic, a bridge that is a last resort option for people the leave the impossible dreadful life they currently have in Terren, in favor of crossing into the deadlands with hope for a new life. Except, there's a high chance they'll never make it across the bridge.

This book gripped me from the very beginning. I was anxious to learn more about the world and characters, and Thornbury delivered. The way this story was told makes it weird to try to explain to other people, but makes perfect sense as you're reading it, and Thornbury reveals enough of the story through memories and Elika simply watching things unfold in her city. I say this only because there isn't much of the story I can give away without spoiling things, and as I was trying to explain it to my husband spoiler free I could feel myself descending further into madness with the words I was saying.

This book is easily a 5 star read for me, but I will note a couple of things that I think could have been done differently.

Elika's character growth and transformation was a good pace, but it was at a different pace than the reader. That's not inherently a bad thing, but I did find myself thinking a couple of times something to the effect of "Okay, you're a teenager, you think you know best, but you're obviously being told by people who are much more experienced than you that things are not what you think they are." Eventually Elika does put pieces together and figure things out, and there were certain pieces of the story that I was right alongside her with it, but there were good portions of it that I figured out long before the character ever did.

The other thing, and this may have just been a me thing, was that my Kindle copy was formatted a little wonky. I know sometimes that can happen when style from the print editions doesn't quite translate over, but the dialogue wasn't formatted correctly in a large portion of it, line breaks were sometimes hard to see, and very occasionally I had like half of a sentence just thrown in between two paragraphs that had nothing to do with anything around it. Again, it could have just been a me thing with how my Kindle loaded the file, but it was sometimes hard to follow.

The book also ends in such a way that you could definitely continue the series (there are a lot of open ended things and if you want to explore more of the world, there's a lot more to explore ahead of the book than behind it), but you could also safely leave it at just the first book and fill in the blanks yourself with how everyone turned out. I plan on continuing and can't wait until book 2 is available!

A really enjoyable first book if the series. The characters are really interesting and the storyline was engaging.

This book was a delightful surprise! The story is compelling from the beginning and the writing itself is beautiful. Something that stood out to me especially is the world building, which was thorough and impactful.

While this book had so much promise, the whole time while reading I found myself not being lost in the pages and immersed enough in the story. It took starting three times to actually make it past the first 50% - which I'm not sure whether that kind of pacing was intentional or not. It did leave lots of room for questions in the magic system that maybe we can see more of in the second book. Personally, a miss for me - but is perfect for my pre-teen! So will still be purchasing a copy for the family.

For the entirety of the book, the narrator, setting, characters have you brainwashed to believe the same as them; at the very last moment, the pieces fall together and we all realise the fundamental truth about magic way too late! And it blew my mind how simple the answer was, and how we all overlooked that angle. The book illustrated really well how “cult” mentality that operates on discrimnation, fear and hatred is so dangerous.

I was super relieved to get to the end and find out that the second book has already been written! Hopefully, we shall find out how Elika survives and whether all is what it seems to be on the other side, and whether anyone holds any regrets.

If I’m being honest, I chose this book to allow myself to broaden my scope of genre. I don’t usually go for fantasy or novels written in a more “old” vibed tone.

However, the concept of the book seemed intriguing enough; I always love survival vs extinction kind of tropes.

A street urchin called Elika discovers that she harbours magic of the greatest strength within her, and has the ability to infect others too. The world as she knows it is on the path of destruction by the Blight. The Blight is thought to be caused by the existence of magic that is seen as evil and treacherous. As the Blight moves closer, cities surrender to death and survivors are left with the choice to perish or take the Bridge to Magic into the Deadlands where they may either be allowed to pass or be obliterated into dust.

I think the cover is great; it brings about the atmosphere of desolation and has that misty vibe of magic lingering around.

However, the fonts and positioning of the text could be adjusted slightly so that it stands out more rather than blend into the background.

Having a browse through her insta, I think the aesthetics if this were to ever be a movie or have illustrative images to accompany the narration…it would be breathtaking!

Each character had a unique and complex dynamic with each other. Some had inner thoughts that others weren’t aware of, and others exposed their true nature to enemies and showed a duplicitous face to their kind.

Everyone had their secrets, their own motives, varying levels of attachment to wordly and humanly things. You could see substance developments with the level of risks and sacrificies that some characters made, and the betrayals they chose to make of their own accord.

Although some of the characters were supposed to be vessels of magic, the way they felt regret, jealously, bitterness allowed us to relate to them and feel sympathy. It was hard not to feel sorry or anguish at their treatment, despite being told magic is the evil; it had to be thwarted in order to save the world.

Overall, a lot of fascinating concepts have been introduced; however, not much depth has been given to them in the first book.

We observe and are narrated a lot but I feel we never truly see one concept in its fullest extent.

Great imagery throughout and at times, it’s like we’ve been shifted into the characters world. We are one with the character, and feel the sorrows they do

Each character has their own distinct style of talking which keeps things interesting..

The first half of the book felt quite sluggish, and it was difficult to get into. I think this was due to a lack of action going on; it felt more descriptive. However, I read the second half of the book in one sitting. A lot was going on – we got exposed to various characters emotions, we could imagine the scenes and there was food for thought.

It would also be a bonus to give the reader a bit more of an insight into exactly how the magic system works and what it entails of. Although the entire plot revolves around the existence of magic, the readers see very little into it.

I’m very hopeful for the second book as I’m dying to know how things pan out…

The Bridge to Magic follows a street urchin named Elika whose world is on the verge of collapse thanks to the wild ravages of maligned and spiteful magic. Each day the world wakes to see the Blight creep closer, and with it, their inevitable demise. Will they submit to their slowly encroaching death, or will they risk crossing the Bridge into an unknown world full of the very magic that is trying to kill them?

PROS:
I think Thornbury had a lot of really interesting concepts to work with in the book, with a ton of complex relationship dynamics. The world was gritty and beautiful in it's own heartbreaking way. Magic being a living, almost sentient thing was a new take on an age-old topic, but really, it was the characters that carried the weight. People felt real, with their own motives and instincts and attachments. Each action felt like something someone in their position would reasonably do.

CONS:
The first half of the book felt like a total slog-fest for me. I finished the second half in under a day, but every time I tried initially picking the book up, I would only read for a few minutes before inevitably setting it down again. I think in large part this had to do with the author "telling" instead of "showing". I'd argue that a lot of the elements of this world fit the category of "grimdark", but instead of slowly revealing the state of the world through the eyes of one of its most disadvantaged citizens, we are hit with large, brutal infodumps.

Despite the fact that the world is in total chaos, there's actually relatively little that actually happens in the story. There are some books where you can get away with that, but in the initial half of the book, it really slows things down. I felt like I was just reading about Elika walking from one part of the city to the other and back again. On top of that, even when things did happen, there would fairly consistently be some opposing factor that effectively canceled the action out and left me wondering "what was the point?". I'm not sure if the author intended this to be a show of futility in this dying world, but it more left me shrugging than anything.

OVERALL:
Alex Thornbury's debut novel is something I could see a lot of fans of classical fantasy really digging in to. It's one of those stories that requires patience and a love of character-driven tales. I know someone out there has found one of their top books of the year, but it was just sadly not for me. That being said, I'll be keeping an eye out for more books from this author in the future!

I did enjoy this book but felt that I would probably enjoy the follow up book more because I felt I needed more information on the world the characters inhabited but maybe that was just me. An enjoyable read and will look forward to the next in the series.

3.5 / 5 stars - will round up to 4

This book follows the story of Elika an orphan growing up in Terren, watching as the Blight grows closer and closer to Terren.

Everyone believes that magic is the cause and purging it is the only way to stop the Blight. For some they cross the Bridge to the Deadlands.

Elika knows she is an Echo and the only way to protect herself and Terren is to purge herself of her magic, but it doesn’t go as she hopes.

This book has a really good story and has a lot of potential, yet I feel this book could have used another round of edits. I still have questions about the magic system and how it works. Maybe more understanding will come with book two. I still don’t fully understand some of the purging trials that were carried out. I think editing could have helped provide readers with a bit better understanding of the purging trials and the priestess themselves. I also would have liked to have made a stronger connection with some of the characters earlier on.

I also think the pacing of the book could be enhanced. I found it hard to connect with the first half of the book. Once I got a little over fifty percent I was invested in the book and wanted to see what was going happen next. Towards the end of the book we are introduced to sub-plot that fizzles out very quickly, making it seem out of place.

That being said I did enjoy this book and I am very curious to see where book two will take us. I am also excited to see a YA fantasy boom that has a young female main character who is still trying to figure everything out and isn’t perfect. I also liked that it is a fantasy book that is slightly different from those that are currently out there. I think you should give this book a try if you are looking for something that is a little different from other YA fantasy books, or if you just enjoy stories with magic.

This was a really great introduction into the Sundered Web series. Alex is wonderfully skilled in world building and this book is a prime example of that. Her wonderful descriptions creates beautiful and vivid imagery. It's almost like the reader becomes Elika. You feel her sorrow, her joy, and her bravery. The story itself is pure magic, and I will definitely follow this and any other series this wonderful author comes out with.

this had everything that I was looking for in a scifi series, it worked as a great start to the Sundered Web series. I enjoyed going through this story and getting to know the world itself. The characters were perfect and I'm glad I was able to go through this. Alex Thornbury has a great writing style and he did everything that I was hoping for. I look forward to more in this series and from Alex Thornbury.

"… to vanquish the magic of water and ice, you must strengthen yourself against those elements and learn not
to fear them.”