Interesting YA fantasy novella dealing mostly with a 14-year-old boy adjusting to court life, expectations, and members of his family he'd never met before. Looking forward to reading the rest of this series!

I want to thank the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this title. I really wanted to enjoy this story, but the writing was just not interesting. Even my daughters walked away and said it was boring. I will not be recommending this one.

First off, I would like to thank the publisher and author for providing me this ARC to review. Please note that the version I read was an advanced copy, and certain events/language may be changed in the published edition.

Stars (Out of 10): 3/10 Stars

Spoiler Free: This novella was meant to introduce the world and make readers more interested in the series, but I don’t really think this book did that at all. If I were to judge this novella purely on how well it accomplishes that task, it would’ve received 1 star. It barely bothered to explain the world at all, the one we were supposed to be growing interest in, and focused instead on a very oddly paced plot with characters that all read kind of the same.

Unfortunately, I found out pretty early on that I would most likely not be a fan of this novella. This revelation came purely from the writing style at first, as it felt super cut and dry, very simple and uninteresting. Instead of utilizing language to properly make readers feel and understand the world better, everything just felt stated. “Character A did this. Character B reacted like this.” It told more than it showed, which caused a major disconnect between me and the characters.

Additionally, the plot itself was fairly simple to guess, yet wasn’t aware of this. It not so subtly dropped many clues before every twist, so every reader would have actually picked up on it before it was revealed, but somehow our MC, Darian, was entirely clueless to everything going on around him. The pacing of the overall plot was also fairly weird. We had a very quick-moving start, almost as if we were dropped into the middle of a story, and then we get a lull in the middle, followed by a final chapter in Darian’s POV that suddenly dumps a bunch more information on the reader. When combined with the simple writing, it almost felt as if I was reading a very detailed outline of what the book was going to contain, instead of the book itself.

The world itself, as I mentioned above, is also just poorly explained. We learn nothing of the magic system (which is part of why I requested this novella, it sounded interesting), and almost nothing on the tension between the smaller villages and the kingdom, just that magic is the cause of it. It leaves readers in a limbo of who to believe, as we aren’t given a sympathetic outlook on either side. All we know is that the king is burning villages in search of a witch that is probably dead (but how do only the villages know this? Why doesn’t the king?) It’s all really confusing, so I’m trying not to dwell on it.

Lastly, I wasn’t able to get a grasp on almost any of the characters. While I overall did find Sian interesting, and the interplay of motives running through him, this same level of depth did not come through well in the other characters, and instead made them feel incontinuous. For example, with our main hero Darian, we don’t actually get to learn about life back in the village, or anything that makes us sympathetic to the cause Darian’s mother was fighting for. Furthermore, this makes his constant longing for his old life hard to empathize with, since we have no understanding of that life. His inner voice also seems to shift dramatically within the story, from a focus on home/hatred of the evil king, to a focus on love interest only, and then back to a focus on revenge/hatred without regard of said love interest. This imbalance actually comes through in that love interest as well, and I have a hard time gauging what her inner thoughts actually are, even after having read a POV chapter from her.

However, I was still intrigued. Even with everything above, I still want to learn more. Some might say that this want for more stems from the lack of content that the book provided me with in the first place, but I also didn’t expect much coming into this in terms of content (it is only 100 pages!)

This rings of a middle grade that could easily grow to ya fantasy. It a quick intro to what I hope will be an exciting series. The cover art is stunning and very eye catching. The short novella has enticed me to sign up for the author newsletter and am wAnting to co tinge the story.

This book was just okay, and only because it was so short. I think my biggest issue with this book was the writing. It has a very juvenile and at times grocery list-y kind of writing. It didn't invite to any more reading at all. Let's just say I've spent four days avoiding to read 50 odd pages...kind of says everything, no?

I did find the story interesting at times, but the writing style didn't make for a very inviting character development. The book is meant to be an intro to the Whyland universe, but we're dropped smack in the middle of the story, and that's a bit odd for an intro novella in my opinion. It took me considerable time to get my bearings straight, and to know what in the world was going on.

I'm having mixed feelings, because I wanted to like it so much - just look at that gorgeous cover and the blurb! - but alas. 2,75 stars from me.

A short introduction with new magic and characters. I found the princess’ friendship sweet. The truth test was entertaining. I think the father will turn out to be a monster but I’m not sure what to think about Sian yet. He’s an interesting character with his own game plan. This one left a lot of questions waiting to be answered.

The tag line "He was raised to resist them. Now he has to join them." sounds very promising and I was looking forward to reading this book. I really liked the characters and the descriptions of the world they live in. I was a bit disappointed by how the magic was only introduced very vaguely. I was hoping for a more in depth world-building because it would help me understand the conflict between Darian and his father and the king better. The story had a lot of potential but perhaps it should have been developed into a novel-length work instead of the shorter version. Also, some of the storylines felt more appropriate for an older protagonist not a 14-year-old boy.
It was an enjoyable read and would love to see how the story develops.

Okay so I’m going to be completely honest - I wanted to read this novella solely for that beautiful cover. Unfortunately that was a mistake. This novella is supposed to entice you into reading the wider series, but for me that mark was well and truly missed; it was liking eating a cracker in a desert. Dry and bland.

The idea, particularly the promise of a new and forbidden magic system, is really compelling. Whenever something is forbidden it’s ten times more exciting right? Not in this case. And I can’t decide if that’s because of the boring delivery or if it was the writing style.

Essentially the story reads as though you’ve been dropped into the middle of the action and so you don’t really know the backstory (which seems odd admittedly because surely the idea of this story was to do exactly the opposite). But this isn’t such a huge issue, the issue is mainly in the dialogue. The way the conversations, in particular, are put together in this novella is really juvenile - and I feel awful for saying that, but it’s true. It’s like it’s written for a much younger audience. There’s a lot of telling rather than showing as though the author wanted to be absolutely certain that you’re able to keep up with all the (not very subtle) information the main character is coming across. And honestly, it feels like Darian wasn’t keeping up with even the most obvious of clues other characters were giving him, which is super frustrating.

Many of the characters kind of rolled into one for me, except Sian who has a little more about him. I think I’d have preferred a story from that point of view actually.

I hate giving negative ratings, but I’m giving it two stars and that’s really only for the cover.

ARC provided free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This novella introduces the world of Whyland and the backstory to the main players of the upcoming Portals of Whyland series. For such a quick introduction, the novella is thoughtful, artfully written, and filled with personality-defining events. While I am sure you would be able to start the upcoming series without reading The Spell Speakers, I would urge you to pick up and start with it anyway. The tragedies of this short glimpse into our characters are worth experiencing first hand.

Though young, even for a YA, the characters are easy to relate to and their motivations are realistic. (I would assume they are so young so they are late teens in the future series, which makes a lot of sense.) The antagonist, a mistreated older sibling, is as likeable as he is untrustworthy. The protagonist is young and innocent, but the reader watches as he matures, as he grows from victim of circumstance to a leader with a hidden agenda.

The world was richly constructed and the conflict clearly portrayed. While the magic of the world is touched upon throughout the story, it does not have an active role in the course of events yet so it is not discussed in detail. Which works to peak the reader’s interest in the full series.

I was surprised by the depth of the writing; it appeared to me that The Spell Speakers was a middle grade story. I expected a shallow, but happy story. Leitao, however, delivers a story filled with unexpected philosophical ruminating and beautiful prose. She depicts love and tragedy appropriate for her young characters that resounds joyfully and heartbreakingly in readers of all ages. Yet, because this is a book for younger readers, the plot twists are simple, the emotions are written with simple language, and often the dialogue moves the story forward. While I don’t see these as shortcomings, I warn adult readers that this is not a challenging book.

These few pages have successfully enticed me into the world of Whyland and to finish the story that I’ve started. Thank you to NetGalley, Day Leitao, and SparklyWave for the eARC which powered this review. I look forward to the upcoming series with excitement.