"Why are we keeping people out of our community who want to be here?"

Sun and Rook came to be sorcerers' apprentices by very different means. While Sun took the traditional, Consortium-approved avenue, Rook took more of a sneaky back alley. The fact of the matter is that Rook is non-magical and shouldn't have been considered for the position. After the death of his magical grandmother, he's been desperate to be back in her world. He made his plea to Antonia Hex, a not only powerful but also luckily petty and rebellious sorcerer who first takes Rook on to fix her coffee machine and answer phones for her curse-breaking business. Rook's invention, meant to help normies like himself detect the ley lines that sorcerers take for granted, should have, by all rights, resulted in his prompt sacking once discovered by Antonia. Instead, he finds himself included in fieldwork and named her apprentice.

For Sun's part, they run into Rook when their two mentors keep getting thrown into tenuous team-ups on the job. Sun's the cranky cat to Rook's delighted golden retriever, and they snipe at and tease one another until Rook declares them frenemies. It's worth noting that Sun turns into an actual cat for part of the story, so my description here is more than apt.

I think the book handles relationships so well. Rook and Sun's journey to first love has this sweet innocence to it that captures the best of teenage energy. They do math at a coffee shop, eat candy and try to jumpstart Rook's magic, and have a cute rather than spicy "only one bed" conundrum. Rook handles Sun's boundaries about physical touch like an actual pro, and Sun looks out for Rook when no one else is doing the honors. It's such a joy to see a queer romance on the page where two young people can embrace their feelings openly and proudly and without fear of repercussion. Any persecution they experience in the story has nothing to do with gender identity or sexuality. The found family element is also strong. I especially want to call out the bond between Rook and Antonia because the chosen adult storyline is emotional and powerful. Though fierce and even scary, Antonia's loyalty and care for Rook grows throughout the story, and she takes the role of trusted adult firmly and without reservations.

I think the weaker element of the book is the world-building. For being pretty basic, given the similarities to contemporary life, the introduction of magical elements is a bit belabored at the beginning. While I'm perfectly ok without complicated magic systems, I think that then it's best to leave it in the background and get on with what the book does best. Because the looming Consortium holds such a role in the story, I wish things hadn't been left so simplistic in that regard. Fighting against powerful systems is such an important and relevant theme, but this boogeyman has all the complexity of a sheet with two eyeholes posing as a ghost. It made the final showdown lose its zest, in my opinion, because it took such a potentially hefty topic and made it surface-level, presumably for speed/ease. You have two rebelling teenagers going up against an all-powerful corporate/bureaucratic body, one of them being punished for his mere existence, and I think there should be something more heart-wrenching and visceral there. More attention given to that part of the plot and to the nature of the enemy could have gone a long way to drawing the ending into the best version of itself.

This is a story about who's given access to community, who's seen as deserving and enough. In this case, the gatekeeping takes the form of sorcerer lackeys in suits, but feel free to apply the concept more liberally. I can't help but draw the parallel to the queer community in particular when we have two queer teenagers at the forefront of this story.

If you're looking for a ya fantasy that leans into its romantic plot and its found family elements with a light sprinkling of rebellion and magic, pick this one up. Thanks to Margaret K. McElderry for my copy to read and review!

Oh I just loved this book! As soon as Rook entered the curse breaking office and met Herb the grumpy coatrack, I was a fan of this magical world. But what made this story really enjoyable - and had me smiling page after page - was the adorable banter between main characters Rook and Sun. The boys were just so cute together, and I was cheering them on as they fought the Magical Consortium. I’d love a second story about their continued work with sorceresses Antonia Hex and Fable.

There was so much to admire in this book. The dramatic plot and captivating characters truly stood out. The world was wonderfully queer-inclusive, with a non-binary main character at its heart. This story delves into loneliness and the quest for belonging, as Rook finds a sense of home with Antonia, Sun, and Fable. The emphasis on found family was touching, and I’d be eager to explore this world again in the future!

I really loved this book. It was the perfect blend of grumpy/sunshine romance and found family.

Rook is such an easily likeable sunshiney character. Sun is grumpy and wears all black and it takes effort to push past their boundaries. Rook makes the effort, much to Sun's dismay. I loved them both. Antonia and Fable are also great characters and a lot of fun to root for against the overreaching Magical Consortium.

The magic was so funny with all the cursed objects and Antonia being so magically powerful that she is constantly frying electronics.

I also really enjoyed Rook being determined to find his way back to the magical community after being thrown out of it because he was deemed unmagical. The spellbinder/leyfinder was really cool.

It was the perfect amount of cute and funny and heartfelt. The stakes at the end were high and it never felt like they'd get out of their tight spot easily.

This is my favorite F.T. Lukens book so far, but I have really enjoyed them all and I am looking forward to the next one.

*Thanks to Margaret K. McElderry Books for providing an early copy for review.

This book was incredible! Full of so much magic and adventure. I really connected with this story. Especially amidst the grief. I also loved that the two main characters were apprenticed to two very different people. And there were so many hijinks. This book was very reminiscent of Supernatural. I'll absolutely be reading more from the author in the future.

Spellbound by F.T. Lukens is a captivating departure from their previous YA works. With rich world-building and engaging characters, the story features Rook’s charm and Sun’s compelling backstory. The plot is thrilling, set in a modern yet magical world facing oppression. A must-read for fans of magical adventures!

F.T. Lukens does it again! F.T. Lukens excels at writing a lovely found family and I will eat it up every time. The frenemyship between Sun and Rook is so lovely and realistic. (Who among us hasn't been angry about a charming handsome person in our orbit?) I loved getting to know this small corner of a much larger magical world that Lukens so lovingly built. And yes, sometimes (every time?) capitalism is the villain.

A captivating and well-built world with characters that kept me wanting to come back to the story to see what happened next. A really fun, magical coming of age story.

3.5ish? Actually probably the best Lukens books I've read, although I think the pacing or plot is a bit weird? I wish it hadn't turned into some sort of court room drama, and the actual part about them trying to save their mentors wasn't as big of a plot point as I thought it would be.

Let me live in any book world created by F.T. Lukens, because this love story, these queer characters are amazing!!!

I love a good magic book, and this was so close to hitting the almost great mark. I enjoyed the story and writing, but there was something off about the world building and magic system for me. I haven’t read anything from F.T. Lukens previously, but I definitely would like to now.

i loved the first two books. this one wasn’t it for me (not as much as the other two) thank you netgalley for this arc from the stone age (last year)
it was so fun watching rook learn about hexes and all that’s in between! also sun in general<333
i love magic so this was enjoyable i just expected more entertainment from the author as per previous books :(

Never read from this author before so I was a bit in the unknown when I started this book. And I can say that this book was okay. It had the potential in being great. It just lack something, don't know what. But something was missing. Can't put my finger to it.

A young adult adventure featuring two rival apprentice sorcerers who team up to protect their magic and the ones they love. The characters in this book are so enduring and easily loveable that you want to route for them during the entire book.

F.T. Lukens continues to delight in this queer, magical, enemies-to-lovers YA romance. The world is engaging, the characters fleshed out, and the not-quite sunshine + grumpy is just a joy.

Thanks for the ARC Copy. This was a fun one sitting read. FT Lukens did it again. I feel they do a create job of creating worlds and providing a variety of entertaining supporting characters.

A great, queer young adult fantasy novel. Two young men work with magicians and they begin a friendship that could blossom into something more. Recommended for 9th grade on up.

Another adorable cozy fantasy from Lukens. I think they're on the forefront of the upcoming cozy fantasy craze, and though I didn't love this quite as much as their last release, I thoroughly enjoyed the adventure, characters, and romance.

Rook has a secret - he's non-magical, yet a powerful sorcerer has taken him on as her apprentice. But when the Magical Consortium comes down on them for breaking the law, he ends up going on the run with Sun, the apprentice of a rival sorcerer.

I read FT Lukens's So This Is Ever After last year, which I gave an A for the romance but found the other aspects of the story less impressive. But I'll try most things twice, and intrigued by the premise of rivals-to-lovers between a pair of sorcerer's apprentices I decided to request Spell Bound on NetGalley.

Lukens, of course, continues to excel at writing romance. Rook is an awkward genius and grumpy Sun initially treats him as a threat, but I found myself rooting for them right from the start, and found the way they drift so smoothly from acquaintances to friends to lovers wonderfully satisfying. Their banter is so funny and cute that it gave me all the warm fuzzies, and I was excited every time they appeared on the page together.

Unfortunately, I had a lot of problems with this book otherwise. While I thought the premise of the urban fantasy setting intriguing, the world-building itself left a good deal to be desired, the politics of Antonia and her interactions with the Magical Consortium unrealistic. After a very long set up, the actual conflict felt underbaked and the climax unsatisfactory, the happy ending unearned.

It's not a bad book, but it felt unpolished, like a first or second draft which still needed development. I wish Lukens had kept the stakes lower and written Spell Bound as a cozy fantasy in the vein of, say, Travis Baldree's Legends & Lattes instead.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

This was requested when I first found out about NetGalley and I had requested so many ARCs that I could not get to all of them before they were archived. I really wanted to get to this one, as it seemed interesting. If I can find this somewhere for a reasonable price, I will try to get it! I am giving this book three stars, as I don't want to give it a good or bad rating, since I did not get to it and we have to leave a star rating.