Thank you so much to NetGalley and Andrea Tang for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for These Deadly Prophecies coming out January 30, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own..

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. The summary said it was supposed to be like Knives Out. I love those type of murder mystery movies, so I was really excited to check out this book. I also love stories featuring Asian characters, so this book seemed perfect for me. Tabatha was a really fun character. I love that she was on the reserved side, but also stood up for herself. I think she really grew as a character. I left the plot of the book. The idea of sorcery was really fun. I think the only thing I wanted more of was a little more backstory of magic in the real world. There were some about the laws of magic, but it’s hard to get an idea of how the world of non-magical people viewed those with magic. But overall I loved the book! Callum and Felix were fun characters and I think that was handled well. I loved the twists at the end. I’m not sure if there will be another book, but I will definitely check out more books by this author.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys murder mysteries and books about magic!

In a fresh own voice story we follow Tabatha, a sorcerer’s apprentice who tries to solve the murder of her boss, Solomon, and prove her own innocence. The police have their eyes on her and Callum, Solomon’s youngest son. But the more she digs, the more she realizes just how dangerous a world she’s fallen into. Because the rich and powerful have a way to keep things shut.

The story is imaginative for sure. It’s woven with many different characters and a world sort of like the society we live in, but with magic. We have Tabatha, a 17 year old who doesn’t conform to the norm. She chooses to be an apprentice instead of following her mother into the world of law. Callum is the one of the popular guys even though he’s more quiet and reserved. Tabatha evolves throughout the story to find the true murder while also trying not to fall for Callum, who also suspects her.

All in all, I enjoyed the concept the story itself delivers. I think what didn’t give me the wow factor was the world they lived in couple have given us more. I know the story is very character driven, but it lacked in the build up of. And it was easy to predict who the murder was. I still think it’s an enjoyable book for those who like who-done-it’s.

The title and plot of the book, are initially what drew me in, and the first few chapters were quite engaging. However, after that, the story kind of lost steam and not much happened until the end. Our main character Tabatha and her buddy Callum spent a large portion of the middle of this story discussing and speculating about the murder that took place in the beginning, and who the murderer could be, but I felt they did not put in much effort into actually investigating the case.

Things did pick up towards the end, around the 85% mark, and I think the story had a pretty strong finish. This was one of the first murder mysteries I've read in a while where I had know idea whodunnit (although that may have something to do with the aforementioned lack of investigation). However, when the big reveal did happen and the motivation was explained I was really impressed by how well everything tied together.

In regard to the characters, I thought they were all intriguing, but I felt that they were not fully fleshed out. I would have liked to learn more about the supporting characters, especially the backstory that Tabatha wasn't privy regarding all the drama-filled messiness that was going on behind the scenes of the Solomon house between the sorcerer, his wives, his children, even Hester, and Detective Chang. We get to know a tiny bit about each person and these relationships but I would have loved to dive deeper. Spending more time with these characters would have made the story more engaging (especially that middle part) and really helped connect some dots.

Overall though, I thought it was a fun and quick read. If you’re looking for a murder-mystery with some magic this book is worth checking out!

Thank you, Penguin Group, NetGalley, and Andrea Tang for allowing me the opportunity to review this book!

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔, 𝒏𝒐 𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒂 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒔𝒉*𝒕.......🔮🧙‍♂️🪄

Special thanks to @penguinteen @netgalley & @atangwrites for the #gifted eARC.

MY REVIEW::
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When I saw this one was a murder mystery with a magical twist and was great for fans of Knives Out & The Inheritance Games , boy did I sign up IMMEDIATELY!!!!!🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️
(Knives Out is like my fav movie, since my parents introduced me to it last year!)

I was engulfed with this story! I literally couldn't turn through the pages fast enough. I read this in one sitting it was SO good!!!!!!🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

This is a YA tale of a sourcerers apprentice who is coached on how to solve his murder WHEN it happens. Yes , he knows "who" it is - via prophecy - and Tabatha is in charge of figuring out who did such a thing to their own family member.

This book involves boys, magic, murder, and friendship. I highly recommend this one!

PUB DATE:
Jan 30, 2024

QOTD ❓️⁉️❓️ Do you believe in magic?

AOTD - I don't think that I do, but I love reading about it.

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#mysteryandthrills #bookmagic #sourcerersapprentice #thesedeadlyprophesies #andreatang #netgalley #thrillerbooklovers #yathriller
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DNF - it felt like I'd read far too many similar books, and this one wasn't offering any real twists or something new. Plus, when Tabatha's father says "Why are we always centering your ambitions" my eyes rolled so hard it hurt. No one says that in real life, unless they're trying to sound corporate -- not in a family discussion.

eARC provided by publisher.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group for the e-arc of this book.

The potential and the pieces for These Deadly Prophecies to be a new favorite of mine were there, but they just weren’t executed, which is really disappointing.

The murder mystery part of the story kind of feels like Knives Out, but it felt like we didn’t actually get any clues or foreshadowing as to who actually committed the murder. We just find out at the end when the person confesses. This certainly has to do with the fact that Tabatha and Callum are not real investigators or detectives, but it just makes all their investigating and looking for answers feel rather pointless.

The magic in this world is crucial to the murder mystery part of the story, except Tabatha’s specific branch of sorcery is not used to help her investigation at all. In fact, I don’t recall a single instance of her using her prophetic sorcery to advance the plot in any way. Why give her magic at all? The book would’ve ended the same way whether she was there or not. She really feels like a bystander in her own narration and maybe that was the intention, but it didn’t give her any room to grow. She was just there observing.

I didn’t care about a single character outside of Tabatha and Callum (and even them I just barely tolerated because their dynamic and banter was nice). The tone of the book was very shaky as well, sometimes bordering on comedy and sometimes getting really dark, but it wasn’t balanced out well enough to work.

In the end, this was fun and I love a good dysfunctional murder mystery, but there were a lot of lacking areas of the story that, if improved, would’ve have increased my enjoyment much more.

"'No,' said Callum patiently. 'My answer is to pin his murder on his actual murderer, so we can both go home, book therapy appointments, and carry on with our lives.'"

These Deadly Prophecies has only solidified my belief that one of the best genres is fantasy-mysteries. I don't typically enjoy contemporary fantasy settings, but I really enjoyed this book and the world it took place in.
Yes, it's a good old-fashioned murder mystery with a rich, magical family, but it's filled with so many twists and turns. While I didn't manage to figure out the murderer, I didn't really have any theories to begin with (I made one guess at the beginning as a joke, and for a moment I thought I'd somehow guessed right, but nope) and I was satisfied with how the mystery played out. Overall, it's super fast-paced and there's rarely a dull moment. My only complaint was that I could've asked for a little more action and danger. The handful of action scenes were written very well and I would've loved to see more.
I really liked the cast of characters as well. Each member of the family had good reasons to be suspects, and I will say the only one I had an opinion about was Felix...I didn't like him (probably because I thought there was gonna be a love triangle). The story really focuses on Tabatha, who reminded me a lot of Pip from A Good Girl's Guide to Murder but with magic, and Callum, who reminded me a lot of Ravi from the same book. Unlike everyone else apparently, I thought their relationship was well done considering the story takes place over a week or so, and also, YA isn't meant to be spicy... Besides, the training scene? I liked it more than I should've.
These Deadly Prophecies is an exciting, fast-paced magical murder mystery with lovable characters and a great story.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the free e-ARC!
4.25/5

I love a good murder mystery and this was perfect for that category. I would say 3.75-4 (still thinking on the official rating). Overall though it was a fun little adventure.

An intriguing murder mystery about an apprentice who has to hunt down the killer of her mentor Sorcerer, all while learning family is complicated.

I liked how short this story was, as it made the plot move faster. However, there were times when the pacing lagged, which was frustrating. I really wish that we actually got to see Tabatha do magic, since she is learning how to to be a Sorcerer, I kinda thought we'd see her do more magic. In fact the magic was mostly done by Julian's children, which were really the main characters, as Tabatha felt more like a vehicle to tell the story than an actual character. The author spent a lot of time explaining about the complex family dynamics, but we barely saw Tabatha's relationship with Julian. The whole plot felt a lot like an imitation of The Inheritance Games, but with magic. The writing style kept pulling me out of the story. I liked this one, but it wasn't my favorite.

I really enjoyed this. This has been on my TBR for quite a while, so I was thrilled to be able to read and review this early. I think my favorite thing about this book, other than how interesting and fast-paced the plot was, was the way this book was written. The writing was simple, but not too young, which made it super easy to fly through this story. I loved the characters, too. They were fleshed out well and were each distinct and compelling. The twists and turns were so interesting, and I loved the mysterious aspect of the story--it was really well done, in my opinion. Overall, I really enjoyed this and I can't wait for more from this author!

Tabatha Zeng expects to hear and see strange things as the apprentice of one of the world's most famous sorcerers, but she didn't know murder would be one of those things. She is determined to keep the promise she made to Sorcerer Solomon before he is murdered, which means sticking close to his youngest son. But sticking around Callum is tricky when both of them are the top suspects unless they decide to work together to find the killer.

The book takes place in the modern day as if sorcery existed now, which makes for some interesting elements. It allows for normal things like lawyers, police officers, and women's self-defense classes. It also allows us to have a typical snarky teenage main character, which helps the book's tone stay light even with some of the more macabre elements. It allows a lot of the way things function to not need to be explained, but some of the magical elements are put in without a lot of explanation. Why are some parts of magic explained in schools but it still doesn't seem like something that is used widely? It's not essential to enjoying the book, but it does make me wish there were more answers. In a book that's partly based on my world, I like to imagine what it would be like to have those magical elements in my life. It's difficult to do that in this book.

The mix of characters had some delightful and frustrating elements. One of Sorcerer Solomon's sons is supposed to be popular and charming, but Tabatha doesn't seem to approach him any differently in spite of the fact that her inner dialogue suggests she might. I never felt like I got to know him. The paranormal detective also seemed like she should have been more important than she was. Apparently, she's been around investigating this family for years, but most of what we see of her is Tabatha's mom getting Tabatha away from the detective. I also never quite got what Sorcerer Solomon's character was supposed to be like. Yes, he's dead for most of the book, but I couldn't tell what the characters felt about him for most of the book in spite of them all trying to figure out who murdered him. One character who dies later feels so out of place because, on the one hand, she seems really important, but it's never entirely clear what her relationship with Sorcer Solomon and the rest of the family was like. These are some examples of characters lacking just a little more depth that would have made the book soar.

However, some of the character elements are really nice. I thought the relationships between siblings all trying to compete for their parent's attention was nice, and I thought some of the character dynamics of what children growing up around sorcery would be like. I also loved that parents are more involved in this story than is typically common for YA books. I love how protective and still ultimately supportive Tabatha's mom is.

Some other elements are frustrating too. In the end, the true answer to the mystery is never fully revealed. Considering how much of an emotional weight the answer to that question would hold, it's weird and unsatisfying that it's never completely unveiled. I'm also not sure why it was necessary to have a weird quippy comment about Mormon funerals (which would also be obviously incorrect to anyone who has been to a Mormon funeral) to try to make a joke or to use, "I'm gay" as a snarky comeback to accusations of being someone's mistress. Those little details might not have bothered me as much if there weren't also things like the character sighing a truly record-breaking amount of times within a few pages or even the nickname for her being "squishy wizard." Some of the snarkiness worked well, but some of it came off as somewhat amateurish to me, which is a shame considering how much I enjoyed the book otherwise.

In spite of those weaknesses, I enjoyed my experience reading the book. The plot kept me guessing, and there were times when I was shocked or surprised by the turn of events. I thought the mystery was well done overall (except for not revealing a central aspect of it).

The book does contain some light gore elements. Magical murder can still be messy, so keep that in mind if that's something you are sensitive to.

My initial reaction to this book right after reading it was 4 stars, which then lowered to 3 as I thought about it a little more. It's a fun, but sometimes spooky, paranormal murder mystery that fans of things like Knives Out may enjoy. It has just a tiny bit of teen romance, a dash of macabre, and a lot of fun.

This story was so fun to read. I was immediately hooked!

The writing is very simple and yet, at the same time, beautiful. It kept me engaged the whole time. The plot is also well-paced and I loved how it developed. The characters were all incredibly individual and well crafted!

I absolutely loved this book! I plan to come back to this review later to add some more detail.

Thank you so much to PenguinTeen for my e-ARC.

This one was a really interesting twist on the classic who dunnit. I liked the way we were lead in one confusing direction after another, and was completely blown away by the reveal! A little dark for YA in my opinion, but other than a little bit much there it was a great YA read!

Interesting premise, but it fell flat for me. If you're looking for a YA book with mystery and just a touch of romance, this could be a good option for you. However, I was expecting a bit more. I also expected, and wanted, more magic. Here, it felt like it was just another job, among lawyers, police officers, etc. The pace was slower than I prefer, and the characters were a bit one dimensional. I would've like more details on their powers. The romance angle was predictable. I did like the ending.

If you’re looking for an easy-to-read fantasy, family drama, and/or murder mystery, then look no further. These Deadly Prophecies is told from the POV of Tabatha Zeng, a 17-year-old sorcerer’s apprentice. Tabatha was a great main character and I thought Tang really nailed the teenage attitude. A bit of snarkiness and humor, while also including some of the issues & insecurities we all face at that age.

The pace was great too, the writing is such that I was pulled in right from the start and wanted to stay up late to read. I was constantly trying to guess who the murderer was and while I had an inkling, I really was never 100% sure. I personally would have liked a little more magic throughout the book and I thought the ending felt a little melodramatic. However, sign me up for Tang’s next book! I would even love to read a sequel to These Deadly Prophecies to know where all the characters go from here, especially Tabatha.

Genre: YA paranormal mystery

Similar to: Knives Out

Synopsis:
An apprentice to a sorcerer who predicts his own death sets out to solve his murder.

This was a fun paranormal mystery! It was more contemporary than I thought it would be. Think a high school murder mystery with a dash of magic. The tagline of a sorcerer’s apprentice made me think it would be more fantasy based. It follows the story of a sorcerer who is murdered and he gives his inheritance to his apprentice instead of his family. The family all suspect each other murdered the sorcerer and they all try to solve the mystery. The paranormal part comes into play because each child has a special ability.
It was fast paced and had a dash of YA romance. If you are looking for a quick read, check it out!

Thank you to Penguin Teen for the gifted copy! 🪄

Thank you to NetGalley, author Andrea Tang, and Penguin Young Readers Group: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This didn't work for me. I was really intrigued by the premise of a fortune-hunting, investigative mystery mixed with sorcery, but none of it was quite well done. My biggest issue with the book is the lack of world-building. The world these characters are in is not established at all, which makes it really confusing to follow along with. It seems like modern day with magic, but the principles of the magic are not explained whatsoever. It also reads like we've been dropped into the middle of a story or even a series, which makes it hard to get into and connect with both the characters and the plot. I found the romance side story unnecessary, and I was able to predict the ending, making it a let down. I think this book had potential that was sadly not reached, but if you do enjoy the premise of Knives Out with magic, you might still enjoy.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

This book was so much more than I was expecting! This was fun and mysterious with a total Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys feel only with modern day magic and wizards! Tabatha is a sorcerer's apprentice. Her boss makes the prophecy of being killed by his most beloved...then is found murdered. Everyone is a suspect, and the list is long from his ex-wife and current non-magical spouse, previous apprentice, three children...one of which Tabatha was instructed to stay close to. Callum, the youngest son, becomes her partner in the investigation but is also a suspect (and love interest). Mystery and mayhem with a touch of romance, plus an emotional undercurrent of the messy family drama. I could totally see this as a movie or a TV series. I hope we get to see more of Tabatha and Callum playing detectives and sorcerers...and romantic partners!

4.5 stars

Short and Sweet Review
Tabitha is a sorcerers apprentice for Sorcerer Solomon one of the most famous sorcerers. For a while Sorcerer Solomon has been telling Tabitha about the prophecy of his death and it’ll be by someone he loves. When Solomon actually dies Tabitha becomes one of the suspects and she teams up with Callum, Solomon’s son, to figure out who actually killed him because they’re both the biggest suspects.
These Deadly Prophecies, is a book that really pulls you in and I think the biggest reason is Tabitha’s voice, she narrates the book to the reader like we’re friends and she’s telling you a story. It’s almost like those shows where someone breaks the 4th wall, Tabitha is amusing and a bit sarcastic, but she really knows how to tell a story. Anyway Sorcerer Solomon told her if he did die to go seek out Callum, which is what she does. They haven’t really talked much before this but now they’re spending lots of time together trying to figure out who in the family could have killed him or if it was one of his apprentices and why. The pacing was a little slow at first but once we see Tabitha and Callum start investigating things do start to pick up. The magic system here is interesting, Solomon, Tabitha, and Callum were working more with prophecies but we other characters that are able to do kinetics and illusions. The book was interesting because most of the suspects were family members like Solomons two other kids and his wife and mistresses. There’s a lot going on in this book, which could be a good or bad thing depending on how much content you like and how you have to keep up to piece everything together. The added element of magic to a mystery storyline made it even more extraordinary. I will say I wasn’t sure who the culprit was but the ending was satisfying and the mystery was wrapped up nicely.
Overall, These Deadly Prophecies was a fun ride! I definitely recommend this book for people who love mysteries and this one has the added element of magic and also if you enjoyed the movie Knives Out!

What an incredibly fun magical murder mystery!

I really liked the voicing and pacing of this novel, and that it's a low fantasy side by side with mundane society -- like you can elect to take occult classes. I wasn't sure in the very beginning if this was going to be a YA that was too young for me, but I found it really entertaining. There were not any parts that dragged out and plot were great, and it was twisty and full of surprises. I liked Tabatha very much as a main character, and I thought a lot of the familial struggles were really relatable.

Thank you so much Penguin Teen and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review! I really enjoyed it.