A lighter fantasy with a queer romance, Remedial Magic has some really strong things going for it. The world building is immersive and a fun take on witches, though at times delves into more illogical or nonsensical, but it was still pretty fun at times. The pacing takes it time ramping up, but speeds up quickly once the action starts. The ending...is a little much. Overall, this book shouldn't be taken too seriously or analyzed too closely to be enjoyed!

I wanted to like this book. The premise sounded intriguing and the magical system sounded awesome, but I ended up DNFing this one. There were too many POVs and things going on that didn’t add to the story and made the story as a whole confusing and hard to follow.

I’m having some trouble getting my thoughts together on how I feel on Remedial Magic. Ultimately this book didn’t really work for me, as it was presented as a fantasy romance. It’s not a romance, even though there are romance elements and maybe as the series for it continues, it’ll get there, but as a book 1, I’m feeling kind of confused. The description tells about Ellie, a quiet librarian who finds out she’s a witch, and Prosperro, a powerful witch from Crenshaw who is ruthless in her goals of saving her homeland. There’s a lot more corruption to Crenshaw though and a lot more characters that this story follows. This story has multiple POVs that, with the description going in, feels confusing. There are a lot of individual stories fuel the overarching story. I like Maggie, a mother who will do anything for her son, but her story is infuriating because she is so justified in her motives and no one is helping her. Ellie too feels inconsistent in her characterization. She wants so much out of life and she’s originally painted as sort of meek, but as soon as her magic awakens, she’s anything but. And while I enjoyed the chemistry in Maggie’s romantic story, I didn’t feel the chemistry or draw of Prospero and Ellie. There are definitely a lot of cozy fantasy vibes and the motivations of the characters are super interesting. I feel like there’s still a ton to explore in the world building and the ending has a dark cliffhanger feeling. I don’t know if I’d continue the series, or what the plans are for it, but I’m also curious where the story goes next.

2.5, rounding to a 3

This makes for two almost back to back Bramble titles that completed lacked in the good vibes gene. Whereas the first make me angry and frustrated, this one just made me bored, confused, and frustrated. So at least it’s a little different.

This had a very awkward and abrupt start for a story and I was feeling very much dragged along against my will as I struggled to understand who these characters were (mostly our main one) before they were thrown into fantastical situations as well as into their respective romances. Except.. see aforementioned awkward and abrupt and also poorly transitioned scenes. We jump around to quite a few POVs actually and each chapter is short and that just adds to the strangeness of the whole story. We’re getting introduced to characters so quickly and then fleeing their perspective before we understand anything about them beyond the cardboard cut-out explanations that are offered us.

And to compound that weirdness everyone is pairing up ridiculously quickly and for no reason whatsoever considering the unknown and uncertain realities of their circumstances and how suspect and side-eye everything is. Why. Make it make sense.

The last thing I’ll complain about, because I gave up on this before I could accumulate even more things to complain about in order to avoid another long ranty review (oops sorta missed the mark on that one but also I’m just trying to save my sanity) is if there’s a translation spell to make everyone understood no matter their native tongue why did the Norwegian character speak as if he was using babelfish translate? That doesn’t track.

Also also sorry one last thing. It’s 2024. Stop with the Harry Potter references please. For all books but especially queer ones. Be considerate of your readers.

Anyway, don’t know how this ends because I couldn’t even be bothered to skim the bit that was left but I’ll definitely be thinking thrice before I pick up another Bramble title in the future (exception being the Broadbent series but I was intrigued about those even before the trad deal.. though they might prove my point anyway! who knows. not me.. not yet).

1.5 stars

Reviewed thanks to a copy provided by NetGalley.

3.5/5 stars

So many conflicted feelings.

My favorite part is probably the hobs which I'm still curious about.

All the points of view were kind of infuriating. On the other hand they also made the story work because it really leaves you off kilter.

The world and magic system feel lived in. There is a plethora of problems that will make you wonder if and how the problem should be solved.

That ending is a doozy but there just aren't enough answers to be had.

Best Quote= What if there are no villains?
What if there are no heroes?

My goal for 2024 is to read books I actually enjoy and if I'm not enjoying to give them up. I am tired of slogging my way through books that are just meh. So for this title I dnfed at 37% I just couldn't do it.

This book had all the elements I normally love: cozy magical setting, librarians, wlw romance, but something just fell flat for me. There were too many characters and I didn't really care about any of them.

This is a minor pet peeve but apparently this is the first book in a series? I think that should be made more clear somewhere because occasionally I just want a standalone fantasy book.

I do think young adults at my library will be interested in this but unfortunately the book was not for me.

A delightfully queer and chaotic "mundane adults discovering their inherent magic potential" story that asks thoughtful questions about destiny, passion, governance, and consent. Marr does a stellar job of elevating the trope of personal desires vs. greater good conflicts with her examinations of who uses their power and how. Recommended!

I really had so much hope for this book, who wouldn’t like queer magical main characters with a cozy witchy setting? I think this book suffers from the fact that there are just too many narrators (6 POVs in total). From the original description, I didn’t realize we were going to get so many different points of view, and it was so hard to keep up with. There were so little pages per POV that I was always forgetting who I was reading about. The description of this book makes it seem that Ellie and Prospero are the main characters, and they are, but the narrative is shared among several others, weakening the connection with each character. There were POVs that I really didn’t care for and just wanted more Ellie and Prospero. The plot also seemed disjointed, mostly from the changing POVs, with intriguing elements introduced but not adequately explored. I do have to say that the cliffhanger at the end of the book was crazy! I will probably check out the next book to see what happens, but I hope that the next book has much more Ellie and Prospero and hopefully less POVs.. Thanks to Melissa Marr, Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group for an arc in exchange for my thoughts.

The style is heavily narrative and heavily expositional. Not for me, I stopped after chapter 2 (5%). For all the exposition, I didn’t totally feel like the vibes were there. I’d guess this will fall around the three stars for the target audience, four for the right reader.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the ARC.

I wanted to like this book. It has lesbians, witches, toxic pools of sludge, and a librarian. At times, it felt like it wanted to be a screwball comedy; other times it wanted to philosophize on being a hero or villain. It never cohered into a story. The book ends abruptly, setting up the sequel, which I won’t be reading,

The Hobs deserve better.

I enjoyed this book once I was able to fall into the world and get to know the characters. I enjoyed seeing their stories from their points of view.

This was an interesting read!
I really wasn't sure what to expect when I started Remedial Magic, which is the first book in the A Course in Magic series.. I assumed there would be romance and some light magic/fantasy sprinkled in, but what I got was unexpected, in a good way.
This story follows multiple characters with multiple points of view, which I think works really well with regards to character development and trying to determine character motivations. I also really enjoyed several of our main characters and a few of the background characters, as well.
Melissa Marr really paints a picture when describing the magical town of Crenshaw, making it sound interesting, inviting, and concerning, all at the same time!
There's a lot of world building that needs to take place in this book and for the most part, I think Marr was successful in doing so. The reader learns needed information, but there are also some bread crumbs sprinkled throughout that will hopefully pay off in later installments of this series. The magic/fantasy is a much bigger part of the story than I was initially anticipating and I am so glad it was!
I did find that some of the romantic storylines moved a bit too quickly to be believable, but I'm willing to give Marr the benefit of the doubt.
This story leaves off on an interesting note, making me wish the next book in the series was available to pick up. It's definitely a series I will continue with and I'm really hoping the second book focuses on Crenshaw as a town, but also as a magical entity!

This was like a 3.25⭐️ read for me. I was like with about 150 questions at the end of the book and have to wait for the next one for answers so grrr at that. Marr created a beautiful yet monstrous world in this book, weaving fairytale with nightmare so seamlessly.

The only issue I had with it is that I found my heartbreaking for Ellie and found another character insufferable. However I do have to say, Marr does an excellent job melding multiple POVs into a story that the reader can easily follow.

I liked it, I just wasn’t wowed but will definitely be reading the next book when it comes out :)

Remedial magic is a cozy fantasy set in a world where newly discovered witches are sent to an alternate world where magic governs.

I had so much hope for this because there are queer main characters set in a witchy cozy world. However I really disliked the alternate perspectives because there was too much disorder in the plot, and when there’s a lack of plot I hope that the characters would carry the story instead. The altering perspectives left things to be desired. Every time I started to feel a rythme, it would switch and I would feel disconnected and disappointed.

So sad to have not been able to enjoy this. Hopeful that it will find the right person who enjoys this!

Ellie is a librarian who is currently happy with her lot in life. Working at a small library in Ligonier, baking scones, and investigating the mysterious disappearances that seem to happen around her town. At least, she was happy with her life until a strange encounter with a woman named Prospero.

Prospero is a strong witch, and Ellie is the key to breaking the curse threatening the small witch village she lives in. After awakening Ellie’s powers, Prsopero brings Ellie to a magical college for witches. But what they both don’t know is that other powers are at work, that might not want to use Ellie for good.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bramble for an advanced copy of Remedial Magic by Melissa Marr to review! Melissa Marr is known for her YA novels featuring the fae, but this is the first adult novel I’ve read by her. It’s about a librarian, so of course I had to pick it up!

Marr mentions that she wrote this book specifically for her wife, and I love that. I appreciated the queernormative world she created in this magical community. The idea of a small magical community hidden from everyone else is also super fun, and I’d read more books with that particular plot device.

However, I think this book suffers from the fact that there are just too many narrators. From the original description, I didn’t realize we were going to get so many different points of view. It means that none of the characters are particularly developed; in general, most of their problems felt surface level. This also makes the overall world building suffer because the main threat was unclear to me.

Also the way they used magic was…interesting. It seems like some people have different gifts than others, and different levels of magic, which is fine. However, none of it is really spelled out, and there were some good opportunities for that since they are at basically a magical community college.

That brings us to the ending, in which Marr made some very odd choices (at least, in my opinion). There’s a cliffhanger, so I’m assuming there will be another book where things can be fixed, but in general, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Creative and enjoyable reading with great characters, but not for 12 year olds in a conservative area. I want to know what’s next. Like other books by Melissa Marr the characters and the story line draw you in and hold your attention during her telling. When I say the book isn’t for 12 year olds I don’t want to imply there is any questionable sections. There is not, but in today’s education climate several topics are dangerous. And I like my job. I would tell my friends and colleagues to read it. But would not recommend it to middle school students because I don’t want to take a stand.

This story delivered on the fantasy many of us began to grow out of as our letters to wizarding school have still not arrived as we head further into adulthood. Ellie, Maggie, and Dan's stories while a bit befuddling at first meeting will quickly wrap you up in the curious world of Crenshaw. Mysterious figures, competing factions and a touch of romance will draw you in to the world and keep you there hoping for more. An enjoyable read and a great autumn/winter story to curl up with.

Unfortunately this ended in the case of not every book is for every person. I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn't get into it at all.

I appreciate Tor and Netgalley for this e-arc.

Do you love fantasy? Romance? Lighter reads? Do you want LGBTQ+ characters? This book is for you! This is a lighter read that will be easy to keep the pages turning.

Unfortunately I found all of these characters very annoying, the writing slightly odd, and the world building did not appeal to me,