I absolutely loved this and the cosy vibes, definitely a good read for the coat seasons, I absolutely loved the characters and fell in love I can’t wait to read more from this author

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC of this to review

Spellfire is a cosy sapphic romance set in a fantasy world which manages to stay cosy by keeping the stakes fairly low but just high enough to stay invested/for the reader to feel there's something at stake.

The story revolves around Bryn who is left her favourite teachers spellbooks after her death. When she goes to the school to pack them up she finds that her teenage crush Amelia is the new headmistress of the school and she needs help. As Bryn tries to help the two of them find themselves becoming closer and cute sapphic romance ensues!

I really liked the dynamic between the two main characters Bryn and Amelia and their dancing around enough other unsure of where the boundaries between professional and personal lives should be at first. Their relationship does move quite quickly considering the short span of time the book covers but I think that since they clearly already had the pining/unrequited crush past and also real sapphic relationships do move that fast sometimes (the u-haul jokes exist for a reason) this did still work.

There was also a lot of nice representation in this book outside of the main sapphic romance including non binary characters and ADHD rep which I feel were both done quite well. I also really liked the focus on the struggle of living in a culture you weren't raised in and how what may have always been a normal part of life to someone raised one way can be completely new and sometimes intimidating to someone else.

On paper I probably should have liked this a bit more than I did but I think that with this book I didn't vibe with the writing style too well. It's not particularly descriptive which can feel limiting and definitely impacted my enjoyment of the story. And I think the worst part is that in some parts the description is there, there are some locations that are really well described and I have a clear mental picture of them it just wasn't there as consistently as I would have liked it to be.

I also felt that at times the dialogue stayed a little overly formal/felt stilted. At times this made sense as the main characters are trying to figure out how their relationship should look since they do work together and considering one of them is a headmistress also have a power imbalance/employee employer relationship but I feel that it kept sounding overly formal even after that had passed so I'm guessing its another case of me not meshing so well with the writing style.

Overall I had a good time reading it and I enjoyed that it was a low stakes fantasy romance it was a nice palette cleanser since a lot of my reads tend to not be so light

I wanted to enjoy this so much! I loved the description and the witchy romance vibes, especially a sapphic romance but it just fell a little flat for me. I didnt really enjoy the writing style - it felt a little scrambled and almost too scripted at times. One thing i cant stand in books is a lack of description. There was barely any descriptions of the main characters so i had a really hard time connecting with them or picturing the story come alive. All i had to go off of was the cover, which is gorgeous but i wanted more.

The romance in general is so bleh. These ladies knew each other back in school but we dont get a lot of history or background to help us feel the connection. Their feelings just show up all of a sudden, with no real evidence behind this. The pacing of their relationship was really off and i was confused for part of it. It seems like they have sex for the first time and then declare their love for each other the next day. Not my favorite.

I was drawn to this book by the cute cover and the sweet and cozy premise of the story, but was ultimately not excited about this read. I did not find the relationship between Luna and Amelia to be believable, and the story would have benefited if there was more world building and a little more depth was established. There were some sweet points in the story with a few of the students, which I did enjoy.
Thank you NetGalley and Avon for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sweet, fun and a lovely read, Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.

I read to 66% and couldn’t push thru. I loved it until that point but the characters confessing their love here felt very fast and not believable. There were a lot of spelling and spacing errors as well.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc!
This was such a cute and quick read for me, and I absolutely love the witchy vibes. The inner monologue for Bryn was fun. And I really like the awkwardness between Amelia and Bryn when she first came back to the school at the beginning after her professor died. The mystery behind all of it. It was pretty easy to figure out, but that’s OK. Sometimes I like things complicated There were a few portions that fell just a little bit flat for me and that’s OK. That’s not a problem for me, but I still had a really good time reading this solid 3.75 ⭐️ out of five.

this was okay!! it was a light and quick read, but not my favorite. the writing style wasn’t the easiest to read and the characters didn’t feel super thought through.

Cinco años después de graduarse, Bryn Delmar regresa a la Academia Grimoire para recoger la biblioteca personal que le dejó su querida profesora Herringbone. Lo que planeaba ser una visita rápida se complica cuando se reencuentra con su antiguo y doloroso pasado escolar... y con Amelia Hexford, su primer amor, quien ahora es la joven directora de la academia.

Lo que Bryn no esperaba era verse envuelta en un misterio mágico, recibir una carta críptica de su difunta mentora y que Amelia le pidiera ayuda para proteger el legado de la profesora… y quizás también el suyo propio. Mientras fantasmas (literal y metafóricamente) resurgen, Bryn se enfrenta a la posibilidad de quedarse y ocupar el lugar que nunca pensó merecer: convertirse en profesora, sanar viejas heridas y tal vez, dejarse amar.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest

The strongest part of this book is the idea of the story. The author had a concept that I can visualize, but I feel like they failed to execute it well. The characters aren't that interesting and the two love interests don't appear to have any chemistry at all. They go from one of them having a crush five years ago in high school to suddenly falling for each other without seemingly anything to push that. It felt bland and unlikely. I think this books biggest struggle is that it seems to be building itself around tropes for a booktok market instead of making a coherent story. While the world itself was interesting we never expanded on it at all, and large parts of it were just confusing, like how it's so unclear whether this school is in the USA or the UK (something I should not have to be confused about). While it wasn't awful I don't think the author has the skills yet to write the kind of story they were aiming for. This feels more like something I would find on AO3, where I already care about the characters and don't have to be given much to hold my interest, rather than a story that can stand up on its own.

Cute, cozy, and autumnal-Perfect for the upcoming season!

This cozy queer romance had the perfect academic witchy setting to be perfect for Autumn. The romance was adorable and filled with warmth. Most of the characters were similar in their likability but also unique in their own ways, with multiple queer and gender non-conforming characters.

Overall, I did really enjoy this book. It was a cute, spicy second chance romance with a witchy, autumnal cosy vibes feel to it. I would recommend if you are looking for something easy going this autumn.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I made it 71% of the way through before I unfortunately had to DNF.

I just could not get through this book. There were concepts I really loved - a magical school setting, spells working like language, modernizing a tradition-focused school system, providing support to students from non-witchy backgrounds, etc. But they never really got developed past being a concept. So many aspects of the story were just told to readers or glossed over, and I never felt like I was truly IN the world.

The writing wasn't as evocative as I would have liked, even on a descriptive level. I also found the dialogue was often flat. These elements, combined with the aforementioned glossing over, also hindered the romance. When the characters, setting, and dialogue all feel underdeveloped, it becomes really hard to feel any chemistry.

Overall, this felt like a collection of intriguing concepts and statements, but not a fleshed out story, and that's just not something I want to be reading.

This was a DNF for me at about 35%. I didn’t really enjoy this book. It felt a little too flat and dull for me. I tried to give it until 50% but I just couldn’t vibe with it and I was getting bored.

3.75 stars rounded up to 4.

Firstly, thank you NetGalley and Avon books for this eARC,

This book is sooo good, witch school with old memories of being a former student and some very spicy scenes.

Bryn, the main FMC, discovers that her favourite professor has died leaving her the entirety of her vast library that she has to go and collect.

Amelia is Bryn’s childhood crush over which she had been humiliated whilst at school but is now head teacher.

I loved Bryn and her inner dialogue, the queer and non-binary representation was done well and also the way a non verbal child was handled so beautifully really made me love this story so much more.

This was a cozy, witchy sapphic romance and a lovely easy read, personally I found some bits rushed , the romance to spicy scenes and others needed more time, the world building, overall I enjoyed it.

A fun magical read. the atmosphere of this world was so fun and really gave me those Harry Potter vibes. The characters were very cute and had a lot of emotional depth to them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a light and cozy read. Easy to read, kind of slow paced. Despite loving the beautiful cover I also had a hard time connecting with these characters.

2.5⭐️ rounded up

The premise of this was sweet and definitely cosy but it ultimately fell flat for me. I found it quite dull, and I didn’t find the relationship between the FMCs very believable, nor did I particularly care about either of them.

Sadly this didn’t cast me under its spell. I wanted to enjoy this one, as I have been enjoying witchy stories of late, however this one fell short. It felt a little like the story was trying to go in too many ways, it could have done with more ground work, to make you care about the characters and the setting, it felt almost as if they were just fluff and didn’t matter, and that’s what I most enjoy about a story, the descriptions so I can visualise the characters and the places as I read, it felt a little half done there, and rushed in places, this is just how I like reading, and others may not like such a heavy visualisation so it may work better for you, and if you like the premise, do try it, as I am particular, and we all enjoy different styles.

Unfortunately, this book was a soft DNF for me at 50% and here is why.

This book has a really beautiful cover and I think the tropes are desirable and so is the plot line and what this is marketed and packaged as looks really cool, so I was excited and I think my expectations and hopes were a little bit too high potentially?

Please know I am a reader who doesn’t really enjoy school environments or school settings and books so I think that is partially taking me out of this quite a bit and making it so it’s not my favorite book so if you really enjoy school environment, then you might really enjoy this one.

The main character shows up at the witch school and she’s struggling with a sense of belonging, and she ends up becoming a professor, and I felt that this book was guilty of telling me what was happening versus showing.

At about 40% in I was about to DNF this book just because it felt like there wasn’t enough movement happening within the book itself and if there’s not movement in the dialogue isn’t keeping me engaged then I end up forcing myself through the reading experience a bit and it becomes less enjoyable.

I realized that this book is marketed as spicy as well which, at 50% there is a single kiss that has happened, so to mark this as a spicy book makes me a little bit nervous because I think readers are going to expect, unless it’s marketed as a slow burn, a lot more spice or a lot more tension at least. For me initially, I was not getting any sort of tension, like vibes, from the characters that are now kissing - it just seem to kind of happen?

I did enjoy the fact that the character has ADHD and that is mentioned and the ableism is called out, so it definitely gets points for that, but I’m also a bit exhausted of reading about ableism. I really enjoy the cover and the writing style is easy to follow but for me it definitely felt like I was being told what was happening while it was also being over explained to me at the same time. For example, a character would say that they don’t agree with something while also shaking their head, and I don’t know, these little things add up.

If you are looking for something, that’s a fun, cute silly school romance that doesn’t have a lot of depth and is an easy read, I would recommend this. If you are someone that tends to pick up on details within books and is quite picky (like I am) then I would say if you want this one, get it but know that this book does do a bit of telling versus showing,

I still enjoyed the portion I read, but I have a feeling that if I continue to push myself through this, the rating was just gonna get lower and I think I need to put this down for now and soft DNF. That being said, I would be interested in reading more books from this author and I may pick this book back up in the future but for now I’m just feeling like this book lack a lot of the elements that I need to have a good time with a book.

Please do not let this review deter you from picking this book up. If it looks good to you I am just really picky and these are all very personal things. The only really reasons I marked down one star is just because of lack of character development and too much telling versus showing for me personally, and just a lack of movement within the book itself, but please know this is still a solid read in the cover is gorgeous

Update: I have come to the realization upon doing further research that this author utilizes AI with their books to do brainstorming. Ethically and fundamentally, I will not be supporting a book or author that does that. It’s not just about the cover or the writing itself. I’m so exhausted of avoiding AI in art. It’s theft.

Thank you for this ARC! I appreciate the opportunity to leave honest feedback voluntarily.