I DNF’d this at 19%. It’s 2025: why are we still making HP references? And why is this labeled New Adult and the voice is more like lower YA?

It’s an easy read so I think a lot of people would enjoy that. But listening to the audiobook turned me off from continuing. I think the book has a great plot and it’s interesting, but the execution just was not it.

🩷 Found Family
🩷 Chaotic Energy
🩷 Slow Burn

4/5 🌟
3/5 🌶

What a rollercoaster! There is so much going on, it is pure chaos, but in a fun way. The humor keeps the tone light despite the very real dystopia the characters we are living in.

The slow burn is slower than you might think, but the spice is not. Only a few scenes, but a surprising love triangle and some dubious consent will keep you on your toes.

Fantasy fun horror story for the AI age from the narrators hip 20 something, just living and going through life point of view, and a matrix vibe. When that life hits a bit of a buffer, an enrolment in College and coding class brings unexpected action, danger, worry, terror, and romantic entanglements. Who knew magic was real? Who knew AI could do magic? Well not Seven, even if she instigated the programme, and maybe released a magic killer on to the streets of San Diego.
Wondered about some of the interaction between Seven and her boyfriend being over the top, but revelations and major twist explains that.
Also, don’t know exactly why I feel the ending chapters to the book just did not seem quite synced to the rest, but they did really leave me wanting to listen to book 2. Thank you to Tantor Media and NetGalley for the audio ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for providing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I was incredibly excited for this one as I follow and adore Liz's Instagram, and I think that gives me more context to the book. The book felt like a hot mess at times, but in a good way - chaotic good if you see what I mean. It was well written, with some loveable and some not so much loveable characters, a gruff hot man (classic for the genre at this point) and fresh crisp new ideas. I had a little bit of a disconnect between what was happening on page and what we know about the FMC (IMO she didn't behave her age and the book read younger than I assumed from the blurb and earlier chapters) but given the overall story, pacing and set up I didn't mind that too much. It was really a fun, well paced read, and although I am not convinced that the magical AI was spun to its full potential I really enjoyed the concept, execution (DON'T DO YOUR WORST!) and occasional moral/ethical dilemmas that surround AI.

You will like this book if: you like urban fantasy, pet companions, magical trials, coding (I only do the data science side of it but I really loved knowing what she was on about!), a good helping of sarcasm, some spice, some ACTUALLY new concepts which nonetheless don't take themselves too seriously in the most positive way possible.

You might not enjoy it if: you are taking books too seriously, like high stakes, well defined magical system, have very strong opinions about AI

[4.5/5] (this review contains mild-ish spoilers)

Holy fucking shit, this book was cock-and-balls crazy!

First of all, hello stand-alone fantasy! I'm always happy to read stand-alone fantasy books because fantasy has this tendency to always have like seven 600-page books plus novellas. I personally think this book had a good lenght, enough to develop the plot properly without leaving questions unanswered but also not long enough to start to feel like a drag.

Second, when I started the book I feared it would steer AI-apologetic, what with the plot of the MC channeling her magic through the AI-app, but troughout the book there was a good bunch of different opinions, from positive to completely against it, to trying to rationalize it's use weighing it's pros and cons. So that was quite nice, I love a good discussion.

Third, WHAT-WAS-THAT-ENDING!! I fear the ending alone shot this book from around a 3.5 to almost a 5. As the chapter started I was kinda confused and, once again, feared this would go the route of "this was all a dream" or some bs like that, but as I'm quickly learning, Liz Shipton is a competent enough writer that knows how to aproach these "touchy subjects" appropiately so as to not muddy her previous work.

Some cishets (love you angel!! 💔) might dislike the ending because it might come across as contradicting the rest of the book, but personally as more and more of it got revealed I couldn't help but gasp in surprise, because a lot if not most of the weird quirks that you tend to overlook in books (like calling your main character Seven lol) were revelead to actually have a reason to be!! I don't know if I would call it foreshadowing, because until the 80% mark or so, there was no actual indication of what was happening but it certainly is the kind of book that almost forces you to an immediate second re-read just after finishing it just to experience it with your "eyes open".

If this is her usual quality of input I wouldn't hesitate to pick up another Liz Shipton book soon!

Seven is in her mid-twenties, working as a freelance web designer, stuck in Cartagena after her boyfriend left her, without enough money to get back home. Her dad offers her a deal - enroll in community college in San Diego for a year, and live on the family's boat (which Seven loves). She agrees and enrolls in a few classes, including a coding class on a whim. When she accidentally stumbles into a club meeting where people are levitating, like ACTUALLY LEVITATING, things start to change a bit for Seven.

I really enjoyed the book until HOLY PLOT TWIST, BATMAN left me reeling a bit. I hope there is a sequel, as I'm intensely curious about what happens next for Seven.

Trigger warnings: pretty spicy, controlling relationship, gaslighting

I received an ARC of this book from #NetGalley

Seven doesn't know she has magic but when she wanders into the wrong room at school, she discovers that not only is magic real, she can do it using her smartwatch (DOT) and computer coding. All kinds of things go incredibly wrong after this....including murder!
This isn't a coming of age feel good book. It IS full of wit, snark and funny banter from our 20 something characters and I loved that. It also had some romance and heartwarming moments. But also monsters and AI that is learning on it's own...and lies!
I really liked Seven as our main character! She's not perfect but does her best to figure out what is actually going on at the school. She battles all kinds of arcane nonsense and her friends too, because as people start ending up dead, Seven needs to solve this mystery about what exactly is happening. What if it IS because of her and her AI magic channelling?
There are some pretty dark elements and spice to this book, trigger warnings are recommended.
I really enjoyed all of it though.
I will say the audiobook was absolutely incredible! The narrator Mary Pochatko really brought life to the characters...even being so AI-like for DOT. The production was crisp and clear, I had perfect clarity the whole listen.
My rating is 4.25
Thank you to NetGalley, AngryRobot and Tantor Media for the ARC and ALC. My thoughts are my own.

Pop culture sci-fi!

.dot/slash(magic) surprised me positively with its profound use of pop culture. I liked the themes of artificial intelligence usage, magic, and self-discovery, as well as the movie references and the smutty romance. The twist at the end raised the reading experience to 4.5 stars.

Thanks to Tantor Media and NetGalley for the early audiobook review copy.

3.5 stars

Seven goes to community college and accidentally discovers she has ~magic~. She uses an AI she developed as her conduit. This was really interesting as speculative fiction/science fiction now that AI is everywhere. Blending coding and magic was so unique and fun. I really liked and related to Seven as a character. She barely likes anyone and has a hard time being social. I enjoyed her journey making friends and applaud her joining theatre (I could never).

I really liked the book to the 70% mark but after that the plot went a little haywire. As a romance reader I find I am often disappointed in romantic subplots in non-romance books and this book was no exception.

The narration by Mary Pochatko was fantastic. Every voice was distinct. I loved her voice for Logan. Thanks to Netgalley and Tantor Media for the opportunity to listen to this ALC.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the advance audio copy.
I enjoyed this book and did not see the twist coming at the end. 3.75⭐️ rounded up to 4⭐️

The combination of magic with technology was a unique take on current fantasy books I've read recently. It also felt quite relevant to modern times with AI technology blowing up in every facet of our current lives. The way Liz Shipton wrapped it up in a twist at the end felt very well done and explained in a way that makes you think of current world affairs and the path we are on.
The banter in Liz Shipton's books is always great. And she doesn't overdo the spice just for the sake of having spice. But I took some points off for the fact that the Main character, named Seven, a snarky 20-something year old trying to find her place in the world, almost felt like she took Bird from her Thalassic series and dropped her in this world instead of sailing on The Salt.

I was provided with an advanced reader copy of this work in audiobook format free of charge from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

The narration is reallly excellent and brings the characters and the world of the story to life. Each character has their own disnctive voice and way of speaking so the listener is always certain of who they are listening too.

The story itself is intresting and has a new way of looking at magic and ways of doing magic that make it stand out from the crowd of magic stories out there.

The characters are brilliantly written and readers will find something in each of them that is relatable and fun. The story took a bit to get going but once it did it I couldn't step away i had to know what would happen next... I could say more but I don't want to give the story away.

if your looking for something just a bit different this is totally the read for you.

This was my first 𝙻𝚒𝚣 𝚂𝚑𝚒𝚙𝚝𝚘𝚗 book and I had a great time! I was intrigued by the cover art, and the idea of magic crossed with AI technology. I loved the way 𝙻𝚒𝚣 built the world of magic and introduced 𝙎𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣’𝙨 semi-accidental AI magic code. I’m not a tech-savvy person, so I felt like this had the right amount of information—it wasn’t a highly technical read, which was perfect for me.

I appreciated the topics that were explored and addressed — the ethics of AI, who is actually responsible when *тнιɴɢѕ* happen, what feminism should look like in action, what friendship is, and the subtlety of controlling/abusive relationships.

Of course, the cat on the cover drew me in, and I had a soft spot for little 𝙉𝙚𝙤. I don’t know how to do anything techy but maybe I should keep my cats away from my computer just in case.

𝙆𝙪𝙧𝙩. Oh 𝙆𝙪𝙧𝙩. I also had a soft spot for this sweet little gem. At times I thought he was going to be relegated to a minor character who fades away, but he came back! And I was so glad.

𝙎𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 was an interesting character because at times, she wasn’t all that likeable. She is stubborn, she doesn’t know how to let people in, she makes bad jokes when they try to be vulnerable, and she plays serious things off as somewhat unimportant at times. She’s told repeatedly that what she’s doing isn’t going to be okay, and she doesn’t really try *that* hard to learn her magic the 𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 way. But having said all of that, I think that’s kind of the point. She’s flawed, just like any of us. She’s fumbling around trying to figure out what she’s doing, and that’s hard. She also is kind of funny.

𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝙿𝚘𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚝𝚔𝚘 did a fantastic job of narration. She shifted between characters like 𝙎𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣, 𝘿𝙤𝙩, 𝙆𝙪𝙧𝙩, 𝙎𝙤𝙡𝙚, 𝙇𝙤𝙜𝙖𝙣, etc soooo well. I was entertained the whole time. I also read it really quickly because once we got into the action, I needed to know for sure what was going to happen.

There were some things I did expect, and some that I didn’t!

I would definitely recommend this book — it was so interesting and fun and also stressful! There were mythical monsters terrorizing town, after all.

4.5 🌟

𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑜 𝑇𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐴𝐿𝐶 — 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑠𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑦 𝐼 𝑔𝑜𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑑 𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑒!

DNF @ 15%

I really liked the premise, and I was enjoying the story and the narration, but multiple harry potter references? in 2025? why is this still a thing? it's so unnecessary and i'm just not here for it.

I think this would make a cool TV show.

Seven does not want to go back to school at a community college in San Diego in her 20s. She plans on dropping out after the year to fulfil her parents wish. But then she finds out magic exists and turns to a computer programme to help her out. Only thing is, it starts summoning monsters….

This started off promising - a spunky, funny heroine and a great group of outcast friends. Then, it became foot to the pedal with random spicy scenes thrown in and I lost interest in the characters and the storyline.

I think blending technology and magic is such a cool premise, especially in this day and age, but most of it went over my head.

The pacing felt off. Some parts were rushed over and then others were drawn out with small time jumps that messed with my perception of the story.

I looked at other reviews and many mentioned an ending that made it worth it. I just couldn’t push myself through and ended up DNF’ing at 60%.

Audiobook and physical arc gifted by Angry Robot.

Seven Jones, perpetual dropout, freelance web developer and hiding in a Colombian dive bar while she tries to sort out her life, returns to her home town and signs up for community college in exchange for taking over her family's boat. But in between the stats and machine learning courses she signed up for, Seven discovers ~magic~. And when she somehow manages to develop an AI who can do magic, things spiral WAY out of control.

Up front - this book did have a bit of a slow start, and the last couple of chapters were a wild ride, but aside from that, this book *works*. Seven starts off as a bit of a "tool cool for school" type with a chip on her shoulder and judging the heck out of everyone, but she does find her humanity when she needs it most.

We have a found family, we have monsters, we have magic, we have diversity and representation, we have sentient AI, we have DRAGONS, we have a couple of on-page sex secnes, and all up we have a really cool story. Pop culture references galore. A deep dive into AI and some of the ethics around it, and what is clearly a dig at the billionaire-fuelled dystopian modern times.

It's not what I was expecting from the cat on the cover (the cat is just a bit-part), but it's a fun read. Matrix meets magic.

Fave characters - Angel, Kurt and Sol. Hands down, they're awesome. Seven grew on me, and I am furious about Logan. I really hope there is a book 2 about this because closure needs to be had there. In fact this was so open ended there needs to be a book 2 for closure on a few fronts.

I was fortunate to have a copy of the audiobook as well as the ebook, and the narration by Mary Pochatko was excellent. I particularly liked the way she voiced Dot.

All up, a fun read.

~I recieved a copy of both the ebook (ARC) and audiobook (ALC) from Angry Robot publishing and Tantor Media. All opinions are my own~

absolutely loved this book! It’s a spicy urban fantasy set in an academia setting, and it delivered on so many levels. The found family dynamic was one of my favorite elements, it was heartfelt, messy, and so well done. The magic system was incredibly unique, especially the way Seven integrates it with AI technology. It added such a fresh and fascinating layer to the world.

It starts off a little slow as it leans into the character development, but stick with it, the payoff is so worth it. The tension just keeps building until it explodes into a wild, high-stakes ending with a final twist that completely blew my mind.

And the spice? Let’s just say… there are some very memorable moments. If you know, you know.

I had such a great time reading this and highly recommend it to anyone who loves a character-driven urban fantasy with strong worldbuilding, slow burn tension, and some seriously bold spice.

Huge thanks to Angry Robot for the gifted ARC!
I have the ALC too and the audio was superb I loved the narrator!! Very well done. Thanks to Tantor media for the gifted audiobook.

This review is for the audio version of the book, narrated by Mary Pochatko. It was a clean and crisp narration, and each character's voice was distinct and conveyed their personalities well.

This was a fun, binge-able book. The plot was equally silly and exciting. The characters were (mostly) fun and interesting.

It was cleverly written, and I liked the layers of world-building as each was revealed.

The last 3-ish chapters threw me for a loop. After the big action scene, when that character came around and things started being explained my response was "c'mon, really?". I can't say I was a huge fan of that twist.

Overall I had a good time with this book (the graphic sex aside), and it was interesting enough to keep me listening and wanting to know how the story will continue.

🎧ALC REVIEW🎧

Coming August 19th

“Harry Potter never had to deal with this shit, he just hung around a castle eating chocolate frogs like a little bitch.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Ok this was really cool and unique. I had no clue what to expect since the synopsis is kind of all over the place. It’s Matrix X Harry Potter while also tackling the highly controversial topic of AI. Our FMC has a foul mouth and we love her for it. For MMC’s we have a Kurt Cobain lookalike and a broody Magic Mike. And cannot forget about Neo the black cat! The narrator did a great job with the multiple characters. HIGHLY recommend for my spicy urban fantasy babes!

Thank you @netgalley @tantoraudio @angryrobotbooks

#gifted #netgalley #dotslashmagic #urbanfantasy #urbanfantasybooks #spicyfantasybooks ##spicyfantasy

This turned out to be a pretty solid read. The exploration of the topic of AI was the most compelling part for me. I also really enjoyed Seven's journey and character development.
The ending twist was very interesting and I think necessary, but I can see how it could bother someone. I have some mixed feelings about it.
As for the negatives, there's way too many Harry Potter references. Even one reference would be way too many.
The romance didn't quite work for me. It was not developed enough to elicit the necessary emotional response. I think, it is a case of trying to do too much. The author nicely subverted expectations with regards to one love interest, or possibly even both of them. We however spent way more time with one of them, which created a satisfying arc, though I wonder if necessary one for the plot. There was an instantaneous connection with the true love interest, which is pretty essential to the plot, but wasn't given enough space for me to buy into.
The ending was intriguing enough for me to continue if there is a sequel. At the same time, it also makes for an interesting open ending leaving us to ponder. I would be satisfied if this was a standalone, but it might not work for others.
The audiobook was well produced and I enjoyed the narrator.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis -

Dot Slash Magic is an urban fantasy (with spice) that combines magic and technology, all while providing clear commentary around the unpredictable nature of AI.

Seven Jones enrolls in community college after taking a several year hiatus from schooling. She quite literally stumbles into a secret magic club and quickly discovers that she has powers of her own. Using her background in coding, Seven builds a computer program to help teach her how to wield her newly found magical powers.

When mythological creatures begin appearing on campus, Seven and other club members must work to figure out the cause and put and end to the monster summoning.

Thoughts –

I was interested in this story because it felt very relevant to our times – I haven’t read a fantasy that heavily incorporates the use of AI in the plot. While the concept was cool, I had some issues with the execution.

While this takes place predominantly on a college campus, it majorly lacked the “dark academia” vibes. This is a community college without resident housing, and our main characters are in their mid to late 20’s, so it didn’t feel believable that they would have so much time to mess around in school-hosted clubs?

In terms of character development, we are introduced to SO many side characters, many who did not really add value, that I could not keep them all straight. The romantic relationships presented lacked depth and felt like an opportunity for spice rather than an essential component to the story.

This had a lot of modern-day slang and pop culture references, which make sense for an urban setting, but sometimes removed me a bit from the story (I think the exclamation, “cock balls”, was used more than once).

If you’re looking for a unique concept that can read as just a silly goofy good time, I’d recommend this book. If you want a developed world, characters, and plot, I’d pass on this one.