I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish!

The story was fast paced, but not exhaustingly so, and never felt like it had any dead moments. The inclusion of spanish dialouge was enjoyable (I don't speak any spanish myself) and for me made the story more immersive. I liked the magic system used, and would have loved to sit in on Pablo's lesson. Pablo was an interesting character with a depth, hubris and flaws to him that made him just as much likeable as it made me want to smack him upside the head, and tell him to just dip out and catch a break. Poor man went through a lot in these pages!

Some of the side characters had a bit of a "filler" quality to them, where they were probably meant to have a deeper impact. I think that might have been that there isn't enough pages in one book to give them more space. Both Hellas and Espinoza come to mind, but I felt this particularly in the case of Georgina; As much as her impact and importance to Pablo was introduced, the space she was given wasn't enough to give me a sense of closeness to her. When the closure between her and Pablo happened I didn't really feel anything, even though I recognised the impact the author was going for (doing my best to say this without giving spoilers). If this had been a duology, and the side characters had more space to introduce themselves and their importance/influence in Pablo's life, I think the story would have greatly benefitted from it. I personally wanted to know a little more about them.

And though I had hoped for a different ending - the one provided was a bit anticlimatic and left something to be desired - I was left with a question I thought worth pondering; did Pablo end up fulfilling the mastermind's plan behind the grand plan after all? I see what you did there author.

Thank you to NetGalley, Marcus X. Figuerola and Bannermen Books for the eArc, it was a treat to read.

Mayhem! Magical chaos, indeed! This was fun! I say chaos, but more accurately, it’s a world with a rich magic system, that has many aspects, and many possibilities for using it. We also meet a lot of varied characters, including non-humans, which adds to the chaos, but many of those character strands are woven together eventually.

Anyway. Loved the prologue. Great humor and setup. (There is humor throughout but also a few spots that were gory or sad.) I loved the school and the different disciplines of magic. (I would totally take a class from Pablo.) And as I read, I was thinking that exploring the disciplines and seeing more of the teachers would be a good way to continue this if it became a series. Also the magic lends itself to pondering some moral questions. Also loved this for being in Miami with Cuban-American culture and some Spanish.

I enjoyed watching the plot unfold, it was a fun story and at one point it was so exciting that I had to make myself slow down to pay attention, haha. I wish some of the relationships were a bit more developed. We do really get to know Pablo, and info about his past was smoothly integrated. But otherwise it seems more about the action. Which is fine, there is a lot going on, that probably keeps things moving.

The ending surprised me a bit but I thought it was highly fitting. :) Although it did change how I was envisioning this as a possible series, haha.