🏫✨ Saved by the Spell ✨🏫

📖 Bookish Thoughts

My full review will be shared closer to the publication date.

✨ What to Expect
• Cozy Fantasy
• Magical School
• Teacher POV
• Found Family
• Workplace Comedy
• Hero vs Villain
_ _ _ _

📅 Pub Date: November 3, 2026
Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

The teachers at the High School for Magical Arts are worried because Bex turned out to be a Hero. THe problem is that is that there will obviously be a Villain equally strong. The teachers need to keep the school, the damage as little as possible....

A fun book. Reminds me a bit of The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association. Love the humour and the satire.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

A magical boarding school story, from the viewpoint of the teacher's lounge. School stories are my jam, and this is a terrific one. When a homeroom teacher identifies one of her new ninth year students as a Hero, the search for the corresponding Villain becomes her new priority. But there are still classes to teach, assignments to grade, and student accidents to suppress. And then there is the Board, the school principle, and a Witch of the Wood to deal with. No one said that teaching was an easy job. Especially when your students can summon demons blind each other with flashes of Light.

I quite enjoyed Saved by the Spell. Tanya Huff does a good job of sketching a contemporary fantasy where magic is an accepted - if not entirely beloved - element of modern life. Her incorporation of a Hero myth into the story is nicely done, and it is amusing when self aware characters acknowledge that reality is bending to the fabric of the emergent Hero story being played out. The story is told over the first eight days of a new school year at a prestigious school for the magically gifted, and the teachers need to balance caring for their charges and dealing with (many) dramatic near-disasters, while also balancing lesson plans, bureaucracy, irritating parents, and realistic teens, While a new Hero has emerged - and this seems to be a class of magical character - she isn’t the center of the story; rather, it is the teacher who realizes she is a Hero and is assigned to identify and neutralize the Villain who must naturally rise up in response to there being a Hero. The first person narration is dry and humorous and while the story itself is serious, it remains grounded in a cozy framework. I believe there will be a sequel and I look forward to reading it.

As expected from Tanya Huff, this was an absolute delight. The magic, humor, and lovable characters combined to create a story that was incredibly fun to read. The dialogue was witty, and I found myself smiling throughout much of the book.

The pacing kept things moving while still allowing plenty of time to appreciate the relationships and magical world. This is a perfect read for fantasy fans looking for something full of heart and charm.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy

I love this take on "dark academia" in which it's a faculty member at a magic boarding school who's the protagonist. Saved by the Spell is smart and fun, with Easter eggs for genre readers, a quick-moving plot, and good characters. My only complaint is that I want more: more about the school, more about the teachers and students, more about the magic culture of the book's world. I want more character development, more details about how magic works, more about characters' relationships. I'd like the publisher to tell Tanya Huff she can have two hundred more pages to flesh it all out more. But maybe there will be a sequel, with more of those things. I sure hope so.

A fun pastiche in the magic school and chosen one lineage, starring an overworked teacher just trying to get ahead of some teen hero shenanigans. This is not the story of the kid who takes on the world - because someone has to make sure they make it through the first semester without exploding, and maybe read some classic literature. This book is perfect for adults who've read those stories already and are still here doing their best even though they're very tired.

This was delightful! Magical school from the perspective of over-tired and over-worked faculty was a unique take on a sub-genre that has felt over saturated for a while now. Loved the characters. The consistent pacing had me flying through this in two days! Tanya Huff has always been good, but the humor in this one at various important plot points was perfect.