🏫✨ 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.

I could not put this book down. I loved the take on the academy setting by focusing on the professors instead of the students and seeing their perspective. It definitely is Harry Potter meets Abbott Elementary and was such a fun ride.

I'd recommend this to fans of The Incandescence for a magic teacher doing their best for their students or fans of The Scholomance for the need to tear down the systems that keep magic in the hands of the few.

Saved by the Spell isn't cozy in that there aren't any stakes and everything is feel-good, but it's full of people caring about what they do. Abigail is a teacher at an elite magic high school, and it quickly becomes clear that her newest class has a lot of power. This world is somewhat governed by story tropes, so the teachers know to expect a Hero and a Villain.

It's interesting that the Hero is Bex, who doesn't actually use a lot, if any, magic the whole book. She's smart and prefers to do things physically or psychologically. The rest of her classmates seem to be heavily over powered in order to support the Hero. I found them to be believable high school students with a mix of personalities. A lot of the book is about trying to find out who the Villain is, and it was fairly easy to figure it out, but I didn't mind. I really hope Huff writes more in this world because I think there's a lot to explore.

Another excellent work of art from Ms. Huff! I read it in one sitting, it was that good! I just wish it was a series, I want more stories about this school.

The first day of the new term at the High School for the Magical Arts (HSMA), Canada campus begins inauspiciously with the sudden collapse of the auditorium floor. Things go downhill from there. Abigail Bellman, homeroom teacher to the grade 9s soon discovers, to her dismay, that her class contains a Hero, and it is her job to protect Bex and uncover the Villain. I really enjoyed this book. It was a romp from start to finish and I recommend it highly. Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

This novel is definitely one for the teachers in your life. I myself am a retired teacher so it added a certain enjoyment to the reading. Tanya Huff is always a great author and this novel doesn't disappoint. Our main character, Abby is a upper grades teacher at a magical high school. She is a veteran in her position but is hit by no end of trouble with this years crop of 9th graders. They all appear vastly overpowered than the norm and what is worse is there appears to be a Hero in the group. Think actual hero not someone who is always attempting to save the day. And with Heroes there is always a Villain who show up to thwart and attempt to destroy the Hero. Since this could lead to world ending stuff it's been foisted upon Abby to locate the Villain and to keep her Hero alive to one day save the world. After all, her class, her problem. While she's trying to narrow down the potential candidates all sorts of hell breaks loose on campus. This book is funny, irreverent and all in all a joy to read.

I think I just read one of this year's funniest and most relatable books this year. What, how, I hear you say? It’s the teachers and how they get by at school trying to well… keep the peace if you want. As a former school-librarian I felt this book deep in my bones and loved that it was so close to home. And this plot! No one has written this kind of story before. NO ONE. I just fell completely for every single character while reading the story from the teacher's point of view, trying to find the villain when they just discovered the hero. This book should be given to all teachers for free, across the english speaking places, so everyone can have a moment of pure, unfiltered chaos that will cause a lot of paperwork. The horror. The moment this book is out, I am buying the audiobook, because if this sounds as good as it felt reading it, I’m in for a whole new reading-experience. Chaos goblins and book lovers, read this and thank your teachers.

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me give my gleeful and honest feedback.

This seems to be the year for magical school teacher books, between this and Incandescent. I enjoyed this one a lot, the characters were likable, the world-building was cool, and I loved all the tongue-in-cheek references to the standard tropes of chosen one middle grade books. Definitely recommended!