"Books clomped off her desk and arranged themselves on a nearby shelf." ✨📚
This was my March listen for another one of @hook.me.a.book challenges. This time it's the #LetsEarItAudiobookChallenge 🎧.
I wanted to enjoy this one, I really did. It sounded so good when I chose it on Libro FM, and maybe I made the mistake of listening rather than reading, but I think I missed a lot of it because I was doing other things! Whatever it was, it didn't grab my attention. Although I did finish it, I won't be reading (or listening to) the next one.
Read the book description — sounds good, right? Especially if, like me, you love a witchy read 🧙♀️. Plus so many people loved it and it has such great reviews, although to be fair there are some not-so-great ones too. Maybe it's like Marmite — you either love it or hate it! Maybe I'll come back to it one day. If enough people tell me they enjoyed this one, then I might just give it another go.
Although this one didn’t quite work for me, I think readers who enjoy slower-paced, magical fantasy stories may still find a lot to love here.
Thank you to Tantor Media and Libro FM for the opportunity to listen to and review The First Witch-Mage by Isabel Campbell.
About the Book
Those who cross a Blackwood soon learn that they won't like the results.
Theadora Kathryn Blackwood's life is just the way she wants it. Thea focuses on what she wants to do, what she wants to study, and the local COVEN hierarchy leaves her the hell alone.
It took years for her to accomplish that much freedom, and now she is about to graduate college, the local coven leader has given her what she wants most.
The opportunity to be freed from the shackles of Coven Politics for the rest of her life.
The catch is that she must join the Arcane Investigations Division as an Arcane Consultant for three years.
If Thea is still employed at the end of the set time, the Coven will absolve her of all ties and responsibility to them. The downside is that NOLA AID has lost two witches in the last four years. No one expects an untrained witch without the Coven's support to survive.
Even if she is a Blackwood.
I started writing and publishing with LMBPN® Publishing in 2023 thanks to my friend, Renée Jagger.
I was born in York and grew up in England. I lived with my maternal aunt and uncle while I was in uni (that’s college to my American readers!). Being with them for more than an odd week here and there in the summer made me connect deeply with my Scottish side, and I realized that Scotland was the home of my heart.
I miss wandering the Yorkshire Moors, but the Highlands more than make up for not getting back to York as much as I should! Currently, I live in a wee Borders town with my dog Emma. I write to the music of the seagulls since I live right on the harbour in a homely flat by the sea. I quite love my town. It’s peaceful and hectic by turns.
Dogs are a part of life here. Walking around the town, you see them with their people everywhere you go. The pubs and restaurants have dog-friendly spaces in this part of the world. It makes sharing my life with my four-footed companion so much easier. Everyone in town knows Emma. We walk to the greengrocer, the butcher (he always saves her a meaty bone!), the bakery, and our lovely local coffee house. Rain or shine (mostly rain), we get outside for a little while almost every day, usually ending with a walk along the beach where I can watch Emma chasing crabs and birds. There’s a very nice shop on the prom, so popping out to buy milk and butter isn’t a hardship when I get to take a moment to listen to the waves crashing on the rocks.
It’s largely an uneventful life (unless Renée is here), but it suits me. I regularly go for drives through the countryside, which is beautiful in any season, though in very different ways. If I need more than the beautiful winding roads and fields full of sheep, I drive north for an hour to Edinburgh or south for a bit more than an hour to Newcastle, then scurry home with my car boot full of shopping bags and tasty treats.
You can learn more about me and my adventures by reading the author notes at the end of each book. I hope you enjoy them!
