Book Review: Sorcery and Small Magics by Maia Doocy
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
I really hope we get book 2 of The Wildersongs Trilogy soon(ish) – I loved Sorcery and Small Magics and will be so excited to return to these characters!
Leo is very good at small magics, but anything bigger tends to blow up in his face, so he restricts himself. It doesn’t help that to everyone else, he just doesn’t seem to take life – or his studies – very seriously. And, as his fellow students prepare for the trials that could earn them a place with the Coterie, Leo is very much in his ‘subverting expectations’ era. He has his limits, and he sticks to them. As a scriver, he writes spells, and everything is going to plan until he’s paired with grumpy, all-too-serious Sebastian Grimm, a talented caster who is guaranteed a place in the Coterie following the trials.
When a spell goes wrong, Leo and Grimm are stuck together, and Leo drags his grumpy rival into the Unquiet Wood in search of a cure.
This is cosy fantasy, but even under the cosy umbrella the book still touches on some of the issues within this word. Leo comes from an upper-class family and has grown up with everything within easy reach. Grimm has come from a farming family, where his ability may have been overlooked if he hadn’t done something drastic as a child. His family are more in a community than Leo’s, but a struggling one – although the Coterie are charged with protecting people from the magic and monsters that seep through the borders, they’re a small group and unable to be everywhere at once, meaning poorer, rural communities are left to fend for themselves.
There’s mentions of spells locked up in the Fount, spells that could be used for to help those in need, but which are kept hidden. Dangerous magic and monsters lurk in the Unquiet Wood, with worse beyond, and through Leo and Grimm’s adventure we see these dangers and meet some pretty interesting characters. There are good contrasts drawn between the two men, as well as similarities, and the layers build nicely on one another to make for a delightful read.
The way magic was used was interesting and added to Leo and Gimm’s dynamic, and monsters were fun and creative, adding a real sense of danger for the characters. It’s a wonderful book, and one which touches on intriguing themes while still keeping a sense of romance at the core. A really fun book, and I eagerly away book 2 of the series!
Review by Elle Turpitt
Twitter: @elleturpitt
Bluesky: @elleturpitt.bsky.social
I received this ebook from Orbit via NetGalley for review consideration.
