“Magic exists. I know—it’s in my blood.
Unfortunately, not all people from magical bloodlines have powers, and at 22, I’m several years past the age they usually appear. So I’ve resigned myself to a boring, magic-less life.
Then something strange happens…
I get stuck in the middle of a bar fight, and instead of just punching the guy back, I blow a hole in the wall.
So… I guess I do have powers. But they’re unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. This shit is definitely not normal.
And it seems the magical authorities agree, because they give me a choice: either I go to school to learn to control my crazy new magic, or they’ll take it away. Permanently.
Now if I can just survive the bitchy mean girls determined to take me down a peg, the mysterious attacks on students, the three hot-as-hell guys who don’t seem turned off by my prickly exterior, and the professor who makes me long for detention, maybe I’ll get out of here in one piece.
Wouldn’t bet on it though.
Welcome to the Academy of Unpredictable Magic.”
Review
I attended a writing conference last week. Imagine 200 writers of all genres sequestered away all day in Edinburgh, Scotland, discussing the craft and business of writing—it was an amazing and mind-blowing experience.
One of the nuggets of advice that finally clicked for me was to write to market. And one of the hot trends in Urban Fantasy right now seems to be Magical Academy with Reverse Harem. The first book I read featuring the trope was great, but aimed at YA. I like to write steamier than YA allows.
So when I discovered the Academy of Unpredictable Magic series by Sadie Moss, I was delighted. Her heroine Elliot Sinclair is a kick-ass, 22-year-old bar worker, raising her younger sister Maddie after their mother died and their father disappeared. They live a simple, hard life, but they make do.
That is until the day Maddie comes into her magical powers and is offered a stipend to study at a top-class magical university. Elliot finds it harder than expected. Her loneliness leads to a one-night-stand with a gorgeous stranger in the alley behind the bar. That’s when I realized this was definitely not YA!
A later incident at the same bar leads to Elliot’s magic breaking free with disastrous consequences. She finds herself rather reluctantly at the Academy of Unpredictable Magic, and that’s where the real story begins.
Cam, Asher, and Dmitri are fellow students who take Elliot under their wing.
The sexual tension is off the scale. Each character is very different from each other, with different back stories. They come alive on the page, and particularly grumpy Dmitri is strangely endearing. He’s probably my favorite of the boys.
The best character by far for me is Elliot, the heroine. She is such a tough cookie and doesn’t take any crap. Not from the drunks at the bar, and certainly not from the bitchy girls at the new school. At one stage Elliot is being bullied, but fights like a tough adult against pampered rich girls. It’s hilarious and made me laugh out loud.
The author managed to hold the sexual tension all the way through the story without releasing it, except for several encounters with one of the love interests. The book doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, but I’m compelled to read book 2 to find out what happens with the other men.
I found “Spark” a quick and exciting read. Not only is it a very sexy, slow-build love story, but underlying it all is a whodunnit and a storyline that hints at things to come in future sequels. Definitely highly recommended!
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