Genre: Urban Fantasy
Reviewer: Lucy
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About The Book
Meet Kara Hartman, a young photojournalist who is hiding her magic from the world. Traumatized by the death of her brother, she wants nothing more to do with magic. But just when she thought she could neglect her gift, it becomes apparent that the universe has other plans for her. When an old foe breaks out of prison hellbent on exacting vengeance, Kara has no choice but to embrace the only power that can stop her.
The Review
I remember from some class on creative writing that you have to make sure your first paragraph and then the first chapter grab your reader and draw them in. Once you’ve hooked them, you can tell your tale. I wasn’t hooked by the first paragraph, or even the first chapter, of Midst of Magic by Christian Cura.
I put it down a couple of times and thought about walking away. But I came back, made it through the first chapter, then the second, then on until the end. I’m glad I did because the story was worth the effort.
I struggled with the first chapter because it seemed like a lot of fantasy stories right now: set in a magical school; a student tries to save their friend from bad choices; student loses someone close; bad things happen. It was very teen-angst, melodramatic for me.
Those things do happen in this story, but there are also a lot of unique elements. For instance, I really liked the polytheistic world that the author, Christian Cura, created. That part of the story was flawlessly created and the world building was solid and seamless, and was thoroughly incorporated into the entirety of the story.
Likewise, the use of powers combined with the spellcasting has been used before, but the author gave some unique twists.
The actions scenes were riveting and very much kept me on the edge of my seat. The quality of the writing was strong, with good character development.
As for the romantic element, I didn’t feel a lot of heat from Kara and Selene when they first met. The slow burn was more like a slow warm. We seemed to go from luke-warm to ‘I love you’ rather rapidly.
Also, I was never sure how old those student at the Magical Academy were supposed to be. It read high-school age, but then two years later, Kara was working as a photojournalist at a newspaper and having art shows of her work. And there were references to “a long time ago” but the events of the first chapter were only two years prior to the rest of the story, which was a little confusing.
If I were giving this story stars, it would be 4 out of 5. It had some issues that kept me from thinking it was fabulous, but it also had some great aspects that kept me reading until the very end.
I will definitely give this author another try.
The Reviewer
I’m an avid reader who loves pretty much all genres except math textbooks. As a kid, my parents exposed me to everything from fairies, hobbits, and dragons to the biographies of interesting people around the world, interspersed with poetry, plays, and music. Into adulthood, I spent a lot of years with my nose buried in various textbooks. Now, I read whatever grabs my fancy.
