'Spell Bound' by F.T. Lukens - Blog Tour, Review, & Giveaway!!

3/17/2023

Continue below to read my review of the book and be sure to follow this link - [TURN THE PAGE TOURS] to check out the rest of the stops on the 'SPELL BOUND' blog tour brought to you by TURN THE PAGE TOURS, SIMON & SCHUSTER, and F.T. LUKENS!

Spell Bound
F.T. Lukens

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Pub Date: Apr. 4th, 2023

Genre: YA Fantasy, Magic, LGBTQ+

Synopsis:

Two rival apprentice sorcerers must team up to save their teachers and protect their own magic in this lively young adult romantic adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of In Deeper Waters and So This Is Ever After.

Edison Rooker isn’t sure what to expect when he enters the office of Antonia Hex, the powerful sorceress who runs a call center for magical emergencies. He doesn’t have much experience with hexes or curses. Heck, he doesn’t even have magic. But he does have a plan—to regain the access to the magical world he lost when his grandmother passed.

Antonia is…intimidating, but she gives him a job and a new name—Rook—both of which he’s happy to accept. Now all Rook has to do is keep his Spell Binder, an illegal magical detection device, hidden from the Magical Consortium. And contend with Sun, the grumpy and annoyingly cute apprentice to Antonia’s rival colleague, Fable. But dealing with competition isn’t so bad; as Sun seems to pop up more and more, and Rook minds less and less.

But when the Consortium gets wind of Rook’s Spell Binder, they come for Antonia. All alone, Rook runs to the only other magical person he knows: Sun. Except Fable has also been attacked, and now Rook and Sun have no choice but to work together to get their mentors back…or face losing their magic forever.

r e v i e w
rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (5 / 5 stars)

On the surface, this story might just look like a simple story about magic and unplanned romantic entanglements, but it's so much more.

Rook is a brilliant kid, near the end of probably the roughest year he's experienced. He's lost his only relative and been thrust out of the only community he knows. Alone and feeling untethered, he's got a plan to work his way back in. His biggest problem is that none of it is legal.

Despite his situation, he's almost relentlessly positive and incredibly determined to succeed. He's a warm, lovely character who's quick to banter and tries hard to respect personal boundaries, even if he's not as good about that where his boss' work is concerned.

Antonia is his boss. A tremendously powerful sorceress, though she rejects him at first, she ends up taking him on. She's got a history of her own to contend with and she sees something in him at their first meeting that slips beyond her infamously prickly defenses.

I love Antonia and her penchant for bucking the rules. If I'm being honest though, it'd be difficult for me to choose a favorite amongst my top three characters in this book. They're all relatable in their own ways.

Sun. Their name couldn't be more ironic, as they're the grumpy to Rook's sunshine. Largely though, their grumpiness is a defense mechanism. They have a serious need for personal space and they typically struggle to grasp social situations, resulting in them sort of always being on edge. Experience has them expecting ridicule instead of empathy, but they are kind and care so deeply for those they let in.

While this read is mostly light and fun, there are a lot of important topics touched upon too. There are lessons to be learned about gatekeeping, different types of adversity, similarities between diverse people, familial structure, even questioning societal norms.

The story is endearing and I can't wait to read another title from F.T. Lukens because this one really won my heart. Though at first glance, it doesn't 'appear' to be as complex as most titles that I give five star ratings, that complexity is just delivered in a softer.. more reader friendly package. The characters are well-developed, the plot progresses nicely, and there's a lot of diverse representation included amongst the cast of characters.. much of it is never called out.. but rather treated with normalcy and respect.

ENTER TO WIN 1 OF 2 FINISHED COPIES OF F.T. LUKEN'S - 'SPELL BOUND'!!

About the Author:

F.T. Lukens is a New York Times bestselling author of YA speculative fiction including the novels So This Is Ever After, In Deeper Waters, and the forthcoming Spell Bound as well as other science-fiction and fantasy works.

Their contemporary fantasy novel The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths & Magic was a 2017 Cybils Award finalist in YA Speculative Fiction, the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Gold Winner for YA fiction and won the Bisexual Book Award for Speculative Fiction.

F.T. resides in North Carolina with their spouse, three kids, three dogs, and three cats.

AUTHOR LINKS: FT-LUKENS.COM | GOODREADS | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER

0 Comments