The Charmed Library

Overall Rating: 3/5

This was quite the curious read... if a little bit more confusing than something I would normally pick up myself.

And while I am all for the idea of magic and real life blending together like they would in my ideal sort of fantasy... this felt off. Maybe it was the fact that I didn't seem to feel like the magic system was entirely developed... that it felt rather incomplete...it seems almost as if the magic system was shifting and adapting like some form of living, intelligent being... instead of forming a solid set of ideas that got more complex as the story developed...

Don't get me wrong, this is a fantastic idea, and it would've made an amazing novel, but the execution here fell flat... While it does have that sort of whimsical, soft Hallmark-sort of vibe, there were a lot of instances where I felt like the whole moment, or that particular point in the plot... felt dead. There could've been so much more emotional depth, and so much more to make this stand out more... to make it more magical... but I had questions and desires that just were left hanging at the end of the book.

Overall, this is still quite a fantastical tale of embracing your challenges head-on and not to be discouraged by your fears or by your mind trying to tell you to give up. It is a little romance heavy, but that didn't bother me quite as much as the lack of the fully developed and thought-out magic system...and I will still be recommending The Charmed Library to anyone looking for something like this to read.