Book Review: "Sorcery and Small Magics"
Maiga Doocy's debut romantasy is a delightful slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance with traces of dark academia and cozy fantasy thrown into the mix.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the book follow.
For a while now I’ve been on the hunt for a piece of romantasy that would hit some of the same spots as Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light. I’d pretty much given up hope of ever finding it when, to my surprise and delight, I came across Maiga Doocy’s Sorcery and Small Magics. As is so often the case these days, this was one of those random finds that jumped out at me from the local bookstore, and I knew from the description that I was going to read and that I was going to love it.
When the story begins Leovander Loveage is a sorcerer but, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) not a particularly good one. He can scrive some lovely spells–often in an idiosyncratic way–but undertaking what’s known as Grandmagic is beyond him. He harbors a mutual hostility with Sebastian Grimm, a sorcerer of much greater abilities but who is a bit of a stuck-up prig. When a spell goes awry, Leovander finds himself bound to obey all of Grimm’s commands, no matter how minor, and so they set off into the sinister place known as the Unquiet Wood in the hopes that they can find a sorcerer who can break the spell.
It’s clear from the outset that Leovander is one of those protagonists who is endearing and irritating at the same time (sound familiar?) Yes, he is a bit of a rascal and yes, there are times when you really do want to reach into the pages of the book and shake some sense into him, but he does seem to genuinely have a good heart. Among other things, he really does seem to care about both his brother and his best friend, for all that he also gives them a headache by his constant misbehavior. If, like me, you love flawed heroes who can charm the pants off you even when you want to strangle them, then I think you’ll find a lot to love in Leovander.
As becomes clear later in the novel, Leovander is carrying around a very heavy burden, for he blames himself for the spell that ended up taking his mother’s life. The fact that he was young and hardly knew what he was doing is obviously cold comfort for someone who lost a parent as a result of their own actions. Much of Leovander’s journey, particularly once he, and Grimm, comes into contact with the enigmatic sorceress Sybilla. She sees Leovander in a way that almost no one else has, and she proves a key element in his gradual coming to terms with his magic and what he can and can’t do with it.
Just as clear is the fact that, for all that these two men harbor a cordial dislike of each other, there is also something potent about their bond. After all, as we all know, there’s a very thin line between love and hate, and it’s very easy for the two to start to blur together, particularly once the spell ends up binding them together in ways that neither of them enjoy. Doocy skillfully shows us Leovander’s gradually changing attitudes toward his erstwhile enemy, as he grapples with what it might mean to care about Grimm in a way that isn’t mandated by magic. You can positively feel the smoldering attraction between the two of them, particularly as Grimm’s more tender side is slowly revealed. Like all brooding heroes, there’s much more to him than meets the eye. He might be a prig, but I think it’s safe to say that he has a heart of gold. As the story unfolds, we come to love him as much as Leovander does, for all that the latter hasn’t quite accepted that, even when the novel reaches its conclusion.
Now, it has to be said that this is very much a slow-burn romance. While I stand by my claim that this book is very similar in spirit to Marske’s work, it’s a remarkably chaste novel, and the two characters don’t confess their love for one another, even at the end, for all that it’s clear that something more than just the spell has started to bind them together. However, given that this is but the first book in the series, I think we can look forward to this romance continuing to simmer and grow stronger as the two of them grapple with what it means for them to no longer be under the thrall of a spell. I strongly suspect that the eventual consummation of their love is going to singe the paper and our fingers. Let me assure you that I will absolutely be here for it.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the rich cast of secondary characters. Particularly notable is the sorceress Sybilla, who offers to help the two young idiots that wander into her forest without really realizing just how dangerous it is to do so. Even though they spend quite a lot of time with her, she still remains something of an enigma, with her tower that she’s ensorceled so that it exists according to its own rules. She remains something of a mystery right up until the end, but I do hope that we get to see her more in future installments, just as I hope that we get to see more of some of the other characters that also make an appearance.
One of the best things about romantasy as a genre coming into its own is the fact that more and more entries are more adeptly balancing the romance and fantasy elements of their stories. Doocy keeps the elements in careful congruence, so that we have a good grasp of how magic in this world works, with its pairing of casting and scriving, its limitations and its remarkable strength. I particularly enjoyed the way that novel fleshed out this system without getting so lost in the details of how magic works that it starts to feel clunky. I likewise appreciated the fact that the contours of this world–with its magical academy, its caste of sorcerer warriors, and the sinister forest that surrounds civilization–are specified but also left just fuzzy enough that there’s plenty to explore in subsequent novels.
If I have one complaint about this book, it’s the same one that I have about many romantasy books: the lack of a map. Maybe it’s just me, but I think that if you’re going to try to immerse readers in a secondary world you need to have a map so that it’s relatively easy for them to orient themselves in space. I really do wish that fantasy publishers would realize that this is one aspect of fantasy publishing that needs to be brought back, even in romantasy.
Overall, though, I have to say that I really loved this book. It’s one of those delightful romantasies that has stakes, but they aren’t of the “if we don’t succeed the entire world will fall into darkness variety.” Instead, they’re of the “we need to figure out what it is in our pasts that’s keeping us from being the best and healthiest versions of ourselves” variety. Far from reducing its emotional impact, however, it makes it more poignant and powerful. I’m also very excited that this is but the first book in a series, and I’m really looking forward to what the future has in store for these two characters. There’s a whole exciting world out there for them to explore and this, combined with the fact that their relationship has just now begun to flourish beyond mutual enmity, means that there’s much to anticipate. I really do hope that we get some of Grimm’s point of view, too, since he is such a great character and we deserve to see him for who he is, not just as Leovander perceives him.
In any case, here’s to a hopefully not very long wait until the next book!