Book Review: Spellcaster

Title: Spellcaster
Author: Jaymin Eve
Genre: Magic, Academia, Fantasy, Romance

Some links on this blog are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only link books I’ve actually read.

What It’s About:

Paisley Hallister just turned 22 years old and passed her magic aptitude tests, but just barely. She is woken up by her mother, who questions her being in bed this late, but Paisley snaps back that she is not working tonight. Her mother tells her that her acceptance letter has come in from Weatherstone College, which is one of the most prestigious Magic Colleges in the US and in the World. She is surprised as her aptitude test was not enough to make her eligible for the College, so she questions whether or not her father was the one who had pulled some strings, as he was a professor at the college. They have one last cook out as a family, with Paisley’s siblings, all of whom are in Weatherstone College already, as a way to celebrate her.

Her father ends up taking her to her first day at College, using the portal that they have in the back yard, to take her to New York, just outside of Weatherstone. He walks her to the Registrar’s office, where Paisley doesn’t like Ms. White, one of the employees there as she is trying to flirt with her father. He asks her for the orientation package, and the woman gives it to him for Paisley, but then as they’re about to exit, she tells him that she has a message from the Headmaster—that Rafael Kingston’s son, Logan, will be transferring to Weatherstone College from Italy, this year. She notices that her father is really upset by this, and he drags her practically out the gates of Weatherstone College, but Paisley manages to get him to tell her a little bit about what is the matter. It turns out that when she was four, and Logan was six, which was the same age as Trevor, her brother, who is a junior in Weatherstone, her mom and Logan’s mom had gone for a hike. Nothing unusual, but then Logan’s mother was killed while her mom apparently cowered, and Rafael had blamed Paisley’s parents for it, specifically her mom for not doing anything to save the love of his life. This resulted in a Blood Oath between Rafael and Paisley’s dad, Tom, where he had threatened to kill them. Paisley doesn’t want to leave Weatherstone College, and convinces him to let her stay the night until he discusses it with her mother, while he wants to take her away, because she’s the youngest, and had just come into her own power. He agrees to let her be as long as she doesn’t wander the halls at night, stays away from Logan, and sticks to her siblings. He walks her to her dorm room, which does make him nervous because she’s in the dorm closest to Logan’s dorm, and makes her an easier target. He teaches her how to unlock her door, and then leaves to go speak with her mother. Her siblings, Alice and Jenna (twins who are nature sprites and have familiars), Trevor (her oldest brother who has a fire ability with a water ability as a secondary), and Jensen (her second oldest brother, closest to her in age, who is a water wielder with a fire a secondary ability), visit her and Paisley tells them all that she had learnt. They make a plan and take her around to the halls, though they run into Logan and his friend, who Paisley initially calls the Giant, but later learns is called Noah. Paisley’s two brothers and Logan kind of test each other out, but Logan only has eyes for Paisley, calling her his best friend, which weirds her out because they haven’t talked in 18 years, but she knows from the accounts of her siblings that she and Logan were close when she was four.

After the welcoming ceremony and the banquet, Paisley wakes up in the middle of the night, and decides to go take a shower. There, she runs into a girl, who she later learns is Annabeth, using air magic to lash a girl with red hair that Paisley had seen the day prior. Not having any magic, Paisley punches Annabeth until she leaves the bathroom, and introduces herself to the girl that she just saved—Belle. The two of them become fast friends after that, starting with the next morning, as they begin classes, including a class in the water. Belle is excited for it because she has a water affinity, but Paisley doesn’t love the idea of it because she thinks it is going to be freezing, though her brother had assured her that the professor will keep it warm. While they are at the lake, she sees Logan in the distance after getting a feeling down her spine. She is swimming around after losing sight of him, in hopes that she will figure out if her magic has water affinity, when suddenly something grabs her foot and starts pulling her down. At first she is certain that another student is using water magic to pull her down, and then thinks that Logan is the one who is doing it in order to kill her. But as she starts losing consciousness, she sees a monster flicker in and out of visibility while holding onto her ankle. She makes peace with her dying, though it hurts her knowing that she will not see her family again, when suddenly someone pulls on her arm above her, and after a short tug of war, the monster lets her go. She is pulled out of the water, and finds that she’s in Logan’s arms, as he had saved her—no one knows how it’s possible because even the water affinity professor and Belle couldn’t find her in the dark water; she had gone down so quickly.

Her father comes running to her, having learnt that she was in danger, and he’s almost convinced that she needs to leave, but Paisley convinces him again to let her be as she swam too deep and got disoriented. He doesn’t believe her but he lets it go and she stays at school, but sits out on those classes. As the weeks go by, Paisley forgets about the incident, though not entirely, but she makes new friends, Sara from Romania, and Harley, whose mom is human while her father is a warlock, and who loves to read romantasy. Belle, Paisley, Sara and Harley agree to go to a party for a little bit, though Harley is not happy about it as she would much rather be reading a book. While at the party, the girls tell Paisley that she should speak to Marcus to have sex. Paisley does plan on doing it, because she’s been having sexy dreams that have her entirely wound up, and she recognizes the green eyes belonging to Logan in them. But by the time she gets up to walk over to Marcus, she notices that he’s talking to a blonde, so instead, she ends up hanging out with her friend. Belle disappears at some point to get more drinks, while Harley and Sara leave to go back to the dorms. When Belle returns, she reveals that Annabeth had attacked her, and Paisley tells her that they need to go to the healers, so she walks with her, but they are intercepted by Trevor, who starts chatting with Belle. Paisley picks up on weird vibes between them, but doesn’t say anything as she likes that her best friend is getting along with her brother after all. They get close to the dorms, when Marcus shows up to talk with her, and Belle convinces Trevor to leave Paisley alone with Marcus by telling him she will catch up. The two talk, but suddenly there are explosions, and Marcus runs to go help his friends, who were by the fire. Paisley, on the other hand, runs into the woods, trying to use it as a shortcut, and runs into Logan’s other friend, who she later learns was named Walter. He puts a bag over her, then transports her using his air magic to the graveyard, and then tries to kill her, saying that Kingston will thank him for it. She manages to get away when a monster shows up, and she uses her crystals and the defensive spells that she made, while touching the monster to kill it. With the help of some other witches who had come to the graveyard, Paisley is taken to the infirmary where the healers heal her up. Her family later come by to make sure that she is fine, and they want to know who did it to her, but she doesn’t tell them. After she has been healed enough, she returns to her dorm, sleeps it off, and then goes to use the bathroom. She runs into Logan, who lifts up her shirt to look at the bruises and tells her that Walter is no friend of hers. He also puts his hoodie on her and tells her to stay in her room.

Paisley meets up with Belle, who tells her that she had reported Annabeth and that she had been expelled from school, so she goes to speak with the Headmaster, who tells her that Walter has been put into jail and expelled from the school as well for his attack on her. As weeks go on, Paisley struggles with her magic—she still doesn’t have much of an affinity—but also she continues to get these horrible feelings that make her spine tingle. Her friends do not believe her about the energy, as they don’t feel it, and about the monsters. There is also Logan’s first class as a spell caster, where Belle asks him if he would be able to tell what type of magic someone has, then volunteers Paisley to be tested on. Logan acts distant with Paisley, but he tries to read her magic, though he tells her it’s different than any other magic that he has ever felt. He manages to pull out all different affinities for Paisley, but she’s certain that it was all him rather than her own magic as in the tests it didn’t even show these affinities. Then, one night while everyone is in their dorms, there is screaming, and Paisley comes out to find a bunch of students holding off what looks like a monster in the shape of a Praying Mantis. She and Belle, who now believes her after seeing the monster, watch in horror as the Praying Mantis kills one of the students. Paisley thinks of how she killed the previous monster and tries it again, only it doesn’t work and Logan slams her out of the way before the monster is able to kill her. He ends up channeling a lot of magic into the monster and kills it, disappearing along with it. Then he does another class on how he killed that monster.

At one point throughout this, Paisley does go home with her siblings to see her mother and father, and while there, she helps her father clean out the attic to get rid of some stuff. While at it, she comes across her grandmother’s things from her mom’s side, finding pictures of crystals, and the crystals themselves. As a child, Paisley had always been obsessed with crystals and finds them comforting, so she takes some of them, while putting a few of the belongings back, including letters from her grandmother to her mother. She asks her mother about the crystal, and her mom says that she can keep them, but when Paisley mentions the letters, her mom only comments that she’ll have to look at them. But when she returns to school, there is another instance in which there is a monster that she runs into the hallway, and so she runs to Logan’s room, having been injured. He takes care of the monster, and then he heals her with his spellcaster magic, but also ends up giving her oral and an orgasm. She tells herself that it’s because of the healing, as he says, and then he sends her out of his room with a new hoodie. The next morning Logan tells her that the headmaster is aware that the school has been infiltrated by yet another monster, and tells Paisley that she will begin training with him and Noah. And so she does.

Family day arrives, where the school lowers their wards to let the parents come into the school, though the school continues to keep a dampener on their student’s powers while they try to find the culprit behind the monsters. Belle, Sara, Harley and Paisley had been trying to research the monsters and to get to the bottom of it, but they find nothing. During Family Day, Paisley’s mom shows up and they walk around the grounds while their mom tells them about her time, reminiscing. They are later joined by their father, and have a wonderful day at the dinner. Once their parents leave for the night, with promises to come back tomorrow, Paisley spends time with her siblings for the rest of the day, before heading to bed in her dorm. The next morning, she goes to meet her parents early at the gates, only to find them talking to Logan and whom she assumes is Logan’s father, Rafael. A discussion ensues, with Rafael and Paisley’s father trading words about the fact that they all lost Rafael’s wife, Isabel, and grieve her. Paisley’s mom tells them that she wants to leave because she doesn’t want to cause anyone pain, so her parents leave before the rest of her family arrives. Paisley lets them know what occurred, and they are sad for the even to have been ruined by the fact that Logan’s father showed up, which annoys Paisley because she had asked Logan if he was coming and Logan didn’t give her an answer. Paisley runs into Belle and her father, whom she had seen at the table at dinner and who had given her negative vibes. They talk, and the father mentions a book that Paisley should read—about some of the witch trials where witches killed other witches, as it might mean that history is repeating itself. Paisley regrets having Belle ask her father about anything or give him any updates as she feels that he is judging her so when Belle offers to ask her father about something else at a different time, Paisley says that she’ll need to look into it first. But the girls do not find the book in the library or anywhere else, so they are unable to figure out what the significance is, as all of the other books reference the witch trials in question without going into detail, beyond saying that those killed were demon witches.

Time goes on, and she continues training with Logan, though at some point he avoids her, leading to more sexual tension and Paisley’s own frustration because she gets the feeling that there is more to the story than she knows about the two of them, with how Logan treats her. She tries to find Logan at his room, but he’s been avoiding her for some time, and she runs into Noah, who tells her that they’re brothers without being blood brothers, and that she and her family should avoid Rafael, but that Logan will be safe, though the meaning of him being safe will depend on her definition of the word. But then on a separate occasion, after she wakes up from a vivid sexual dream with Logan in it, he knocks on her door and asks her what she is doing to him, revealing that he’s also had sexual dreams of her. They end up kissing and then having sex, which blows her mind, but Logan distances himself from her after that, avoiding her.

Eventually, there is another party and they do have witch wine shared with all of the students, but they are spelled to look like regular wine. Paisley’s father realizes that they have witch wine, but doesn’t confiscate it and instead, tells her to be safe. She drinks three witch wines, and is unsteady, so Logan takes her to her room, just as there is an explosion. Paisley wakes up in his hoodie, a different one, and tries to wake herself up by taking a shower. When she gets back, her siblings show up and tell her that their father had been suspended without pay as someone had reported him for knowing about the witch wine and not doing anything about it, especially since the chapel was set on fire. They go home, and their parents act like it’s all going to be fine, but later that night Paisley overhears them talking about it—if their father doesn’t get his job back, they won’t have money to pay for tuition or the tithes to their coven, which means that they will be kicked of the coven.

The siblings return to the school for the last week of college, and Paisley shows an aptitude for all affinities, which is why one of the professors asks Marcus to follow her around to her classes and see where she is with her affinities. Paisley takes a moment to go to the Headmaster, and tries to convince him to let her father be; that he didn’t know about the witch wine. The headmaster says that it’s an unfortunate situation because professors had always turned a blind eye to some of the underage drinking, but in this case his hands are tied because a high ranking member had reported her father for letting the witch wine stay in the hands of the kids at the party, and had said that all of the Hallisters should be expelled or removed from the school because they are dangerous to the school as a whole. This was the only compromise that they could give, and eventually, Tom answers questions from the Headmaster and some of the elders that had come to discuss this with him, but now they have to wait. But Paisley goes to meet up with Marcus and finds Logan there as well. He makes some comments to her about always being welcome to give rather than receive, but then she makes him almost lose his control and he lets her go with Marcus to test her water affinity. Marcus tells her that Logan has a lot of power and she should stay way from him. While they are at the lake, Logan is nearby, but he actually comes up to her and touches Paisley, at which point she channels the magic and splits the whole lake all the way to its darkest recesses. Logan leaves after Marcus, once he had what he needs. Eventually Marcus finds her and gives her notes of the assessment for the affinity, which he had gone through. She is grateful to him, and then she has her assessment where she tests well for all of the affinities needed that would make her be classified as a spell caster. Her mom is proud of her, telling her that she has always known that Paisley would be powerful.

Graduation day arrives, but it’s bitter for the Hallister siblings because their parents can’t come to the graduation as her father is suspended. It’s worse for the twins, who are graduating, as Paisley has time for it to be sorted out, seeing as she is in her first year of college. Before the graduation ceremony, she finds Logan and he teases her, but she asks him if they can speak later, which he agrees to do in the graveyard at 10 at night. The Graduation ceremony progresses and her twin sisters get assigned to Blessed Souls in Spokane, which is their family coven, and Paisley is very happy for that. Then dinner goes well and uneventfully, and before she knows it, it’s 10 pm, so she tells her friends that she is meeting Logan at the cemetery and why. They all understand and they walk her to the cemetery. During their walk, the dampener comes down and her magic is buzzing, which Logan later confirms is going to be the way it will feel all the time once she unlocks it. They go deeper into the graveyard, which creeps her out but she wants answers more. Logan reveals that it wasn’t him or his father who had reported her father to the school, and his dad is kicking himself over it. He tells her to look closer to her and Paisley realizes that it’s Belle, who has been inadvertently giving her father information. She asks him about what is going on between them and what happened when they were kids, so Logan asks about her memories, but she tells him she doesn’t remember anything. He starts mentioning a ceremony, when suddenly monsters keep showing up every time she jabs her finger at him in anger. He tells her that they’re being called by her, and Paisley is in shock. Logan removes them both to behind the graveyard gates and tells her to call them back away, but she doesn’t know how to do it, so he connects with her magic and together they disintegrate the monsters. Suddenly, her mom shows up behind them, and Paisley is confused as to what her mother is doing with the monsters. Logan and Paisley’s mom talk, and he calls her a demon-witch, which strikes Paisley’s memory but she’s not sure why. Paisley’s mom tells him that she needs Paisley to know the truth before they start hunting for her and asks him for the rest of the year to do this. Logan tells her that he will give her one month, because Paisley is his and he will kill anyone who takes her away. Paisley’s mom agrees, and then uses air, which isn’t even her affinity, to get Paisley and her above the wards and into a portal that takes them straight home. There, her father opens the door, and hands Paisley the book that she has been looking for. He wants to answer her questions now, but her mom tells her to give her time to come to terms and rest, so instead he tells her to read the book, and they will talk in the morning.

My Thoughts:

The book started slow for me, but by the 2/3rds point I did get really invested, mostly because my investigative mind wants to know just what the hell is going on here. Logan feels like he’s keeping a secret, and the more times that he mentions Paisley’s memory, the more I am convinced that something had to have happened to block that memory for her. It’s almost like she was spelled to not remember any of this when she happened, and her siblings too though they have memories of Logan from before the time. And I’m pretty sure her mom is keeping a secret too, which is kind of confirmed by the ending of the book—she’s definitely from a heritage of witches who call these demons from a couple of planes that even necromancy cannot reach according to the world building. But I also think she knows or has realized that Isabel’s (Logan’s mom) disappearance has to do with Paisley, but this is something that we will hopefully find out in book two.

Either way, I am definitely invested in this book and this series, so I am looking forward to reading book two, which is coming out in a week or so. I’m not sure when I’ll get to it but I will definitely be reading it shortly after publication (like a month).

If you’d like to read the books and support the blog, you can find the links to purchase both books here: Spellcaster and Night Witch.