You either are magic, or you are not. Ivy was not, but her twin sister was — a fact that came between them so that years later, they’re almost strangers. Ivy’s a private investigator, though, and when approached by the head of the magic school where her twin Tabitha works to help in solving a suspicious death, she jumps at the chance to see a little of what she’s missing. The problem is that she lies, lies and lies again as she tries to live the life she might have led, if only she was magic.

There is one way in which Magic for Liars is just so totally not for me: it relies fairly heavily on miscommunication (deliberate miscommunication, at that). That’s Ivy’s MO here, and it’s what gets her into half the trouble, and I just find that so vicariously embarrassing and so annoying. Ivy’s problems towards the end of the book are 100% caused by herself and her own stupid decision, and that is not a plot line I enjoy, at least not when it’s made quite so explicit, or is so utterly avoidable. Hubris is one thing, but getting caught in a web of your own lies — lies you know to be stupid — is just… gah.

On the other hand, it is a fun read: Gailey does some fun misdirection and plays with the tropes, and her writing is just… When I first came across some of the lines, one comparison immediately jumped to mind, and that’s Raymond Chandler. There’s something fresh about the way she puts things, a sense of ‘that’s perfect, but also new’ that I think I honestly last encountered when I first read Chandler and followed his ‘shop-worn Galahad’ around town. Things like “Monday morning came on like a head cold” — not even the best example, but one of those right, yes, that feeling moments.

(For all his faults, Chandler was one hell of a writer. This is 1,000% a compliment.)

There’s a lot to enjoy about this book, especially if you enjoy the idea of following around a profoundly damaged and self-sabotaging person. What she’s doing to herself is beautifully clear; it’s just not my jam at all.

The blurb compares this book to The Magician by L. Grossman, and I found it quite accurate, especially if we speak about the general atmosphere. And that should be good, right? Erm… not as much. I mean, it could be great, but I am not a fan of that book, and my main problem with that book was atmosphere’s related so… do we all see a problem here, right?
So yeah… the general atmosphere wasn’t of my liking. But I had other problems with this book too. In case you missed it, the plot say “Ivy Gamble has never wanted to be magic. She is perfectly happy with her life—she has an almost-sustainable career as a private investigator, and an empty apartment, and a slight drinking problem. It’s a great life and she doesn’t wish she was like her estranged sister, the magically gifted professor Tabitha.” And yes, is ironic. Because our MC, the poor Ivy is so full of resentmen, of envy. She is so hungry for a life that isn’t for her. And her hunger is real. You can feel it while dooze off from the pages. And I mean, is not that she is not entitled to it, from life she got the shorter stick and that’s not right. But in some point in your life you just have to let it go or your entire life would be a sad one. And she choose the sad one.
And in this the author is great, because she did an amazing job depicting this aspect of her character. It’s really hard to live like Ivy, because the hunger and the resentment are so much, but the author portraied it really well. But this is just not my cup of tea, sorry.

What I wrote in the precedent paragraph is about my personal taste. But I had some more problems with this book, and I think that they are more “its fault than mine”.
Ivy is a P.I. and I was really pleased by it. But really, she’s the worst! We didn’t see a lot of investigation going around, just Ivy doing a lot of bad choices after bad choices. Mostly stupid ones. And, in the end, is not her who resolve the case. It’s sort of resolve by itself while a lot of things happens. And I am not happy with her final choice, either. Not just because it’s not making so much sense to me, but because… come on!!!!!!
And then we have the setting. At the beginning was quite cool, we are in a magic school so what could possibly go wrong?? Eh… I have tried to answer that question, and, to be honest, I don’t have an answer but I know that something happens and we just… lost something. I don’t know how to explain it, but in the beginning we have a lot of possibilities but in the end it’s like any other school. We have also a Chosen One Prophecy going on in there, so I was amazed at the beginning. But in the end it wasn’t so well integrated in the story, it’s just a surplus, something put in there just because it would have been cool, but with no real importance. The story would have worked perfectly even without it. Really.

I was expecting a pleasant reading, but I didn’t enjoyed myself a lot. To be honest this is not an awful book, but it could have been more. Come on: magic school, P.I. and a Chosen One Prophecy and that’s the best you can get? Sorry, but nope. And I gave it a 3 rating because it’s not completely bad, but it’s more a 2.75.

This book was not what I expected. I thought it might have more of a YA bent because of the setting and the teen characters. I've also seen Sarah Gailey compared to Tana French (whose books I have read--this seems fitting) and Lev Grossman (I haven't read The Magicians, so I can't comment on this one). To me, the result is that this book straddles the YA and adult genres without finding a foothold in either of them.

That being said, I appreciated how dark this book is. It is grittier than I had anticipated, which was a nice surprise. I did get a little fed up with Ivy's "woe-is-me-I-don't-fit-anywhere-because-I'm-not-magic" routine, but I also appreciated the way she navigates her relationship with her sister as she tries to solve the case. The pacing also felt a little off--I thought there would be more urgency in solving a MURDER CASE, but I guess not!

I think Sarah Gailey's writing is pretty funny and sharp, but she could have mapped out this book a bit more clearly.

Magic for Liars is a propulsive, gripping thriller that walks a fine line between hardboiled noir and whimsical urban fantasy. Ivy Gamble, a PI working out of a seedy Oakland office, is hired to solve a magical murder at the school where her magical sister works. Ivy takes the well-paying job, but struggles to deal with her bitterness and resentment over her lack of magical powers. Ivy is such a wonderful character - not always totally likable, very flawed, mired in self-pity - but I adored her so much. She's got so much depth.

The mystery is set up well, and unfolds slowly over the course of the book, with Gailey deftly withholding crucial bits of information in a way that was frustrating for the reader, but actually quite clever within the narrative. The big reveal isn't a total shock, but it makes sense and works well within the confines of the story we've been given. There's a lot of trope subversion here as well that makes for a fresher story.

The magical society and its magic isn't explained especially well (though there's a lot of humorous nods to Harry Potter), but it works, because Ivy is an outsider, so we know just about as much as she does. And it almost doesn't matter - the magic isn't what makes the bones of this story, though it certainly serves to drive the narrative. The story is really about Ivy dealing with her shit, especially her fraught relationship with her twin sister Tabitha, as she uncovers all the usual sordid details that define a high school.

This was such a fun read. I'd been in a reading slump for a while, but the moment I started this book, I could feel that slump lifting. Is it a perfect book? Hardly. But did I have a blast reading it? 100%.

Magic For Liars was not the book I was expecting it to be, and I finished reading it with the feeling that it was exactly the book it should have been, if that makes any sense. This is one of those cases where a publisher’s or a reviewer’s blurb is not only wrong, but actually does the story a disservice. “Harry Potter for Grown Ups” is one description I read somewhere, and while I understand the basic sentiment, this book is so much more. The story takes place in a school for kids who are magic, but the focus is on a non-magical adult who is forced to confront her past in an emotional journey of self discovery.

Ivy Gamble is a private investigator, estranged from her sister Tabitha. Tabitha proved to be “magic” as a child, while Ivy turned out to have no magical abilities whatsoever. This caused a rift between the sisters, as Tabitha went off to magic school while Ivy had to attend a school for regular kids, much to her chagrin. One day Ivy is approached by the headmaster of the Osthorne Academy for Young Mages, where a teacher was found dead. The coroner’s office ruled it a magical mishap, but the headmaster isn’t convinced. She thinks the teacher, Sylvia Capley, was murdered, and she wants Ivy’s help to find the killer.

Ivy is reluctant to visit the school where Tabitha now teaches, but the lure of a hefty retainer convinces her to leave her humdrum PI job and tackle murder for the first time in her career. When she arrives at Osthorne, she finds a place full of secrets, hormonal teenagers and mean girls, and most of all, strange magic everywhere she turns. As Ivy delves into the lives of the students and teachers, she begins to uncover the truth, which is more horrifying than she could ever imagine. And in the midst of discovering what really happened to Sylvia, Ivy comes face to face with feelings for her sister and the resentment that’s been festering for years.

There is plenty of magic here, but surprisingly, it’s not the focus of the story and is more of a background device than anything else. Magic For Liars is a damn fine mystery, as Ivy uses her PI skills to trick the students and teachers into telling the truth. We’re presented with a gruesome murder in the beginning chapter, and it isn’t until the last pages that all the pieces finally come together, so in true mystery fashion, the pacing worked perfectly for me. Gailey’s story has a sinister tone to it that I wasn’t expecting and made me uneasy in more ways that one, not only because of the murder, but because one student in particular has the ability to use “magical manipulation” to get whatever she wants.

The magic within these pages is odd and strange and disturbing. It’s like nothing I’ve ever read, in fact. These aren’t wand-waving teens performing levitation spells. These mages use chemistry and math to figure out magic, like changing pool water into sparks, for example, and magical theory is just as important as performing actual magic. I wish I could go into more detail about the magic that killed poor Sylvia, but revealing those details could be considered a spoiler, so I won’t tell you here. Let’s just say that it was a bit shocking and graphic, but makes perfect sense when you think about it.

I was surprised how emotional Magic For Liars turned out to be. Gailey’s story is so well rounded, and I loved Ivy’s emotional growth as she confronts her feelings for Tabitha and tries to work past years of resentment. If you love stories about the bonds between sisters, especially bonds that are strained by jealousy and estrangement, then you won’t be disappointed. Ivy tells us she’s a liar in the very beginning, and we find out as the story progresses that she’s lying to herself as well as to others. She’s trying to convince the reader that she isn’t bothered by her lack of magic, but we can read between the lines, and it’s quite clear that she is bothered and is simply trying to convince herself otherwise. Her constant protesting is a little too much at times, but I thought it was honest. If you’ve ever wanted something desperately that you know you’ll never have, you’ll probably relate to Ivy and her state of mind.

And I’m so glad I’m reviewing this book in June, because it’s a perfect read for Pride Month, if you’re looking for more queer reading. There are several F/F relationships, one between two students and the other between two teachers. Ivy herself is hetero, and she has a relationship with one of the male teachers at Osthorne, so there’s quite a mix of all types of love in Magic For Liars, and isn’t that what we want to see in stories these days?

The ending comes with a rush of revelations about Sylvia’s murder and some surprises as well. I thoroughly enjoyed this book on so many levels, and I’m excited to read whatever Sarah Gailey writes next.

Magic For Liars is the story of a pair of sisters, one magical and one not, who took very different paths in life: one a Theoretical Magic teacher at a prestigious magic school and the other a beat-down private investigator. When Ivy gets the call to investigate a magical murder at the school where her sister Tabitha teaches, the story takes us through Ivy’s struggle to connect past with present to solve the mystery.

It has a promising start. That dark, down on your luck kind of opening that any private eye kind of flick might have. I settled in, ready for a dark and dingy kind of tale. What I got was a whole lot of nothing through 75% of the book, where I finally decided to stop and move on to something else.

This book stays at one volume level the entire time. Ivy is endlessly interviewing students and then nothing happens. She confronts her sister and seems to make headway about their past as rivals and their magic/non magic issues, and then nothing happens. A teacher is dead, and while we meet many interesting characters and might have suspicions about a few, the tension never ratchets up enough where you feel like we might be headed toward a solution, which would then keep you reading to find out more. I have other things to read, other things to do, either give me something to nibble on or stop wasting my time.

It was really disappointing. It was a cool idea but difficult to pull off without any reveals or wrong turns or accusations in a world where Harry Potter already exists. Sorry fam, it’s a thumbs down from me out of sheer boredom.

Quirky teen book. Great if you like spellcasers series. If you like an mystery stick with this as this is for you.

I did not finish this book. I made it about 30% of the way through and just wasn't interested in continuing.I adored Gailey's American Hippos books so I was excited for this title, however it just wasn't for me.

Magic for Liars follows Ivy Gamble, Private Investigator, as she tries her hand at solving her first murder case. The catch? The murder happened at an elite school where teenagers aren't just spoiled, they are magical. That's right, magic. The odds are stacked against Ivy. She doesn't have magic, she has a drinking problem.

Talking books, the chosen one, one might draw comparisons to Harry Potter, but Hogwarts this is not. The main focus of the story is not the students, but the adults (for a refreshing change). There is no great ultimate evil, there is no need to save the world from dark forces here. This book is part Whodunit, part fantasy fiction.

Recommended for fans of fantasy fiction or mysteries that want something a little quirky and different.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for a chance to read the ARC.

This book was not really what I was expecting. And, to be honest, when I finished, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Let’s start with what I did like. The book was very well written, the characters were very real, and the plot was interesting. My attention was kept through every page in the book as I really wanted to find out what was going to happen next. The characters really felt like real people with very real failings which leads me to something that bothered me. Ivy, the main character, really bugged me at times. She was filled with such angst about not having magic I wanted to tell her to grow up. She’s in her early-to-mid 30s; she’s had plenty of time to get over that. Another thing that bothered me, which I can’t really say much about or I’ll spoil the whole book, was how it ended. I was pretty sure I knew part of how the murder went down, but there was a better way to tie the events together that would have made a tighter and tidier…event-ender (again, vagueness to keep from spoiling it). However, I did really enjoy this book and I do recommend it. I was provided the e-book which I voluntarily reviewed.

I really enjoyed the original world Sarah Gailey pulls us into Magic for Liars.

Ivy doesn’t have magic but she is pulled into a magical school to investigate a murder of one of the faculty. It ends up being the same school her magically gifted sister and twin, Tabitha, left her for years before and just happens to be a teach there too.

Torn between her unsettling emotions toward her sister and the dangers or this magical world that she’s always been left out of, Ivy struggles to solve to the case before its to late.

Magic for Liars is a twist between fascinating urban fantasy and a really intriguing murder mystery. I would love to read more of Ivy’s exploration into the magical world.

I received this copy of Magic for Liars from acmillan-Tor/Forge - Tor Books. This is my honest and voluntary review.

My Rating: 4 stars
Written by: Sarah Gailey
Series: A Study In Magic (Book 1)
Paperback: 194 pages
Publisher: Independently published
Publication Date: August 29, 2018)
ISBN-10: 1719942250
ISBN-13: 978-1719942256
Genre: Paranormal | Urban Fantasy

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Liars-Magic-St...
Barnes & Nobles: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/magi...
Itunes: https://books.apple.com/us/book/magic...
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This book wraps you in a thick blanket of its charm and voice then straps you in for a feelings-fueled ride of a mystery. Ivy Gamble is a private investigator and a mess. She gets an opportunity in the form of investigating a murder mystery at an elite magic high school, despite not being magic herself. It's a really good mystery fueled by character development more so than plot.

I loved the pages and pages on introspection of how hard Ivy tries to be a better version of herself. She wants to be the best private investigator and that need to do better is so viscerally done. I also loved the way Gailey's other characters weren't perfect as well. All flawed individuals trying to figure themselves out, and it is the most apparent in the teenagers.

The spirit of high school is so well captured in this book. That feeling of a return when you've been removed from that space for at least decade is captured so perfectly. The school in itself becomes a character rather than a backdrop for the events taking place, from the weird pranks to the murder that unfolded.

Someone needs to give Ivy a firm hug, even if she might punch you in the face for caring. A must-read for people who love characters trying their best and well-woven mysteries.

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey is an urban fantasy book about a PI investigating a suspicious death at a magical boarding school in the US. I had previously read Gailey's novellas about hippos in an alternate American South (and upsetting violence against said hippos), but this is her debut novel.

Ivy Gamble has never wanted to be magic. She is perfectly happy with her life—she has an almost-sustainable career as a private investigator, and an empty apartment, and a slight drinking problem. It's a great life and she doesn't wish she was like her estranged sister, the magically gifted professor Tabitha.

But when Ivy is hired to investigate the gruesome murder of a faculty member at Tabitha’s private academy, the stalwart detective starts to lose herself in the case, the life she could have had, and the answer to the mystery that seems just out of her reach.

This book starts in a typical urban fantasy investigator way, with Ivy, the protagonist, being given an interesting case to solve. What makes the case unusual for Ivy is that it involves a magical boarding school, when she has always lived in the non-magical world we are all familiar with. In fact, the only reason Ivy is already aware of the existence of magic is because her twin sister has magical powers and went away to a (different) magical boarding school when they were in high school. As a reader, what I found a bit unusual about this book was seeing a boarding school from an adult outsider's perspective, which I don't think I've come across before.

As well as trying to solve the murder, Ivy finds herself mixed up with some slightly strange teenagers, a hot teacher and having emotionally complicated conversations with her estranged sister, who is now a teacher at the school where the murder occurred. I found the setting added a point of interest to what was otherwise not a terribly unusual story — although I will say that some of the magic that comes up is a bit more uncommon, overall. It also explored how magical solutions could be applied to typical teenage problems in a way that wasn't explored in the obvious example of Harry Potter. For example, magical contraception and abortion get a look in, at one point. (Because of course that would be a problem that came up in a co-ed boarding situation.)

I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. I was hesitant to read it because of the hippo thing, but I was assured no hippos appeared or were harmed in it, which was indeed the case. It's a fairly different tone and setting to the River of Teeth world, so I don't recommend deciding whether to read it based on that. If the idea of a PI set loose on a magical school appeals to you, then I highly recommend giving this book a go.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: June 2018, Tor
Series: I don't think so
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

So I had the most unique experience the other day, when my neighbors decided to cut down some trees. These trees – twice as tall as the house and some nasty pine trees that erupted with ants as soon as they were cut – fell and took out the power to my house!

“Well Roni, how is that unique?” you may ask. “You’re in the Midwest, the power going out is like, a whole meme there.”

Well, you’re not wrong.

But the power’s never gone out in the middle of trying to interview Sarah Gailey. That’s. Uh. A whole new experience. At least for me – I don’t know if they’ve had the power go out during an interview.

Oh yeah. I should mention that.

I interviewed Sarah Gailey for the upcoming novel MAGIC FOR LIARS!

(Please, hold back your gasps of amazement. I’m still in shock too. This was easily the best time I’ve ever had, and Sarah is amazing being for gracing Doomland with their presence.)

(Am I still mad that I got in trouble for wanting to spend my birthday going to Chicago for the reading? Bet your ass I am.)

But seriously, guys. I adore MAGIC FOR LIARS and I’m ever so thankful that I got an ARC in my hands, and I’m abuzz with excitement to receive a real-life copy tomorrow (which isn’t my birthday but the next day is!), and y’all should be too. MAGIC FOR LIARS is for those kids still waiting for their magic powers to crop up, for those readers who searched every closet and wardrobe for the entrance to Narnia, for those who searched for the tiniest bit of magic in their ordinary lives and still search to this day despite knowing it can’t be real.

It’s also a book for all you siblings out there. Trust me, I don’t want to spoil too much of this book, but it hit me right in the big-sib heart and I had to go lie down for a second once I finished reading.

Sarah crafts an elegant mystery that winds its tension in such a way that you don’t know you’re on the edge of your seat until you stop for a second and find that you’ve fallen off and are sitting on the floor. (Am I speaking from personal experience? Unfortunately.) Our protagonist, Ivy Gamble, is the kind of gal I’d wanna sit down and have a drink with so we can both complain about our respective siblings (but like, in that good natured sort of way, because I can say for a fact that if I said anything about Ivy’s sister, she’d come at me with her bare hands).

I, once again, have zero complaint with this book. It fills that little hole in my heart that wonders what life would be like with magic, and it’s filled the idea that’d the world would still be itself, just a little weirder. Like, don’t get me wrong, we all want things to be like THE MAGICIANS, but those kids rub me the wrong way so bad that I never finished the series – the books or the show. MAGIC FOR LIARS? Magic teens aren’t cooler or more special – they’re just teens, with teen problems, who just happen to know how to write magic graffiti.

God, I love this book. You can preorder it now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indiebound, or wherever it is you get your book fix.

Check out the interview on iTunes, Spotify, or Awesound!

When I saw the cover of this book and read the synopsis, I was intrigued! All my favorite elements of a story, all in one place! (The 3ms Murder,Mystery, and Magic) I was surprised how much I actually enjoyed this book and will definitely recommend it to other readers in the future. My advice is just to read the synopsis before reading this book, don’t look at reviews or go any further. The least you know the better. That is how I went into this book and it was so enjoyable. I couldn’t put it down. Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this great book.

The relationship between murder and magic gets a fresh twist in “Magic for Liars¸” Sarah Gailey’s debut novel. With its bright cover and eye-catching design (literally as well as figuratively!) this is a book that emotes. Gailey previously released the “American Hippo” duology (made up of “River of Teeth” and “Taste of Marrow”) as well as the Fireside/Serial Box production, “Fisher of Bones,” demonstrating a deft hand in navigating weighty content with empathy and skill. It is no surprise, then, that Magic for Liars raises that bar yet again in offering readers certain familiar tropes—the tortured antihero private investigator, the femme fatale, and the obsessive teen, just to name a few—and nestling them within the recognizable voice of noir fiction as well as the lush campus of a school for magical teens. Readers are offered a choice: Read the book one way, and all the tropes fall in line, one after the other, leading to a satisfying and thoroughly noir denouement worthy of the torchbearers of that genre. Read the book another way, and you suddenly discover that magic isn’t just a thing certain people can do, but the inexplicable thing which binds us to each other in magnetic relationships that either repel or attract—or manage to do both at once.

As in all dualities, these two ways of reading are not truly opposed; they are complementary. They coexist. They will always coexist. And in so doing, they will torment us forever, in ways that will either continuously deconstruct or continuously reconstruct our identities and our ability to connect to each other.

Just as “Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee” gets its teeth into what goes into storytelling as a building block of identity, “Magic for Liars” chews on identity as a product of self-invention, and reinvention. Characters, both magical and non-magical, work hard to perfect their performance of self, and they wear those performances like armor. Teens adrift in the melee of emotional demands that make up the transition into adulthood add highlights to their hair, and an extra sparkle to their eyes, because if they can only just pretend to be perfect long enough, maybe the worst that the world can throw at them—murder and worse—will just slide right off and leave no smudges on the futures they hope so desperately are still waiting for them outside the school’s walls. Adults add those same highlights and sparkles because they know those smudges are permanent, and they might as well look untouchable even though they’re very much … not.

Everyone is touchable when it comes to trauma, as Gailey makes plain. No matter how thick one’s armor, the world gets in. *Family* gets in. And it’s only through willingly making oneself open to the feelings and needs and predations and loves of others that one can find a path through. That one can construct an identity—queer, straight, magic-user, sister, murderer—that fits. Magic doesn’t change that. Magic *is* that.

“Magic for Liars” cuts deep. But it’s not the kind of noir fantasy that privileges the titillation of crime over the depth and nuance and many-layered innocences of its characters. It’s a book of discovery, and connection, and a conversation about what is at the rock-bottom of human nature. Is it love? Is it fear? Is it the ability to hurt or harmonize with others? Gailey gets pain. They get that pain resides not just in the mind, but in the marrow.

This book sounds like it will have everything I love. A mystery, magic, and spunky female detective. It has a great premise, one twin has magic and the other doesn’t. The nonmagical twin enters the world of magic to solve a murder. However, there wasn’t much magic, which would’ve been okay if there had been more to the story. My first issue was Ivy has been a detective for 14 years, but she never worked a murder case before. Or any serious case. The excuse for bringing her in was she knows magic is real. That would’ve worked better if magic wasn’t a known secret. Magic and people who can wield it are everywhere. Tabitha was discovered to have powers by her kindergarten teacher, so it’s hard for me to believe that there are no other investigation agencies in California with a detective who knows about magic, and there certainly should be one who can wield it as well. The only reason why Ivy should’ve been brought in is if there was a twist. But there was not.

There was also no sense of urgency. At one point after a week Ivy even says she’s not sure if she should feel accomplished with her few clues or like she is lagging behind. I also didn’t like that no one seemed broken up about the death of a teacher. Sad sure, but in passing. We knew as much about the victim as someone would learn from a 30-second news report. “The death of 3(?) year old beloved teacher Sylvia (I can’t remember her last name) who was found split in half in the Osthorne School library has been ruled an accident by police. She will be mourned by everyone there”. A murder investigation was done, but there was no research done on the life of the victim. There was even a journal found, but we didn’t get any insight into Sylvia’s thoughts, wants, or needs.

Finally, the murder is solved, and there is a sort of twist but nothing shocking. I also was disappointed that the book ended without addressing what seemed like could have been a magical power that Ivy had. Honestly giving this book 3 stars is rounding it up from the 2.5 I think it actually deserves. It’s not a poorly written book it’s that the story doesn’t take advantage of interesting possibilities presented.

Okay, so if you absolutely hate fantasy or sci-fi, then this isn't a good fit for you. But, if you even DABBLE, in those genres, then I think you'd enjoy Magic for Liars. This is basically a murder mystery, but the twist is that its set at a school for magic (think ordinary high school on steroids) and the main character is not magical. Can you even imagine a life where you grow up ordinary but you know that magic exists? And that your own twin is magical but somehow you aren't? Yep, theres some resentment here.

Beyond being a traditional mystery, the author also delves into family dynamics, teenage angst and even some adult issues. This is very much an adult read - its grittier and deals with some real issues. I really enjoyed this novel and was so happy to have had the opportunity to read it in advance. Easily a 4-4.5 star read for me! I highly recommend it to fans of mysteries and those who want a different read!

I might not read much fantasy, but if I hear the words "magical school", I'm all over it. Magic for Liars is a mystery featuring private detective Ivy Gamble, who is asked to investigate her first murder case at a private school for mages- where her estranged sister, a mage herself, teaches. I really enjoyed this story!
Here's why I think this book worked so well for me: it's told from the perspective of a non-magic person, who is outside looking in. Ivy might understand magic more than the average layperson since she has a mage in the family, but her understanding of everything is still from the outside. As someone who doesn't read a lot of fantasy, I think this helped with my understanding of the world.
4.5 stars

Every time I reach that stage where I feel like  I've just burnt myself out on urban fantasy and convince myself it's time to focus on a different genre for a while, a new book comes out that just looks too good to resist. This was definitely one of those books and I went into it expecting urban fantasy along the lines of The Dresden Files or the Mercy Thompson series and quickly had those expectations shot down within the first few pages. Magic For Liars by Sarah Gailey was a fantastic read that I was nothing like anything else I've read before.

Magic For Liars is one of those books where I don't think I can say much about the story without spoiling plot points for the book. I will say that it does remind me of  Lev Grossman's The Magicians in that both books feature magic schools and magic systems that are unlike anything else in the genre. It's also really interesting to read an urban or contemporary fantasy story which is set in a school of magic, where the main character has no magic to call her own. I thought it added an interesting dynamic to the story and impacted the plot in some pretty unexpected ways.

There have been a lot of authors over the years who have tried to combine fantasy and noir fiction with what I think are fairly mixed results but thought Magic For Liars managed it well. Ivy is a great character and I thought Sarah Gailey did a great job with the whole hard-bitten alcoholic PI schtick that often seems to come with the genre. My only complaint is that I was slightly disappointed by the fact that I didn't find the rest of the characters to be quite as real or believable as I did Ivy. Though that could be because we spend most of the book in Ivy's head and see all the other characters filtered through her.

I would definitely recommend this story looking for something new and different to enjoy. I think it would be enjoyable to read no matter what genre someone normally prefers.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.