I received "The Other Side of Magic" by Ester Manzini, published by Independent Publishers, as an ARC from NetGalley and this review is entirely my honest thoughts.
The idea behind Manzini's novel was a great premise and the book itself has a lot of potential. I like the idea of magic being a resource people are born with and it depleting as they use it. Many fantasy novels do not include the limits to magic and in this way, The Other Side of Magic, was unique and more realistic, so to speak. I like that Gaiane had limitless power and was a weapon and Leo was born without magic, showing a spectrum of people. Speaking of which, the book also gets points for diversity, as the book had LGBTQ themes. However, there were a lot of weak points for me. The book started in a rush and it was confusing jumping from one POV to the next. I think the author should have kept to the main three point of views--Gaiane, Leo, and Evandro. In my opinion, Evandro's chapters were the most well-written. I also believe these point of views should be separated by chapter instead of switching in the middle which was very confusing. Though Gaine was an important part, I found her character whiny and annoying--I suppose that was the point to show her character development but there are times I couldn't believe she would be so stupid. Also, the dialogue, especially with the girls, came across as cheesy and unrealistic. The kind of dialogue I would expect from a sitcom but doesn't translate well to the page. I do think the novel started to get more intense and gripping about halfway through, but then the ending just fell flat for me--everything was too 'neat.' To improve, I think there should at least have been limited pov's and more realistic dialogue. Again, great idea, just needed to flesh it out more!

I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Other Side of Magic is a delightful (and occasionally heart-wrenching) story of a young mage princess, Gaiane, on her quest to right the wrongs done by her family. She encounters a unique cast of characters (the shining stars of the book, IMO) and confronts her past along the way. I really enjoyed this book from start to finish!
The book begins very intensely, starting off with the brutal end of a war fought between two kingdoms. It's a great introductory chapter, pulling the reader in and showing them the lay of the land at the same time. The reader is introduced to the characters and gets a compelling glance into who they are. This first chapter did a good job of setting the stage for the rest of the novel and left me wanting more of the characters from the moment they're introduced. It's truly a fantastic set-up chapter.
From the first line, this book played like a movie in my mind. I felt as if I was watching it more than reading it, which I found refreshing and really special. I think it takes a special kind of talent to make me forget that I'm not actually able to see what's happening. The e-book I received was riddled with typos and probably needs one last pass through editing to fix those up before it's more widely distributed. That being said, I enjoyed the style of writing and natural storytelling more than I was bothered by the typos.
I've seen a lot of reviews mention the unique magic system, which is pretty neat, but to me, the highlights of The Other Side of Magic are its characters. Leo, Evandro, Ligeia, and Ampelio are all entirely unique characters in a well-loved and well-used genre. One of my only issues with The Other Side of Magic is the dialogue. It can feel very clunky at times, especially coming from Gaiane. This isn't to say it's all bad, and honestly dialogue isn't as big a part of the book as you may think. It certainly didn't ruin the experience for me, just pulled me out of the fantasy every so often.
A fantasy set in a kingdom that's home to a hidden away princess with magic powers may seem like nothing new, but The Other Side of Magic was a fresh and unique interpretation of that setting. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes magic, adorable queer romance, well-crafted character arcs, and doesn't mind a bit of gore.

Parts of the story were really enjoyable and sweet, but I didn't love others. I thought the romance was sweet, but their relationship confused me at times because it seemed like Leo was forgiving very quickly. Gaiane was infantilized throughout much of the book and as much as I wanted to like her, I found her annoying. I preferred the stories of the other side characters overall. The parental relationships were complex but sometimes bordered on just neglect. I thought the beginning was the best part of the story, and that the political plot of the last half or so was kind of frustrating to get through. I never quite understood the magic system in the story, which I had been hoping we would have explained a bit more. The story was sweet but seemed a bit unfinished overall and the plots seemed jumbled together a bit.

Thank you to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

YA fantasy books are my favorite genre, so I was so excited to get approved to review The Other Side of Magic ahead of its release date. The first line of the synopsis is: "In a world inspired by 16th century Italy, magic is a common occurrence." Once I read that, I was sold! I couldn't wait to read this historical fantasy novel.

The beginning of the book is everything I wanted. Here is an excerpt that shows Gaiane, one of the main characters, and a princess, using her powers to destroy a rival army:

"Magic flowed through her, beyond her. Down the tower and over the fields, through the trees and across the rivers. She pulled at the strings holding the world together, and her power reached the soldiers. It blended with theirs, and she felt their surprise as if it were her own...
In the time of a quickened beat of her heart, it all came back to her. She wasn't just lending her energy to the troops--she was living the battle with them. With every single soldier, and hundred, thousands of details cluttered her head. A gasp, and Gaiane staggered back."

This is the magic that I love reading about! I couldn't wait to continue reading and see what happens next. I was shocked when Gaiane loses her powers almost immediately. Even though the title of the book is The Other Side of Magic, somehow, the "magic" disappeared, and we were left with a mediocre, less-exciting story set in an alternative 16th-century Italy. After reading the synopsis and the introduction, I was so ready to love this book. Overall, The Other Side of Magic is a YA fantasy novel without the fantasy. I recommend it for fantasy readers who are sick of complicated magic systems and want something more "historical." If that sounds like you, you should check out this book, which came out last week.

There were parts of this book I adored, and parts I felt were weak. In particular, I loved the magic system - I felt like it was well-thought-out and creative. I also loved the diversity present throughout the book; I felt like the characters were interesting and all had great character arcs (especially the princess!).

That said, I'm not sure if it was a translation issue or what (was this translated?) but a lot of the dialogue and writing itself was kind of clunky and simplified. The pacing felt off as well - the first half of the book felt like explanation or set up, and the ending felt rushed in comparison.

Not bad, but not particularly compelling. However, thank you for the opportunity to read this! I really appreciate it.

Reading the premise of the book, I was immediately intrigued. The magic system seemed amazing and I couldn’t wait to read it.

However, I was left a bit disappointed. The world building was lacking, leaving this fantastic magic system nowhere to be developed.

The writing style made all the characters blend in, they all seemed the same and were all equally was annoying.

The plot in itself was majorly boring and predictable. Plot twists were seen pages away before they even occurred.

And the pacing, oh lord, please. The second half of the book was better, yes, but they killed it by changing the pacing and having everything resolved in literal seconds.

Overall, this was defitnely not my thing but im sure others might enjoy it.

Wasn’t able to connect with the reading style and had to give up on the book. The premise sounded really good but I just wasn’t in the space to try to read it at this time.

The other side of magic had a unique magic system which captured my attention. Each individual is born with a certain amount of magic which diminishes throughout their lifetime, and the amount remaining is externally visible through a symbol on the forehead, which - similar to a battery icon - fades with use. However, there were elements of this magic system which were not explored well, namely the child Gaiane whose magic never runs out, owing to some sort of magic eugenics. The explanation of this left me with more questions than answers, and was not given weight in a way that felt significant.

Queer themes were woven throughout, featuring an incredibly diverse cast of characters. However, I found that I didn't care much for the individual relationships. The rapid pacing made it difficult to form attachment to any one character, particularly towards the start of the book. There were no subtle introductions to the characters; from the beginning, you are thrust right into the heat of it, which made it very difficult to care about any of them - there was simply no connection.

There are multiple perspectives throughout each chapter of this book, and that, in itself, is an issue. The lack of signposting at each change in perspective resulted in confusion not only surrounding the whom. but also the when in relation to the previous POV. Perhaps, in part, because of this, each switch between characters was extremely jarring. It was difficult to get into the flow of each character, and just when you thought you might, the perspective changed again.

Once I was able to put my confusion aside and work out what was supposed to be going on, the plot was relatively predictable. It was not hard to see the 'plot twists' coming, and moments that should have been impactful fell flat.

Aside from that, the sentence structure often felt awkward, and the dialogue was frequently cringe-worthy. Whilst it featured an interesting magic system and featured nice queer representation, I found I couldn’t get over the pacing and perspective changes enough to really enjoy this.

This book is very unique, the magic system was different from what I'm used to, and the characters were good. It took me a while to connect with the main. characters but I loved them once I did. None of them were boring The writing is great. I would read more by this author and I plan on buying a physical copy of the book.

This historical inspired fantasy has a cast of loveable characters in a gripping and totally re-imagined Italy. If you're looking for a queer fantasy, this is for you. I really enjoyed this.

The Other Side of Magic was a fascinating delve into a unique world. I was slow to connect with the main characters, but once that finally did happen, I could not wait to see what came next. A rich colorful world surrounds a story about taking responsibility for your actions, even those actions you had no choice about making.

Overall a cute story, I really liked Leo as a character. But as far as enemies to lovers goes, it's fairly generic.

i thoroughly enjoyed this! I think that some part were paced in a strange way (the beginning and the end both are so fast paced and it’s much slower in the middle) but i enjoyed the world building and magic system.
I didn’t love all the characters — not all of them are really meant to be loved — but I still liked reading about them.

Great idea, weak execution - the writing is choppy and unpolished, rushed, overly simple and blunt. Really disappointing, I was so looking forward to this one! But I just hated it. Trying to read it was like making myself chew plastic. A beautiful cover on a terrible book.