Interesting premise but terribly executed. I was unable to finish it. Seemed somewhat disorganized and disconnected. I would still give the author another chance as this was a debut.

3.75 stars

Innate Magic takes place in an alternate Great Britain after WWII. In this world, magic is commonplace. In order to practice magic, you need to visit the Court Magician who will break some bones and make you a mage. The Court Magician is the only one in the country who is allowed to practice this kind of magic, innate magic.

The magic system in this book is very cool and not one I've seen before. Paul is a cloth mage. In order to make waterproof clothing, he needs to get creative. How can he imbue fabric with this property? Well, why not by treating it as if it were a duck? Have the fabric dive down and pop back up from the lake just like a duck would, and then the water would roll right off it just like it would roll off a duck's back. I found this process to be really interesting and pretty fun.

Paul is a bisexual man. I've seen complaints that his main love interest in the book is a woman, but that didn't really bother me. It's very clear that he is also interested in men. At the very beginning of the book, Paul is a spurned lover and very bitter over the breakup with his male teacher. He later develops a crush on a man at a party. There are many references to his interest in men, so I didn't really feel like his main love interest in the book being a female took away from his bisexuality in any way. I mean, bisexual people are interested in men <i>and</i> women, so why is this a problem? I've also seen complaints that he was acting like a stereotypical bisexual, flirting with everyone and ready to sleep with everyone. I thought of it more as just part of who he was outside of his sexuality. He is overly charismatic. He wants to befriend everyone. He wants to flirt with everyone. He's also 22, and maybe I'm stereotyping 22-year-old men, but I'm pretty sure shagging is on the brain pretty strongly at that age, regardless of who you want to bone. I didn't feel his charisma was limited to sexual expression. Paul wants to be liked. We also need to remember that Paul can't defend himself physically, which I feel adds another layer to things.

I've also seen complaints about the religious tones of this book. This is not a preachy book at all. I'm an atheist, and it didn't bother me in the least. It creates a sense of inner tension, and it is actually quite interesting when you think about it. You have Paul, a bisexual man, which would be very much frowned upon in the faith, but still a very devout man. Paul is a morally grey character in a lot of ways, but he seems to want to generally do the right thing. I would call him a good person in a bad situation. All of the <i>bad</i> things he does are generally because he is destitute and starving. He bonds with Hector, a married hetero man with children, walking the right path as far as the faith is concerned, but he is also kind of a little bit evil and maybe a titch insane. Hector is well-off. He is not motivated to do questionable things because he needs to eat. I would not call him a good person.

This was a quick read for me. There are interesting twists in this book, though I saw them coming, and Paul and Thomas are always getting into some kind of trouble. I quite liked the writing. I felt it was done well, and it was pretty amusing at times.

"You are <i>so<i/> courting trouble!"
"You are sending trouble flowers! You are gingerly taking trouble's hand! You are sitting in trouble's living room, having tea with trouble's parents!"

There is a bit of gore, which I kind of skimmed because I'm not really down with gore, but it wasn't really excessive. I felt there was enough warning to skim/skip it.

My main complaint is that the story didn't really feel full. You have Paul, he has a goal in mind. He is otherwise generally trying to survive. He ends up in a situation where his hand is forced, but regardless, he is still just trying to survive in the long run. The romance was blah. The ending was kind of lackluster. I think this author has a lot of potential. The magic system and worldbuilding were excellent, but the plotting needs some work. I can't say I'm chomping at the bit to read the next one.

trigger warning
<spoiler> trauma, being orphaned, gore, gun violence, blackmail, kidnapping, torture, being forced to flay someone alive </spoiler>

When Paul finishes his degree as a cloth mage, he is one of the few of his class who don't have a next job lined up after, so the May Gala will be his big chance to impress people with his work. And, maybe, he'll even be able to settle some old scores.

This starts off pretty low, but before you know it, you're deep in the plot.
Paul is a working class lad from Liverpool, and he and his best mate Thomas went to get a loan from unsavory sources to be able to do their degree. A cloth mage is a person who makes clothes with magical properties, and usually those people come from upper class backgrounds - you know, third sons who probably won't inherit the title, daughters who want to appear to be working but will retire when they marry.
So Paul and Thom are the odd ones out right from the start.

It doesn't help that Paul is known to have had relationships both with men and women, though I am happy to say that queerphobia is not a topic in here. People may raise eyebrows, but that's about it.
I tagged this as bi, but the term is never used in the book. I hope that further installments shed light on this, if he is indeed bi or maybe pan, and will change shelves accordingly.

There is quite a lot going on in this book and please check out the warnings.

For the first time in a long while, I felt myself wanting to start to read because the book was so fun - this is not to say that I did not read fun books in the last weeks, but that my mental health is not in a good place. But the interest in this book was stronger.

If you'll excuse me, now I need to find out when this series will be continued because I want to read on. Full recommendations.
The arc was provided by the publisher.

This is a solid 3* book which has an interesting premise, good world building, a diverse set of main characters, and some humorous banter that will put a smile on your face.

That said, in many ways, this book felt like it was trying too hard. LGBTQ representation while there felt forced at times. The focus on religion was repetitive and, at times, confusing. There is a magic system, but, while unique to me, wasn't interesting enough. It was unnecessarily gory in its descriptions, and that was really off-putting.

I struggled too much to finish it, but I did it in the spirit of fairness to the author and potential readers. I just wasn't excited about it.

In reading this, I was just coming off of reading A Marvellous Light thinking this might give me similar vibes. It didn't. I wanted witty banter, a great romance, a unique and interesting magic system, and a really good mystery. It didn't give me what I wanted, but, had I not read that book, this one might have held more appeal.

I really wanted to like this book. The plot was intriguing and I was so excited to read it! Unfortunately it just fell short.

2 stars

A messy plot, clunky prose & awkward dialogue, logical inconsistencies, & a hefty amount of violence overshadowed my interest in the magical system. I will not be reading the sequel.

[What I liked:]

•The magical system is pretty interesting. At least, I did appreciate the whole concept of cloth magic! There were some really cool applications of that, like the moonlight mirage dress & the duck feather suit.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•The prose is pretty clunky, as is much of the dialogue. It reads like an unedited first draft.

•Characters keep jumping to big conclusions based on nothing. A doctor at a hospital signed three death certificates over a number of years? Obviously he murdered his patients!

•Paul basically ends up two-timing two different girls (as far as he knows) because it’s convenient. Which makes it hard to believe that he actually cares about either one of them as people.

•The whole innate magic thing wasn’t clear to me. How is Paul’s finger being broken as a child different from his arm being broken in college? And I guess the woman who broke his finger was a mage-maker, so how did she get that power? I have so many questions.

CW: teacher/student sexual relationship, physical violence, murder, war crimes, torture

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

It is 1955 in a world where magic exists and, in England, is used for mundane things: Book magic allows people to keep and consult records or transfer money (think everything a smartphone can do, without the internet bit) and cloth magic allows mages to infuse cloth with magical properties that will enhance the wearer’s abilities. Paul is the ambitious son of Liverpool shopkeepers, a cloth mage who wants to obtain the position of Court Magician, the highest mage in the land and the only one allowed to use innate magic. Paul is also keeping a dangerous secret: he has possessed innate magic since childhood.

▪ Very flawed main character. Paul is not only ambitious, he also has a careless way of going through life that makes his seem cold and uncaring. (His innate magic makes people he meets like him immediately, which ironically doesn’t extend to the reader. I should add that I believe this is all done on purpose, so it isn’t a flaw in the writing. I know a lot of readers love reading about unlikeable characters, but I do not.) I had a hard time empathizing with him, which made it hard to care whenever he was in danger. Luckily, the characters around him are easier to love, so I did care when Paul’s actions put them in danger.

▪ LGBTQIA characters. Paul is bisexual, he falls in love (or lust) a lot, and has terrible taste in both men and women. It is quite fun to see him flail about trying to keep up with the ways his various crushes deceive him. There is a bit of romance mixed in with the magic, which I quite enjoy.

▪ Alternate history, so it takes a bit of work from the reader. I admit I’m not 100% clear on when magic was introduced to society in this world (it seems to be both recent and ancient), or how much colonialism has to do with it (the current magic system is copied from that of India and China). There is an alternate version of World War II that is mentioned here and there, and this book is set during a version of the beginnings of the Cold War. I understand that there isn’t room in a single novel to go deep into the history, but I would have appreciated a bit more information.

▪ Fascinating and (to me) unique magic system. The way magic works in this world is something I have never encountered before, so that is quite impressive. Again, I would have liked to know more, but on this front I felt like I was given enough information to have a general idea of how magic operates in this world.

In short, this novel has great world-building, if a little too complex for me, interesting possibly interlocking plots, good mysteries, and leaves the reader on a bit of a taste for what might be coming in future books. I enjoyed it, although I at times really disliked the main character.

This book was simultaneously super fun & super tense. I felt propelled through the whole thing, and I devoured it in several days. I had originally thought it was set during the 1910s, but in reality it's set in the 50s, which made it different (in a great way) from other historical fantasies I've read over the past few years. Innate Magic has similar energy to both Witchmark and A Marvellous Light, which are high compliments in my opinion. I can't wait for the sequel!

DNF. The book isn't outright terrible, but it didn't grab me at all. It felt like something I have read a dozen different versions of in the past few years, with nothing new to say. I found the main character annoying and flat, which is what made me give up.

Absolutely swept away by this debut! Not to be singing to the choir but this really fed into my need for Harry Potter but make it adult. The representation was superb and the writing was hilarious. I enjoyed every second of my read and now I will sit here (unhappily?happily?) waiting for the next installment.

I am happy to have read an ARC of Innate Magic. I loved the original magic and the London and Liverpool locations the characters visit- felt a bit like travelling again ❤

The story itself is fast paced and layered, with old clues to uncover and new interests to navigate. I loved the characters and their backstory which coloured all their decisions and pulled the story in an unexpected direction. Oh and a great plus for #QueerRepresentation ! 🌈