Fantasy book for middle school readers. This book has lots of magical inventions in an adventure story with children heavily involved in the plot to protect a magic history. I’m an adult and I personally found this book very slow and stodgy, and I struggled to finish it. It had the feel of a book translated from German, and that process had altered the words and phrases used, and therefore possibly changed the excitement meant to be presented. However the text should be readily accessible for its intended age range. Maybe those readers will enjoy it more than I did. Thank you to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine freely given.

The Toymaker and the Magic Within cast a gentle spell on me. Schreiber's writing is warm and inviting, drawing you into a world where toys hold more than just childhood memories. The story is heartwarming, with a message about the enduring power of imagination and creativity. While the plot might be a bit predictable for older readers, it's perfect for sharing with younger ones. It's a sweet reminder that even in the darkest of times, there's always a spark of magic waiting to be discovered.

I feel this book could be a 5 star with one more edit pass. The world building and characters are great, but I wasn’t immediately tugged into the world and it wasn’t the quick page turner I thought it would be. That said, I am definitely looking forward to future books by the author and hope more of her work is put out into the world.

The premise of this book is a great idea, TradeMagic, the ability to imbue objects with magical abilities to help and protect people. The decision to faze out this magic so it cant be used for evil purposes means the secret of this art form has been kept from family members and they are not happy! The Legion are out to destroy the Guild of TradeMagic and take these magic powers and use them for manipulation and wrongdoing.

The magic system is somewhat shaky. Rules that are very often broken and if something isn’t making sense, or hasn’t been explained, a throw away one liner shoehorns it in and plot holes have some big ol patches stuck on, it feels clumsy. There are a lot of characters in this book and they all seem to bicker all the time, it gave me quite the headache! I think a honest edit could fix a lot of these issues.

I wanted to love this so much, but I struggled to finish it.

Thank you to Birgit Schreiber and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This began well, and for a large percent of this book it continued to keep me engaged, but as it continued on, the less it appealed to me. Having said that, it did have moments that kept me involved, but while I enjoyed it in an overall way, I can’t say that it worked all that well for me.


Published: 29 Nov 2023

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op

What a fantastic story full of magic and family bonds! The world building was perfect and the characters were so relatable. This was absolutely a story for all ages! I cannot wait for more to come!

An interesting novel, with some good characters and plot ideas. It fits well within the realm of magic and fantasy novels and would be perfect for KS3 students who are discovering this genre of books.

This book has everything needed to make it a fantastic read except for that vital spark that draws the reader in. The world-building is excellent and there's a wide range of characters and a really good plot but I just found it dull. I'm willing to admit that it may be incredibly engaging for other readers and it has everything I look for in a magical story but it just didn't capture me.

Amazing book . Love the character development and plot line will definitely recommend to friends and family