When Magic Fades*, a spellbinding story, is an emotional and adventurous journey through the canal city of Arteria, where danger and beauty coexist. This book is a remarkable exploration of resilience, identity, and the unlikely connections that shape us.

Silvie, a former child soldier, finds herself stripped of the life she once knew—her magic gone and her hearing partially lost. Sent to an unfamiliar city as an alchemist's apprentice, she must rebuild her world from the ground up. Azura, the privileged daughter of the alchemist, lives a life of comfort but is equally constrained by her circumstances. Despite their differences, Silvie and Azura forge a compelling bond that is as unexpected as it is transformative.

The city of Arteria is richly imagined, with its vibrant canals masking a dark secret: the cadaveri, terrifying walking corpses born from the overuse of magic. The looming threat of these creatures heightens the tension, making every choice the characters make feel urgent and profound.

What makes *When Magic Fades* shine is its layered storytelling. Silvie and Azura’s relationship evolves beautifully, filled with vulnerability and strength. Their struggles to define themselves outside of societal expectations are deeply relatable, and their courage in the face of overwhelming odds is inspiring.

The prose is vivid and lyrical, painting a world that feels both fantastical and grounded. The themes of sacrifice, redemption, and the cost of power resonate powerfully, making this book a thought-provoking read as well as an exhilarating adventure.

If you’re a fan of richly built worlds, emotionally complex characters, and high-stakes drama, *When Magic Fades* is a must-read. It’s a story that lingers, leaving you eager for more of Silvie and Azura’s journey.

Silvie is a sentry, who uses her psychic magic to protect her town, until a tragedy cost hrr powers. Azura, daughter of the court alchemist, is less than happy tobhear her father has a new apprentice.
However, Silvie quickly befriends her and Lena, her friend, while court politics swirl around them. As Silvie realizes she might love Azusa, things come to a sudden boil.
Good, if somewhat dark read. Interesting magic system, good world building and a surprise villain.

The Hollow Witch by Mary Borsellino is a masterpiece! Pure art in book form. I completely loved the storyline, the characters, the plot... so so good!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.
I was originally skeptical about this book. The start scene to be one of a typical fantasy. BUT OH BOY WAS I WRONG. This book is one of the biggest hidden gems of 2024.

Writing:
Chefs kiss no notes. The starting felt a little sloppy but it picked up after about 25%. I genuinely felt like I was in the book

Plot:
The first 80% the book is about the charecters and establishing their roll in the narrative. There a re alot of coversations and conflicting opinions. The book had a more literary fiction feeling to it.The metaphor of magic and zombies is very relatable in this current this century.

Chrecters:
Each one of the charecters have a different upbringing and motivations making the conversations between them really interesting.

Overall this book is a goldmine of good quotes and relevant topics making this one a must read!

It's not your job to be what he, or anyone else, wants you to be. You just have to be. Even if it makes your father disappointed, or uncomfortable, or angry, or sad. No matter how much you love him, you can't betray who you are for his sake, because who you are isn't up to him.' wow

SAPPHIC FANTASY IS MY FAVORITE. i was surprised by how short this one is.

i loved the idea of zombies in a more fantasy setting. i really love the characters! it was written in a descriptive but not TOO descriptive way.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read an arc of this book

Sylvie was a child soldier who is forced to start her life over when she is taken on as an apprentice to an alchemist. Her new world is so different from what she knew before and she is drawn to the alchemists daughter. The two strike up an unlikely bond and that was what I enjoyed most about the book.

There’s magic and threat and ghouls and some romance thrown into the mix as well. An overall enjoyable read

Zombie high fantasy
Silvie is a poor foundling who served as a magical sentry - travelling in a wolf‘s mind to fight against the cadaveri - until she total burns out when her wolf dies. No magic, deaf on one ear and with serious vertigo she is called to serve the royal alchemist in the main capital Arteria. There she meets well-to-do, contrary Azura, the magically gifted daughter of the alchemist, and the child-queen Lena. We get to know the intricate setting and the capital. Arteria very much resembles Venice, the lagoon, the canals, the palazzo and certainly the opulent flaunting of wealth.
Borsellino slowly introduces us into the world: where Silvie, Azura, Lena and her guard are on very different sides when it comes to their station in life. I started to wait for the other shoe to drop when we slowly get an idea that all the wealth covers a rot which goes to the core of this world. At last it all erupts …
The world-building is excellent. I esp. liked the idea of the cadaveri / zombies balancing the exploitation of magic. Borsellino outdid herself when describing the effects of Silvie‘s disability and weaving them continuously into the story. There is a very slow burn f/f romance mixed into the story. Although interesting it takes some time for the underlying tension to come forth, but I very much enjoyed the nuanced writing and the great descriptions.

I received an ARC via netgalley. The review is left voluntarily.

Witches and world-building... what's not to love?! I really enjoyed reading this book. I loved how Mary Borsellino really leans into the personal costs of magic that a lot of fantasy books tend to gloss over. PLUS, it's a queer book! There is an awful lot to love about this book and I really look forward to more books from Borsellino! :)

If people come from The Wolf House to this, they are going to find something that may be quite different to what's expected. While the former has a focus on snappy dialogue and a host of characters, this one is much more centred on world building. Because of that, I think it's a slower book to start before we even really start getting to know the four main characters and, particular, the two PoV characters.

We see Sylvie very briefly with magic before she loses it in the same incident that injures her leg. She's not much use on the front lines after that and ends up being sent for by the alchemist of the far off city, Arteria.

It's here that she meets our other PoV character, Azura, as well as her friends Queen Lena (who is queen in name only) and her body guard Myles.

The most similar book to this with its sapphic love story and zombies/necromancy plotline that I can think of is the very well known Gideon the Ninth but, although I struggled sometimes to understand what was going on (I'm not a huge consumer of the zombie genre overall) I enjoyed this one a great deal more.

This is a book that is queer, disability and survivor friendly all at once. I don't think I've so aptly seen a story that discusses the issue of people doing bad things out of a terrible thing that happened to them in childhood in such an empathetic way. Just loved the resolution of this story.

The Hollow Witch is a solid YA read that has strong characters and even stronger world building. Actually, the world building regularly takes precendent over the characters and plot which messes with the pacing and can make the reading experience less enjoyable.

Around 70% the author truly commits to the plot and rushes forward with answers to all of the readers' questions.

There are some serious themes that are touched on but not explored. I don't believe it's a bad thing but rather see it as being sensitive to readers with triggers.

An overall good read.

I am always excited to see a sapphic fantasy written by and Australian author.

The story follows Sylvie who is an orphan tasked with defending the kingdom from zombie like cadevari. She has lost her magic, been physically injured, and has been assigned as an assistant to an alchemist. In her new role she meet’s the Alchemist’s daughter, Azura, the Dowager Queen, Lena and her Body guard Myles. With the cadevari creating and increasing threat, pressures of expectation in the court, Sylvie and Lena work to identify the threat and try to find a way to belong under the weight of expectations.

I found the pacing a bit slow to start with, but once I reached the critical point, it really took off! What I initially expected to be a high fantasy had a much larger horror and mystery element than I expected, with a very sweet romance woven into it as well.

This could very easily be a series! This was a nice quick read and I will definitely be looking for Mary Boresellino books in the future!

A child soldier losing magic and then there's the alchemist's daughter, has everything she could ever need. Both couldn't have been any more different but when they must come together. The city of Arteria is under attack from the walking dead feeding on the living.

This book was very unique, and once in the story I was fully immersed.

Thank you to Clan Destine Press and NetGalley for this E-ARC.

If you want a book that honestly had me thinking where is this going to oh wow that happened, this is definitely a hidden gem for you this year.

Firstly let me thank NetGalley / publishers/ Mary Borsellino for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

The hollow witch, follows Silvie a sentrie who after one unfortunate event rips her from her magical able self into a person forever physically changed to her reclaimed un-magical life. Maybe death would have better but she is sent to Arteria to be a doctor’s apprentice. There we meet three more central characters, Azura the doctor’s daughter who will not follow her father’s path, Lana the child windowed queen and Myles her protector / servant.

This is high fantasy with some fantastic world building, that is as beautiful as it is chilling. The magic is built within individuals but also channelling through the area which brings a twist of death via countless members of the undead. This is a great twist on zombie plot. You intertwine with each character with a threat in the background but is not walking dead style more contained unless somebody does generally dies - there is a creepy glass coffin moment that would be a jump scare scene!

I will say the story does feel slow but this does help cement the story with the world building along with the characters development. This followed with a twist that honestly happens around the 90% mark, yes I would have liked this sooner. But the twist is so masterful I can forgive this, horrific really when you read this in blissfully ignorance looking back. You realise quite quickly you are lead via a level of naivety at the same time Azura comes to realise.

The rage, anger and pain is felt all in the last 10% with a real sense of the loss of innocence and reality of Silvia being the one realise what needs to happen next. There is a soft budding romance between Silvie and Azura that literally starts and then this happens. A gentleness that is ripped from the page quite literally.

The story ends quite abruptly, I am hoping for a book 2 as there is so much more left unanswered and genuinely intrigued at how this is going to play out next for them! Would highly recommend, this would be a 4.5 only knocked down for pace.

Great read would highly recommend.

Review Release: 2/2/25
Review Platform: Goodreads/Amazon
Review: As slow paced as it was, it was actually a pretty good book. I love how everything unfolded and the development of the characters throughout the story. I am keen to see what Borsellino brings with the continuation of the story.

Deeply enjoyable, this rich romantic fantasy paints a stunningly vibrant world full of fascinating characters, particularly its two protagonists. Seeing their relationship develop over the course of the story was deeply enjoyable, and really did a great job keeping me engaged! Overall, a solid novel, and one that makes me excited to see what this author has in store next! Thank you to NetGalley and Clan Destine Press for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review!