Format: Hardcover, 560 pages
Release Date: January 30, 2025
Publisher: Tor UK
Source: Publisher
Genre: Paranormal / Fantasy
A Discovery of Witches meets The Atlas Six in Modern Divination by Isabel Agajanian, a dark contemporary fantasy from a brilliant new talent. Modern Divination is the first book in the Spells for Life and Death duology.
The color of magic was gold . . .
Twenty-three-year-old witch Aurelia Schwartz has always had to carefully balance her human life with her secret magical one. With a place at an elite Cambridge university college, she almost has everything she could possibly want within her grasp. Just so long as she follows the rules: Make no promises. Tell no one what you are. And never stay the night.
Except Aurelia’s gift of green magic has begun to fade. Worse still, someone is hunting witches – and stealing their powers. Reluctantly, Aurelia needs the help of fellow witch – and dreadfully arrogant classmate – Theodore Ingram. Together, they seek refuge among his family in the remote corners of an already-desolate town. But as she grows closer to Theodore, the power-hungry witch-killer, too, draws nearer. And they threaten to destroy everything Aurelia holds dear . . .
Modern Divination by Isabel Agajanian is a magical cozy fantasy with witches, featuring an academic rivals-to-lovers romance, found family and yearning.
The color of magic was gold . . .
Twenty-three-year-old witch Aurelia Schwartz has always had to carefully balance her human life with her secret magical one. With a place at an elite Cambridge university college, she almost has everything she could possibly want within her grasp. Just so long as she follows the rules: Make no promises. Tell no one what you are. And never stay the night.
Except Aurelia’s gift of green magic has begun to fade. Worse still, someone is hunting witches – and stealing their powers. Reluctantly, Aurelia needs the help of fellow witch – and dreadfully arrogant classmate – Theodore Ingram. Together, they seek refuge among his family in the remote corners of an already-desolate town. But as she grows closer to Theodore, the power-hungry witch-killer, too, draws nearer. And they threaten to destroy everything Aurelia holds dear . . .
Modern Divination by Isabel Agajanian is a magical cozy fantasy with witches, featuring an academic rivals-to-lovers romance, found family and yearning.
Modern Divination is the first installment in author Isabel Agajanian's Spells of Life and Death duology. It is also the authors debut. Key Characters: Aurelia Schwartz, and Theodore Ingram. This story actually begins with a witch on the hunt. She wants to become the rising sun for a new generation of witches, and if that means killing witches, and taking their powers, so be it. Meanwhile, Aurelia, who is allegedly a green witch who can make plants grow, or die, is studying at Cambridge's King's College where she seems to have an antagonist relationship with one Theodore Ingram.
She's a PHD candidate from the US in occult symbolism while also keeping the fact that she's a witch from being discovered by anyone, let alone her nemesis who has treated her badly for years, as well as her confused roommate named Ryan. However, when a friend of Aurelia and Teddy is murdered, Teddy approaches Aurelia of getting away from town for awhile until they can uncover who was responsible. Call it a tentative alliance if you must. Aurelia’s vehement opposition to Ingram seemed so absolute. They lived to be at each other's throats with extended claws and venomous words, him epitomizing everything she hated yet coveted.
There are many things that bothered me about this story, mostly personal, but the main reason for the rating is the distrust and anger that Aurelia seems send towards Teddy, even after he apologizes and offers an olive branch to meet Gemma Eckley and her perky daughter Louisa. Teddy is soon calling her Rory, and the next thing you know, the ice is broken, and the romance seems to be hitting it off. But then Gemma disappears, Rory is attacked by a witch who tells Rory that she is wrong about her magic, that she needs it, and she also needs Teddy's.
To top it off, Teddy seems to actually hate his own parents with a passion, even after he is badly hurt. Most egregious of all was the villain Leona Sum. To be perfectly honest, she's cartoonish in nature. Her motivations are flimsy and almost comically evil, and they don't emerge until the climax, in a dramatic villain monologue. The only character I didn't hate, was Louisa. Also, the ending leaves room for something, and I am not sure I am willing to finish reading this series to find out what happens next.
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