Teslanar is training to be a wizard, but can’t cast magic yet. This costs him dear when an avalanche takes everything from him, crippling his friends and family. Angry and grieving he tries to return to his studies, but everyone knows you can’t cast magic when you’re angry, and if he can’t learn to cast spells he has no place in the college.

I picked this up at least partly because of the gorgeous cover. The black bands and painted castle really stood out for the others. It is a very short story, well presented internally with good layout and no obvious spelling or grammar issues to take a reader out of the story.

It’s a good story, but it never really drew me in. Perhaps because of its length, the author has little time to build character for anyone but his protagonist and the surrounding world feels a little flat. It is certainly an interesting world with mages, wizards, and spells, and from what we learn of Teslanar’s background it is an unforgiving one, which speaks to his desperation to keep his college place when he has nowhere else to go.

YA fantasy readers will probably love it. It is an interesting world, an open and straight-forward writing style, and a teen lead dealing with some very heavy issues.