Book Review: Spellbound by Blake Charlton

This is the second book in the Spellwright trilogy by Blake Charlton. This continues the story 10 years after the prior book with some new characters. Here's the Goodreads blurb:

Francesca DeVega is a healer in the city of Avel, composing magical sentences that close wounds and disspell curses. But when a newly dead patient sits up and tells her that she must flee the infirmary or face a fate worse than death, Francesca finds herself in the middle of a game she doesn't understand―one that ties her to the notorious rogue wizard Nicodemus Weal and brings her face-to-face with demons, demigods, and a man she hoped never to see again.

Ten years ago, Nico escaped Starhaven Academy, leaving behind his failed life, in which he was considered disabled and felt useless. Now, in Spellbound, he's starting fresh, using his newfound gifts in the dark Chthonic languages to pursue the emerald that holds his birthright. Unfortunately, he can't escape the chaos of his old life. His mentor suffers from an incurable curse, agents of the fabled Halcyon hunt him day and night, pieces of Francesca's story don't add up, and the prophesized War of Disjunction looms on the horizon.

Nico and Francesca don't know it yet, but they are going to have to fit together the pieces of an age-old puzzle and discover the demon's darkest secret….

Read on for my spoiler-free review.

Book Review: Spellwright by Blake Charlton

I picked up Spellwright by Blake Charlton when I got an alert it was on sale for just 75cents. This was an incredible price and while I could always just get it from the library, I decided to just buy it and give it a try. I had heard about it a long time ago and had it on my to-read list, just never high enough. Here is the Goodreads blurb:

The fresh, original first novel of a magical fantasy trilogy, about a dyslexic wizard who cannot spell his spells, yet is destined to contend with an ancient evil that threatens to destroy not only all the magic in the world, but all the people as well.

Nicodemus is a young, gifted wizard with a problem. Magic in his world requires the caster to create spells by writing out the text . . . but he has always been dyslexic, and thus has trouble casting even the simplest of spells. And his misspells could prove dangerous, even deadly, should he make a mistake in an important incantation.

Yet he has always felt that he is destined to be something more than a failed wizard. When a powerful, ancient evil begins a campaign of murder and disruption, Nicodemus starts to have disturbing dreams that lead him to believe that his misspelling could be the result of a curse. But before he can discover the truth about himself, he is attacked by an evil that has already claimed the lives of fellow wizards and has cast suspicion on his mentor. He must flee for his own life if he's to find the true villain.

But more is at stake than his abilities. For the evil that has awakened is a power so dread and vast that if unleashed it will destroy Nicodemus... and the world.

Read on for my spoiler-free review.