First Year

The Black Mage, Book 1

By: Rachel E. Carter

Narrated by: Melissa Moran

For 15-year-old Ryiah the choice has always been easy. Become a warrior and leave the boring confines of her lowborn life behind. Set to enroll in the School of Knighthood on the eve of her next birthday, plans suddenly shift when her twin brother discovers powers. Hoping that hers will soon follow, she enrolls with Alex at the Academy instead - the realm's most notorious war school for those with magic.

Yet when she arrives, Ry finds herself competing against friend and foe for one of the exalted apprenticeships. Every "first-year" is given a trial year to prove their worth - and no amount of hard work and drive will guarantee them a spot. It seems like everyone is rooting for her to fail - and first and foremost among them Prince Darren, the school prodigy who has done nothing but make life miserable since she arrived.

When an accidental encounter leads Ryiah and Darren to an unlikely friendship, she is convinced nothing good will come of it. But the lines become blurred when she begins to improve - and soon she is a key competitor for the faction of Combat. Still, nothing is ever as it seems - and when the world comes crashing down around her, Ry is forced to place faith in the one thing she can believe in - herself. Will it be enough?

©2014 Clean Reads (P)2016 Clean Reads

awesome!!!

I cannot wait to hear the sequels​!! thank you audible books! I would recommend this

Appealing but unfulfilling YA

My first impression of this book wasn't great. The narrator seemed to over-enunciate every word, the action was spurred by outlandishly implausible events (who jams their entire grasping hand into a thorny berry bush at night on purpose?). However, the complexity of this book lies in its peaks and troughs. It is well-written, but not outstandingly so. The narrators grew on me after an hour or so and I found her to be well-suited to the role by the end. The plot, however, moves from extremely exciting scenes and sequences that pulled me forward, to awkward and unappealing portions that made me contemplate not finishing.

My primary issue was that I found the main character to be somewhat uninteresting, and to not be worthy of the positive treatment and expectations she occasionally received. Honestly, she's desperate to become a battle mage but seems to have little to no natural aptitude for fighting when compared to other students. Fortunately, many of the secondary characters were quite fun. My other problem was that there is somewhere between little and no world building. We don't really learn ANYTHING about how magic works or interacts with the world. If you try to picture the world this takes place in, it's effectively just one or two vague buildings and a hazy palace off in the mists.

Clearly, the book is focused on the characters, and to a lesser extent on romance. The author does a good enough job with this that I'm considering picking up the second book. The characters are somewhat stereotypical, but these stereotypes exist because the characters that fit them are intriguing to follow. A love triangle is looming on the horizon in the second book. And I'm crossing my fingers, hoping we'll find out SOMETHING magic and the kingdom and what all these crazily trained mages are FOR in a realm without a war in 60 years. I may have been hoping for too much from YA fantasy/romance, but I've read a few truly excellent ones that set my expectations high. This one is eminently readable, and often enjoyable, but fails to reach greatness.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

A decent start

I enjoyed this book more than not, but did feel there was a bit too much struggle for the main character. After all her hard work, she deserved a pay off, but it never came, which was frustrating, her wins come through luck or 'potential' not her hard work. I hope that gets cleared up in the upcoming volumes and she van succeed for her work, not just plot reasons.

Narrator really brought the story down a peg

This narrator just wasn’t the right fit. The aristocracy had exaggerated Brooklyn accents (wrong for “high-borns” and just generally wrong for the world Carter creates). The prince ended up sounded like a dumb bro. Moreover, the narrator didn’t use contractions even when they were built into the writing, so it constantly sounded like someone was reading from some formal treatise — really unnatural. I enjoy Carter’s writing in ebook format, but wouldn’t purchase other audiobooks in the series if they have the same narrator.

Growing Pains

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Harry Potter a little bit, just starting older.

Magic. Just getting started.

Romance. Wait and see.

Underdog. Yes.

Add them all together and you have a great book. Would recommend this to everyone.