The Magic Collector

De: Chesney Infalt

Narrado por: Carol Beth Anderson

On the day of her wedding to the Crown Prince, Aveline is cursed for helping the wrong person. Not entirely a ghost, she is in between, having no control over what form she takes at any given moment. To break it, Aveline is forced to turn to the man she helped: the ostracised Magic Collector.

Sebastian, known to everyone else as The Magic Collector, is shrouded in mystery. His castle disappears, sometimes for months, and then reappears without warning. Curious about him and his collection, Aveline pieces together that he, too, is cursed. As romantic feelings blossom, she is determined to free Sebastian as well, but there are dark costs that expose even darker secrets.

Equipped with the horrifying truth, Aveline is left with two choices: abandon the man she loves, or everyone she is trying to return to.

©2023 Chesney Infalt (P)2024 Chesney Infalt

A beautiful twist on howl’s moving castle

I loved this book so much! It was a real treat. I can’t wait to see what the author will write next. I hope more of their things come to audible.

I didn’t want to stop listening.

I didn’t want to put this book down. I did put it down when adulting made it hard for me to read the physical paperback, but I immediately downloaded the audiobook when I discovered it was out. I finished it quickly. I loved the narrator. She was great at changing her voice for each character and made it easy for me to differentiate between each of them. This isn’t always the case with other audiobooks.


I knew some things ahead of time about the castle moving and how it was compared to Howl’s Moving Castle. I even read HMC, but … I didn’t like Howl’s in a way to be memorable. The Magic Collector, in my opinion, is better and will live rent free in my mind for a long time. My opinions are hugely swayed by characters in stories, and it was so easy to fall in love with each of them—except for the villains.


Previous reviews mentioned words like gothic, cozy, and Howl’s Castle a lot, but since I don’t read a lot of gothic, I was thinking this was more of a regency fantasy meets some ghosts and magical characters. I’m really bad at writing reviews and I don’t read with a critical mind. I read for pure pleasure and TMC gave me exactly that. Fantasy is my favorite genre, but with this book I enjoyed the ghosts, the clean closed-door romance, and the uniqueness of this story no matter what genre it is. It’s definitely one of my favorites in 2024.

A gothic, magical story with all the Howl vibes

Loved the dark atmosphere, heartwarming themes, sweet romance, and strong found family in this enchanting fantasy with super strong Howl’s Moving Castle vibes. Definitely recommend for fantasy fans!

Maybe better for a YA Audience? Challenging Narrator

This is the only review I have written for a book I did not finish- I tapped out of the Magic Collector halfway through. This book primarily features two romantic leads who are such morally good and unambiguous people that any conflict feels genuinely silly. I have tried to be patient with the (selfless and self-effacing) female lead agonizing over her perceived selfishness, but the plot isn't strong enough to redeem one-dimensional characters. I think this might be a lovely book for a young audience, but for anyone in the market for any complexity, I'd recommend against this book. I may also have been willing to stick it out with a different narrator- the voices for the female lead and, in particular, for the child character were overwrought and extremely grating.