Review: Ordinary Magic by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway

March 13, 2012

Ordinary Magic by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway

Abby’s judging on her twelfth birthday did not go well. In fact, it didn’t even start.

In the world where Abby lives, everyone is magical. Having magical abilities is a given, it’s just a matter of finding out how strong your talents are on judging day and then going off to the right school to be trained properly. Unless you are unlucky enough to be an “ord.” Ords have no magic, not an ounce.

Abby is an ord.

What happens to her now? Before her big sister and the current king, she would face a life of discrimination and servitude. The laws the king recently enacted and the school he just built to teach her and others like her how to function without magic makes a future possible. But she still must battle prejudice among the population, and danger at every turn from magical beings and people who want to use her for their own gain.

Ms. Rubino-Bradway’s world building is sumptuous. Details on the how, the why and the where are masterfully spun. The story has depth without being heavy and I enjoyed the ups and downs Abby faced as she spent her first year at school, away from her very loving family.

The biggest complaint, and it’s not a minor issue, is the obvious need for a thorough copy-editing on this galley. Minor typos can be forgiven, and do slip through in many manuscripts, but this text was literally littered with misplaced words, missing words, added words and other technical bugs that pushed the reader out of the story like a boomerang. Hopefully, given the release date of May, much of this will be resolved when the book hits bookstore shelves. If it isn’t, I wouldn’t recommend spending limit entertainment dollars on this one. Which would be a shame since the author penned a masterful tale.

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Note: I received an ARC of this book for review from NetGalley.