Remedial Magic by Melissa Marr – Review

Published: February 27, 2024

Publisher: Bramble

Series: A Course in Magic #1

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Pages: 336 (Paperback)

My Rating: 2.5 Stars

A copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
The Magicians meets One Last Stop in this brand-new fantasy romance Remedial Magic, about an unassuming librarian who 1) has fallen in love with a powerful witch; 2) has discovered that she is a witch; and 3) must attend magical community college to learn how to save her new world from complete destruction by New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr!

Ellie loves working in her local library in the small town of Ligonier. She loves baking scones and investigating the mysterious and captivating in her spare time. And there is nothing more mysterious and captivating than the intriguingly beautiful, too properly dressed woman sipping tea in her library who has appeared as if out of nowhere. The pull between them is undeniable, and Ellie is not sure that she wants to resist.

Prospero, a powerful witch from the magical land of Crenshaw, is often accused of being… ruthless in her goals and ambitions. But she is driven to save her dying homeland, and a prophecy tells her that Ellie is the key. Unbeknownst to Ellie, her powers have not yet awakened. But all of that is about to change.

---

I haven’t read a Melissa Marr book in years and was delighted to see that she had written an adult fantasy romance! I used to adore the Wicked Lovely series in my teenage years and am convinced that’s where my love of all things fae originated. Remedial Magic sounded like a fun, probably somewhat ‘cozy’ book based on the synopsis though admittedly, I was a little concerned by the astoundingly low average rating on Goodreads.

Ellie Brandeau is a small town librarian and primary caretaker for her aging aunt Hestia. She’s intentionally living an uninteresting, stable life so that she doesn’t disappear – an odd fear, but made reasonable by the fact that Hestia (an interesting person) went missing many years before. Unfortunately for Ellie, her life is about to get very interesting because lo’, she goes into work and a ridiculously good looking woman shows up with tea in hand and sweeps her off her feet. Soon after, she discovers she has magic, is therefore a witch, and ends up in the magical haven of Crenshaw. Ellie has officially gone missing and now who’s going to care for her aunt Hestia, who just had hip replacement surgery? She’s determined to return to her old life, but first she has to attend the College of Remedial Magic and then she can (maybe) decide if she wants to return to her old life, but with no memory of Crenshaw or the lovely tea drinking woman from the library.

I was a little surprised, but not disappointed to find that Remedial Magic is actually a multi-POV story following not only Ellie, but several other new witches (Dan and Maggie), Prospero (the swoony tea lady), Sondre (the Headmaster at the college), and even Walter (Chief Witch). Is it terrible that I found both Maggie and Dan to be leagues more interesting than Ellie despite her incredible displays of power? They just felt more real to me. Maggie, a lawyer, is determined to get back to North Carolina to her son so she can keep him out of his shitty father’s hands even if it means seducing Sondre. Dan on the other hand is determined to stay no matter what because he was dying of cancer and also had debt collectors after him. Ellie is just stupidly swooning over this woman she just met and her thoughts mostly consist of “can I kiss her?” or “can I disappear those shirt buttons?”. 

The insta-lust between Ellie and Prospero really didn’t work for me. While the spark of their initial meeting was intriguing at first, I hoped things would slow down and allow for the formation of a more solid relationship but this never happens. I’d be more okay with this if their relationship didn’t have this icky feeling about it thanks to Prospero’s continued lies and her attempt to erase Ellie’s memories. It gives very bad vibes. I DID however like Dan and Axell. That was cute, though it remained fairly shallow. Hell, even Maggie and Sondre had better things going for them than Ellie and Prospero and those two were literally just shagging.

Overall, this book didn’t quite work for me. I don’t hate it as passionately as some folks on Goodreads do but I would definitely hesitate to recommend this and if I did, I’d have to say the synopsis is misleading. It’s not a cozy story and upon further consideration, even the worldbuilding has bad vibes. The entirety of Crenshaw’s success is based on thievery, kidnapping, erasing memories, and definitely some coercion/manipulation. Not a pretty picture at all – don’t let the pretty castle lie to you, the sulfuric stench reflects the rotten core of it.