The Spoken Mage: Complete Series

2.5 stars.

I actually enjoyed this one a good bit. And will read the second.

This story centers around a teenager named Elena who is a common-born in a society where only those from mage-born families ever learn to read and write. The reason for this? The ability to write is tied to the ability to compose magical workers and only those from the high-born mage families are able to control this power and not blow up full cities by accident.

Despite being common born Elena is found to have power and power that is spoken nonetheless. This kind of power has never been seen before and there is a large political debate among the high born families wether it is safe or not for her to exist. Meanwhile Elena is also taken to the Mage Academy to study control of her power, where she makes friends and enemies. And of course as most young adult fantasy books do this story also has a romance with a boy that initially dislikes her, in this case the Prince of their society who is also attending the academy this year.

The book has some cliche things about it like the typical “we hate each other but somehow can't get enough of each other” type romance, though it is really light on the romance aspect until the end of the book. The main character is somehow special, completely different then and more powerful (with only a little training) than everyone else trope.

The plot in general is not particularly deep and didn't surprise me anywhere but I went into this expecting a light, enjoyable YA and that is what I got, so I really can't complain.