Alison Levy

The characters and their relationships didn’t quite land for me. This might have been in part due to awkward pacing and frequent point-of-view changes.
It was sort of unfortunate since that really defines the novel. Georgette’s story is one of escaping an abusive family and Ishak’s is trying to reunite with his family. Along the way, all the main characters’ journeys involve finding comfort, trust, healing, etc. in found family and, in Georgette’s case, romance in Georgette’s case. While I understood the aim there, the character dynamics fell a little flat and didn’t always feel natural.
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Magic by Any Other Name is subtitled 'The Witch's Odyssey, Book One', but this is one of those multiple-points of view books. Ivy Nichols O'Reilly is the witch, attempting to escape her domineering, abusive mother, Hazel Nichols O'Reilly, head of the Nichols witches since the death of Ivy's grandmother, Rose Nichols.

In the prologue, Ivy has located Claudia, who was Olive Nichols, Rose's middle daughter, before her escape 30 years ago. Ivy learns from her aunt what she needs to do to keep from being caught. For one thing, Ivy must change her name.

Ivy does not have a familiar as other adult witches do. We're not talking about cats or toads. This Earth's witches enslave other magical beings by branding them. The brand allows them to siphon off a familiar's power as well as control that being. Ivy's family thinks that Mei-Xing, a Chinese nymph whom Ivy rescued from her abusive husband, is Ivy's familiar. No, the brand Ivy gave Mei-Xing and herself allows them to share each other's power.

The hand on the left of the cover belongs to a were-hyena named Ishak. Ishak is one of the familiars of a nasty witch named Kivuli Panon. Kivuli captured Ishak and his beloved wife, Kalilah, also a were-hyena. Ishak has not seen his wife and is desperate to find her -- desperate enough to ask the first witch he meets (Ivy) for help. He, too, will come to accept Ivy's power-sharing brand.

There are other characters whose viewpoints we get. The prologue is from Claudia's. A linked pair are Delia the Valkyrie and her companion, Senji. Neil Maccana is a salesman. Nicolás 'Nico' Garcia, Neil's roommate, is studying to be both a psychologist and a cuandaro. Kazimiera is a vampire. Gary Cooke is a trafficker in familiars. Most of these want something from Georgette.… (más)

Magic by Any Other Name follows Georgette as she runs away from her toxic magical family with her friend, a wood nymph named Mei-Xing. Their journey does not go as planned, however, as they become friends with the locals and realize that they can use their magic for good.

At the start of the book, I was not thinking this would be a book I liked. It started slowly and focused heavily on the different classes of the magical creatures. While I enjoyed the ethnic diversity of the characters, I wish it existed beyond characters in the lower "slave" classes, especially in a setting like California.

As I got farther into the book, I started to enjoy it more. Georgette was becoming her own person, aside from who her mother wanted her to be, and she gained a significant amount of confidence in her magical abilities. She also realized that her life was worth living, and that there are people who will come together with you and join you in your chaotic life.

I also liked how all of the characters went against what was typically done within the magical community, at the risk of waging a war and losing their lives, to bring a greater good to the community and the world around them. They were able to escape their abusive situations previously and turn around to help others escape as well.

My biggest issue with the book was how the diverse characters were integrated into the plot. While some of the characters were well developed, this book would have been much better had the diversity existed in all elements of the book and characters, not just the lower class of characters.

I received this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.… (más)

While this is a good book, there is not as much emphasis on abuse as suggested in the book blurb. The book does hint and touch on some aspects of generational abuse and perhaps it will be more a part of the future books in the series.

On to the book itself. The characters are great and well-developed. I was immediately interested in all of them. A witch, a wood nymph, a were-hyena, and a Valkyrie. The interactions between them are interesting and explained believably. The storyline moves swiftly and I did not lose interest in it at all. I look forward to the next installment of the series.… (más)