Audiobook Review – Spellbreaker (Spellbreaker, Book 1) by Charlie N. Holmberg, Narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden, Joel Froomkin (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 9 hours and 47 minutes
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Release Date: November 01, 2020
ASIN : B087XTX618
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Spellbreaker duology
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

“The orphaned Elsie Camden learned as a girl that there were two kinds of wizards in the world: those who pay for the power to cast spells and those, like her, born with the ability to break them. But as an unlicensed magic user, her gift is a crime. Commissioned by an underground group known as the Cowls, Elsie uses her spellbreaking to push back against the aristocrats and help the common man. She always did love the tale of Robin Hood.

Elite magic user Bacchus Kelsey is one elusive spell away from his mastership when he catches Elsie breaking an enchantment. To protect her secret, Elsie strikes a bargain. She’ll help Bacchus fix unruly spells around his estate if he doesn’t turn her in. Working together, Elsie’s trust in—and fondness for—the handsome stranger grows. So does her trepidation about the rise in the murders of wizards and the theft of the spellbooks their bodies leave behind.

For a rogue spellbreaker like Elsie, there’s so much to learn about her powers, her family, the intriguing Bacchus, and the untold dangers shadowing every step of a journey she’s destined to complete. But will she uncover the mystery before it’s too late to save everything she loves?”

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Spellbreaker duology. I got the audiobook of this from Audible.

Audiobook Quality (3/5): I listened to this on audiobook and there are two narrators. The female narrator did awesome, the male narrator came off as very jarring and almost shrill sounding and did an awful job with character voices. I would definitely skip the audiobook and just read in paper/ebook format.

Story (3/5): This was okay. It sounded like something I would absolutely love, unfortunately it came off as a bit shallow and thin to me. The story focuses on Elsie who is an unregistered spellbreaker. She is using her powers to do some clandestine work for a mysterious agency that is helping the downtrodden. When she gets caught in an illegal act, she finds herself blackmailed into using her powers to help the intriguing Bacchus. The plot is fairly simple and the whole thing just felt like it could have more depth. It was okay but just not wonderful.

Characters (3/5): Elsie is a young woman trying to balance some huge secrets while doing multiple jobs and trying to make a living. She was okay but felt kind of shallow. The same is true with Bacchus, he just felt like he was missing some depth. They were all okay but I didn’t really engage with them. The slow developing romance between the too felt very stiff as well. The side characters weren’t that well done and felt more like placeholders.

Setting (3/5): I liked the London setting and thought the world-building around Spellmakers and Spellbreakers was intriguing. I did feel like there was quite a bit of inconsistency in the magic system and that bothered me a bit. Again, this world has an interesting premise but could have been better filled out.

Writing Style (3/5): The POV here switches between Elsie and Bacchus, although we hear a lot more from Elsie. That POV switch seemed kind of unnecessary for this book and made the story feel kind of fractured. The other thing that bothered me was the ending. I know this is a duology, but I hate when authors basically do a one sentence reveal and then immediately end the book. It makes me think the author is lazy and is trying to force his readers to read the next book rather than let readers choose to read the next book because they love the writing style and story.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was a mediocre historical fantasy with some romance and magic. The characters were so-so, the plot was fairly simple, and the world was intriguing but underdeveloped. I will not be reading the second book and kind of felt like I could take or leave this book. A part of that was definitely the awful narration of the parts from the male lead’s perspective but that definitely wasn’t the only thing that bothered me about this story.