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–Synopsis–

Seven years ago, Maeve Abenthy lost everything: her world, her father, even her name. Desperate to escape the stain of her father’s crimes, she lives under a fake name, never staying in one place long enough to put down roots.

Then she receives a mysterious letter with four impossible words: Your father was innocent.

To uncover the truth, she poses as an apprentice for the Otherwhere Post, where she’ll be trained in the art of scriptomancy—the dangerous magic that allows couriers to enchant letters and deliver them to other worlds. But looking into her father’s past draws more attention than she’d planned.

Her secretive, infuriatingly handsome mentor knows she’s lying about her identity, and time is running out to convince him to trust her. Worse, she begins to receive threatening letters, warning her to drop her investigation—or else. For Maeve to unravel the mystery of what happened seven years ago, she may have to forfeit her life.

–Review–

*Trigger Warnings: There are parental deaths, child abuse, child bullying, talks of people who have committed suicide, murder, vomit (sometimes due to alcohol, sometimes due to fear/sickness, the romance remained clean but there were some moments that pushed that boundary a bit*

I initially decided to give this book a read when it was recommended to me based on my enjoyment of ‘Divine Rivals’ by Rebecca Ross. While this book did have similar darker tones and magic use, I struggled to get as invested in the story and characters unfortunately. The pacing was a bit all over the place depending on what plot was being focused on at the moment and the world building felt a bit lack luster for me.

That being said, the premise of the main mystery plotline kept me going and the magic system of scriptomancy was one of my favorite systems to experience so that was fun. What we did experience from the worlds and academy, I enjoyed as well. There were some heavier Hogwarts and Doctor Who vibes going on at some parts, particularly with the appearing and disappearing doors.

This book follows the sole perspective of Maeve Abenthy as she is trying to dig up the truth regarding what really happened that day the Aldervine was released. The same disaster that branded her own father a murderer, causing her to hide her identity and isolate herself from fear of backlash. I listened to the audiobook version and Barrie Kreinik did a great job with reading all the characters for sure.

The world of ‘The Otherwhere Post’ was quite fascinating to me. Barrow, Leyland and Inverly were the three main worlds in the book. They each felt quite dark and mysterious in their own ways. Couriers use scriptomancy to deliver letters in between these worlds, using magical doors since the gates were shut to protect Leyland and Barrow from the Aldervine. Couriers are the only path of communication in between the worlds now so when Maeve got that initial letter claiming her dad’s innocence, that is why she instantly tried getting into the post: The post would know who sent the letter.

The magic of scriptomancy itself was quite interesting and cool to learn about. Right off the bat, you realize how dangerous it can be for those who are not knowledgeable. People have been killed when attempting to instill magical properties into letters. The whole fact you could send a letter with a love spell on it to make the reader feel your attraction to them is crazy. Or in the example of Maeve herself, you could send a letter that shoots out tentacles of black ink to kill whoever reads your letter. It truly is dangerous artform.

Maeve Abenthy is the main character in this book. Since she was a child when the Aldervine situation happened, she was placed in an orphanage where she faced relentless bullying once her identity was leaked. It was due to her father’s infamous reputation that caused her to self-isolate the past several years. Her fear of being found out sticks with her for the majority of the book which causes some pretty suspenseful moments. Some of these moments felt very much like plot conveniences for me. After all, how can we expect somebody to fake her entire identification all willy-nilly at a famous and notoriously ‘difficult to get into’ program without really getting caught? It did not make sense to me.

When it comes to Maeve’s character, I can understand the desperation however, when she stole the paperwork and name of one of the actual students, it felt just disrespectful. Especially when you realize how difficult and expensive it was for her to have completed the class to begin with. Then when Maeve eventually makes it to the school, she is incredibly rude to her roommate right off the bat. Again, I understand her hesitancy to make friends, but at what point is pushing everyone away so strongly, more suspicious than just trying to be friendly for once? As she gets closer to her roommate and Tristan, she starts opening up more, becoming more likeable but she was definitely not my favorite character.

Tristan was the more interesting and likeable main character in my opinion. Having lost his mother to the Aldervine catastrophe, he has some heavy baggage with him as well. He suffered through yet another horrific incident with his previous protégé ended up being killed by the very magic he enjoyed so much. He swore off any more scriptomancy, which is difficult to do when the higher ups believe Tristan could play a role in fixing the mess that was caused by the Aldervine incident. Throughout the book, he is caught between a rock and a hard place as he is trying to teach Maeve scriptomancy while being wary of it hurting her as well.

Tristan was always willing to help out when needed, even saving Maeve’s very life on multiple occasions. Like Maeve, Tristan was also bullied pretty actively in the book. People blamed him for his previous apprentice’s death, but Tristan never let is affect him too much. He seemed to be a very emotionally mature individual, showing tremendous amounts of patience for others. I wish we could have gotten more of his own magic and abilities in this book.

The romance between Maeve and Tristan was one of the plots that felt off to me. I felt like Maeve’s desire to be alone was pushing out her feelings of attachment towards Tristan so it felt a bit like a whiplash when they would have these intimate moments with each other. There were also these moments in which Maeve would wake up with Tristan wearing different clothes then she went to sleep in which was a little weird to me. As a slow-paced romance, I felt like it took too long to take off but too fast once it started, if that makes sense.

The dark academia genre was another plot that I feel was a bit overlooked. While Maeve was actually paying some attention to what she was learning, I was enjoying the immersion a lot. Again, giving me some ‘Harry Potter’ vibes a bit. Unfortunately, these scenes felt like they were pushing the mystery plot line out of the way, causing me to sometimes forget the real reason she was there to begin with. I found myself losing the plot myself while reading.

All in all, if you enjoy a good darker academia book with some slow-paced romance, dangerous magics and conspiracies hidden behind closed doors, this may be a book for you!

-About the Author-

Emily J. Taylor is the New York Times and indie bestselling author of Hotel Magnifique. Born and raised in California, she’s lived in four states and two continents, all of which have conveniently given her an endless amount of story fodder. She currently works as a creative director in Minneapolis, where she spends the long winters dreaming up glittering worlds to spin into dark tales.