Book 1 in the Weatherstone College series
Reviewed by CJ | Rating: 4.5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 📖
⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read Spellcaster yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.
OPENING HOOK
I went into this expecting a fun magic school story and came out loving the Weatherstone world. Late bloomer heroine, broody warlock with a murdered mother he’s supposed to avenge, and a family history messy enough to fuel more books. I moved through this one in a day and a half and immediately needed book two.
THE FULL STORY — SPOILERS INCLUDED
So, Paisley Hallistar is the family’s magical dud. Or that’s what she thinks, anyway. She’s late to bloom into her powers, and all four of her siblings already have their affinities locked in, so she basically scrapes through admissions into Weatherstone College on legacy alone. Meanwhile her whole magical family, past and present, is magical, so the pressure to prove she belongs is impressed upon us from page one.
Then Logan Kingston shows up as a transfer.
His family and Paisley’s family have history. Not as rivals, but as former best friends turned enemies after something magical happened that killed Logan’s mom. His dad Rafael never recovered from it, and he did not just get bitter about it, he sealed an actual blood oath to take down Paisley’s entire family. That’s not just a grudge, that’s a promise. So when Paisley’s family finds out Logan is transferring into Weatherstone, they try to pull her straight back out of school. She begs to stay because she wants her shot at unlocking her power, and they finally tell her the whole ugly history, Rafael’s oath included, so she can be better prepared to stay safe. It’s easy to see why they were nervous, because safety wards surrounding the school or not, she’s right there close to Logan. Accessible.
Logan, however, is doing the hot-and-cold thing that’s slowly driving Paisley crazy. He saves her life, then goes cold and distant like he wished he hadn’t. He clearly knows more than he’s saying, and there’s this history between them that goes back further than she seems to fully understand. They were childhood best friends before the tragedy tore their families apart, back when he was six and she was four. So he’s using that connection to be an ass and hurt her, sort of, except it’s tangled up with something else entirely and you can tell that we aren’t seeing the full picture yet because Paisley starts having these dream-like memory flashes of a golden-skinned little boy who helped her when she fell in the park as a kid, mixed in with sex dreams of a faceless warlock who has Logan’s eyes. All of this plays out in a way that makes it very clear thatthere is more going on between them than “enemy family’s kid,” and for a big chunk of the book I really could not tell what.
While all this personal drama is unfolding, these monsters from another world start showing up trying to kill people without warning. They shouldn’t be able to break through Weatherstone’s wards, but they do and the incidents keep escalating with stuff going down at the lake, in the graveyard, throughout the halls of the school itself… everywhere. Paisley’s own powers start showing up too, unpredictable and growing, and it’s unclear for a long stretch whether someone’s targeting her specifically or if this is bigger than her because in the middle of all this, there’s a conspiracy moving to get Paisley’s dad pushed out of the faculty.
This brings us to a horrifying revelation: Paisley is the one calling the monsters. Not being hunted by them. She is summoning them, and I didn’t see that one coming because I was still busy side-eyeing Logan. As we close on book one, her mom shows up to take her home, and Logan tells her flat out that she’s his. He will give Beth (Paisley’s mom) one month, and then he’s coming to claim her.
And that’s book one. We don’t know if that’s a threat or a promise, or what the hell that means. Obviously we can speculate (and I did), but that’s where book one leaves us.
BEST PART OF THIS BOOK
Watching Paisley start to trust herself. She spends the whole book convinced she’s the dud of the family, the one who barely got in, and slowly realizing she’s not just magical, she might be one of the most powerful people in the building. That arc from “I don’t belong here” to actually believing in her own power was thoroughly enjoyable.
WORST PART OF THIS BOOK
The flip side of that same coin is that she’s powerful, but nobody’s actually teaching her how to use it, and that gap turns dangerous fast. It’s not a flaw in the writing at all, it just hurts to watch her figure out something this dangerous with zero guidance.
THE TWIST WE DIDN’T SEE COMING
Paisley calling the monsters herself. I was sure someone was sending them after her, and I spent a long time suspicious of Logan for obvious reasons.
THE CHARACTER WE LOVED TO HATE
Rafael, obviously. Blood oath against a whole family because he never processed his grief in a healthy way? He can go suck a bag of dicks.
THE STEAM RATING BREAKDOWN
🔥🔥🔥🔥 spicy. The romance is central to the plot, tangled up in the whole family history and the mystery of what Logan actually is to her. Yes, there’s on-page steam.
THE ENDING — SATISFIED OR DISAPPOINTED?
Satisfied, but in the “I need book two immediately” way. Logan telling her she’s his and giving her one month before he comes to claim her is exactly the kind of cliffhanger that works, and lucky for me, I already finished book two, so that review’s coming up next.
WOULD WE REREAD IT?
Yes. I’ll definitely reread it one day. This is a world I want to spend more time in, and I’m so glad I do because there’s a Shadow Beast Shifter – Spellcaster crossover novella coming out next year with Logan and Shadow (can you hear my excited screeching from where you are?). I am counting down the days. Literally, because the release day is set for my birthday.
WHO IS THIS FOR
This is for readers who want their academic setting paired with magic, plus characters who work hard at supporting and loving each other as they build a bit of a misfit family of their own.
WHERE TO GET THIS BOOK
📖 Physical Book
Amazon | Bookshop.org
🎧 Audiobook
Audible | Libro.fm
📱 Ebook
Amazon Kindle | Bookshop.org
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📚 More from the Weatherstone College series
Book 1 — Spellcaster | Reviewed by CJ | ⭐ 4.5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 — (this review)
Book 2 — Night Witch | Reviewed by CJ | ⭐ 4.5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 — [Read the Review]
Ready for more reviews from CJ? Find More Here
Plot Twisted. 🔥 📖 | Series: Weatherstone College Book 1 | Genre: Fantasy Romance | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥