Book Review: Academic Magic

Academic Magic by Becky Jones is a solid debut novel. I enjoyed the read, and would recommend it if you enjoy scenic campuses, academic politics, and talking squirrels. What? Why not? My alma mater has a clade of luxuriantly plump tree dwellers, so I immediately pictured one of those chonky bois as the squirrel who knocks on Zoe O'Brien's office window and politely introduces himself... 

But I don't want to give too much away! 

Here's the book's blurb, to start: 

Zoe O'Brien has found her dream job at a small liberal arts college teaching the history of Medieval witchcraft and magic. Academic life is exactly what she expected it to be...until the squirrels stop by to talk with her and her department chair and best friend turn out to be mages.

Zoe discovers a world of magic and power she never knew existed. She and other faculty mages race to stop a coven from raising a demon on the winter solstice while simultaneously grading piles of final exams and reading the tortured prose of undergraduate term papers. But first, she must learn to master her new-found powers.

Becky Jones is, of course, writing somewhat from experience. Oh, maybe not the talking animals! But with a career in academia, her portrayal of the professors, college, students, and all the enmeshment peculiar to campus life is spot-on. I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would, since my glimpse of academia was enough to make me swear off any hare-brained ideas I had of becoming a professor myself. The development of her magic system is not complete in this book, which is both good, and good. Good because it would have been a terrible info-dump to shove it all into this book. I'd have liked a little more, though... and the other good is that another book in this series is coming soon. The snippet at the end of this book intrigued me. I'm hoping that there will be more about the magic system in it! 

If you want a fun, quick urban fantasy read, tuck into Academic Magic. There are cats, just to tease you further! I had more than one giggle-aloud moment while reading this book, always a pleasant surprise.