The Language Of Spells

by Sarah Painter

[Leah]

When Sarah Painter emailed me to ask if I was interested in reviewing her debut novel The Language of Spells, I took one look at the pretty cover, read the synopsis and knew it was the book for me! I’m not a massive fan of witchcraft in general, but if it’s done well I can totally get on board with it and it’s something I enjoy reading about. As long as it’s not too in depth, I’m good! So I was so pleased to receive Sarah’s novel to read as I loved the sound of The Language of Spells. It sounded brilliant, especially as I loved Gwen’s aspect of magic which is ‘finding’, she can find things. That’s AWESOME! Obviously it’s a bit of both – a gift and a curse, but I was interested in why Gwen had suppressed her skill for so long, what it was that turned her away from the magical life.

As soon as I started The Language of Spells, I was hooked! I loved Gwen, I loved Pendleford (well, most of it – the nosy neighbours who walked into Gwen’s house without knocking set me on edge because that would personally drive me NUTS, so nuts that I would never unlock my door, ever!), and I loved Gwen’s house! But most of all I really loved Cameron Laing. I felt he blew hot and cold a bit, but I loved him so much! He sounded like a bit of a bad boy and I quite like a bad boy every now and again. The way he and Gwen connected was amazing, I loved their chemistry, even after so many years apart, it was as if they’d never been apart, to be fair. Despite the fact we never see them as their teenage selves, it’s as if they just fit back in to how their life was before it all went pear-shaped; you could easily imagine the passion and love they had for each other when they were younger.

The novel isn’t just about Gwen, though, there’s a secondary part about Gwen’s niece Katie which I found fascinating and absorbing. It was especially great as Katie’s mum, Ruby, wasn’t interested in the slightest in letting Katie know about the Harper family secret, so it was nice of Gwen to be real with Katie, to let her in on the secret and teach her a few bits and bobs. I also really enjoyed Iris’s diaries, I actually wished we had had more of them because I could easily have read an entire novel worth of Iris’s diaries as they were so fascinating! I reckon if Sarah Painter ever wanted to release that, all the readers of The Language of Spells would be interested because Iris was a massive character and her insights were fascinating and I certainly wanted to know more!

I thoroughly enjoyed The Language of Spells, it was full of fabulous characters, it had a really interesting plot and it was so well written! I can’t actually believe this is Sarah Painter’s debut novel as it was really well written, I enjoyed her writing immensely and will definitely be looking for future books! Here’s hoping there’s one in the pipeline already! This is a little gem of a book, and every time I had to put it down I was sad because I just wanted to continue reading and get it finished because it was that enjoyable! The Language of Spells is a really great novel so do pick it up, it’s well worth your time!