(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Most people would do anything to get into the Magisterium and pass the Iron Trial.
Not Callum Hunt.
Call has been told his whole life that he should never trust a magician. And so he tries his best to do his worst – but fails at failing.
Now he must enter the Magisterium.
It's a place that's both sensational and sinister. And Call realizes it has dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future.
The Iron Trial is just the beginning. Call’s biggest test is still to come...

I may be one of the only people left on Planet Earth who hasn't read Harry Potter...

So when I saw all the reviews about this book being a dead-set ripoff of HP, it didn't really worry me as I wouldn't know the major plot points anyway...

Sadly, though, the book just wasn't as great as I hoped it to be. By the time I got to the end, it felt like I had read a primer for a series, not the first book...

What went wrong? For me, I just really didn't believe it, or get immersed in it, like I would for a good fantasy novel. There was so much time dedicated to character-building (that was rather flat and dull - so much so that the secondary characters were hardly memorable) and the first-person story-telling from Callum (or Call as he is referred to at times - which makes for a confusing time...who is he supposed to call? What??) is spent talking about himself.
The friendships he makes with Aaron and Tamara seem to happen with little or no reason why. "Insta-friendships" all round...
The other thing that got me annoyed was the info-dumps at various times. Worst of all, I think the concept of "Show, don't tell" was ignored completely by these two accomplished authors.

I just expected better...


Paul
ARH

I liked this, I didn’t love it. I wont be reading the rest of the series

*I never got around to reading and reviewing this book. I may do so in the future*