John Harvey is the author of three novels. Blue Spell was published in 2021 and is the second book in his Cirrus Chronicles series. It is the 12th book I completed reading in 2025.

Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to scenes of minor violence, I categorize this novel as PG.

This novel picks up the story shortly after the first novel, Broken Sky, ends. The cast of characters remains essentially the same, with the story built around Jack Scatter and his friends. The villain of the plot remains the wealthy Pieter Reynard.

A plot by Reynard has already simultaneously destroyed most of the portal crystals on Earth and Cirrus. This has left both without phone or internet connectivity and with limited transportation. Reynard is about to capitalize on this with a supply of new crystals. He will be the hero of the day and grow his wealth and power. He will also be able to secretly tap into any portal-based communication.

Jack Scatter and his friends are all that stand in the way of Reynard’s success, and he is willing to go to any length to succeed. To more easily make use of the portals, Jack has a ‘wand’ along with ‘spells’ to invoke portal capabilities. He shares these with his friends as they confront Reynard.

I enjoyed the 8 hours reading this 340-page young adult science fiction novel. I have had the opportunity to read one other of Mr. Harvey’s novels, Broken Sky. I have enjoyed them both, though I think the first novel was better. I like the chosen cover art, but I do not understand why there is a cityscape in the foreground. I give this novel a rating of 3.7 (rounded to 4) out of 5.

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