Editorial Review: Lady Apprentice by Toni Cabell

Editorial Review: Lady Apprentice by Toni Cabell

Linden is a seemingly ordinary mage in training but when war breaks out and her destiny is revealed, she needs to get a handle on her magic if she’s going to save anyone at all.

When one magical disaster after another seems to plague Linden’s life thanks to the strange things that she sees (strange things like floating fay and glowing hieroglyphs) she is worried that she’s going mad. Being the daughter of powerful people – both magically and politically – is hard enough in her comfortable hometown. Especially when she keeps having magical disasters. Her whole life feels like it’s ruined when she’s sent to the headmaster after one particularly bad magical mishap, but instead, her life is irrevocably changed when raiders enter her school and she’s forced to use her magic to save herself and a young student she knows.

In a matter of weeks, her comfortable life has changed entirely, she’s been transplanted to the capital and is living the strangely formal life laid out for her there. On the one hand, she misses her family, but on the other, her best friend is there, she’s finally coming to grips with her power thanks to her grandmother, and her brother’s friend Stryker is pretty easy on the eyes.

Despite her birthday celebration, fancy dresses, and handsome Royal Marines fighting over her, bigger problems come to a head when war breaks out for real and her brother and Stryker are deployed on the frontlines and expected to fight.

Lady Apprentice follows two different but equally impactful themes: duty, and destiny. With Linden’s duty to her friends, her destiny dictating her actions, and her deep-seated need to fulfill both mirrored in the loyalty and passion of her friends, Toni Cabell does a wonderful job of showing this coherence. Cabell showcases capable and even extraordinary characters while never losing who they are at their core.

The adventure of these characters is thrilling, yes, but it is also jarring in the sense that they are so relatable. The characters have been thrown into a situation just outside of their abilities, and the reader feels this sense of danger innately.

Young Adult Fantasy has long dealt with ideas of honor, destiny, and love but Lady Apprentice brings a whole world of lore and history to life with ease. Surprising subplots and well-written characters make for a lovable cast and enjoyable reading experience.

Lady Apprentice is a fun, fast-paced adventure that plunges the reader into a world filled with magic, history, and destiny.