Magician First Class

by Kate Healey, Karen Healey

Bev looked at me. “Charlie? You in some sort of trouble?”

I laughed.

I couldn’t help it. I was in so many sorts of trouble that the question seemed ridiculous. For a moment, I thought about laying it all out for her. Bev Thornton had solved problems like this for decades before I was born. She could probably take care of a mauvais wizard without disturbing her stiff grey curls, stopping halfway through for a cigarette break.

What would she do if I said, "Well, Bev, I got this job under false pretenses, swore a binding oath to our boss, discovered a human supremacist group is creating a monstrosity in the lot next door, got accidentally entangled with a part-incubus who can’t control his powers, and barely survived a run-in with an Eighth Class wizard who has a master he’s scared of. I don’t know—would you say that’s some sort of trouble?"

I slapped my hands over my mouth, as if I could cram the laughter back in.

Thirteenth Avenue, New York's newest neighborhood, is a special place. When the Cataclysm brought magic roaring back to the world in the late 1960s, one of the more benign results was this strip of land heaving out of the Hudson River. Real estate developers rushed in where fully armed Hunter squads feared to tread, and now, in the post-Faerie Accords era, the magical and mundane inhabitants of Thirteenth Avenue live, work, and play there in perfect harmony.

More or less. I mean, it's still New York.

Charlie Cross, recent history graduate and not-very-good-magician, isn't sure about applying for a job at the Thirteenth Avenue Community Recreation Center. After all, non-profits are notoriously unstable. But there's a recession on, and if she doesn't find something soon she'll have to stay with her mom in the suburbs.

One ill-advised promise to a fae later, and Charlie's in, wrangling the booking calendar around a werewolf's 8th birthday party, taking sign-ups for a succubus's burlesque classes, and flirting with the adorable half-demon mechanic down the block.

But amid the usual chaos of balancing budgets, juggling community needs, and pleasing demanding benefactors, more sinister forces are at work. Not everyone is happy about the peaceful coexistence of the magical and the mundane, and they threaten Charlie, her new friends, and Thirteenth Avenue itself.

Charlie, inexperienced and underpowered as she is, might just be the key to preventing disaster. But she definitely can't do it alone.

Genres: Urban Fantasy

305 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 3, 2026

Reviews

[A.J. Lancaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s such a delightful experience to read something that is simply everything I want from a book.

Loveable down-on-her-luck main character? Check. Focus on public services and the value of community centres? Magic integrated into the mundane in thoughtful and delightful ways? Rallying cry for local activism and diversity in spades? Hot love interests? Check, check, check, and check.

In this fictional version of New York, supernaturals and magic came back to the world 60 years ago. Enter Charlie, a history grad and the weakest possible kind of magician who starts a new job at the community centre in a supernatural-dominated area of the city. The local community park is supposed to open soon, but there are dark forces working behind the scenes who want to keep the community firmly humans-only.

Kate Healey writes characters I want to hang out with in worlds I wish I could visit. This book is both full of righteous anger at injustice and heartwarming found family.

The pacing had me in an absolute chokehold from start to finish. The plot ends in a satisfying way, with plenty of intriguing mysteries set up for the series. I would read another ten further adventures about Charlie and the Rec Center staff.

Fun, cozy, clever urban fantasy. Highly recommended.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Kate Healey and think this new series holds real promise, but it felt like a massive amount of page time in this one was spent on world building. It's an interesting and intricate world, but spending so much time on it came at the expense of the plot, which felt rushed.

[Katie King · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great start to a new series! I can’t wait for more!

[Jess Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very promising start to a new series, promising urban fantasy with a focus on community. The main character, Charlie, is for the most part an excellent character to introduce us to this world, smart, brave (in a “this needs to be done so I will do it” sort of way), academic and astute. The book follows her getting a new job as an admin at a community centre, quickly meeting a new cast of characters, and falling into plot-forming trouble.

This book is clearly doing some heavy lifting in terms of world-building and setting up characters, relationships and the setting for future books. The plot finishes nicely but there are plenty of tantalising “I wonder where that’s going?” threads left to explore. I particularly enjoyed the characters - people of various kinds who were sensible and real. It’s a fairly quick read, so I hold out hope that future instalments will follow soon. I’m intrigued!

My main issue was with the pacing. Everything happens very quickly, and honestly I thought we could have used a little more time settling Charlie into her new job and us into the exploration of what makes this community special before things picked up speed. It was the community aspect which made me pick up the book, and the framework was there but it could have gone deeper. I also love found-family dynamics - or at least “this competent band of misfits genuinely like each other and work well together” and I’m not sure the timeline was enough for us to feel rewarded by this.

There is also a love interest, and this part of the plot felt the weakest to me - but I do often bounce off romance novels (with Kate Healey’s other books generally an exception!). I didn’t quite understand how Charlie, who seems to have a healthy dosing of common sense and professional, had time and energy during her first days on a new job to fall into a romance. Noticing someone? Sure. She’s young! He’s hot! But I wish we’d had a friendship develop first and allowed the flirting to pick up in later books. That said, it probably is a familiar trope in urban fantasy, and other readers may enjoy it more.

I’ll definitely pick up future books in this series - I think my issues are probably just having to get the series started, and I’m intrigued to see how the promise of good people doing good things for their community works in the urban fantasy setting.

[Nota Beanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this feels like playing a ttrpg session with your cleverest, kindest, most creative and community-minded friends. Maybe it's because the author acknowledges that that's how she first developed this setting, but the fact that you can feel the sense of play and collectivity sparking (ha) through the text is magical (ha-ha). The characters are unexpected and delightfully different from eachother, but all very human (even though they are, importantly, mostly not), and the world feels both comfortably lived-in and pleasantly surprising. If you have ever fantasized about saving the local rec center by heroically using archival database search strings and assembling a found family of supernatural hotties, this book is for you. For me, I'd like to join the author's next ttrpg session but- I'll settle for a sequel to this instead.

[Alison Middelkoop · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to know what it might be like living in a world where all manner of magical and other beings (magicians, demons, vampires, ghosts, fae and more) coexist openly with humans, this could be the book for you. The parallels with today’s society are plain; from friendship and love to bigotry, and political manoeuvring. However, the addition of magical powers adds another layer so that the storyline of “new employee has to prevent disaster” takes you through many thoroughly enjoyable twists and turns.
I'm glad this is Sparks and Recreation Book 1 as I am looking forward to see what happens in future books in this series.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is best described as joyful -- funny and heartfelt, suspenseful yet lighthearted, with lovable characters and a wonderfully unique premise: the practical day-to-day struggles and joys of working in a busy city community center that's determined to serve everyone, even the vampires and demons.

My first time through, I kept checking how far along I was, hoping there was still plenty of book of book to go. I've already read it again, and it was just as fun and warm and playful and clever the second time.

[Mindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please Kate may I have some more!

This book ticked all the boxes for me. Interesting characters, great villains, tricky plot twists, and leaving me wanting more books in this series. Absolutely cracking read and now I know I need to find time to read when I won’t be interrupted by things like needing food and paid work so I can buy more books.

[Jim McIntyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had an absolute blast with this book! I truly could not put it down! The world building is spectacular, the characters are incredibly loveable, plus there’s romance, and a story about community coming together.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received my copy early via the Kickstarter.

I do love a good commitment to the concept of knowledge-is-power, and I'm excited to see what comes next with this particular magical system and fabulous community crew.

[Karen Keyte · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so much fun! Great writing, a wonderful, determined protagonist you’ll root for and a whole host of interesting characters in a fast moving and action filled plot. I absolutely loved it and cannot wait for the next book in the series.

[Erin Ryder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Parks and Recreation vibes, but in a magical world? Hell yes. Another cracker from Kate Healey. Her books are always such easy, fun reads, and this one is no exception.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this one in a day. And, of course, I now want the next in the series....