Saved by the Spell

by Tanya Huff

Abbott Elementary, but make it magical: from the beloved Tanya Huff comes a new cozy fantasy novel perfect for fans of The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association

At the High School for Performing Magic, the teachers are dismayed at the rise of a Hero…because it means a Villain isn’t far behind

It’s September, and the teachers at the High School for Performing Magic are gearing up for another school year, and hoping it will be a quiet one. Teach students some magic, help them learn their craft, and get out in one piece.

Unfortunately, by the end of the first day, it’s become obvious that they have a potential Hero. All the signs are there. By the end of fourth period, Lyla White has stood up to a bully, turned out to be more powerful than anticipated, and acquired a smart frenemy and a nerdy, loyal roommate.

The problem? Where there’s a Hero, there’s bound to be a Villain. And when Heroes and Villains face off, it’s going to be anything but a normal school year.

Overworked and underpaid, the teachers at the High School for Performing Magic did not sign up for this, but now it’s also their jobs to keep the Hero alive, keep damage to a minimum, keep math scores up to the national level, and find the student who will turn out to be a power-hungry, amoral villain.

Will no one think of the teachers?

Funny, irreverent, and absolutely charming, this cozy fantasy is a gleeful romp through fantasy school tropes—from the other side of the desk.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Adult, Contemporary, Cozy, Cozy Fantasy, Magic

Kindle Edition

Expected publication November 3, 2026

About the author

Tanya Sue Huff is a queer Canadian fantasy author. Her stories have been published since the late 1980s, including five fantasy series and one science fiction series. One of these, her Blood Books series, featuring detective Vicki Nelson, was adapted for television under the title Blood Ties.

Reviews

[Alexandra · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

Magic shenanigans incoming!

When you roll your eyes and say “not another magic school book”, you are not usually wrong. In this case, though, you would be very wrong. This is a Tanya Huff book and you are in for a great ride.

We are in a magical high school in Ontario. Our POV character is Abby Bellman – Ms. Bellman to you, because she is one of the teachers and is not taking any nonsense from you. It’s the first day of the school year and Ms. Bellman is observing the students as they come strutting in - or sauntering in, depending on what grade they are in.

”…their search for an identity leaving them open to suggestion. Last year, they’d been open to the suggestion of running rapids in homemade canoes through the halls of the residence.”

Me, settling more comfortably into my armchair: this is going to be fun.

Imagine teens. Not Harry Potter teens. Imagine real ones that you know, aged 13 to 18. Now give them magic powers. Wait! Why are you running and screaming? Don’t worry, the magical teens in this book have awesome teachers that keep them disciplined (sort of); have them reading the Odyssey (yay); keep them safe; teach them how to control their powers; make sure that said powers don’t go to their heads so that they do not decide to take over the world (hopefully).

Dark and strange things are afoot at the school, someone is up to no good. (Of course.) Ms. Bellman, with some help from her cool students, needs to save the day and put everything right again.

My favourite chapter was about Ms. Bellman going to visit the Witch of the Wood. She had some questions. I wish there were Witches of the Wood in my reality. I wouldn’t go and visit them, obviously. But it would have been nice to know they are out there.

The magic system is very interesting, and the world building is done very well. You feel at home in this world immediately, and there are many delicious details thrown in, such as quote from a Sherlock Holmes story, with Holmes and Watson talking about magic.

I was delighted, and found something to chuckle at on nearly every page. If you think that your fun, easy-breezy books need dark themes too, this book has them. You’ll see.

You know what else is there? Teacher awesomeness! Teacher dedication! Teacher competence! Teacher power! This book is a tribute to great teachers everywhere, and I appreciate it very much.

The ending is excellent. But… are you telling me that all this awesomeness was created for one book only? What about a sequel? If I ask nicely…?

Favourite quotes:

”I see a foot!”
”Still attached to a student?”
”It’s hard to tell from here.”

”She wasn’t my first teenager barely hiding a roiling anger, but none of the rest had ever evoked the unmistakable urge to duck.”

”There’s nothing quite like the silence of twenty teenagers thinking.”

”We don’t teach the use of pocket universes in high school.”

Many thanks to the author, DAW Books and NetGalley for the free e-book!

[Ginny · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

A magical boarding school story from the teachers POV✨🧙‍♀️🔮

Another school year begins and Abby Bellman is already counting the days until it’s over. As a teacher at a magical boarding school she is prepared for the worst. Between meddling parents, protesters and hormonal teens, she has a lot to deal with.
When a Hero emerges from her new class of students, she is tasked with finding the villain before it’s too late.

We jump right into it and slowly learn more about the world as we go on. I found the magic system quite interesting. The basis is elemental magic but there are also sprites, witches and other beings. Because it’s told from Abby’s POV, I felt like a student in her class, slowly acquiring new knowledge.

It was quite entertaining to see the teenage drama from the teachers POV. I loved Abby as the main character. She is clever, quick witted with a dry sense of humor.
The banter between her and the students was enjoyable with a lot of one-liners that made me chuckle.
Minor criticism: there were too many side characters, a lot of them appeared only once but were introduced with their full name. It became hard to keep track.

This was such a fast read. The mystery part of the story had me hooked and the almost satirical tone kept me entertained. Tanya Huff takes a lot of the typical tropes (chosen one, hero/villain) and leans into it. It was very refreshing and I would love to read more in this universe!

Highly recommend it to anyone in search of a funny, magical story.

Thank you DAW and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Publication date: 03. November 2026

[Neha Thakkar · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if you were at a magical school but instead of being Harry, you were Professor Sprout? Abby teaches at a magical elite boarding school for gifted children with a certain level of powers. When a student shows more gifts than her testing showed, Abby begins to wonder if this student may be a hero. And a hero needs a villain. Can Abby defeat the villain before it wreaks havoc on homeroom? Read and find out!

[Jess (bettertobebookish) · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

Saved by the Spell reads like a clever, good-natured satire of magical school fantasy told from the teachers' side, for anyone just jaded enough by life to fully appreciate Huff's commentary.

Tanya Huff's voice is so distinct that I found myself highlighting one liner after one liner, then stopping to read them out loud to my husband. Even without context, he was laughing right along with me. The humor comes from the teenagers as much as the teachers, and both felt exactly right. Her dry, clear wit brought me the same joy T. Kingfisher's writing does and had me locked in from page one.

In a way, Saved by the Spell reminded me of Swordheart, not because of the content, but because of what it is doing with genre. Swordheart is clever and satirical, poking fun at fantasy romance conventions while still fully committing to them. Saved by the Spell does the same with magical school fantasy. It knows exactly what kind of story it is poking fun at, but it also clearly loves that story.

It plays directly into the cliches of the chosen one, the obvious villain, students more powerful than their teachers, and the constant adversity that seems to follow a Hero around. Even the reader gets let in on the joke, counting down "one day down, however many to go," as if to point out how relentlessly these things happen in magical school stories.

But Huff also turns those cliches over. The usual suspects, the villain... all of it gets another layer. I can't add much more without spoilers, but the reader will see precisely what I mean as the story unfolds.

I also really enjoyed the worldbuilding. It unfolds naturally throughout the story, but the magic still has a clear set of rules. I never felt like I was being handed pages of explanation, and I also never felt lost. Huff unleashes a surprising amount of worldbuilding for a book this size.

This is solidly adult fantasy because Abby and the teachers are at the center of the story, but I could also see it working for YA readers. It is fun, magical, and nothing too dark or inappropriate happens. It is very clean apart from some minor profanity, which is pretty standard for cozy fantasy but worth calling out for anyone who cares about that. I do think adults may get more out of the teacher commentary, though. That is where the jaded part comes in, watching Abby try to keep teenagers alive while also doing her actual job.

The story is predictable, but I think it is meant to be. It knows the shape of the magical school story it is using, and part of the fun comes from watching the adults recognize the pattern and try to manage it. The predictability felt like part of the satire rather than a failure of the plot, and there is a valid reason it seems so obvious to the reader and not the characters on the page.

This did not quite reach five stars for me, but I do not have one major criticism that explains why. I am simply not a cozy fantasy reader by nature, though I do love one every now and then. Even so, this was genuinely cozy, and I mean that entirely as a compliment. And I am so in love with Tanya Huff's writing that I will be making time in my never ending TBR stack to work through her backlist.

This is for readers who love cozy fantasy, clever commentary, strong characters, and well crafted worldbuilding, with plenty of laughs along the way. I think this will easily be a 5 star read for most cozy fantasy readers. It may not work as well for readers who want slow, deep, character driven introspection, darker stories, complex plots, or high stakes.

Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for the eARC.

[Elle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saved By The Spell is a witty retort to Hogwarts, but make it Canadian and from the point of view of the tired, seen-all-this-sh!t-before teachers. Abby Bellman is homeroom teacher to an incoming class of fourteen-year-olds at Canada's prestigious magic school that only accepts forty students every year, and after seventeen years in the job she's finally confronted by the thing every teacher least wants: a Hero in her class. Because if there's a Hero, then there's always a Villain close by... not to mention all the extra paperwork and bureaucracy required.

It's been a hot minute since I last read Tanya Huff. I was a big fan of her Blood and Smoke series', back in the late 90s and early 2000s. And then hadn't heard from her until this popped up on NetGalley. Although still paranormal fantasy, I wasn't sure how a comedy would go since I've never read that from her before. But I'm very glad I took the chance. This was a breath of fresh air. Maybe I've been reading too much serious fantasy lately, or maybe just too much YA or NA over-dramatics and soap-opera-romances. But this was exactly what I needed to clear my palette. I stayed up til 3am just so I could finish reading in one day.

This was a very fun read. I sped through it, could not put it down. It felt like barely any time at all had passed before I was at the 50% mark, and it didn't feel like I was that far into the story. The pacing is great and the structure is tight but not the standard beats/timing you might expect -- this is a Rise-Of-The-Hero story through the eyes of the Mentor, so the usual story beats don't quite apply. Abby and Bex were fantastic characters with depth and realistic reactions, surrounded by so many entertaining side characters. I can't speak about the accuracy of the Canadian or French-Canadian aspects of the novel, but the teenager speech and behaviour felt very accurate to my own teenage relatives and their friends. And the teaching aspects felt far too familiar to this former-teacher from a family of teachers. (I think I'm having flashbacks, send help 😹 ) If I had one complaint, it's that I could have used a 'cast of characters' appendix, or forward, to keep track of all the students and teachers, and not confuse the two (sometimes if only a first name was mentioned I wasn't sure if it was a student or teacher approaching Abby until further into their interaction).

Let's address the marketing. Once again someone slapped the "cozy fantasy" label on something that is decidedly not "cozy". It's not high or epic fantasy, sure, but peoples' lives are in danger from chapter one onwards. There's literally a Villain attacking high school kids (and sometimes teachers and other adults) for the entire book, there are some serious injuries, and at least one major life-or-death looong multi-chapter sequence of events. The novel is funny, thanks to the black comedy tone. But by no means "cozy". Someone please ban marketing teams from using this term, since it's clear they can't use it correctly. (There's also a name error in the blurb -- there is no character in the novel called Lyla White, the Hero I just read about was named Bex.)

This novel does have some of the author's favourite tropes that appear across their works, which are not always my favourite tropes (such as large age gaps between the protagonist and at least one of their crushes / love interests). The author has a thing for older guys, I get it, I'm not sure why every protag of hers needs to share that. Abby thankfully has at least one love interest / ex that is her own age, and not a silver-haired white guy, so small bonus. Hopefully that character--or a new, not-significantly-older one--is the featured love interest if this series continues, especially considering one of the older-guys is (mid-to-end-book spoiler) enforcing a variety of mind-control on everyone at the school to ignore that character's inhuman slip-ups, to wipe certain memories, and to make everyone trust that character completely. That's a bit too much for me to want any kind of relationship developing there.

Overall, I highly recommend this novel. It's fun and entertaining, it's a fast read, and there's some very witty deconstruction of 'magic boarding school' tropes. I would absolutely devour more in this series, if it is intended to be a series. (Fingers crossed.)


Rating: 5 stars -- Canadian-Hogwarts from the teachers' point of view, full of dry wit, sarcasm, and the under-appreciated unsung heroes trying to keep all their students alive in the chaos a Hero brings.

[Alissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you DAW for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This book was both fun and entertaining and absolutely infuriating.

The writer’s style is good, we get inside the main character's head quickly and she is funny and relatable. I've never read a book from the premise of the teachers at a magical academy, and loved this idea. It was amusing to think that there could be a simultaneous book going on from the perspective of the kids, an epic tale full of teenage angst and drama, which we were getting the “ugh, not this shit again” alternate perspective from the beleaguered staff. The few characters who were fleshed out were fun to get to know. The here-but-with-magic world is interestingly imagined, if a little bit unexplained.

Rant incoming:
But, the infuriating part was the sheer number of characters introduced, many only once, and most with very little description, even if they were recurring. We got to know the personalities of a handful of kids and students, but there were so many introduced that it became a chore to keep track of who was who, who was important, who wasn’t important. Did we really need a name for a kid who bumped into someone in the hall and that was his entire inclusion in the story? Did we need to introduce three new students by name in the final chapters? I have never read a book with this many named characters. There were 29 characters introduced in chapter 1 alone, and 76 in total (unless I missed a few in the running list I had to keep to stay sane). And, due to some spelling errors and misnaming errors, it was even harder to keep track. We rarely learned much about the characters, there were hardly any physical descriptions, the only thing we learned about the main character was that she had short hair. This book should have halved the number of named teachers and cut the named students even more.

There were so many things in this book I did like, but the need to either decide to not care who was speaking or doing things because of the issues with character tracking, or to make a list and refer to it every few pages really ruined what would have otherwise been a four star read.

[rebeccareads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saved by the Spell is a fun, easy-to-devour take on magical academies from the perspective of an adult teacher.

I enjoyed learning about how magical education works in this world, and was entertained by the initial mystery to uncover the Villain. But once it becomes clear who it is - which happens earlier than it should; the character is always around for thin reasons and says things that feel out of place, so it’s obvious long before the actual reveal - I did lose some interest. I’d have liked a bit more investment in the mystery; there just isn’t enough engaging character work for the story to hold up otherwise. We never really learn much about MC Abigail beyond basic biographical details and the fact that she’s overworked. She mostly just runs around after the Hero student, Bex, but Bex hews too close to the standard Chosen One to be interesting. She swears a lot, but that’s about her only differentiator, which would have been entirely fine had the marketing not specifically promised to go *against* that trope.

I did appreciate the fast pace and entertaining world of magical education, and I loved the fact that Abigail doesn’t have a workplace romance of some sort shoehorned in. To me, it feels like more of a beach read, and if you go in with that mindset you likely won’t mind my quibbles. It’ll be a fun read for fans of lighthearted magical workplace fantasies!

[Ann]

Abbott Elementary, but make it magical? This sounds delightful.

[Aiyesha]

** THE VERSION OF THIS BOOK THAT I READ WAS AN ARC **

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s the first day of classes at the High School for Magical Arts where Abby Bellman teaches, and she is just hoping to keep up with the newest slang words and prevent anyone from lighting the school on fire. What she is not expecting is for one of her new students to show signs of becoming a Hero on day 2. Who has time to monitor the Hero and keep an eye out for potential Villains when you need to lesson plan and grade papers?

I must be honest and say it took me a bit to get into this one. We are dropped into the teacher’s lounge with Abby from page one as she takes stock of everyone around her, and while Abby is highly entertaining, it felt like I was reading the second book in a series and was quickly getting caught back up rather than meeting all the teachers and students for the first time. I even checked to see if there was another book related to this one so I could get more of a background, but once I had acclimated to the author’s rhythm, I was able to settle in and enjoy the story.

Why has it never occurred to me to wonder about the POV of the teachers at a magical school? This was such a fun idea and premise, and once I got into it, I was completely hooked. Abby is relatable in her frustrations with school politics and overprotective mothers. Her interactions with her students were hilarious, and you could tell she enjoys her job even when it’s far from easy. The students were believable teenagers, you had the know it all’s, the rebels and the “cool girls,” all doing their thing, but not in an overdone or overtly annoying way. I also appreciated that the magical system was unique without being confusing, which honestly is hard to accomplish these days in my opinion.

I sincerely hope the author plans to write more about Abby and her students, they still have some lingering mysteries to solve, and 187 days left in the school year! But who is counting?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own and freely given.

[✨ gabi ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5 stars.

Ok, this was a supremely frustrating read for me. It has all the elements that I like, but their execution was just so fucking annoying. I think that’s the best word for this book, annoying. It’s not bad in a way it will make you angry or offended, but it will make you roll your eyes at least once a chapter.

Alright, let’s properly start this, and I’ll leave the worst to the end. I did not like the uses of slang in this, specially inside the narrators head. There will never be a good phrase that starts with “as the kids say..” or something similar. It just demarcates the time of publication in a strange and unnecessary way for me. Yeah, kids will use slang, so leave it at the dialogue.

Related to that, depictions of teenagers by adults is always rough to read. This book starts off bad in this aspect and it does get better as it goes, but it’s still rough, which is not good since we are reading about a school.

I hated the (nick)name “floor moms” to designate the equivalent to RAs. It’s 2026 and we’re still associating care work with women. Also, did not like the use of “her body, her choice” in regards to a Shifter’s abilities. Yeah, it fits, I suppose, is it in good taste, though? No. This phrase is quite interconnected with women' sexual and reproductive rights. I feels weird.

In the same vein, the narrator describes herself as being on the “wrong side of 40”, which I find a nasty way saying things, specially because being ageist does not seem to be a character flaw. Besides being not fit (which is not age-related), the MC does not see herself as any less capable of doing anything because of her age. It’s so stark exactly because it’s the only comment of the type in the book, so it just really feels like the author’s ageism coming through. My mom is almost 60 and I’ll tell you, that woman has never been on the “wrong side” of anything, much less any age.

I really didn’t like the writing for a multitude of reasons. There’s a problem with tone, there’s a problem with phrasing and analogies, and that bleeds into the characterization and development of our main character, inevitably.

I read an ARC, so maybe some of these problems will be corrected, but I don’t think so. They are phrases that are grammatically correct, but don’t really make that much sense. You read and you go “what do you mean?” Jennifer Lawrence style. It's just a bunch of little tiny things that aren't all that big, but don't serve the purpose of pulling you into the story and keeping you there, as all sentences should do.

A couple of examples: "He thrust his arms up in the air like he was Juan Peron trying to get elected in Argentina". Why would you describe it like that? Another; in response to a jokingly "I hate you" by her friend, a middle-aged woman responds "BFFs forever". There's nothing wrong at first glance, except that BFF already means "best friends forever" so you're managing to be pleonastic in an abbreviated four-word phrase. Besides that, I have never seen women say that, only teenagers; that is not to say it's impossible, but wouldn't a "you love me" feel much more natural? The book is very much like this in its entirety: full of sentences that pull you out of the narrative and, had the writer decided to spend five more minutes thinking on it, would be more precise and effective. These are irrelevant examples, but try reading one of these each paragraph. It gets annoying really quickly. Overall it feels like there was no attentive eye to the prose—there's no need to write badly just for being a feel-good fantasy.

The tone is very strange. It took me almost half the book to actually remember I was reading a teacher with 17 years of experience and on the "wrong side" of 40, and not a teaching assistant or a first year teacher. I don’t mean that our MC needs to stern and serious and boring, specially in her own head, but she doesn’t feel like someone who is in a comfortable position and in a very stable job of many, many years that she quite enjoys. She feels juvenile at points. She skirts away from hard topics with her brother, she quivers in her boots while talking to the principal (her direct superior she has known for a billion years), she feels like someone who isn't sure of her place in the world. And I will be honest, I only read this book because it is from the perspective of an older woman, so you’d think we wouldn’t have to suffer the rancid vibes of coming-of-age from our own MC. Give me a break.

And the plot does not do Abby (MC) any favors. You just read our girlie be plain fucking stupid for like, 60% of the book. The magical system does not make sense; if finding the villain is such an important thing, I can't see why would it be a teacher's responsibility to hunt them down besides moving the plot forward in a way that keeps our mc in the middle of things. But, ignoring that and going with the premise that the teacher’s have the investigate the villain, the MC is just blind. She supposedly is “alert” and “paying attention” to find who the villain is, but I (who, at 22% of the book, had already strong suspicious) had to watch this woman try to blame all the evils in this world in a fucking teenage girl. Babe, you look stupid. I’m not even a good investigator, I never know who is the killer in thrillers, and I knew. It was right in front of her, and she never even did a “oh, maybe I’m getting too focused on one person”, no.

The villain is so ridiculously on your nose it just makes you wonder about the protag’s mental capabilities. There's no way you have this weirdly obsessed, villainous caricature in front of you and it still takes you 80% of the book and the principal saying it to your face (!!) that an adult could be the person. It's even worse that she isn't unaware of the situation, she's SUPPOSED to look for the villain and still... I didn't feel satisfying, it didn’t feel earned. It felt stupid—I didn’t feel smart figuring this out, I felt like Abby was dumb. It got to the point I didn't care if she died or not in the final confrontation; stupid people also deserve to live, except when I'm inside their heads having to read their stupid thoughts.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise was immediately appealing to me: What if Harry Potter, but Canadian, from the perspective of the teachers, and the teachers are genre-savvy?

Realistically overworked and underpaid English teacher Abby Bellman has some extra headaches to contend with: the school she works at is a magic school, where kids learn to handle their powers, which can mean things like fireballs and sudden plant growth. That's bad enough, but she's just figured out that one of her new class of 14-year-olds is a Hero. Which means that somewhere there's a Villain, and Abby is the Mentor.

This isn't a world where magic is hidden. The school is a government school, and there are plenty of others throughout the world (this is the only one in Canada). The existence of magic has changed a few things, though not enough for my full suspension of disbelief, compared with our world. The same authors exist, for example. For reasons not gone into, various forms of paganism have survived into the equivalent of the 21st century, but this is completely not reflected in people's names, many of which (including Abby's, a nominal Druid) come from the Bible, as they would in our world. There are religiously bigoted protestors - with mispunctuated signs - outside the school, and they are never specifically identified as Christians, but they clearly are meant to be. Put this alongside the fact that almost everyone who has a relationship is queer in some way, and you'll know whether you are or are not the audience Huff is aiming for.

My parents were both teachers, and the way they complained about their jobs put me off the profession, so that was a touchpoint for me. I wasn't fully convinced by some aspects of Abby being an English teacher; do real English teachers try to enforce the completely made-up and only-observed-by-total-pedants rule that a preposition is something you shouldn't end a sentence with? Also, despite mentioning misplaced modifiers as something she battles against in her students' work, she commits one. In the pre-publication version I had via Netgalley, there were also a good few sentences with missing, inserted or jumbled words, one misplaced apostrophe and a few other punctuation glitches, and some vocabulary errors. They may be fixed by publication.

I did have some difficulty keeping track of all the minor characters; there are quite a few staff and students, naturally, and because the staff are known by their first names when Abby is talking to them or thinking about them and by their surnames when she's talking about them in the presence of students, and they were mostly introduced in the same scene and not all that well differentiated from each other, it becomes a bit confusing at times.

I've read a couple of Huff's books before, one of which I liked and the other I didn't, so picking up this one was a calculated gamble. I'm glad I did; leaving aside the worldbuilding weaknesses and occasional mechanical issues, it's well told, amusing in a wry way, and shows us a world-weary (and just outright weary) person who, nevertheless, will persevere in doing the right thing regardless of what it costs her, because she does actually care about the kids entrusted to her. It reminded me of Jim C. Hines' Slayers of Old , which I highly recommend, in the way it took familiar genre tropes to the next level of seriousness and asked what would really happen, while keeping an ironic detachment from the essential silliness of them and also telling a good story.

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

As yet another school year rolls around at the High School for Magical Arts, homeroom teacher Abby is hoping her new group of fresh-faced grade nines will be an easy class. Unfortunately, by the end of the first day it’s clear they will be anything but. One freak disaster turns into another, and in the middle of it all is Bex, who shows all the signs of being a Hero: she’s stood up to a bully, made friends with a nerdy sidekick, has unassuming but powerful magic, and always saves the day. But where there’s a Hero, there’s always a Villain. And as Bex’s teacher it’s Abby’s responsibility to identify the evil-doer and keep her student safe… on top of the regularly scheduled classes, grading assignments, and keeping angsty teenagers with uncontrolled magic in line.

This was a delight! Not fully my thing, but definitely enjoyable. There’s an investigation/mystery aspect to this that I wasn’t expecting and really liked. There's also a large cast, all of whom get a lot of page time, so it was fun to watch Abby theorize and do some amateur sleuthing into her many suspects. Though, the number of characters was also a drawback - there are genuinely dozens of minor characters (every student from each grade and class, each teacher and faculty member, teachers from different schools) the reader is expected to remember as they all frequently pop up throughout the book. Unfortunately only the key characters like Bex and Michael stuck with me, and I had to accept that I wouldn’t know who most people were in any given scene. And even with the large cast, I still somehow pinned who the Villain was right after their introduction. I’m not sure if it was because it’s obvious or because I was so far removed from the characters that I only had vibes to go off of, but either way I was bummed I figured out the mystery so early on.

To quickly touch on the genre, I wouldn’t necessarily agree that this is ‘cozy fantasy.’ While I can see where the label would come from, I just didn’t get that feeling at all while reading. There are none of the typical genre staples like low stakes (if the Villain wins, it's an apocalyptic scenario), no comfort foods like pastries or warm teas (it’s mostly protein bars between classes and cup ramens after work), and instead of there being a found family type of vibe, I found Abby’s situation to be quite isolating. When she goes to the other teachers and faculty members for help, they kind of just tell her “your student, your problem.” Instead of a comfy feeling, I thought the kid-wrangling and solo crisis-solving were pretty stressful, definitely humorous at times but not quite a cozy fantasy.

Also, it’s both sad and funny how every magic school book nowadays is so aware of its tangential relationship to Harry Potter and therefore its comically evil author. I thought this book did a great job at being ‘the cooler magic school book’ by having a queer cast, discussions of colonialism, and the strong assertion of “my body, my choice.” This isn't so much a comparison to Harry Potter, but just in general I really appreciated the healthy and realistic student-teacher dynamics. The teachers have so much care for the students and truly want the best for them, it's all very heart-warming.

This was a quick and fun read! I’d definitely recommend it for fans of Abbott Elementary or anyone looking for a wholesome magic school book from a less heinous author than you-know-who.

Thank you to NetGalley and DAW for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Gali · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Saved by the Spell" by Tanya Huff is a refreshing fantasy set at the High School for the Magical Arts (HSMA) in Canada and told from the teachers' perspective, a premise that immediately grabbed my interest. What can I say? I am a sucker for magical schools and the academy trope.

Told in the first person, the book follows Abby Bellman, an English and homeroom teacher in her forties with 17 years of experience under her belt. Only magic users who pass the entry test can enter the school, where they learn to handle their powers. Oh, and not burn the world while at it. It is the first day of the school year, and it is off to a bad start. While the students gather at the auditorium, the floor collapses under them, miraculously leaving no casualties.

The very next day, there is a Sprite attack in the dining room, starting at the scrambled eggs stand (it definitely puts one off scrambled eggs for life). And it is just the beginning. One incident follows another, and it becomes glaringly clear they have a hero in their midst. And where there is a hero, there is bound to be a villain. It is up to Abby, an overworked and underpaid teacher, to keep the hero out of harm's way and the villain stopped. All that among her other duties, and with no help from her colleagues to boot. And the daily demonstrations outside the gate against magic-users add to the chaos. What is a teacher to do?

I quite enjoyed this light-hearted romp through magical school life. I liked the fact that magical schools co-exist with the real world, and I appreciated Abby's dedication to her students and her insistence on good grammar. I liked the sarcastic tone, the dynamics between staff and students, and the variety of magic and its uses. I also liked the countdown of school days. Teachers are looking for it as well, apparently. The world-building is vivid, and while not everything about the world is revealed, it does whet our appetite for more.

While I liked the premise of this work, it took me some time to get into the story. Something about the pace and writing didn't click with me at first, although I eventually got used to both. Also, there is a large cast of minor characters, and I had some difficulty keeping track of all of them. A first for me. Speaking of characters, Abby, Bex, Michael with his overbearing mother, and the witch of the woods were some of my favorite characters. I also wondered why only Abby had to locate the villain. And no, "your hero, your responsibility" doesn't really cut it.

When all is said and done, I grew to like the narrator and her voice and sense of humor, and the plot kept me engaged. I had my suspicions about the identity of the villain; I had two in mind, actually, but it wasn't that obvious to me. Most of the threads were tied up, leaving a couple dangling, so hopefully a sequel is on the cards. I would like to explore the world more.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, flaws and all. I recommend it to fans of magical schools from the other side of the desk, school politics, and readers looking for one of the most original premises I've encountered, along with an engaging plot and plenty of magical mayhem.

* Thank you NetGalley and (publisher) for the opportunity to read this arc. All opinions are my own.
* Review on my blog: https://galibookish.blogspot.com/2026...

[Emily Capri · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️ rounded up

Thanks to NetGalley and DAW Books for the ARC!

Saved by the Spell gives you the magical boarding school but from the perspective of the teachers. They've just identified they have a hero amongst the newest grade of students and are now scrambling to work out who the villain is while worrying about how to keep the hero alive for the next 4years.

The whole concept of this book was instantly intriguing to me and sounded so unique and interesting. We've read about the magical schools, the teens with magic/powers, the chosen ones etc but never from this perspective before. I did enjoy reading Saved by the Spell and was fairly invested in the hero, the characters and the world. The magic system initially read as a bit unnecessarily confusing I felt, but it made more sense as the story progressed. I do think the book was maybe a little too heavy handed sometimes with pushing the narrative. There was a lot of repeating what the teachers needed to do, the way things were supposed to work, the way every single thing that happened seemed to specifically push the exact narrative they were dealing with. I did find this a little tedious at times, but it didn't detract too much from the overall enjoyment of the book. There were a few events/moments that were quite reminiscent of other books, so at times things did feel a little oddly familiar. But again, this didn't really detract from the enjoyment levels.

The characters in the book all had their own quirks and personalities. I found it clever that some of the teenagers were intentionally cliche because that was part of the point of the hero narrative in the world. The main teacher we follow, the "narrator" as such, Abby, was an entertaining and relatable character. She didn't however read as someone over 40 with 17years of teaching experience. She came across as though she was in her mid to late 20s, or early 30s at most. A lot of the teachers/adults in the book came across much younger than we were told they were. A lot of Abby's internal narration felt quite at odds with someone we were directly told was over 40. I did struggle at times too with some of the wording choices for her internal thoughts as they could be a little awkward, especially when attempting to be usage of slang. I found myself just choosing to forget we were told her age though and taking her as she seemed, as age aside she was a relatable and entertaining character. The other teachers too were quite funny and their varying levels of frustration and burn out were consistently entertaining.

The pacing of the book did feel a little off, with the end events feeling a little abrupt and rushed compared to how much of the book the rest of the story took up. That being said though, this was still a fun and entertaining read with a very unique and clever storyline. I've already mentioned it to friends and will continue to do so as I know many people will enjoy reading this!

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saved by the Spell is a magic school fantasy by Tanya Huff. Abigail Bellman is a teacher at the prestigious High School for the Magical Arts, Canadian Campus, where only 40 students are admitted each year. Being assigned a new batch of freshmen as their homeroom teacher comes with its challenges, not least of which is the realization that she has a potential Hero in her class. On her first day, Bex Olynyk has already rescued a classmate from harm, gained a nerdy sidekick, and demonstrated a massive chip on her shoulder. But where there’s a Hero, there’s bound to be a Villain, and it’s Abby’s job to keep an eye out to ensure her school year isn’t derailed, as disaster inevitably follows a Hero and Villain’s confrontation.

I thought this was a great, fun read. It’s been compared to Abbott Elementary (which I haven’t watched, so I can’t form an opinion) and The Grimoire Grammar School PTA, but I’d compare it more to Emily Tesh’s The Incandescent (just without the occult magic system) or Sky High from a teacher’s perspective. This has been marketed as cozy fantasy, which I don’t think it is at all, given the high stakes and the lack of the elements typically associated with the subgenre. Really, though, The Incandescent is the book I’d compare it to most, albeit with less societal commentary and more fun.

The book is very fast-paced and doesn’t do much to build atmosphere or tension, instead leaning into Abby’s self-awareness and the reality of being a teacher. It’s also quite unbelievable that the entire book takes place over just the first seven school days, given how much happens in that time.

Abby is a veteran teacher who has spent 17 years at this boarding school, so she knows her way around. She’s mostly just lamenting the stresses of dealing with a new batch of kids who are still growing into their powers, along with all the administrative BS that comes with the job. Now, she also has the added responsibility of keeping an eye on a potential Hero and figuring out who the corresponding Villain might be. She is very sympathetic and understandable, and you know she has her heart in the right place and has a love for her students.

There’s a mystery at the heart of the story, but it never really feels all that mysterious. Honestly, I felt there was so much more the book could have explored and developed even outside of the mystery itself. The entire book feels more like a teaser for a bigger story than a fully fleshed-out novel, even though it does have a self-contained narrative of its own. My biggest complaint, though, is the deluge of named characters. It was difficult to keep track of who was who, especially since not all of them ended up being important or even necessary.

Saved by the Spell was a fun, fast-paced magical school romp of an adult fantasy, even if it felt more like the beginning of a bigger story.

*Thank you DAW for the eARC via NetGalley

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Electronic ARC provided by Edelweiss.

I have enjoyed Tanya Huff for years, ever since someone gave me Sing the Four Quarters way back in high school. Saved By the Spell, despite a few issues I had, is a light and fun read perfect for anyone who is interested in some low stakes fantasy starring overworked school teachers and precocious magical teenagers.

Abby has been an English teacher at the only authorized magical high school in Canada for the last 17 years. Magic in this world is everywhere, but highly regulated. Magic users are identified early, and streamlined into particular specialties in which they are licenses upon graduation. As the new school year begins Abby is anticipating a relatively normal experience, until she figures out that one of her new freshman is a full on "hero", making her job suddenly much more stressful. With every identified hero comes a villain, and it's up to Abby to determine Bex's villain before the story develops too far.

It was interesting to read a sort of magical school chosen one story where the chosen one is not really the main character. Abby's struggles should be recognizable to anyone who works in public service, especially the various levels of bureaucracy she has to wade through to get anything done. The part that I struggled a bit with was how naive and unquestioning Abby seemed for most of the book. There are many times where it seems obvious that something is up with the setup of this world, and Abby is just accepting. Of course, it's also possible that Tanya Huff is just trying to show us how small and reasonable sounding things in society can slowly add up to something sinister.

As with many of Huff's recent books, I finished this one wanting to know more about what happens next and the general background of the world. I'm not sure if there will ever be a sequel, but if there is then I would love to see what happens next to Abby, Bex, and their magical world.

[Queueing Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saved by the Spell by Tanya Huff is a fun, fast-paced twist on the magical-school hero genre told by the perspective of an experienced teacher at a regional, southern Ontario magical school.

Abby is an all around skilled magician (a Jack), who can do a little bit of all kinds of magic, but is a master of none. When random catastrophes start occurring at the school on day one of the new school year, she figures out rather quickly that she has a hero in her homeroom. Heroes are a recipe for disaster, because they always have a villain to match them. And as if teachers don’t have enough to do, this is now 100% Abby’s problem to solve.

This book is clever, self-aware, and really fun. Huff does a lot with 290 pages, and does it tightly. Truly the amount of world-building Huff squeezes into this book is impressive. There’s an array of charming students and teacher’s, all of whom are well fleshed out. I particularly loved Abby, a teacher who exudes experience and clearly really understands these adolescents. She’s self-depreciating, and sees the humor in her situation, but she’s also caring and compassionate, and takes her responsibilities to these kids seriously. Huff also weaves in meta-commentary on the hero storyline in a smart way, with Abby regularly playing on and referencing expectations of how these things tend to play out to solve the mystery of the villain and try to keep her hero alive.

If I have a single criticism, it’s that there were a few plot devices that I think must have been solved by the end, but I just couldn’t make the connection. So I still have some small, unresolved questions. Maybe that means it needs a sequel - I would definitely read it.

TLDR: A self-aware and delightful twist on the magical school genre told from the perspective of one very tired teacher. I loved it!

Thanks to NetGalley and DAW for the ARC!

[Sara Damian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise of this book immediately sold me on it. The idea of a magical boarding school, with the story told from the teachers perspective was so interesting to me and I'm glad I was able to pick up this book.
The main character, Abby, was great. I loved the glimpses of her in the everyday part of teaching- the corralling of students, preemptively expecting questions, and similar things like that. Adding in magic to our world was a very fun design, and I like how the stories in our actual world were explained in the magical world of this book. I also found the plot of this really fun. I thought it was a fun twist on the "Chosen One" narrative, especially with the POV not being the Hero. The nods to various literary devices throughout the story also made me laugh.

Unfortunately, I do think the whole mystery part fell a little flat to me. I guessed who the bad guy was rather quickly, and I think the story could have benefitted from more explanation as to why Abby didn't go in this seemingly obvious direction at first, or at least the addition of a few red herrings. The other suspicions don't seem to have much weight or plausibility behind them. I think having one or two people that could feasibly be the villain would have made this part a lot more enjoyable.
I did enjoy this book, and I will most likely pick up another in this universe there ever is one. I enjoyed the characters and the writing style very much and found myself having a lot of fun while reading.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me this ARC to review.

[Monica Hills · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adored this book! Witty dialogue, heroes vs villians, a magical school, mystery, and lots of action make for a must read novel!

Abby is a teacher at the High School for the Magical Arts in southern Ontario. She teaches English and has a homeroom of 9th graders. This year is anything other than normal. After a series of events happen where students are in danger, Abby discovers that her homeroom has a hero. Having a hero in her class means that there has to be a villain. Abby is tasked with discovering who that villain is so she can protect her students and the school.

First of all, I am a teacher so I instantly connected with Abby and her humor. I also loved that the teacher was the main character. In so many other books that have magical schools the students are always the main characters, so to have a book from the teacher's point of view was extra special. I thought it elevated the story and so much of it was relatable as well as humorous. The world that this story was set up in was unique and I truly want to read more about it. People had designated magical abilities that put them into different categories. This will have a big impact later on in the story. I also enjoyed the mystery aspect of trying to figure out who the villain was. Plus the action kept me glued to the pages. I did not want this story to end. Overall this was a fantastic novel and I truly hope that there will be more. It checked all the right boxes for me and is one of my best reads of this year.

Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for this ARC.

[Aimee · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a bit to get into this one at the start, but it was definitely worth sticking it out. Once it grabbed me, it really grabbed me.

I loved the premise of a contemporary magical high school in a world where magic isn't a secret, and in this story the focus is on the teachers.

Our protagonist Abby realises one of her homeroom students is a Hero on day 2 of the new school year, and where there's a Hero there's also inevitably a Villain about to make themselves known. Already overworked and underpaid, we follow her as she tries keep her budding Hero alive but uncovering the Villain, while also trying to keep up with her marking and preventing any of her students from accidentally setting the school on fire.

Being set in a school, there is fairly large cast of characters between the faculty, students and families, but they all felt like well drawn and distinct individuals to me.

The plot and writing also hit the exact right tone and style of humour for me. With a sardonic and tongue-in-cheek writing style, it is quite meta. It makes really excellent use of some popular fantasy tropes but never feels like it's taking itself too seriously.

I've been interested in picking up Direct Descendant by the same author for quite a while, so I might need to bump it up on my TBR!

Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for the ARC!

[Andrea - The Wobbly Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in a magical high school level boarding school but from the teacher's perspective, I'll bet this book would be a hit for anyone familiar with the trials of teaching. It does a pretty good job of showing the nitty gritty behind the scenes work of school staff with the added terror of dealing with hundreds of students who don't yet know how to control their magical abilities.

There were a couple things I struggled with in this one. First, there were A LOT of characters and the teachers would get referred to by both first name or their last names and I just couldn't keep everyone straight. I kept knocking myself out of the story trying to remember who so-and-so was and what their magical relevance might be. And the insistence that protecting the hero and investigating who their villain could possibly be felt SO weird since the stakes were supposed to be so high. Entire classes had perished in the past when Hero/Villain clashes went sideways so why wouldn't others be interested in pitching in at all? Even the school administration? I understand the overworked and underpaid teacher deal but why leave it up to one when potentially everyone's lives are at risk? My conclusion was that maaaaybe Abby was also identified as a Hero and no one could tell her or get in the way of her saving the day?

Thank you to NetGalley and DAW Books for the gifted copy!

[Heather Lang · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

I received an advance galley of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
All the teachers want at the High School for Performing Magic is a quiet year of decent national math scores, students learning a few spells, and things staying relatively quiet. They really don’t get paid for more than that. But when a Hero quickly emerges in one of the students, their dreams are crushed. Cause when there is a Hero, there is always a Villain.
If you love a school drama from the perspective of the teachers just trying to survive and throw in some magic systems, this book is for you. A fun good versus evil story, but add in the unpredictable hormones and attitudes of fourteen-year-olds, and you don’t see what is coming next. Cozy and sweet, like The House on the Cerulean Sea but with a detailed and unique magical world built alongside the real world, similar to another wizarding world we don’t name. You can empathize with the teachers just trying to get through each day, but love the friendships and relationships developing with the students. There are some dark moments, but overall the book is cozy and funny and sarcastic. The Canadian setting was also refreshing, and it was a delight to read the nods to classic Canadian stereotypes.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley, Tanya Huff, and DAW for this e-arc in exchange for my honest, unbiased review.

Saved by the Spell by Tanya Huff is about Abigail Bellman, a homeroom teacher at a high school for magical arts. It becomes clear in the first few days of school that a Hero-an exceptional student, is part of her new class of students. She is tasked with finding the Villain on top of the everyday tasks of teaching.

This book was delightful! It had a fun and unique premise. The characters were interesting and each had their own unique voice in the story. The pacing was good and kept me wanting to read more. I really thought the teenage characters were well done. They seemed like realistic teens trying to manage their powers. I enjoyed the camaraderie and friendships developed in the book. Although parts of the story seemed somewhat predictable it didn’t take away the enjoyment of the story and how it played out for me. I also thought some of the world building could have been expanded on. At times I felt like I had missed an earlier book in the world and thus some of the background information.

Overall, this was a fun book! I enjoyed it and it was a light, enjoyable read perfectly for spooky season!
Publication date is set for November 3, 2026.

[Cori Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Abbott Elementary', but make it magical and Canadian!

This landed perfectly for me: our middle-aged MC, Abby, who is an experienced teacher of magic in an elite boarding school, discovers the ominous signs of A Hero Rising among the new students, and therefore A Villain must also be imminent, but also people keep leaving dirty mugs in the staff room sink and the photocopier is on the blink.

I really liked that level of day-to-day detail of teacher-life & managing teenagers with unusual abilities, and the humour meshed for me, some very funny situations and one-liners. It seemed fairly realistic (not that I have much to do with teenagers and nothing at all to do with teaching) and played with typical Chosen One fantasy tropes, as well as exploring some deeper systemic questions of education. It's also casually queernorm -- not a theme or plot point in itself; just there, like real life.

All the fun! Kinda what I was hoping for when I picked up The Incandescent but that went in a different direction.

Rating: 16/20
This review is based upon a complimentary advance review copy provided by the publisher.

[Chrissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so much fun! Why have I never read a magic boarding school story from the teacher's POV before?

Our main character, Abby Bellman, is a teacher at a magical high school, and she has a lot to deal with - her new year nine homeroom students, meddlesome parents, her colleagues, protesters in front of the school, her principal (it's spelled principle in the book and that's not a typo, there's a reason!), the school board. And all that doesn't even take into account that one of her new students displays signs of being a Hero, and where there's a Hero a Villain won't be far behind.

Abby's character was so completely relatable, and I'm not even a teacher myself, so for any teachers out there, you would probably relate to her even more than I did.

Overall, this was a great, humorous, cozy fantasy story. Highly recommeded!

Thank you to the publisher, DAW, for providing a review copy via NetGalley. This review reflects my honest opinion.

[Em · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, the blurb sold me - Abbot Elementary, but make it magical? Sign me up! It was so fun to fall in to this setting of a magical high school. While I love reading young adult books, having this story told from the perspective of one of the teachers made it fresh and more relatable. An ever accumulating workload, the drudgery of paperwork, and the increasing demands of leadership is truly universal. While I thought the initial character description made it kind of obvious who the Villain was, watching the story unfold was definitely entertaining. It was also interesting to see an educational philosophy I've seen in my own life be presented: should we lean into our strengths and forgo the rest, or strive to give all students the means to become well-rounded?

Thank you to NetGalley and DAW for this ARC!

[Sissi and the Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Sky High (the iconic 2005 Disney movie) and Abbott Elementary had a baby, it would be this book.

Only eight days pass from the start of the school year, but at a magical boarding school where students are discovering their powers, chaos is inevitable. Add a newly emerged hero, an unknown villain, and one very frazzled 40-something teacher, and you've got the recipe for a fun mystery.

The satirical tone was my favorite part. Seeing all the teenage drama and school politics through Abby's perspective made for plenty of laughs. It didn't completely blow me away, but it was a fresh, entertaining read that kept me smiling.

Thank you NetGalley and DAW for the eARC! The review reflects my own honest opinions.

[Jessica Bellemore · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story as bewitching as limited edition Timbits.

Abby Bellman just wants to have an easy year with her new group of grade nines at the High School for Performing Magic. Unfortunately for her, one of her students is on the path to be a Hero. Which means that her Hero needs their Villain.

This book made me laugh uproariously while wanting to learn more about the realistic magical realm of this Canadian high school.

I loved that the magic was based on the elements, as well as poking fun at stereotypical teacher and student tropes. Hearing stories from my own husband’s teaching makes the book all the better in my books.

Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book for free in exchange for my honest review.

[Vanessa Konopacki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was okay. When you start the book it feels like you’re jumping into a story that’s been going for awhile. As if you skipped a few chapters that gave the set up. Was a bit hard to get the dynamic of things for a chapter or two. So much felt unexplained. Because of that it was quite a slow read for awhile a difficult to get drawn into the story and care about the characters. Then there is odd misdirection with characters that are mentioned again and again and seem to be pushed to be important to the story yet are so inconsequential they might as well be omitted all together and then minor characters barely mentioned are suddenly important. Felt forced.
I usually love Tanya huff as a writer but this felt more like a story to fill a writing obligation
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