Lost Talent

by M.S. Palmer

At Oakward Academy, Mina was told she was 'a mage of no particular talent.' After graduating, she is stuck working in Burgamont & Mandragora's Arcane Emporium and wondering what happened to her childhood dreams.

Everything changes when one of her school friends suddenly disappears, accused of smuggling magic to the 'untalented.' Mina and her friends have to scour Britain's hidden arcane society in a desperate attempt to find him and clear his name before they lose him forever.

To succeed, Mina will need more than just magic… she will need to overcome the repressive lessons of her time at magic school and the shadow that it continues cast on her life.

Genres: Fantasy

288 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 3, 2026

Reviews

[BookishKB · Rating 4 out of 5]

✨🔮 Lost Talent 🔮✨

I really loved the found family theme throughout this book.

I also enjoyed the magic system, but I did find myself wanting more from the worldbuilding. I had quite a few questions and would have loved to see things explored in more depth. That said, I did enjoy the worldbuilding we got.

The pacing felt a bit inconsistent at times, and there were a few errors throughout. Those didn’t personally bother me, but I can see how they might stand out to other readers.

Overall, a solid 3.5 star read!

🪄 What to Expect
• Magical school
• Mage FMC
• Queer
• Missing friend
• Found family
• Magical society

_ _ _ _

⭐️ Final Score: 3:5 Stars
📅 Pub Date: April 3, 2026
Thank you to Victory Editing NetGalley Co op and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

[Quilted.reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. It follows Mina who graduated from this super elite magic school only to be told she basically has no real talent. So now she’s stuck working at a magical shop, kind of feeling like she peaked in school. She’s dealing with a lot of self doubt and just trying to figure out what her life is supposed to look like now.Then everything shifts when one of her old friends, Sol, suddenly disappears and gets accused of smuggling magic to people without abilities. Mina knows that doesn’t sound right so she teams up with her friends to figure out what actually happened. From there, it turns into this cozy but stressful mystery as they dig into Britain’s hidden magical world to find him and clear his name.A lot of it focuses on Mina unlearning all the toxic stuff her school drilled into her, especially the idea that your worth is tied to how “talented” you are. It also does a really good job with representation.The vibe is very cozy magic meets found family. There are flashbacks to their school days mixed in with the present investigation, which adds a lot more to their relationships If you like character focused stories with magic and a bit of found family energy, this one’s definitely worth picking up.

[Keturah Sergeant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read, a story of friendship and magic and connection. I enjoyed the narrative switching between the present, adult time line and their school days, establishing their friendship group, their magical specialities, the development of their identities. It was well-done and easy to follow, I also enjoyed that the school day chapters had unique chapter headings, both differentiating them and giving them a nice charm! Following the different characters through their development, both as children, adapting to the magical world and finding their footing, and as adults, one of their group missing, drama wrapped up in a questionably legal operation another has carried out.

It is a fast-moving story, problems quickly established, plans quickly laid and executed to varying degrees of success. The characters are well done, all lovable, all relatable and all flawed. Their personalities carry the story, their development defining their success. I loved the nonbinary and asexuality and autism representation. The acceptance of one friend being rejected by the ace friend was a beautiful, emotional moment, awkward and soft and simple. The group gathering to perform magical gender-affirming surgery for the nonbinary character was also an amazing moment. The moment a magical child who has felt wrong and different her whole life, averse to touch and hyper-fixating on things, walks into a non-magical household and is immediately accepted and give resources to find out more about herself and her brain. Incredible. They all accept each other, their individual identities, their career choices, their quirks, their mistakes.

Emotional, action-packed with a great group of characters.

[Piper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the eARC!

Let me start off this compliment sandwich by saying that, despite the book being prefaced with the fact that it was not professionally edited and that ARC readers would essentially be acting as proof readers, I found the writing to be very competent. I did spot some typos, but there were never any sentences that I didn't understand because of them. While I do hope these typos are correct when this goes out to print, I don't think they detract meaningfully from the experience.

Lost Talent is a book full of brilliant ideas! Ideas I, as a former Potterhead (ugh), have played around with many times in my own creative writing ventures and maladaptive daydreams. The classism and racism inherent to the concept of a magic private school, particularly one based in the UK. The lives of magic users after they graduate. I was charmed by the occasional chapter that was set during the main characters' school days, each named with the same conventions as the series-that-shall-not-be-named, even if I found that they, at times, took me out of the story. I wouldn't say the magic system was particularly well fleshed out, but I found it worked nonetheless. The main friend group is very diverse, which I love. The LGBTQ tag applies to Beryl, who is non-binary, and to Mina, who is asexual. There is a lovely transitioning scene for Beryl, which, yeah, this IS how some queer ass teens would use their magic if they could.

Still, I think Lost Talent suffered in execution. I never found myself understanding the characters. At times, they blended into one another, so no one really stood out. This is not a very long book (my ARC copy was 231 pages), but the plot dragged. Very few things happened in comparison to the amount of pages. There was a lot of exposition, which is inherent in a magic school book, but much of it felt irrelevant by the end. Especially because the main setting isn't a magical school.

The twist was fine. It was predictable, despite having very few hints, due to the lack of suspects. Yeah, it would have to be the guy who's been mentioned more than once or else who would care? I think the motivations of the villain made sense, but how Soloman reacted (I'm not entirely sure how to talk around it to avoid spoilers) didn't totally track to me.

I think this book deserved a bit more time. Time for me to get to know the characters and time for the themes to culminate in something. It makes me wonder if it will get a sequel. There's a lot of potential here! There were a couple of moments that were summarized that I would have loved to see played out, rather than been told about them. M S Palmer has got a lot of great ideas, they're definitely an author to watch!

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and M. S. Palmer for this arc!

I really enjoyed this book a lot! The magic system was super interesting and I liked learning about the characters! I loved seeing the found family bond between friends, it was one of the my favorite parts of the book.

I love when books jump time lines and povs of characters! I feel like it was executed well in this story to give you enough backstory to each character and to the current day plot line.

I especially enjoyed seeing the character growth from Mina, it was so special to me!

Overall the story hooked me, I finished it in two days, the twists I did not see coming and the ending left me satisfied. This story has a potential to be created into a series since the magic system, world building and the characters were created with so much depth! I’m excited to see what this author has in store next!

[Luna Gerrits · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really enjoyed this read, and that it was especially good considering the fact that this is a debut without any official editing. sure, there were some typos, but the plot and writing are incredible. i was a little bit confused at some points regarding what was happening, but i blame my own way of reading for that. i definitely recommed checking this out. i really enjoyed the friend group in this, with lovely characters.

thank you to netgalley and the author for sending me the book in exchange for an honest review

[Sue Plant · Rating 4 out of 5]

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

well ok here are my thoughts on this book

think harry potter world and you wouldnt be far wrong but this seemed to be about another school training mages and finding their own ways to their talents and where they would end up when they finished their education

have to say i struggled a bit with the writing style but once i got use to this authors style i found i actually like the main characters and was invested in how they were doing....

so i am glad i found out what happened to them instead of going the route of a dnf.....and apart from the spelling mistakes that i have read would be sorted before publication its not a bad read at all....

[agus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a solid and (mostly) wholesome read. I really liked the friend group and I’ve always loved stories about an estranged group coming together to save the day.
As an asexual person, I was also very pleasantly surprised to find ace rep! I loved seeing Mina’s journey of self-discovery and how she carved out a place for herself in the arcane world.
However, I found it a bit nonsensical that technological advances were absent in the arcane society (the bank thing didn't make much sense either), and for most of the book, I felt that there weren't many stakes. Despite that, it was still an enjoyable book that I recommend you to pick up.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced electronic review copy of this book!

[Know My Shelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rated 3.75 ⭐️ rounded to 4 ⭐️

Thanks to Netgalley and M.S Palmer for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

It was a nice read. I feel like the charcters are what I enjoyed the most. There is such a wide range of characters and personalities; with some great LGBTQIA+ representation. Loved Mina - it's always great to see more ace representation out there in media. As a fellow ace, it gives me the warm and fuzzies. And then Beryl's transition scene using magic; 10/10.

I got strong, strong Harry Potter vibes going into it, but they tapered off the further I got into the book. The magic system started to grow into itself but was easy to follow along. The aspect of following along the two different time lines (their past at school and the presnt day) is not something I have read a lot of but I enjoyed it.

There were a few misspellings and minor grammatical inconsistencies which did not detract from the reading experience as a whole. If I had been finding something on every other page then it would be a different case.

[Sayyeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lost Talent follows a group of friends - Mina, Heidi and Beryl - working on trying to find their friend Sol, who just vanished one day, accused of smuggling magic to those who do not wield it.
The story follows a dual timeline, alternating between the present, and their past as magic students at Oakward Academy.
I love the magic system, and the world the author built here. The foci, the evocations, the different tools they use to evoke depending on their alignments, it's fun to read about!
The characters are a lovable friend group, and I love the diversity among them.
I love how they really complement each other's personalities and interests, with Mina being the central character holding them all together.

One thing though, I wish we had more focus on David as a character, and his relationship with Joy.

Overall this was fun! And the vibes were so cozy <3

Thank you to Netgalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for an advanced copy of this book

[Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the concepts of this book, and if you can get past the grammatical errors and inconsistencies, it’s an excellent story with a well thought out plot, exploring LGBTQ+ themes and magic in a new and intriguing way!

The use of multiple POVs and flashback chapters was very well done, and the story as a whole was engaging to read.