Somewhere on the internet, I came across a freebie Audible code for M.K. Wiseman‘s Magical Intelligence.

When you are a member of Britain’s first team of wizard spies, every mission might be your last. But as the dawning of the 20th century draws ever nearer, magic grows weak. Violectric Dampening, the clash of man-made electricity with the Gifts of magekind, threatens M.I.’s existence. And if that isn’t enough, they’ve now been discharged from their own government. Obsolete. Distrusted.

And now hunted by one of their own.

Myra Wetherby has always feared her so-called fits, strange visions of people and places that she cannot explain. It is the emotional manipulation, however, a strange empathic connection to those around her, which threatens her very sanity. A danger to her family, Myra runs away, falling straight into the hands of the newly ousted Magical Intelligence team. Who just so happen to need an ability like hers.

Which makes Myra one of them…whether she likes it or not.

The description for this book isn’t untrue, but it misdirects. It does not give an accurate impression of the story. Most of it is the history that the story builds on, rather than the story itself, and it more problematically leaves out the fact that the main character, Myra, is 14 years old, which makes this a much different story than one is led to expect by the blurb.

Having said that, nothing about the story actually feels like she is 14 years old. I say that as a parent of a 14-year-old. So, I feel ideally placed to say her young age does not work for the character or the plotline. She does not act 14, no one treats her as if she is 14, and the plot does not lend itself to a 14-year-old. Honestly, several of the other characters are also in their teens, and they don’t act their age either. But it is especially problematic for Myra, as the main character. Plus,14 feels so much younger than 18 in this context. Eighteen might round up to a young adult. 14 rounds down to a child.

Outside that one big glaring problem, I generally liked this. I didn’t love it, but I liked it well enough. However, the pacing is a bit off. Somehow, the beginning dragged on and on, and then the end rushed too fast. Honestly, I felt like I was constantly scrambling, being like, “Wait, who is this again?”

I do feel like this book did a lot of work setting up the series. So, the rest of the series might not suffer from the same pacing problems, which could just be a symptom of first-book syndrome. All in all, it was a middle-of-the-road read for me. Alyson Grauer did a nice job with the narration, however.

Other Reviews:

Blog Tour Book Review: Magical Intelligence – M. K. Wiseman