EricaO

Ok, Blake? Don't read this review. You're not supposed to be reading reviews on your stuff anyhow or something. I read that in a Book For People Who Want To Grow Up To Be Writers so...just don't do it.

Alrighty! Here's some backstory (this is going to be a long-ass review so if you're reading for any reason other than boredom, you'd be better off finding another 4-star review)
I had no idea who this Blake Charlton character was prior to June, 2012. He was at our big, ol' library conference, on a panel with Lois McMaster Bujold. Guess who I was there to see? Not Charlton; I'd never heard of him. (The correct answer is George R R Martin, just like 98% of the people in the audience)
So there we were, looking at this crew of fantasy writers. I've never read of Bujold's books but I've read excerpts and stories in at least a million compilations because she shows up a lot in collections; I knew who she was. I knew who Martin was. I didn't care who Charlton was because that's not why I was in that room. He was a nice-enough seeming guy, but, come on. We're here to see Martin, people. And then this Charlton fellow starts talking. He had an awesome .ppt presentation. In a word, he was charming. Absolutely delightful (those are two more words. For free. Three words for the price of one) He went from being that nice-enough seeming guy to being DREEEEAAAAMY I was completely captivated.
Bujold went on to speak afterward and she was elegant and eloquent. She's a wonderful speaker and if you are in the business of hiring authors to speak at your events, I recommend her.
Then it was Martin's turn and he had the longest time allottment (duh) and he was just like he is in interviews on YouTube. But the thing is, Charlton was listening to them, too, and afterward, during the Q&A session, would make commentary on what they had said or would quip with them about one thing or another and I'm pretty sure he earned himself a room full of new fans that day because the guy is just a charmer. I can't use the term "charm" enough. His picture should be the entry in Webster's for that word.
So then it was time to go get our books signed. I figured, because I'm cynical and I hate people, that Charlton would be all flirty to the cute girls (or guys...or both; I didn't know) and would just push the rest on through the line. It's happened before. It's how lots of signers-of-things work. Only, you know what? He totally wasn't! He was appropriately flirty with everyone (like that waitstaff person who turns on just enough flirt to get a nice tip but not so much that you want to throw up or punch him/her), Bujold included, and made sure to involve anyone standing within earshot in his tomfoolery. He made the signing really fun! I was impressed. In his pay-the-bills life, he's a doctor, so I made him promise (not really) to be MY doctor should I come down with pnuemonia (he picked the illness, not I) because I firmly believe funny doctors are going to have healthier patients and I don't want my pneumonia to kill me, soo...it makes sense to me, Ok?
Fast Forward a bit: I put his book aside because I had fear. This happened with one other author I met at ALA Annual that year, too, actually: I found that I liked the author's personality so much that I didn't want to read his book because then what if I didn't like the book and I'd have to give a bad review on Goodreads and then the author would hate me and come stab my face off (though, Charlton totally can't do that because he took an oath to not intentionally kill people because I think you have to do that to be a doctor. Though, he could let me die of pneumonia and that would be almost as bad. Apparently, there is no one else in the world who deals in pneumonia patients? Sometimes it hurts to have my mind) Actually, I was just worried that my newfound love of the author would be tarnished by a book I didn't like.
Fast Forward to current life:
I was sick this past week - not with pneumonia though I wish it would have been so I could have had my lungs sucked out or something and then the damn coughing would stop - and it was contagious and I stayed home and read like a fiend. Oddly, I had no library books. That's like having no food in the cupboards. It was weird. There was a reason: I had vowed to finish my Goodreads First Reads Givewaways before bringing home any more library books. But I finished both those in two days and needed something else because GABE WAS HOGGING "KINGDOMS OF AMALUR" (he's a jerk) so I resorted to the pile of books under my nightstand. On the top was the "Oh, I'll read this someday" Spellwright and suddenly, someday was here.

And now, I will give you my feelings on this book:
I am SO relieved that I have not outgrown fantasy, as I'd feared after reading [a:Patrick Rothfuss|108424|Patrick Rothfuss|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1351307341p2/108424.jpg]'s books, the first two in his big, ol' superstar series. I did not enjoy those books and I was sad because I figured I'd just grown up and didn't like fantasy anymore. But no! The books were the problem, not the genre, as proven by this book that is getting the longest-ever review that hasn't even begun yet because it's all been blathering up til now!

Ok, admittedly, it started out sloooooowwwwly. And confusingly. Because how can words come out of muscles to make spells and why are they gold and silver and I don't get it, dammit. That made me smirk because, in my mind, Charlton was all, "Yeah, take THAT, bitches! THIS is what it's like to not understand what the hell this all means! MWAHAHAHA! FEEL THE PAIN!" when he wrote that. Though that's probably not really how it was. I dunno. All I know was I had to wade through a lot of "Huh?" before I just stopped trying to figure anything out. Once I did that, though, it all made sense. It's like faith, I guess.
Everything was normal fantasy story and I was at 3 stars up until maybe the middle. Then everything picked up, as these books tend to do, and THEN THERE WERE LITTLE BLUE MONSTERS!! and I was in love. LITTLE BLUE MONSTERS, people! I want those! I want little blue monsters and half-bat-winged ghosts and purple writing to swirl around me! I want that!
It also helped that everything was pretty. There were high pinnacley mountains. There were shiny glowing letters in metallic colors. There were spires and spans and majesticness and all that crap and it all formed a lovely mental image. I liked looking at it in my mind.
In the end, not only did I find myself satisfied (as in, Ahhh that was good) but also eager for the next installment. I don't think I've been this excited over magic and mayhem since [b:Revenge of the Witch|298567|Revenge of the Witch (The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles, #1)|Joseph Delaney|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348474728s/298567.jpg|3496896]
Was I biased because I had become smitten with Blake Charlton six months ago? Maybe. But probably not because I really expected not to like this...because I'm obviously insane. But yeah, maybe that had something to do with it. Who knows. Who cares. I liked it a lot and that's all that matters, right?