Bumpy Oak Books

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

4 stars

Samantha Cohoe’s debut young adult fantasy pulls from all of the great stories of alchemy and the philosopher’s stone and puts them in the hands of a young girl. Thea has been raised as the student to her mother’s successful alchemy career. More protogee than daughter, Thea’s skills threaten to surpass her mother’s. Every alchemist wants to construct the philosopher’s stone, but Thea might just be able to do it. If she can endure the Alchemist’s Curse along the way.

Cohoe’s novel is high stakes from the very beginning. The plot was well paced and moved quickly. Thea is not your not-like-other-girls YA protagonist, she has depth and is multi-faceted and flawed. I liked that Cohoe chose to play alchemy straight rather than combining various other types of magic and the arcane. The effect was a crossover between fantasy, science fiction, and dark academia which I found to be very effective. The devolution of Thea’s character was well-written and believable.

Ultimately, this was a strong debut which had a cool flair about it and is a welcome addition to the market. I look forward to Cohoe’s future works.