Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: The ABCs of Spellcraft Collection
SERIES: The ABC’s of Spellcraft books 1-5
AUTHOR: Jordan Castillo Price
NARRATOR: Nick Hudson
PUBLISHER: JCP Books
RELEASE DATE: November 15, 2019
LENGTH: 13 hours, 46 minutes
BLURB:
Dixon Penn’s family wasn’t terribly shocked when he announced he was gay, but they were devastated to learn he’s the only one without the gift of spellcraft. Fortunately, that doesn’t stop spellcraft from reaching out to him.
Dixon’s prospects have gone from bad to worse, but a contest at the biggest greeting card company in the tri-state area would be just the thing to turn his luck around. So what if he’s not technically a Spellcrafter – he’s been scribing pretty words and phrases all his life. How could anyone possibly write a better verse than him?
Yuri Volnikov, the taciturn Russian security guard at Precious Greetings, is determined to keep the charming contestant out. But Dixon has always been a sucker for big guys with exotic accents, and he won’t take no for an answer.
Whether or not Dixon wins the prize he hopes for, when he and Yuri work their magic together, it’s clear that luck is on their side.
The ABCs of Spellcraft is a series filled with bad jokes and good magic, where M/M romance meets paranormal cozy. A perky hero, a brooding love interest, and delightfully twisty-turny stories that never end up quite where you’d expect.
This collection contains the first five stories in The ABCs of Spellcraft series: Quill Me Now, All that Glitters, Trouble in Taco Town, Something Stinks at the Spa, and Dead Man’s Quill.
REVIEW:
I didn’t quite know what I was getting into when I picked up this book. I’d seen the series a while ago and found it interesting and figured if it was ever produced in audio that would be the time to finally get to it.
This book is a collection of the entire The ABCs of Spellcraft series. We follow Dixon as he enters a greeting card contest in the hopes of using the pretty words he’d been constructing his entire life – but weren’t able to use as he failed his Spellcraft initiation. But things at Precious Greetings are more sinister than he could imagine and being who he is, he obviously couldn’t walk away from it. So he ended up with a huge Russian Seer and a Quill. The two set out to set the wrongs to right and it’s an adventure that takes them to Taco town, a spa and to old friends. All in the hopes of finding and stopping Dixon’s uncle from scribing any more bad Spellcrafts.
This book is quirky, a bit insane and fun. It’s a book that I shouldn’t have liked, one that normally would have grated on my nerves for being too much. But it didn’t! I had such a great time beginning to end. A lot of that was due to the fabulous narration by Nick Hudson. This story was over the top in every way possible, and in the best way possible. It balanced on that fine edge of being over the top but still fun and engaging without going into the ridiculous territory. A fine balance that Jordan Castillo Price crafted very well.
There were many fun adventures in this collection. I think my favourite part was the novella where Yuri met Dixon’s parents. I think it was the more emotional story and we really connected to Yuri, his wariness of family and the longing to belong. And when you add in the glitter beard it made it all that much better – and funnier – and oh so very awkward.
From the beginning you could tell Nick Hudson was a very enthusiastic narrator. He felt what he was narrating, lived with the characters and everything that happened in the book/s. It was easy to be swept along while listening and you couldn’t help but to be captivated by all the events that happened. I honestly believe Hudson was the perfect choice of narrator, the book and characters were such a perfect fit, I rarely come across that kind of fit. He was these characters with every word he spoke.
I really enjoyed the Russian accent he had for Yuri. It really added to his character and the feel of the book. Hudson could make the listener see Yuri while listening, his standoffish and quiet ways, the brute force, the frustration of having to go along with every insane idea Dixon came up with – and there were plenty of them. It wasn’t only Yuri tat Hudson perfected to a T. Dixon was too – he made the listener feel his exuberant personality, the restlessness and the need and want to help everyone he met – and rarely in the easiest or most obvious way. He crafted his own path and made due with what he found – expected or not.
I’d definitely recommend this book for anyone looking to have an (insane) fun time. The world building is interesting and puts a new twist to the paranormal. And when you add in colourful characters and an awesome narration you can’t really go wrong.
RATING: 
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