Review: The Everlasting Spell by Kristin Ravelle

This novelette was published in 2013 by Kristin Ravelle. It has twenty-nine pages in it. I was given a copy of it for review by Ms. Ravelle herself.

Casting a full moon spell to capture the love of Justin Rokoff seems crazy to college psychology student, Sabina Clair.

When she overhears a conversation about a powerful Celandrium Shop love spell, Sabina decides to take desperate measures to attract Justin, the captain of the men’s rowing team and her unrequited crush since starting college.

The bliss of Justin’s immediate and undivided romantic attention very quickly turns to dread when the antique spell works perfectly, with unexpected, sinister results.

Sabina must now find a way to reverse an irreversible spell before it undoes her! - Goodreads.com

This sounds exactly like my kind of novelette. Sabina has a crush on her classmate, Justin. She wishes he would give her more than just a courtesy glance as a member of the women's rowing team. When she learns there is a spell out there that could cause him to fall in love with her, she snaps up that chance. She is told that there are no antidotes. 

That should have been Sabina's first clue things were going to go wrong. I would never buy a spell or potion or anything if there were no way to undo it. That's one of the most dangerous things you can do. I half expected that it would end in a very bad way for Sabina. 

I liked the way the book was written for the most part, but I think some sections could have been fleshed out a little more. There might have been more detail about the Celandrium Shop or if what I assume was witchcraft was even believed in or common in their area. It would not have made sense for her to go to a shop that dealt in spells if she did not believe in it. I did think her being a psychology student was a nice touch. There could have been more information on why Sabina was moved up in the rowing team. Just generally more there to the story.

Well done, Sabina figuring out how to undo the spell. I would never have thought of that myself and I pride myself on thinking out of the box. I liked the way it wrapped up and I can only imagine what Nicole's reaction to Sabina's story would. 

I gave this book a 3.5/5 because of the shortness. Though I would definitely add this to the list of novelettes I would recommend to friends. If it were part of a similarly themed (such as love-spell or be careful what you wish for) anthology(-ies), it would be perfect.