Wicked Magic is a fantasy novel by Margot de Klerk. Nathan’s eighteenth birthday is approaching as well as his initiation into being an official hunter. Training since the age of five, he’s from one of the oldest hunting families, and having a father he doesn’t want to disappoint doesn’t help matters much. Nathan becomes even more distracted when he meets a shapeshifting girl named Cynthia, and they start dating. After being shown what life as a hunter entails, Nathan begins to have problems with the way things are for a hunter. He doesn’t like the brutality and struggles with the idea that most hunters only protect humans from vampires. It feels unethical to him. Having magical friends, he wants to protect those who can’t defend themselves, no matter if they are human or not. He discovers that Cynthia and her family are being hunted by dark witches called Sahir. Then, Nathan’s friend Monica catches wind of a dark witch named Kseniya in Oxford, and it’s starting to look as if the attempts on Cynthia and her family are connected. What’s even stranger is that it seems like the witches' council and the adults around him all have secrets of their own that could be connected to what’s happening. When things start to become deadly, Nathan knows that this coven of evil witches means business, but first, he needs to find out why they are in Oxford and what they want with his girlfriend.

I loved this book! It’s been such a long time since I read a book that has kept me on the edge of my seat, and this one doesn’t disappoint. I thought the characters were very well thought out and relatable. I liked Nathan, Monica, and Adrian the most, and I liked the idea of a soon-to-be hunter who went against the grain and befriended magical beings that he was taught not to. His acceptance and questioning of the way hunters do things was refreshing, unlike any other book I have read before. The plot was so interesting and kept my attention right until the end. Wicked Magic was such a unique novel that I couldn’t put it down. Margot de Klerk has done a great job with this story, and I can’t wait to read the next Vampires of Oxford book.

Wicked Magic is the first installment of The Vampires of Oxford series by Margot de Klerk. Seventeen-year-old Nathan Delacroix struggles to fulfill his duties as a Hunter of supernatural beings, causing much dissatisfaction amongst his family members. His favorite uncle, Adrian, was a talented Hunter who became a Vampire, much to the chagrin of his brothers. Alongside his best friend Monica, a sassy Witch, Nathan roams the streets of Oxford and trains to become a fully-fledged Hunter while navigating his studies and his crush, Cynthia, a Shapeshifter. But when a group of black mages named the Sahir cross his path, Nathan unwittingly finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy involving the Vampire, Witch, and Hunter Council, each of them trying to one-up each other in their bid for ultimate power. Complicating matters further is a traitor in their midst.

Filled with action, drama, romance, and political intrigue, Margot de Klerk's intricately woven young adult adventure tale is bound to entertain lovers of the supernatural genre. The author takes a while to set up the characters and the plot, but the pace picks up significantly by the halfway mark, and you find yourself thoroughly immersed in the story. The characters are colorful, with distinct personalities that make them all the more compelling to read. Nathan is a likable protagonist, and his relationship with his family and friends forms the bulk of the narrative. I particularly enjoyed his dynamic with Adrian and Monica. If you're a fan of young adult adventure novels featuring vampires, witches, and shapeshifters, check out Wicked Magic.

Wicked Magic by Margot de Klerk is the first story in The Vampires of Oxford series. Nathan is about to graduate as a vampire hunter, something he's spent his life training for, and he's anxious to join his family and take up his position. But things are never really that simple. At 17 years old, Nathan is struggling, not just with his grades but also with his social life, and he has a witch as a best friend. Now his uncle has returned to town, a vampire crushing on another supernatural being, and Nathan's parents are at their wit's end. Nathan has had enough. His teenage head can't take anymore – until the mages arrive. The bodies pile up, and Nathan is being dragged into something deep, a plot that is about to set him against his family and expose secrets that should never be told. When the girl he likes is threatened, Nathan gives his all to solve the mystery, defeat the evil, and pull his family back together – can he do it, or are the forces just too strong?

Wicked Magic is Margot de Klerk's debut novel, and it's a promising start to what looks like an excellent series. Full of magic and mystery, the eternal fight of good against evil, and teenage angst is thrown in for good measure. It's a page-turner that will have you reading long into the night – you won't want to put it down. The pace builds throughout the story as well as the suspense, and each chapter has you desperate to read the next. Full of action, the story has some great characters, developed into real people you can relate to, and you'll feel Nathan's pain as he struggles with first love and family, not to mention trying to save everyone from evil! A great start and what I hope is just the first book in a series – the ending does hint that there may be more to come.

Wicked Magic is a work of fiction in the urban fantasy subgenre, and was penned by author Margot de Klerk. As the opening novel of the Vampires of Oxford book series, the work is aimed at the young adult reading audience and contains only mild explicit language and some fantasy violence. Our central protagonist is Nathan, a young man trained for as long as he can remember in the ways of hunting vampires. But just as he’s about to come of age and join the family business for real, Nathan’s personal life presents some difficult conflicts when supernatural beings he’s not supposed to have contact with come under threat from a band of dark mages that have just arrived in town.

Author Margot de Klerk opens up a spectacularly appealing new young adult series that I, for one, can’t wait to read more. One of the fundamental elements of this novel is the balance between the teenage drama and emotional coming of age arc for Nathan versus the genuine peril and action-filled plot of an urban fantasy adventure. The author delivers both with panache and a smooth narrative flow that is easy to follow and peppered with details, wit, and atmosphere aplenty. I also really enjoyed the cast as a whole ensemble and the way they’re initially presented with an interesting ‘hook’ in their supernatural features or quirks, but then slowly develop into genuine and loveable people who you can’t wait to read more about. Overall, I would highly recommend Wicked Magic to YA readers seeking their next exciting fantasy fix.