A Forbidden Alchemy Book Review
He heard her laughter, and he thought its sound could end a war.
Synopsis
This stunning slow-burn romantasy follows a fated pair who uncover a world-changing secret and are thrust into a violent class war, navigating love, loss, and devastating betrayals.
Nina Harrow and Patrick Colson are twelve years old when they are whisked away from the shadows of their disenfranchised mining towns to dazzling Belavere City to discover their magical potential. Those who pass Belavere’s test will become Artisans, wielders of powerful elemental magic destined to fulfill the city’s grand ambitions. For Nina, the Artisan School symbolizes a dream and an escape from her harsh reality, while Patrick yearns to return to his Craftsman family, whose extraordinary physical strength serves the idium mines keeping the city alive.
And then they uncover a devastating truth: Artisans aren’t born, they’re chosen. They part ways on very different paths, leaving them to carry the burden of this secret alone.
In the years that follow, a Craftsman revolution ignites, thrusting Nina and Patrick into opposing factions of a brewing war. Now an elite Artisan with the very rare talent for charming earth, Nina has turned her back on the fight, haunted by the loss of her found family. But fate intervenes when she is captured by Patrick’s rebel group. Despite the years and conflict that separates them, Patrick hasn’t forgotten Nina. He desperately seeks her help for a mission that could shift the tides against Belavere City. Reluctantly, she agrees, battling the sparks flying between them. But when Nina’s first love reappears, asking her to betray Patrick for the sake of the Artisans, Nina faces an impossible choice that could alter the fate of their world.
REVIEW
Okay. Deep breath.
I finished A Forbidden Alchemy weeks ago and I still think about it almost every single day. It’s not just the best book I’ve read this year—it might be one of my favorite books ever. Stacey McEwan owns me now, and I’m not even mad about it.
The book starts with two twelve-year-olds—Nina Harrow and Patrick Colson—being whisked away from their crumbling, working-class towns to the elite, shining city of Belavere to see if they’re “special” enough to become Artisans, the city’s magical upper class. But what they find out is… not what they expected. “Artisans aren’t born, they’re chosen.” And chosen how, exactly? Let’s just say it’s not by talent alone. That truth shatters everything between them.
Fast-forward a few years and Nina and Patrick are on opposite sides of a class war. Nina is now one of Belavere’s elite, with a rare magical ability to charm the earth itself. Patrick is leading the rebellion. And when their paths cross again, it is electrifying.
The tension between them is immaculate, and the banter is devastating in the best way. I can’t stress this enough: the BANTER. The moments between them. It just ruined me.
“Hello, Miss Clarke,” he said in that same drawl, as though every word dragged from his lips was one too many. He studied me openly, his eyes gliding over my feet, legs, waist, chest, neck, and then, finally, his eyes found mine.
Prismatic blue.
A shock bolted through me.
“I’ve been lookin’ for you,” he said.
Patrick Colson is peak Tommy Shelby energy. He’s quiet, sharp, infuriating, gentle when you least expect it, and completely undone by Nina.
“I never had a hope in the world of forgetting you, Scurry girl.”
That man opened his mouth and I fell in love. His attention to Nina is so intense, it’s almost unbearable at times. The way he sees her, how he never really stopped seeing her… I swooned. I screamed. I annotated the heck out of my copy and will treasure it forever.
Nina is just as compelling—smart, wounded, angry, brave. She’s been through hell and refuses to go back to who she once was. I love her grit, her guilt, her softness buried under armor.
How I hated the quiet. The solitude. Seven years, and it clung to me still. I wanted volume and laughter and the tinkling of many voices talking at once. I wanted meals in the company of others whose elbows rested alongside mine. I wanted to reclaim familiarity with someone who knew who I was. I wanted and wanted and wanted but had learned to ignore it.
She doesn’t let anyone tell her who she is, and when people try, she remembers:
I was young.
I was not the weapon they thought me.
And Donny—Patrick’s brother—he’s such a fun addition. He brings levity and warmth and made me laugh more than once. Honestly, all of McEwan’s characters feel real and alive. Even the background ones.
But it’s McEwan’s writing that makes this book magic. She’s subtle and sharp and somehow manages to break your heart and stitch it back together in the span of a few lines.
He looked at me, tormented, a card house quickly folding. And I couldn’t say why I pushed him, or why I felt suddenly starved. In truth, I wasn’t thinking at all. I only felt, and whatever it was, I was sure he felt it, too.
So when he crowded me against the door I was already expecting it, and I hardly moved, hardly breathed. His hands slipped over my waist and around my back, and his voice ghosted over my lips. “I’ll wake up tomorrow, and you’ll have been somethin’ I imagined, I’m sure of it.” And then his lips pressed to mine. Briefly, softly, and so heart-wrenchingly gentle.
It’s the gentleness that wrecks you. It’s never overwrought. McEwan doesn’t have to scream—she whispers, and it guts you even more.
The second half of the book is filled with twists. And there are moments so intense, especially towards the end, I had to physically stop reading because my heart was racing and I wasn’t ready. That ending—Jesus. I knew it was going to hurt, and I still wasn’t prepared. I dreaded every page, knowing what was coming, and yet I couldn’t stop.
How many moments had he imagined her in his hands? A hundred? A thousand? Could she feel the core of him rearing, clawing her into its recess?
What will I do, he thought, if she claws her way out?
McEwan burns everything to the ground, and somehow, you still thank her for it. When I finished, I just sat there, blinking at the last page, thinking “What the hell am I supposed to do now?”
So yeah. I’m obsessed. I don’t even have it in me to be chill about this book. Read it. Let it destroy you. Let it ruin all other slow burns for a while. I’ll just be over here thinking about how every woman wants a man to think of her like this:
He was nearing insanity. Lord, but being near her was a descent into madness.
Thank you so, so much to Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, for the free copy for review!
Expected publication date is 1 July 2025.
Author Profile
Stacey McEwan is a school teacher by day and fantasy writer by night. She lives on the Gold Coast, Australia with her husband and two children. When Stacey isn’t writing, teaching, or making ridiculous content on social media, you’ll find her playing with her children, reading, annoying her husband, or possibly all three at once. She was signed by Angry Robot Books in 2021, who released her debut novel in September 2022.
