Two scholars of magical veterinary science must put aside their lust and loathing to save the world in the first installment of this whimsical, romantic, dark academia duology.
All Gwendolynne Chan needs is to get through final year. As the top student in the magical familiars stream, she is on track to be awarded Dux of the entire school—as long as the pretentious prat Harrisford Briggs doesn’t beat her to it.
Harrisford Briggs’s father, the chief financial officer of Magecorp, a major global distributor of magic, expects him to come top of the class. Harrisford, though, can’t help but notice that his father has been acting odd. And there are strange whisperings, too, of uncontrollable surges of excess magic.
When these magical surges begin to rock London, causing chaos and explosions and familiars going feral, Gwen and Harrisford find themselves reluctantly involved, putting both of their veterinary careers at risk.
Along with Gwen’s snarky cat familiar, Gwen and Harrisford must team up to diagnose the problem. But as the two academic rivals fight their burgeoning feelings, they quickly realize that magic is not the only thing surging.
Title: Strange Familiars
Author: Keshe Chow
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Expected Publication Date: May 19, 2026
Review:
Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I loved the blurb for this book: Academia, magical animals and the vets who care for them, plus a little romance to go along with it all. I was totally intrigued. And, while I was mostly entertained and it seemed like it would be a great read, overall I was more disappointed than not.
There are some grave themes in this book: self harm, death, harm in general. So read those prior to diving in.
It was a fun read but nothing spectacular. I actually felt like it could have used a bit more editing. There was a lot of repetition in the book with phrases and things happening. But it was fun to watch the magic and magical animals.
I liked that the author chose to do dual POV. I feel like this helps the reader truly understand each character. I think this would be fun on audio.
The FMC, Gwendolyn, was likeable enough. She comes from a poor background and needs to prove herself and I enjoy a character who has to work for the things they want. But as the story went on, I just became totally annoyed with her and her self-doubt. There was not really much background to show why she was this way. She mentions self harm a few times, but it's never fully addressed to where it even made sense to include it in the story. I liked the idea of her Chinese background.
Harrisford was nice enough. I hated his name. Maybe because I'm not British, but it was so annoying to keep pronouncing it in my head. I wish he had a nickname. He is a bit of a spoiled rich kid, though I like that he did have some morals. I could see his struggle between being faithful to his family versus his morality.
Overall, I had a hard time connecting with the characters. There are quite a number of side characters that lend some great humor and information to the story. I'd love to see them built out even more.
I saw the build to the romance but it was not enough to really make me ship these two. It didn't totally make sense to me. I needed more scenes that showed how their connection was growing. They are enemies to lovers but that build was just kind of floating in the background. It was so wishy washy; one moment they are connected the next they are fighting. This would work well enough if it was actually built out this way but it just flip flopped and didn't really build for me. There was so much telling for the romance rather than showing.
The characters really seemed so much younger than their ages, as well. This read more like a YA book rather than adult or maybe even new adult.
The world building was interesting. I liked the idea of the magic and how it was used. How the characters didn't automatically have the magic, it needed to be purchased. I've not read anything like that before. But the actual world building was lacking for me. I needed much more background so I could truly understand it. The pacing was a bit uneven. Some parts I was able to fly through, others I struggled to finish a chapter.
The biggest issue with this book for me was the telling. It just assumed the reader could not possibly understand things unless they were fully explained.
Overall, I enjoyed this enough but I don't think I'll be continuing on with the series.
Author:
Keshe was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and migrated to Australia when she was two. She currently lives in Naarm (Melbourne) with her partner, two kids, and two cats.
She has won multiple awards for short fiction, as well as the 2022 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript.
Her second YA fantasy novel, FOR NO MORTAL CREATURE is due out in 2025 with Penguin Random House.
