Anica Storm & The Wand of Time – Book Review
I am so excited about the release of this great new portal fantasy! And I can’t wait to tell you why I loved it in this spoiler-free review. As many of you already know, I am a huge fan of portal fantasy, so I was extremely happy to get an ARC (advanced reader copy) of this book, Anica Storm & the Wand of Time.
If you also love portal fantasy, this is a must read! But if you’ve never read a portal fantasy before, this is a great one to start with. Let me set the stage for you:
Anica Storm is heading to Europe for the trip of a lifetime. She’s a bookworm, a coffee addict, and the kind of person who says exactly what she’s thinking before her brain has time to object. On the plane, she meets a charming stranger who makes an eighteen-hour flight feel like nothing. Things are going well. Really, really well.
Then she gets into the wrong cab.
What starts as a heart-pounding abduction sequence—and trust me, the prologue alone had me reading with my hand over my mouth—spirals into something far stranger and far bigger than anything Anica could have imagined. She wakes up in Airrah, a hidden realm where magic and science blur together, portals connect countless worlds, and nothing works the way she expects it to.
Why It Stands Out
This book does so many things at once, and it does them all well. Which is rare, and makes for a very enjoyable read.
The world-building is massive without ever feeling like an info dump. So you don’t need to stress about keeping up with all the new fantasy elements. Wolff introduces Airrah through Anica’s own bewildered, hilarious reactions to everything around her.
You learn about the world as she does, such as through conversations with a kind elderly couple who take her in, through a wise and wonderfully sarcastic wizard named Marcel who becomes her guide, and through increasingly dangerous encounters with creatures that range from fascinating to terrifying.
There are dragons. There are vampires. There’s a steampunk robot named Franklin. I am obsessed with steampunk, so that made me really happy. There’s a creature called a Bobahrallicka that I’m still thinking about. And there are vampire cows—yes, you read that correctly—explained through a folk legend so absurd and delightful that I laughed out loud reading it.
It was fun and unique, and an absolute wild ride to experience!
But what really sets this book apart is the emotional core. This isn’t just a fantasy adventure with cool creatures and flashy magic. Anica leaves behind a best friend fighting cancer. She falls for someone who may not be who he seems. She’s surrounded by people who become a found family she didn’t know she needed.
There’s guaranteed to be something about Anica and her story that you can relate to. This is what kept me up late turning the pages, when I should have been sleeping.
I also really enjoyed the well-placed humor. It makes the reading more enjoyable and lightens some of the heavy topics, but not in a way that feels disrespectful.
The Magic System
When we talk about fantasy and magical books, we also have to explore the magic system. Time magic in this universe doesn’t rewind. Instead, it overwrites. This is an important distinction.
Every choice costs something, and the consequences feel permanent in a way that a lot of fantasy series promise but rarely deliver. I kept waiting for the convenient undo button, and it never came. That kind of commitment to consequences is rare, and it makes every decision feel heavy, and makes the book unputdownable!
Who’s It For?
Well, first: ME. Literally, I feel like it was written especially for me. But I think that’s just the magic of a great story and great writing. I think you’ll love it, too. Especially if you like portal fantasy, found family, darkly funny lead characters, and world-building that really sucks you into a new time and place.
It’s also a long book – it’s epic fantasy in length but nothing feels like filler or fluff. If you’re looking for something you can really sink your teeth into, this may be just the book for you.
Sum It Up
Anica Storm & The Wand of Time is the first book in a trilogy, and after finishing it, I immediately wanted Book 2. This is the kind of series opener that builds a world you want to live in, introduces characters you genuinely care about, and sets up stakes that feel like they’re only going to get bigger. Jessica Wolff originally wrote this story back in 2012, and this new edition feels like a passion project that’s been polished into something really special.
It’s 5 stars from me!
If this sounds up your alley and you want to check it out for yourself, you can find it on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle editions. It’s also free to read in Kindle Unlimited.