Thank you to NetGalley for the free ARC.

Lost Talent is a really nice book with cosy magic and a diverse cast of characters. The narrative moves between the characters’ present situation and their past together at Oakward academy, where we learn more about their history together.

✨📚 Lost Talent 📚 ✨

Thank you to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op and NetGalley for the advanced copy. I’ll be sharing my full review closer to publication date.

📅 Pub Date: April 3, 2026

I really enjoyed the concepts of this book, and it you can get past the grammatical errors and inconsistencies, it’s an excellent story with a well thought out plot, exploring LGBTQ+ themes and magic in a new and intriguing way!

The use of multiple POVs and flashback chapters was very well done, and the story as a whole was engaging to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an e-arc of this book!

3.25 ⭐️

This was a super fun short mystery fantasy that I got stuck into!! I enjoyed the writing style and plot of the story. We follow Mina and her friends as they have just left Oakward Academy. When Sol goes missing Mina, Heidi and Beryl must figure out what has happened and get Sol back!

This story jumps between multiple timelines, following the mystery of missing Sol in modern day while giving us background on the characters from their time in school. While we got background on each of the characters I would have loved even more! This story is extremely inclusive, centering autistic, non-binary and asexual characters!
Potential spoilers on characters here***** I really loved Beryl’s character and the exploration of their gender identity through the use of the magic system in the book! I would have loved more on Heidi’s journey with autism, but the representation was beautifully done!

SPOILERS*** The only place I struggled a bit was with Mina coming out as asexual. I would like to start by saying that this may be me putting my own experience onto the story and therefore misunderstanding! I felt the story framed asexuality as an absence of sexual and romantic attraction, which to me is aro-ace. I completely stand by Mina not wanting to be with Sol and not feeling anything for him, but I felt the book framed asexuality as no romantic connection which isn’t always the case! Again this might be me misinterpreting it, but as someone on the ace spectrum that was how I felt!

Overall I really enjoyed the story! For a debut the writing was excellent and I loved how diverse the characters were!! I would love to read more by MS Palmer in the future!

This was such a fun fantasy read. I got pulled into the story pretty quickly and really enjoyed the mix of magic, mystery, and adventure running through it.

I especially liked watching the characters figure things out as the story unfolded. There’s that feeling of slowly discovering more about the world and what’s actually going on, which always keeps me hooked.

It’s one of those fantasy reads that’s really easy to sink into for a while. If you like magic, strong characters, and a bit of mystery woven through the story, this one is definitely worth checking out.