ARC Review: The Cost of All Things by Maggie Lehrman

Title: The Cost of all Things
Author: Maggie Lehrman 
Genre: Contemporary 
Source: Edelweiss
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: 
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Summary: 

What would you pay to cure your heartbreak? Banish your sadness? Transform your looks? The right spell can fix anything…. When Ari's boyfriend Win dies, she gets a spell to erase all memory of him. But spells come at a cost, and this one sets off a chain of events that reveal the hidden—and sometimes dangerous—connections between Ari, her friends, and the boyfriend she can no longer remember.

Review: 

I think we have all wanted a something to magically happen to us, a spell maybe to make us beautiful, wanted, to forget something tragic. We have all been there. But what happens when we would actually have this chance? Lehrman created a reality slightly different from our own where you can buy spells to make you the things you wanted. Hekamists, now illegal operate on a now black market selling these spells to people. But our actions always have consequences and I feel this is the most important message I took from this book: Your own choices have consequences.

The Cost of All Things is told in alternating points of view of Markos, Ari, Win and Kay. My favorite thing about the alternating views is Win's. He talks about his struggle with depression and it was so easy to relate to him. Suffering from depression myself it was nice to see an author hit the nail on the head for once. Kay annoyed me and that is because I see so much of myself in her. She didn't want her friends to leave her and she found a way so they couldn't. But she was also a bit whiny and where everyone was mourning the death of Win, all she was worried about was her friends leaving her. Markos broke my heart, Win's death hit him the hardest and we see his life fall apart. I didn't like Ari. The moment she said she wanted the spell to forget Win, I washed my hands with her. Even though Echo's point of view wasn't given I did enjoy her character very much, though it wish we did get her point of view to see more of her background and what it was like the be a Hekamist. Though I has a few problems with the characters they were anything but black-and-white, written with depth to them. 

I really enjoyed the reality that was crafted for us, the only thing that is different from our reality is the Hekamists. Hekamists can create spells, but besides a money price there is another price too. For Kay's beauty spell she lost some of her intelligence, for Ari's forgetting spell she lost her ability to dance. There is a price for everything. 

The ending of The Cost of All Things confused me a bit, but it was thrilling and heart breaking and a lot of questions you had asked are answered. So being content with it I am also upset about how somethings where left off. But Lehrman did a good job wrapping everything up so you aren't too unhappy about it. Overall I really loved The Cost of All Things and I can't wait to read more from Lehrman soon. 

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