Second Chance Magic
A debut cozy fantasy novel, arriving Q1 2027.
Evander Greystone is the worst student in the history of Brightspire Academy. After failing his first-year exam for the third time, he sets out to start a new life in the cozy, rainy city of Brimm. His vision? A spellshop selling cantrips, the simplest form of magic dismissed as beneath the notice of proper mages.
Soon, he finds himself in the company of a kobold with dreams of learning magic, and a guild regulator who sees him as her ticket to a long-overdue promotion — yet finds more and more excuses to linger in the store.
When confronted by an elite merchant with a monopoly on blank spellbooks, Evander is coerced into a contract that threatens everything he's built. Will he let his newfound community slip away in service of someone else's ambition? Or will he find his rightful place in the world of magic once and for all…
…not as the mage Brightspire failed to make him, but as something entirely new.
About the author
Paxton Cruz lives in the desert foothills of Southern Arizona. He is infamous among his writerly friends for starting a thousand-thousand projects and finishing only one. Outside of writing, he enjoys finding himself lost in nature and submerging himself in ice-cold lakes and rivers.
During his odd career trajectory, he's chased lizards through the jungles of the Yucatan, studied tuberculosis in a BSL-3 laboratory, and helped senior executives at Fortune 500 companies find their next job.