The Reluctant Archmage

Ilaria Voss has been banned from every lecture hall at the Mage's Academy, which is fine, because she has been sneaking into the library instead. Then the Archmage drops dead in front of four hundred students, and the Founder's Ledger — a book that writes tomorrow's spells tonight — writes her name on the next page. The faculty refuse. The Ledger repeats itself. And Chancellor Aurel Sabran, who has spent twenty years keeping that book from choosing anyone, is ordered to prepare her for an office that has killed its last three holders within a season. He tutors her in a cold tower room with two chairs and one lamp. Neither of them mentions what the Ledger is actually naming. A classic high fantasy academy romance about bad teachers, worse wards, and the arithmetic of who pays.