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lobelia321Crossposted from Goodreads.
**spoiler alert** This was very enjoyable to read. There is an interesting kind of magical world-building, a bit reminiscent of Harry Potter, a bit reminiscent of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and a bit reminiscent of The Magpie Lord. There is a rather clever thing that joins the game of cat's cradle to the kind of nice hand motion gesturing of some magic systems. There are also the themes of old magical families, blood magic, squibs, muggle obliviation (called different things).
And a very sexy central m/m pairing.
I thought the book didn't quite make up its mind as to what it was: magical fantasy, a murder mystery, a love story, dark fantasy, an Edwardian country house story. Not that these can't be mashed up together but for me there was a bit of a disconnect between the elements. For a murder mystery, the pace was at times slowed down by beautiful similes and metaphors, maybe more suited to poetry or literary fiction. For me, it got really interesting 3/4 of the way through but then stopped short because: trilogy!
There is also torture and a lot of explicit sex. Personally, I like to be forewarned about both of these, and especially the torture. And here I have a beef with the publishers who produced a thoroughly misleading cover. I was led to believe this was going to be a genteel romp. Endorsements like 'a confection', 'sexual tension in the library', 'Downton Abbey with magic' or the tag line 'Enter a hidden world of magic, manners and mayhem' led me to expect something much less dark than this story actually is. Plus the cover which is lovely (designed by Will Staehle) looks a lot like an m/m romance cover, and the bright pink and orange colour scheme does not point towards 'dark torture curses', either.
So I was not prepared for at least half the book dealing with a man being tormented.
I also don't always feel like sexy sex and like to choose my times when I read it. I enjoyed it in this book but it is a problem with traditional publishers: they do not include content warnings. And I really think they should.
These are issues with the publisher, not to do with the author. And as per usual, this British-made hard-cover book is glued, not stitched, so has a creaky cheap-sounding cover and a stiff spine.
Finished 1 Jan. 2022.
**spoiler alert** This was very enjoyable to read. There is an interesting kind of magical world-building, a bit reminiscent of Harry Potter, a bit reminiscent of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and a bit reminiscent of The Magpie Lord. There is a rather clever thing that joins the game of cat's cradle to the kind of nice hand motion gesturing of some magic systems. There are also the themes of old magical families, blood magic, squibs, muggle obliviation (called different things).
And a very sexy central m/m pairing.
I thought the book didn't quite make up its mind as to what it was: magical fantasy, a murder mystery, a love story, dark fantasy, an Edwardian country house story. Not that these can't be mashed up together but for me there was a bit of a disconnect between the elements. For a murder mystery, the pace was at times slowed down by beautiful similes and metaphors, maybe more suited to poetry or literary fiction. For me, it got really interesting 3/4 of the way through but then stopped short because: trilogy!
There is also torture and a lot of explicit sex. Personally, I like to be forewarned about both of these, and especially the torture. And here I have a beef with the publishers who produced a thoroughly misleading cover. I was led to believe this was going to be a genteel romp. Endorsements like 'a confection', 'sexual tension in the library', 'Downton Abbey with magic' or the tag line 'Enter a hidden world of magic, manners and mayhem' led me to expect something much less dark than this story actually is. Plus the cover which is lovely (designed by Will Staehle) looks a lot like an m/m romance cover, and the bright pink and orange colour scheme does not point towards 'dark torture curses', either.
So I was not prepared for at least half the book dealing with a man being tormented.
I also don't always feel like sexy sex and like to choose my times when I read it. I enjoyed it in this book but it is a problem with traditional publishers: they do not include content warnings. And I really think they should.
These are issues with the publisher, not to do with the author. And as per usual, this British-made hard-cover book is glued, not stitched, so has a creaky cheap-sounding cover and a stiff spine.
Finished 1 Jan. 2022.