strange and random happenstance

The Cyprian by Mercedes Lackey
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: December 30th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
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The official patter:
"A cozy, cottage-core Regency fantasy perfect for fans of Bridgerton.

Elena Whitstone and her seven brothers, abandoned by her mother, find themselves with a new stepmother. At first she seems more neglectful than evil, until just after Christmas she proves herself to be worse than evil; she is an actual magician, a Master of Water, who attempts to murder Elena's seven brothers when they are skating. When they survive that attempt by transforming into swans, she drives them away.

But the shock of having all of his heirs perish in a frozen pond is too much for Elena's father. He dies, and his widow is abruptly confronted with the inconvenient truth that the estate is entailed, and she not only must leave, she is lawfully in charge of Elena.

Furious, and possessing "only" what was gifted to her during her marriage, the stepmother retreats to Bath, to take up residence in the luxurious townhouse that was bought for her, and resume her former profession as a "Cyprian," a very exclusive courtesan, with Elena reluctantly posing as a page-boy and her servant. Nothing lasts forever, of course, and three years later, Elena is rapidly maturing too much to continue that ruse - and the stepmother is facing the ravages of time. The stepmother concocts a plan to establish an exclusive brothel and regain her wealth by selling Elena to the highest bidder.

Alone, Elena must not only find a way to save herself, but to reverse the spell that has transformed her brothers.

The latest in Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series is a stand-alone romantasy based on Hans Christian Anderson's The Wild Swans."

To end the year with some new Regency Magic is just the kind of good omen I need for the coming year.

Tea and Alchemy by Sharon Lynn Fisher
Published by: 47north
Publication Date: December 30th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 299 Pages
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The official patter:
"A tea leaf reader in nineteenth-century England falls in love - and in danger - with a reclusive alchemist in an enthralling historical fantasy by the author of Salt and Broom and Grimm Curiosities.

Cornwall, 1854. The people of Roche have always whispered about the recluse in the black granite tower that looms above the moorland. But one young woman is driven to discover the truth behind the old tales.

Her life overshadowed by family tragedy, Mina Penrose escapes her lonely days by working at The Magpie, a cozy tearoom on the village's edge. Lately she's been seeing shapes in the sodden leaves that hint at the future. After one such omen, Mina stumbles upon a murdered man on the heath. Villagers immediately suspect Harker Tregarrick, a living, breathing mystery who never ventures beyond the bounds of his centuries-old estate.

Until the day after the murder, when the handsome and compelling recluse visits The Magpie...leading to a meeting that will change both their fates. Captivated by a man around whom danger and rumors of death swirl, Mina has never felt more alive. Can she uncover Harker's heartbreaking history - and the truth about the murder - before tragedy strikes again?"

Gothic Cornwall? Daphne du Maurier would approve!

An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: December 30th, 2025
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A modern-day dark academia fantasy with a twist, perfect for fans of Babel and A Deadly Education.

Warren University has stood amongst the ivy elite for centuries, built on the bones - and forbidden magic - of its most prized BIPOC students...hiding the rot of a secret society that will do anything to keep their own powers burning bright. No matter who they must sacrifice along the way.

Ellory Morgan is determined to prove that she belongs at Warren University, an ivy league school whose history is deeply linked to occult rumors and dark secrets. But as she settles into her Freshman year, something about the ornate buildings and shadowy paths feels strangely...familiar. And, with every passing day, that sense of déjà vu grows increasingly sinister.

Despite all logic, despite all reason, despite all the rules of reality, Ellory knows one thing to be true: she has been here before. And if she can't convince brooding legacy student Hudson Graves to help her remember a past that seems determined to slip through her fingers as if by some insidious magic...this time, she may lose herself for good."

Dark academia with déjà? Yes please and more!

Crime Rangoon by Vivien Chien
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: December 30th, 2025
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"It's stranger than fiction when Lana Lee investigates a murder that mimics the plot of a bestselling mystery, working together with her detective boyfriend for the first time ever.

Cindy Kwan, owner of Asia Village's bookshop, The Modern Scroll, is privileged to host best-selling author, Charlene Chan for a signing in honor of the writer's latest book, The Mystery of General Tso.

Lana Lee is equally excited for the appearance of her favorite author and even more so when Cindy asks her to be Charlene's "handler" for the event. Taking her duties very seriously, Lana stays by the side of the prominent author to assist in anything that she might need.

With a line out the door and stretched through the plaza, Cindy is overjoyed at what a success this is for her shop. But, unfortunately for Cindy, her success comes with a price: the author is found dead in the mystery aisle, clutching a copy of her own book. Coincidentally the book's plot matches the details of the murder.

Lana's boyfriend, Detective Adam Trudeau, is charged with leading the case investigation, but finds himself overwhelmed when he realizes just how much of the book series is mimicked in reality. For the first time in their relationship, Adam calls on Lana to partner up with him to help solve the case. The couple must work through the novel to outwit the murderer, stay one step ahead, and beat the die-hard fan to the last chapter."

I really think Jessica Fletcher would approve of this one.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bath, Cornwall, Crime Rangoon, Daphne Du Maurier, Dark Academia, Gothic, Hans Christian Anderson, Kamilah Cole, Mercedes Lackey, Noodle Shop Mystery, Regency Magic, Sharon Lynn Fisher, The Cyprian, The Wild Swans, Vivien Chien

Miss Amelia's List by Mercedes Lackey
Published by: Daw Books
Publication Date: December 24th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The seventeenth novel in the magical alternate history Elemental Masters series follows Amelia Stonehold and Serena Meleva as they navigate property acquisition, marriage proposals, and other ancient horrors in Regency England, but with the help of elemental magic.

The year is 1815, and an American, Miss Amelia Stonehold, has arrived in the Devon town of Axminster, accompanied by her "cousin" Serena Meleva. She's brought with her a list to tick off: find a property, investigate the neighbors, bargain for and purchase the property, staff the property and...possibly...find a husband. But Amelia soon finds herself contending with some decidedly off-list trouble, including the Honorable Captain Harold Roughtower, whose eyes are fixed on her fortune. Little does Amelia know that his plans for her wealth extend far beyond refurbishing his own crumbing estate - they include the hidden Roman temple of Glykon, where something very old, very angry, and very dangerous still lurks.

But Roughtower isn't prepared to reckon with the fact that neither Amelia nor Serena are pushovers. And he certainly isn't ready for the revelation that he has an Earth Master and a Fire Mage on his hands - or that one of them is a shapeshifter."

Mercedes Lackey writing Regency Magic!?! How did she know what I wanted for Christmas!?!

The Matter of the Secret Bride by Darcie Wilde
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: December 24th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Jane Austen meets Fleabag in Regency London, as a resourceful young woman with a talent for helping ladies of the ton with their most delicate and pressing predicaments finds herself facing a task of royal proportions. Literally.

King George IV is petitioning Parliament for a divorce from his queen on the grounds of her adultery. But rumor has it that the king secretly married Maria Fitzherbert - long before he married the queen. Now Mrs. Fitzherbert has been robbed - and she's frantically calling on Rosalind for help.

Because what those thieves took is proof that she and King George did really marry. That single piece of paper could destroy Mrs. Fitzherbert and her family - or it could prove the king guilty of bigamy.

Rosalind races to investigate. With her is ex-Bow Street officer, Adam Harkness, with whom Rosalind shares a complex and rapidly intensifying bond. But a case of theft soon turns to murder...

Josiah Poole, a disreputable attorney specializing in helping debtors - and who was seen entering Mrs. Fitzherbert's house - is found brutally murdered. Mrs. Fitzherbert has debts. Could she have staged the theft, and employed Mr. Poole to sell the marriage certificate? Or is the truth even more complicated? Mrs. Fitzherbert's daughters have secrets of their own. And Poole himself had no shortage of enemies.

With suspicious coincidences mounting, and more danger encroaching, Rosalind and Adam must move quickly to unravel a history-making mystery that might just lead them straight to the palace itself..."

Oh, a mystery rooted in very real history! I love it!

The Case of the Missing Maid by Rob Osler
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: December 24th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The acclaimed author of the Anthony, Agatha, Macavity, and Lefty Award-nominated Devil's Chew Toy delights with the first in a new historical mystery series set in turn-of-the-19th-century Chicago, as America is entering its Progressive Era and Harriet Morrow, a bike-riding, trousers-wearing lesbian, has just begun her new job as the first female detective at the Windy City's Prescott Agency...

Chicago, 1898. Rough-around-the-edges Harriet Morrow has long been drawn to the idea of whizzing around the city on her bicycle as a professional detective, solving crimes for a living without having to take a husband. Just twenty-one with a younger brother to support, she seizes the chance when the prestigious Prescott Agency hires her as its first woman operative. The move sparks controversy - with skeptical male colleagues, a high-strung office secretary, and her boss, Mr. Theodore Prescott, all waiting for her to unravel under the pressure...

Only an hour into the job, Harriet has an assignment: Discover the whereabouts of a missing maid from one of the most extravagant mansions on Prairie Avenue. Owner Pearl Bartlett has a reputation for sending operatives on wild goose chases around her grand estate, but Harriet believes the stunningly beautiful Agnes Wozniak has indeed vanished under mysterious circumstances - possibly a victim of kidnapping, possibly a victim of something worse...

With Mr. Prescott pushing a hard deadline, Harriet's burgeoning career depends on working through a labyrinth of eccentric characters and murky motives in a race to discover who made Agnes disappear. When her search leads to Chicago's Polish community and a new friendship in Agnes's charming older sister, Barbara, clues scattered across the city slowly reveal just how much depends on Harriet's inexperienced investigation for answers...and the deep danger that awaits once she learns the truth."

I miss the bygone times when detective agencies were rather large instead of one of two people.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Chicago, Christmas, Darcie Wilde, Historical Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Mercedes Lackey, Miss Amelia's List, Regency, Regency Magic, Rob Osler, The Case of the Missing Maid, The Matter of the Secret Bride

Death of an Author by E.C.R. Lorac
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: April 30th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"E.C.R. Lorac spins a twisting tale full of wry humor and red herrings, poking some fun at her contemporary reviewers, who long suspected the Lorac pseudonym to belong to a male author.

Vivian Lestrange - celebrated author of the popular mystery novel The Charterhouse Case and total recluse - has apparently dropped off the face of the Earth. After he was reported missing by his secretary Eleanor, whom Inspector Bond suspects to be the author herself, crime and murder are afoot when Lestrange's housekeeper is also found to have disappeared.

Bond and Warner of Scotland Yard set to work to investigate a murder with no body and a potentially fictional victim.

With copies of the first and only edition incredibly rare today, Death of an Author returns to print for the first time since 1935. This edition includes an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger and Edgar Award-winning author Martin Edwards."

A rediscovered wry classic!

Death of a Master Chef by Jean-Luc Bannalec
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: April 30th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Jean-Luc Bannalec's internationally bestselling series starring Commissaire Georges Dupin returns with Death of a Master Chef.

Commissaire Georges Dupin is certain these first beautiful summer days in June would be perfect for a fun trip to Saint-Malo. In a region known as the culinary heart of Brittany, the paradoxical city is known for being a uniquely Breton, yet un-Breton, place. Their cuisine's moto is voyages et aventures. Travel and adventure. Dupin would love to explore the internationally renowned cuisine one bite at a time. But to his chagrin, Dupin is there instead to attend a police seminar dedicated to closer collaboration between the Breton départements.

To prepare himself for what's to come while in Saint-Malo, Dupin wanders through the halls of a local market - stopping to sample its wares as he goes - while admiring its aromatic orchestra. But Dupin's morning is derailed when there's a murder at a nearby stall. He quickly realizes this case is unlike any he's worked on before. The police know the victim: Blanche Trouin, a grand chef of the region. They know the perpetrator: Lucille Trouin, Blanche's sister and fellow successful chef in the area. The two had a well-known and public feud. After a bit of searching, Lucille is even in custody. The only thing they're missing is the motive. And Lucille refuses to talk.

Saint-Malo doesn't want any help from the visiting commissaires. Even Dupin's assistant, Nolwenn, is telling him to stay out of it. But Dupin, along with a few of his Breton colleagues, can't help but begin an investigation into why a chef killed her sister in the middle of a crowded market."

Ah but do you need motive where there is animosity? 

Magic and Miracles by Sally Britton, Sarah M. Eden, Jo Perry, Clarissa Kae, Adam Berg, Julie Wright, Mindy Strunk, Rebecca Connolly, Serene Heiner, Traci Abramson, Nancy Campbell Allen, Krista Jensen, and Charlie N. Holmberg
Published by: Carpe Vitam Press
Publication Date: April 30th, 2024
Format: Kindle, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A few of the stories include...

Regency Fairy Retelling.

Greek Mythology Retelling.

Magical suspense."

I mean, there's not really much to go on here, other than yeah for Regency Fairy Retellings and Charlie N. Holmberg...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Anthology, Breton, Charity, Charlie N. Holmberg, Death of a Master Chef, Death of an Author, E.C.R. Lorac, France, Jean-Luc Bannalec, Magic and Miracles, Nancy Campbell Allen, Regency Magic, Sarah M. Eden

Silverwolf by Jacey Bedford
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: January 3rd, 2017
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Will's ghost has been laid to rest and Ross feels like her life with Corwen is about to begin. And when you entwine your life with another you entwine yourself with their family as Corwen well knows after his escapades with Ross's family. Corwen has been estranged from his family, the Deverells of Denby Hall, Yorkshire, for many years. They couldn't come to grips with the fact that he turns into a wolf. Yet he always made sure they could contact him. And they finally have. Though perhaps a little later than they should have. A lot has changed in six years, his little sister Lily and his twin brother Freddie both turned out to be shapechangers as well, and in December their eldest brother Jonathan died resulting in their father having an apoplexy. Freddie should have stepped into the breach left by Jonathan's death but instead he fled to friends in London and now hasn't been heard from in four months. There's been no one to hold the family estate together and there's trouble at the mill. But first things first, the widow Rossalinde Sumner must be introduced to the family as Corwen's fiance. Which is an oddly joyous greeting and homecoming, with only some minor recriminations. Perhaps Corwen's father regrets how they ended things? With very little ability to communicate their problems might never be resolved, but Corwen can at least show his family that he is up to the task at hand. First there's the mill, which is being unscrupulously run, which Lily takes into hand. Then there's the bigger problem of Freddie... He was trying to reject his true nature, a dangerous undertaking. When they arrive at his lodgings in London they can see something bad has happened. With the rowenkind free and wild magic on the loose Walsingham has risen from the ashes to harness this new threat to his own advantage. Can they save Freddie from Walsingham's clutches? And if they do can they then save him from himself?

When the average reader thinks of Regency England they think of Jane Austen. More well read readers might also throw in Georgette Heyer and Julia Quinn. But these women all wrote about a very specific echelon of society. Everyone is, for the most part, financially secure, or at least has the prospects to be secure. In other words, it doesn't really reflect society as a whole it was a very specific slice of Regency life. It would take authors like Dickens and Gaskell to actually shine a light on the working class and the poor. And yet the Industrial Revolution which is so associated with their works was already underway. Which is why I so love this second volume in Jacey Bedford's Rowankind series, because it doesn't just draw on the drawing room aspect of society that was so often written about. In fact I would more associate this book with Elizabeth Gaskell than with Jane Austen. I couldn't help compare Silverwolf to Mary Barton and North and South. Very favorably I might add. We get to see the plight of the workers, the treatment of the rowankind, and an actual effort made to improve the lives of those who are dependent on the Deverell family. This volume is Downton Abbey meets Elizabeth Gaskell, or, because it's all about family drama in Yorkshire, this is Jacey Bedford doing her Barbara Taylor Bradford Emma Harte saga! I never wanted this book to end. But more importantly I could have just stayed at Denby Hall forever. I do love a big country house and a family business and compassionate people, but so many times they are a pale carbon copy of something truly original. And yes, for as much as I love Downton Abbey, it's just Upstairs, Downstairs in Yorkshire with a nicer house that's actually not in Yorkshire. Downton Abbey literally lifts plot points left and right. This world that Jacey Bedford has created is just so original and new. Old themes seen in a different light. And I just think I talked myself into re-reading this volume again. I seriously loved it so much, plus if someone were to ask what I was reading I could respond "trouble at t'mill" which everyone who's anyone knows that that's the start of Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition Sketch. And if there's one thing I love as much as family sagas, it's Monty Python.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Barbara Taylor Bradford, Corwen, Downton Abbey, Elizabeth Gaskell, Georgette Heyer, Jacey Bedford, Jane Austen, Julia Quinn, Mary Barton, North and South, Regency Magic, Ross Tremayne, Silverwolf, Yorkshire

Winterwood by Jacey Bedford
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: February 2nd, 2016
Format: Paperback, 424 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Ross Tremayne hasn't seen her mother since Ross eloped with Will. What happened that night on the docks was because of her mother. Ross's father had promised Ross a ship, and she and Will took the Heart of Oak. It belonged to them. Her mother saw it differently. Seven years is a long time to hold a grudge and life doesn't turn out as you expect, just ask Will, dead these three years. Yet Ross comes to her mother's deathbed. She felt compelled to stand before the woman who called her a pirate's whore and prove once and for all that the woman who bore her no longer has power over her. Turns out the dying lady had a few surprises left aside from insulting Ross's sartorial choices. Not only is Ross's brother Philip dead in a duel, she bequeaths Ross a winterwood box, an inheritance and a curse in one. As Ross and her right hand man, minus a hand, Hookey, attempt to leave Plymouth, word has gotten out that Redbeard Tremayne is back and the Kingsmen are looking for "him." Their escape blocked they head back to the family home in hopes of "borrowing" some horses, only to find the house engulfed in flames and her mother's remaining rowankind servant, David, in need of an egress as well. The only place the three travelers can escape to is the dangerous Okewood. There the Green Man and his Lady hold sway. But they seem in a giving mood. The Lady imparts Ross's mother's biggest secret, David is actually Ross's half-brother. As for the winterwood box? That was forged in the time of Good Queen Bess to enslave the rowankind by taking away their memories of their homeland. It is Ross's destiny to right this ancient wrong. But there are forces in the Mysterium who want to stop Ross at any cost. The mysterious Walsingham is working with her brother Philip, who is very much alive, to retrieve the box for themselves. And they aren't playing by the rules. But Ross isn't fighting this battle alone, her loyal crew, the Fae, Will's ghost, and a mysterious man named Corwen are all willing to help her. But at what cost?

Growing up in the eighties, girls were basically told they fit in one of two categories, princess or tomboy. But as we all know no one fits perfectly into any category. Because I wanted to be a princess but also wanted to be a pirate. And if I was forced to choose I would have chosen pirate, obviously a subcategory of tomboy much like horse girl was a subcategory of princess. My mother was very much against me ever becoming a horse girl. Which brings me to Winterwood. I love this book. I love this book so much I can barely form my thoughts. But what I love most about this book is that it shows that a girl can dress elegantly and perform magic and meet the Fae while also being a pirate, the scourge of the high seas. Ross doesn't let anyone categorize her which is why it's hard to categorize this book. Yes, Winterwood is Historical Fantasy, but it's so much more, it's like Jacey Bedford looked at all the different kinds of Regency Magic that exist and thought, but why can't I have it all AND the kitchen sink? And that's what this book and this series is. It's everything! Sure there's Austen, but there's also Du Maurier with heavy Jamaica Inn vibes. Do you want high Fae fantasy? Well that's here too? Do you what a wolf shapechanger? That's here too, but be careful never to call him a werewolf, he is definitely not moon called but does kind of have a Geralt of Rivia vibe. So yes, this is over the top, this is magnificent, but I don't want you thinking it's just all fluff. Because with the plight of the rowankind and also how the society controls magic through the Mysterium, we're getting deeper issues of free will and the fight for equality. The rowankind's plight mirrors the abolition of slavery that was growing steam at this time in England. As this book is set in 1800 it was still seven more years until the slave trade was abolished, and make note, the trade alone was abolished, not the owning of slaves, that took until 1838. But the rowankind are an interesting conundrum. Their magical origin and their status means fight for their independence relies almost solely on Ross's shoulders. A task she doesn't take lightly. But it's a worthy fight that will play out over the course of this trilogy.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Abolition, Corwen, Daphne Du Maurier, Fae, Geralt, Heart of Oak, Historical Fantasy, Hookey, Jacey Bedford, Jamaica Inn, Jane Austen, Pirates, Princess, Regency Magic, Ross Tremayne, Rowankind, Tomboy, Winterwood

The Ill-Kept Oath by C.C. Aune
Published by: Wise Ink Creative Publishing
Publication Date: September 27th, 2016
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Prudence and Josephine are the very best of friends as well as family. Therefore when Prudence heads off to London with their maiden aunt Amelia for her debut season it's no surprise that the letters fly back and forth between the cousins from the metropolis to Wiltshire. Josephine feels left behind and Prudence just wishes she were home. But Prudence knows the realities, unlike her cousin, she is penniless and therefore must make a great match. Which is complicated by what she and Josephine are about to uncover. The start of the season also coincides with Prudence's eighteenth birthday. Eighteen is a milestone birthday and she is surprised by her aunt with a box. Aunt Amelia claims it's full off nothing but rubbish but has been keeping it for Prudence as a bequest from her parents. Prudence knows next to nothing about her parents, she and her brother were orphaned at a young age, and to get a mysterious box and to be told they had a rare set of talents called the Inheritance, well, it makes her question everything she's ever known. But the box appears to be rubbish indeed, relics that are better off in the trash; an Elizabethan velvet overgown, a pair of elbow-length gauntlets missing a couple of digets, a stained wool cloak, a sword with a broken blade and a dented cross-guard, and a shining gold ring which needs repair. Despite their decrepitude Prudence keeps being drawn to them and even gets the ring repaired and takes to wearing it. She's wearing the ring in fact when her aunt agrees to accept an invitation from a Baroness Revelle. It turns out that Aunt Amelia and Lady Revelle have a history, as did Lady Revelle and Prudence's mother. Which might explain why Aunt Amelia wants to keep them apart. Lady Revelle claims to know about the ring Prudence wears as well as other things. Could Lady Revelle be the answer to the cousins' questions? Because Josephine has been dealing with magical artifacts of her own discovered in the attics of Greenbank Manor; a man's costume cut for a woman that must have belonged to her own mother as well as a pair of pistols. She's woken up more than once sporting the clothes and welding the weapons somewhere on the grounds of Greenbank. Plus, not that she likes to eavesdrop, but there's an encampment of troops in Wiltshire and she could have sworn that she heard Lieutenant Quimby talking about trolls to her father. Could all of this be related? Could magic really exist? And if so, Prudence and Josephine have been lied to by those whom they love the most and they need to know why.

Many lovers of Regency Magic were first introduced to this historical fantasy subgenre through Caroline Stevermer and Patricia C. Wrede's Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot. Released in the late eighties this epistolary novel is really the go-to recommendation for this subgenre. I see why historically, but there are so many better books out there that whenever I see the recommendation to read it I instantly want to horn in on the conversation and be like, "but have you read..." and start just listing books. I can actually do it for quite awhile. But now I specifically want to say "but have you read The Ill-Kept Oath?" And then avoid shouting in someone's face that it's Jane Austen but with trolls! The non-troll reason being is that The Ill-Kept Oath has the same basic framework, two cousins who are best friends separated because one of them is having her first season and magical things start to happen which they write to each other about. I mean obviously the Regency and epistolary novels go hand in hand because of how Jane Austen herself originally wrote Sense and Sensibility, but the epistolary format has limitations. You only get access to what the characters are willing to tell their correspondent, not what else is happening in their life or what they are excluding. The Ill-Kept Oath uses an expanded epistolary form, we get letters, but we get so much more. So while this is very Sorcery and Cecelia meets Les Liaisons Dangereuses with a heavy helping of Sense and Sensibility it is so wonderfully it's own unique voice that I fell in love with it almost instantly. What's more it gave me hope in books again. A renewed love of reading. My mood is effected by what I read and for the week it took me to devour The Ill-Kept Oath I was walking on air. I had so much work to do and when I head to bed if I'm tired I will forgo reading. But it didn't matter how tired I was, I had to keep reading. I had to know more. I had to know what Lady Revelle was up to, The Ill-Kept Oath's own Marquise de Merteuil. I had to know all about what Prudence and Josephine's parents kept from them. And right there I have to call out the brilliance of this book. Often when adults keep secrets from their children in books the reasons are often lame. I mean, if it was my kid I'd totally tell them. Here it actually made sense for Amelia and Lord Middlemere to keep quiet. Of course now I can't wait to read about the fallout of that decision... Oh how I long for the sequel.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: C.C. Aune, Epistolary, Inheritance, Josephine Weston, Lady Revelle, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Prudence Fairfeather, Regency Magic, Sense and Sensibility, Sorcery and Cecelia, The Ill-Kept Oath, Trolls, Wiltshire

Scales and Sensibility by Stephanie Burgis
Published by: Stephanie Burgis
Publication Date: Octover 4th, 2021
Format: Kindle, 307 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

When her parents lost everything and promptly died Elinor Tregarth and her two sisters had to rely on the kindness of their relatives. But no one household could be expected to take on three penniless orphans so they were separated across the length and breath of England. Elinor ended up at Hathergill Hall to be a dogsbody to her cousin Penelope. Penelope under normal circumstances is hard to deal with, leading up to her debut she's a nightmare. She is making everyone, in particular Elinor, suffer. But Elinor never knew there'd be a breaking point but the tantrum Penelope throws when she hears her mother's friend Mrs. De Lacey isn't coming would destroy anyone's resolve. It's the fashionable thing for all young ladies to have a dragon, to be nothing more than an accessory, an inanimate object on one's shoulder. So of course Penelope's father got her the best dragon money can buy. Though poor Sir Jessamyn Carnavoran Artos has a nervous disposition and Penelope's treatment of him breaks Elinor. She snaps at her cousin and flees Hathergill Hall with Sir Jessamyn, her meager belongings, and her four shillings and sixpence she has diligently saved. Only to be promptly run over by a carriage, losing all her savings to dirty ditchwater. The carriage belongs to one Mr. Cornelius Aubrey, who is a scholar and dragon expert, so he instantly is more interested in Sir Jessamyn than Elinor, his companion is Mr. Benedict Hawkins, who hopes to be Penelope's future fiance, as his father lost all his money in the same scheme that wiped out Elinor's parents. For the first time in Elinor's life she thinks, if only she could be the type of girl to attract someone like Benedict Hawkins, or if she'd admit it to herself, Benedict Hawkins. The four travelers spend the night in a local inn. Before she falls asleep Elinor wishes she could be rich and beautiful, like Mrs. De Lacey, she could win the heart of Benedict and be able to care for Sir Jessamyn as he deserves. And that's when something magical happens. But everyone knows dragons can't do magic! Yet the next day Elinor is glamoured to look like Mrs. De Lacey and she has to put on the performance of a lifetime to save herself, her sisters, and her heart. If only fairy tales could come true.

I have always strongly identified with Elinor from Sense and Sensibility, so to have a similarly named capable young woman as the heroine of Scales and Sensibility, I couldn't be happier than Sir Jessamyn with a plate full of pheasant. Everything about this book just brought me joy. My love of dragons, happily ever afters, the Regency, house parties, revenge, true love, wait, I'm going a bit William Goldman there... This book at first sounded a little absurd, not that I don't like absurdity, but a world with dragons and no magic? I thought maybe it wouldn't work. But Stephanie Burgis does such a credible job grounding her fantastical tales. Everything makes sense with her worldbuilding. With her Harwood Spellbook "British" society being run by women was historically linked to Boudica. Here the way dragons were discovered was more along the lines of Mary Anning and her hunt for a living fossil. In the last two years I have become more than a little Mary Anning obsessed, I've even read The Essex Serpent twice as well as watching the miniseries to follow Cora Seabourne's desperate attempts to follow in Mary Anning's footsteps. Therefore a world in which a living fossil, a dragon, without magic, without anything other than just being a reptile that is named a dragon makes such sense. Of course there turns out to be more to Sir Jessamyn than meets the eye, but the point is, I loved this realistic grounding. What's more the whole financial scandal that lost Elinor and Beneidct's families their fortunes, The Great Brazilian Bubble, was common with banks and investments during the time period and had a real world counterpart, the South Sea Bubble, which, while earlier, was used to great effect in Andrea Penrose's Regency novel, Sweet Revenge and therefore makes me link the Regency more with the scandal than perhaps it ought. As fairy tales always have their grounding in reality, being written to teach a lesson that would otherwise go unheeded, so does fantasy. And really good fantasy builds it story on a bedrock of truth, and that's what this book is and does, now I need to go find me a dragon, because I now know they're out there.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Benedict Hawkins, Cornelius Aubrey, Dragons, Elinor Tregarth, Fairy Tales, Mary Anning, Mrs. De Lacey, Regency Magic, Scales and Sensibility, Sir Jessamyn, South Sea Bubble, Stephanie Burgis, The Essex Serpent

Rowankind by Jacey Bedford
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: November 27th, 2018
Format: Paperback, 473 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

When freed many of the rowankind took the Fae's offer to return to their homeland, Iaru. Yet there are those that stayed behind in Britain. They have made lives for themselves and have no desire to return to a homeland that they've never known. The humans though don't feel safe. They have treated the rowankind worse than slaves for hundreds of years and now those slaves have the power to fight back. And they are. In retaliation the humans are killing the rowankind. Reports of mass executions happening all over the country have reached the ears of the Fae and they want to take revenge. But Ross and Corwen beg the Fae council to let them attempt a diplomatic approach first before razing all of Britain. A major problem though is in educating the Fae that the world has changed. They have cloistered themselves in Iaru for so long they don't understand that being King isn't as powerful as it once was. The King has to answer to Parliament and they have to answer to the people. This will not be an easy fix and yet the Fae expect it to be. They expect Ross and Corwen to just walk up to the King and get him to make his subjects behave. In order to stop more bloodshed the couple are willing to attempt the impossible. And it really looks like it shall be impossible, George III isn't well, and the reason shocks Ross when she discovers it, the King has magic. Magic he isn't using. Much like Corwen's brother denying his wolf half, the King is denying his magic and it's making him very ill. Yet once contact is made Ross really hopes that they can reach some sort of agreement. But the Fae think they are taking too long and start demonstrating what they are capable of. If the populace was scared of a few rowankind with not much magic how are they going to feel about the Fae turning their beer into water and bringing about a blight to their crops? If everyone would just behave and trust each other for one minute perhaps everything will work out and Ross and Corwen can have their happy ending. Perhaps.

Rowankind doesn't really bring anything new to the table with regard to this trilogy but it does satisfactorily tie up all the loose ends. And there are many, from rescuing missing men to reinstating Gentleman Jim on his island. And there is also much politicking. Because the merging of two worlds, with magical citizens living in a nonmagical world, needs policies. There need to be laws to protect their rights and their bodies from harm. And it's a sad day when fictional Fae end up having more rights than many people do today. But that's just the world we live, and proves once again why I want to live in books and in particular this series. But while the politics do take center stage along with several notable politicians of the day, that's not all this book is about. We get one last piratical adventure, another shooting of London Bridge, a final Walsingham showdown, some more family drama, and lots of happily ever afters. Because this is fantasy and that means the good prevail, the bad fail, and everyone gets to sail off into the sunset. Plus there's just this wonderful message of the healing powers of love and that love is love. Ross is able to find love again even though she thought she never would after the death of her husband Will. Her brother David finds love with a rowankind servant Annie. Her brother-in-law is able to tame his beast due to the love of his partner Roland. Her Aunt Rosie reunites with her lost love Leo. Even the servants get in on the love with her maid Poppy marrying Yeardley. And, now that I think about it, this whole series is about finding your family, those who you love with your whole heart and soul. You don't have to be related by blood, I mean look what Ross had to do to her brother.... It's about finding your tribe. Be they pirates or pixies, when you find your people the world is so much better because they are there for you in good times and in bad and most importantly, they will fight for you and even help you burying the bodies. So here's a shout-out to all my family, I love you like I love books, and you know how much that is.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Britain, Corwen, Execution, Fae, Family, George III, HEA, Jacey Bedford, London Bridge, Love, Magic, Pirates, Politics, Regency England, Regency Magic, Ross Tremayne, Rowankind, Silverwolf, Trilogy, Winterwood

A Radical Act of Free Magic by H.G. Parry
Published by: Redhook
Publication Date: July 20th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 512 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Robespierre meant to change the world, and he did with his death. The Concord has been broken and magic is once again unleashed on the battlefields of Europe. Commoners are now allowed to wield their powers, so long as it is in the service of England. In France they have a new savior, a young Corsican, Napoleon Bonaparte. He relies on men of flesh and blood and his animal magnetism instead of reanimated corpses, but like Robespierre before him he has a secret benefactor, enhancing his mesmeric abilities. Unlike Robespierre, he knows that when the time comes he will not be a victim. His benefactor will never see him on a scaffold. The day they break will be the greatest battle of Napoleon's life, but until that time they will tentatively work together. The British pride themselves on their navy, therefore that will be their first strike. Napoleon summons a kraken from the deep. They haven't been seen in hundreds of years but they reduce ships to kindling in an instant and send fear through the British fleet. Though this isn't the only magical creature that the French plan to utilize. Napoleon has always dreamed of Egypt, whether this was planted there by his benefactor or not makes no difference, because either way that's how he gets a dragon. Another creature out of the depths of time to decimate their enemies. And their enemies are at a loss. Because while Napoleon is gobbling up Europe Pitt knows that the real enemy is in the shadows. Pitt's health is failing, much as he views he is failing the British people. As his friend Wilberforce acknowledges; "This conflict has become less and less a war between nations and more and more a war between two vampire kings." The enemy is in their dreams and in the heads of British politicians. He is steering the government away from abolition. But the question remains why. Why put so much effort into something unless it's somehow more important than krakens and dragons? The trade in human souls seems to matter to this vampire and Pitt realizes that for too long he's been letting the enemy dictate the battlefield. Therefore he does what must be done. All vampire wars end in a duel. Let that duel be now.

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians had one major stumbling block and that was Robespierre. I didn't realize how big this stumbling block was until it was removed. His death has freed the narrative as well as broken The Concord. Some of the underlining problems of Robespierre still crop up from time to time, in that H.G. Parry seems to want to absolve villains for their acts of villainy claiming they're "driven to it by circumstances." Yeah. Sure. Sometimes evil is evil even if you are seduced by it or like Wilberforce have some great need to forgive. In other words, I think H.G. Parry is pro Darkling. But moving beyond Robespierre is the best thing this series could have done because it brought us Napoleon. Now aside from the Darkling, I am not a fan of despots, but Napoleon is so fascinating. Right off the mark I fell for this version of Napoleon because he knew that he could take on a vampire and win. He didn't know it was a vampire, but he still knew he could win. He exudes a confidence. No more sniveling and begging that was exhibited again and again with Robespierre. Here we have confidence, here we have animal magnetism. I have always been drawn to the Regency period, which means one has to acquaint oneself with Napoleon. It's a given. That and the fact I had relatives who were his allies, but that's another story. There are so many "versions" of Napoleon out there, in fact I just recently watched the fascinating miniseries Napoleon and Love from 1974 where Ian Holm played Napoleon for the first time, he would reprise the role two more times in Time Bandits and The Emperor's New Clothes. So while I might always see Napoleon as Ian Holm there's one thing that all these portrayals have in common and that's this animal magnetism. You are drawn to Napoleon and I adored the fact that H.G. Parry used this commonly held belief about him to have him summon a kraken. It was just too too perfect. And that kraken, well, when it dies, that is when you get to the heart of what H.G. Parry is capable of. Time and time again she writes about grief and loss and death and each time she destroyed me. I was a sobbing wreck. "The force of that bewilderment broke her heart; somewhere distant, her own eyes filled with tears. It didn't understand." I am broken. In the best possible way.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians, A Radical Act of Free Magic, H.G. Parry, Ian Holm, Kraken, Napoleon, Napoleon and Love, Regency Magic, Robespierre, The Emperor's New Clothes, Time Bandits, Vampires

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry
Published by: Redhook
Publication Date: June 23rd, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 544 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

France is on the brink of revolution. In a small room in Arras Maximilien Robespierre has a dream. The dream is of the worst night of his life. His mother was taken away by the Knights Templar because she was a necromancer. The truth is more complicated. She might have had the magic in her blood but she actually is taken away to the Bastille to face execution because Robespierre was the one who, in his childish innocence, brought his pet bird back to life, and she is protecting her child. Only this time there's a stranger in his dream. A man who will become his benefactor. He will amplify Robespierre's powers, help Robespierre to mesmerize his audiences with his oratories on how the aristocracy is using their power to destroy their fellow man. How magic, which could save lives, is punished when used. And Robespierre's audience listens. Once he gets to Paris he and his friends, Camille Desmoulins and George Danton, light a fire in the population. They storm the Bastille, they form a new government, they fight for the rights of man and magician. While across the water in England William Pitt the Younger and his dear friend William Wilberforce are also fighting for the rights of man after formative years consisting of drinking cheap wine in a seedy hostelry in France. While Pitt hopes to one day live in a world where those with magic aren't punished, he sees what's happening in France and knows now is not the time. Whereas Wilberforce has more specific rights he wishes to fight. He wants to end the horror that is the slave trade. Magic is used to bind and control slaves. They can't even move a muscle without being told to. They are trapped within their own minds and can't even scream. Wilberforce views the end of slavery as his purpose on this Earth. A noble cause. A noble cause that catches the eye of Robespierre's benefactor. But then, the benefactor is interested in anything to do with France and William Pitt. And Wilberforce's abolitionist ideals could threaten the French colony of Saint-Domingue. A colony that is soon to rise up. And one slave, Fina, will hear the voice across the water and be called. And the voice she hears is Robespierre's benefactor. What could this voice want? From William Pitt's perspective it looks like he wants the world to burn.

Much like the small groups of friends going from their formative years to integral figures in history this book starts as a small ember and bursts into a conflagration. It interweaves real history with magic in a dizzying Dickensian detailed tome. H.G. Parry has not just created a fascinating alternate historical fantasy but a believable magic system. But then she outdoes herself by creating an entirely new mythology for vampires that works within the framework of her magic system due to blood magic. Which means I get to add this book to my vampires shelf. And of course I have a vampires shelf. Though the vampirism is perhaps my main sticking point in A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians. Not it's existence but the way Robespierre's benefactor who is a vampire turns Robespierre into his Renfield. This makes me question again and again if H.G. Parry is somehow trying to redeem Robespierre. Here's the thing, yes, Robespierre in actuality, like in the book, has the best of intentions and believes in rights for all but does that really matter when your actions lead to the death of seventeen thousand people? Sure he might have started out on the right side of history but he ended up firmly on the wrong side of history. Seventeen thousand dead proves my point. Oh, and let's not forget killing his monarchs. Here his benefactor is egging him on. Animate one corpse or I won't help you. Kill the King or I won't help you. Form an army of the dead or I won't help you. And time and time again Robespierre bows down to the demands because he really believes that the ends will justify the means. Here's the thing, they don't. They really don't. Each time he agrees his way to hell is paved a little further. But the problem is his benefactor. By having him push Robespierre it's taking away Robespierre's accountability. The mob hold him accountable but we as readers are meant to feel something else. That perhaps he was just a pawn. Yes, in real life, perhaps the mob mentality pushed him to his evil acts, but here it was a vampire. And I don't know if I'm OK with questioning my feelings towards him. But that's what A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians does time and time again, it makes me question weighty issues from slavery to abolition to accountability to basic human rights. There may be magic but you won't find a more human novel out there.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians, Abolition, French Revolution, H.G. Parry, Necromancer, Regency Magic, Renfield, Robespierre, Slavery, The Shadow Histories, The Terror, Vampire, Wilberforce, William Pitt

Unlike some of the other authors featured during Regency Magic I didn't have a serendipitous series of events that led to me discovering H.G. Parry. Instead it was fairly straightforward if you're a book blogger. So NetGalley is a website that lets "book advocates," such as reviewers and bloggers, request digital galleys of upcoming publications. My morning routine every day is to check my email and then check NetGalley. Because you never really know what's going to show up when and one of the reasons I started my blog was to get books by my favorite authors before anyone else. Small goal, but it was achieved. One day in 2019 I was looking through the new titles and one caught my eye, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heap. The description sounded very Ffordian so I hit request and according to my records on June 12th, 2019 I was approved. I mean who doesn't want to read a book with more than one Mr. Darcy? Though it was a book published a year later by H.G. Parry, A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians, that was even more up my alley. Because it was "technically" Regency Magic. I say technically because it's more Regency adjacent as H.G. pointed out to me in our recent email exchange. But I will counter that they do have a Regency crisis, it's just averted for the moment, and everything that's happening feeds into the Regency. And of course, because I wanted to read this book more than anything I was denied. There was some weeping and wailing but I recovered and they did approve me for the sequel, A Radical Act of Free Magic, so that was some cold comfort. But the thing that is so interesting to me is that H.G.'s writing, especially in her Shadow Histories, is so densely Dickensian and Uriah Heep is Dickens's creation. I just feel that H.G. really knows what she's doing. Her writing is so put together and thorough. Plus she's cranking out doorstop sized books at the rate of one a year, which, well, my hat is off to her. And now that my hat is off, let me cordially welcome her to my blog. 

Question: When did you first discover Jane Austen?

Answer: It was Northanger Abbey at my first year of university. I'd never studied her in high school and I think I was expecting something romantic, so I was knocked sideways by how absurdly funny and clever it was. That opening paragraph is still one of the wittiest I've ever read.

Question: What do you think Jane Austen would think of her impact with so many literary offshoots, from parody to pastiche?

Answer: Oh, I think she'd love it! And also mock most of them mercilessly! But her first published book was gloriously intertextual and had great fun with The Mysteries of Udolpho, so she'd get it.

Question: Where do you get your inspiration from?

Answer: Usually, from reading history and famous novels, and then seeing what happens if certain kinds of magic is added - what can it be used to illuminate, or explore, or cast in a different light? I love books that are in conversation with other books.

Question: What makes the early 19th century mesh so well with magic?

Answer: I'm not sure I can answer this: the Shadow Histories are mostly the Revolutionary Wars, so I barely got to the 19th century. I think in general though there's a really interesting overlap between historical fiction and fantasy because there's an equally interesting overlap between the way we think about history and the way we think about secondary world fantasy - both take place in worlds that are in some ways very similar and in others very different to our own. Magic gives us a way of exploring history at a remove, as it does the present day. And the turn of the 19th century was a fascinating and dramatic time, where so many choices were being made that shaped our present day for better or worse.

Question: The world building and system of magic varies greatly in the regency fantasy genre, how did you go about creating yours?

Answer: In the Shadow Histories, magic is innate in certain people, but the right to use it is jealously guarded by the aristocracy - so when the tide begins to turn toward revolution, magic is a right that is being fought for along with other freedoms. I wanted it to be a way of thinking about power - who has it, who wields it, what compromises we make to get it, how we use it to fight for a better world, and all those complicated questions that the French Revolution made a matter of life or death.

Question: If you had to choose between writing only period literature or only fantasy literature, which would win?

Answer: I've written fantasy books set in the present day and I've never written historical fiction without magic, so it would have to be fantasy. But I'd find a way to cheat somehow! My contemporary fantasy had five Mr. Darcys, so...

Question: Be honest, have you ever dressed up in Regency clothes just to pretend for a moment you are in the past?

Answer: Ha! I'm definitely better in the present day. The closest I came was at the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, where we were all allowed to try on dresses and shawls and bonnets. I was very excited, but then I just sort of looked like Jemima Puddleduck.

Biography:
H.G. Parry is the author of  The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, The Shadow Histories duology, and The Magician's Daughter. Her short fiction has appeared in Intergalactic Medicine Show, Daily Science Fiction, and small press anthologies, and she holds a PhD in English Literature from Victoria University of Wellington. She currently lives in a book-infested flat on the Kāpiti Coast in New Zealand, which she shares with her sister and an increasing menagerie of small animals.

H.G.'s Social Media:
Website
Instagram
Twitter
Goodreads

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians, A Radical Act of Free Magic, Dickensian, H.G. Parry, Jasper Fforde, Netgalley, Northanger Abbey, Regency Magic, The Shadow Histories, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep

Rowankind by Jacey Bedford
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: November 27th, 2018
Format: Paperback, 473 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

When freed many of the rowankind took the Fae's offer to return to their homeland, Iaru. Yet there are those that stayed behind in Britain. They have made lives for themselves and have no desire to return to a homeland that they've never known. The humans though don't feel safe. They have treated the rowankind worse than slaves for hundreds of years and now those slaves have the power to fight back. And they are. In retaliation the humans are killing the rowankind. Reports of mass executions happening all over the country have reached the ears of the Fae and they want to take revenge. But Ross and Corwen beg the Fae council to let them attempt a diplomatic approach first before razing all of Britain. A major problem though is in educating the Fae that the world has changed. They have cloistered themselves in Iaru for so long they don't understand that being King isn't as powerful as it once was. The King has to answer to Parliament and they have to answer to the people. This will not be an easy fix and yet the Fae expect it to be. They expect Ross and Corwen to just walk up to the King and get him to make his subjects behave. In order to stop more bloodshed the couple are willing to attempt the impossible. And it really looks like it shall be impossible, George III isn't well, and the reason shocks Ross when she discovers it, the King has magic. Magic he isn't using. Much like Corwen's brother denying his wolf half, the King is denying his magic and it's making him very ill. Yet once contact is made Ross really hopes that they can reach some sort of agreement. But the Fae think they are taking too long and start demonstrating what they are capable of. If the populace was scared of a few rowankind with not much magic how are they going to feel about the Fae turning their beer into water and bringing about a blight to their crops? If everyone would just behave and trust each other for one minute perhaps everything will work out and Ross and Corwen can have their happy ending. Perhaps.

Rowankind doesn't really bring anything new to the table with regard to this trilogy but it does satisfactorily tie up all the loose ends. And there are many, from rescuing missing men to reinstating Gentleman Jim on his island. And there is also much politicking. Because the merging of two worlds, with magical citizens living in a nonmagical world, needs policies. There need to be laws to protect their rights and their bodies from harm. And it's a sad day when fictional Fae end up having more rights than many people do today. But that's just the world we live, and proves once again why I want to live in books and in particular this series. But while the politics do take center stage along with several notable politicians of the day, that's not all this book is about. We get one last piratical adventure, another shooting of London Bridge, a final Walsingham showdown, some more family drama, and lots of happily ever afters. Because this is fantasy and that means the good prevail, the bad fail, and everyone gets to sail off into the sunset. Plus there's just this wonderful message of the healing powers of love and that love is love. Ross is able to find love again even though she thought she never would after the death of her husband Will. Her brother David finds love with a rowankind servant Annie. Her brother-in-law is able to tame his beast due to the love of his partner Roland. Her Aunt Rosie reunites with her lost love Leo. Even the servants get in on the love with her maid Poppy marrying Yeardley. And, now that I think about it, this whole series is about finding your family, those who you love with your whole heart and soul. You don't have to be related by blood, I mean look what Ross had to do to her brother.... It's about finding your tribe. Be they pirates or pixies, when you find your people the world is so much better because they are there for you in good times and in bad and most importantly, they will fight for you and even help you burying the bodies. So here's a shout-out to all my family, I love you like I love books, and you know how much that is.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Britain, Corwen, Execution, Fae, Family, George III, HEA, Jacey Bedford, London Bridge, Love, Magic, Pirates, Politics, Regency England, Regency Magic, Ross Tremayne, Rowankind, Silverwolf, Trilogy, Winterwood

Silverwolf by Jacey Bedford
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: January 3rd, 2017
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Will's ghost has been laid to rest and Ross feels like her life with Corwen is about to begin. And when you entwine your life with another you entwine yourself with their family as Corwen well knows after his escapades with Ross's family. Corwen has been estranged from his family, the Deverells of Denby Hall, Yorkshire, for many years. They couldn't come to grips with the fact that he turns into a wolf. Yet he always made sure they could contact him. And they finally have. Though perhaps a little later than they should have. A lot has changed in six years, his little sister Lily and his twin brother Freddie both turned out to be shapechangers as well, and in December their eldest brother Jonathan died resulting in their father having an apoplexy. Freddie should have stepped into the breach left by Jonathan's death but instead he fled to friends in London and now hasn't been heard from in four months. There's been no one to hold the family estate together and there's trouble at the mill. But first things first, the widow Rossalinde Sumner must be introduced to the family as Corwen's fiance. Which is an oddly joyous greeting and homecoming, with only some minor recriminations. Perhaps Corwen's father regrets how they ended things? With very little ability to communicate their problems might never be resolved, but Corwen can at least show his family that he is up to the task at hand. First there's the mill, which is being unscrupulously run, which Lily takes into hand. Then there's the bigger problem of Freddie... He was trying to reject his true nature, a dangerous undertaking. When they arrive at his lodgings in London they can see something bad has happened. With the rowenkind free and wild magic on the loose Walsingham has risen from the ashes to harness this new threat to his own advantage. Can they save Freddie from Walsingham's clutches? And if they do can they then save him from himself?

When the average reader thinks of Regency England they think of Jane Austen. More well read readers might also throw in Georgette Heyer and Julia Quinn. But these women all wrote about a very specific echelon of society. Everyone is, for the most part, financially secure, or at least has the prospects to be secure. In other words, it doesn't really reflect society as a whole it was a very specific slice of Regency life. It would take authors like Dickens and Gaskell to actually shine a light on the working class and the poor. And yet the Industrial Revolution which is so associated with their works was already underway. Which is why I so love this second volume in Jacey Bedford's Rowankind series, because it doesn't just draw on the drawing room aspect of society that was so often written about. In fact I would more associate this book with Elizabeth Gaskell than with Jane Austen. I couldn't help compare Silverwolf to Mary Barton and North and South. Very favorably I might add. We get to see the plight of the workers, the treatment of the rowankind, and an actual effort made to improve the lives of those who are dependent on the Deverell family. This volume is Downton Abbey meets Elizabeth Gaskell, or, because it's all about family drama in Yorkshire, this is Jacey Bedford doing her Barbara Taylor Bradford Emma Harte saga! I never wanted this book to end. But more importantly I could have just stayed at Denby Hall forever. I do love a big country house and a family business and compassionate people, but so many times they are a pale carbon copy of something truly original. And yes, for as much as I love Downton Abbey, it's just Upstairs, Downstairs in Yorkshire with a nicer house that's actually not in Yorkshire. Downton Abbey literally lifts plot points left and right. This world that Jacey Bedford has created is just so original and new. Old themes seen in a different light. And I just think I talked myself into re-reading this volume again. I seriously loved it so much, plus if someone were to ask what I was reading I could respond "trouble at t'mill" which everyone who's anyone knows that that's the start of Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition Sketch. And if there's one thing I love as much as family sagas, it's Monty Python.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Barbara Taylor Bradford, Corwen, Downton Abbey, Elizabeth Gaskell, Georgette Heyer, Jacey Bedford, Jane Austen, Julia Quinn, Mary Barton, North and South, Regency Magic, Ross Tremayne, Silverwolf, Yorkshire

Winterwood by Jacey Bedford
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: February 2nd, 2016
Format: Paperback, 424 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Ross Tremayne hasn't seen her mother since Ross eloped with Will. What happened that night on the docks was because of her mother. Ross's father had promised Ross a ship, and she and Will took the Heart of Oak. It belonged to them. Her mother saw it differently. Seven years is a long time to hold a grudge and life doesn't turn out as you expect, just ask Will, dead these three years. Yet Ross comes to her mother's deathbed. She felt compelled to stand before the woman who called her a pirate's whore and prove once and for all that the woman who bore her no longer has power over her. Turns out the dying lady had a few surprises left aside from insulting Ross's sartorial choices. Not only is Ross's brother Philip dead in a duel, she bequeaths Ross a winterwood box, an inheritance and a curse in one. As Ross and her right hand man, minus a hand, Hookey, attempt to leave Plymouth, word has gotten out that Redbeard Tremayne is back and the Kingsmen are looking for "him." Their escape blocked they head back to the family home in hopes of "borrowing" some horses, only to find the house engulfed in flames and her mother's remaining rowankind servant, David, in need of an egress as well. The only place the three travelers can escape to is the dangerous Okewood. There the Green Man and his Lady hold sway. But they seem in a giving mood. The Lady imparts Ross's mother's biggest secret, David is actually Ross's half-brother. As for the winterwood box? That was forged in the time of Good Queen Bess to enslave the rowankind by taking away their memories of their homeland. It is Ross's destiny to right this ancient wrong. But there are forces in the Mysterium who want to stop Ross at any cost. The mysterious Walsingham is working with her brother Philip, who is very much alive, to retrieve the box for themselves. And they aren't playing by the rules. But Ross isn't fighting this battle alone, her loyal crew, the Fae, Will's ghost, and a mysterious man named Corwen are all willing to help her. But at what cost?

Growing up in the eighties, girls were basically told they fit in one of two categories, princess or tomboy. But as we all know no one fits perfectly into any category. Because I wanted to be a princess but also wanted to be a pirate. And if I was forced to choose I would have chosen pirate, obviously a subcategory of tomboy much like horse girl was a subcategory of princess. My mother was very much against me ever becoming a horse girl. Which brings me to Winterwood. I love this book. I love this book so much I can barely form my thoughts. But what I love most about this book is that it shows that a girl can dress elegantly and perform magic and meet the Fae while also being a pirate, the scourge of the high seas. Ross doesn't let anyone categorize her which is why it's hard to categorize this book. Yes, Winterwood is Historical Fantasy, but it's so much more, it's like Jacey Bedford looked at all the different kinds of Regency Magic that exist and thought, but why can't I have it all AND the kitchen sink? And that's what this book and this series is. It's everything! Sure there's Austen, but there's also Du Maurier with heavy Jamaica Inn vibes. Do you want high Fae fantasy? Well that's here too? Do you what a wolf shapechanger? That's here too, but be careful never to call him a werewolf, he is definitely not moon called but does kind of have a Geralt of Rivia vibe. So yes, this is over the top, this is magnificent, but I don't want you thinking it's just all fluff. Because with the plight of the rowankind and also how the society controls magic through the Mysterium, we're getting deeper issues of free will and the fight for equality. The rowankind's plight mirrors the abolition of slavery that was growing steam at this time in England. As this book is set in 1800 it was still seven more years until the slave trade was abolished, and make note, the trade alone was abolished, not the owning of slaves, that took until 1838. But the rowankind are an interesting conundrum. Their magical origin and their status means fight for their independence relies almost solely on Ross's shoulders. A task she doesn't take lightly. But it's a worthy fight that will play out over the course of this trilogy.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 1 comments  

Labels: Abolition, Corwen, Daphne Du Maurier, Fae, Geralt, Heart of Oak, Historical Fantasy, Hookey, Jacey Bedford, Jamaica Inn, Jane Austen, Pirates, Princess, Regency Magic, Ross Tremayne, Rowankind, Tomboy, Winterwood

Back in the before times, 2019 to be exact, someone, and I wish I could remember who so I could profusely thank them, asked me if I had read Jacey Bedford's Rowankind series. I had not and promptly bought the first book, Winterwood. And then the weirdest thing happened, Jacey Bedford emailed me. This never happens. This weird synchronicity where you buy a book and then out of nowhere the author emails you. Well I had magic to thank for that, Regency Magic! Jacey had heard about Regency Magic from Heather Rose Jones, the author of the Alpennia series who had participated in Regency Magic previously in 2016 and again in 2018. Jacey's Rowankind series had just been completed in the fall of 2018 and was wondering if I was interested in reviewing the series for Regency Magic. Um, of course I was! And on August 25th DAW set me the trilogy. Why do I know that date so specifically? Because another weird occurrence happened, one might even say it was a strange and random happenstance. On August 30th Carnival Row dropped on Amazon. The wonderfully Noir Steampunk show starring Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne enthralled me, but the character of Sophie Longerbane played by the actress Caroline Ford keep triggering something in my mind. I knew her from somewhere and IMDb wasn't helping. And that's when I put two and two together and realized she was on the cover of Jacey's books as Ross Tremayne! A fact that Jacey confirmed with the photographer shortly thereafter. All this just goes to show that it was fate all along that I'd pick up this series and fall in love with this wonderfully off the wall series with pirates, I mean privateers, and magic and Fae and goblins and history and I swear, just pick it up and be swept away by Ross's adventures. Because as fate has decreed, and by fate I mean DAW, I happen to have an extra copy of Winterwood and will be giving it away on Instagram this month!

Question: When did you first discover Jane Austen?

Answer: I was very late to the party. We had to do Northanger Abbey at school and though I didn't hate it as much as I loathed Dickens, I don't think it was taught very well. It took me a while to get over the way literature was presented in school. I didn't read Pride and Prejudice until I was in my early thirties. And then, of course, there were various movie or TV adaptations. It might have been the BBC version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehrle that reminded me to read it again. It seems to be shown pretty regularly, I did like the 2005 Matthew Macfayden film. There were some superb moments. The country dances were authentically sweaty and the Bennett farmyard suitably muddy. I loved the scene where Mum and the girls are lounging about and somebody sees Darcy approaching. The panicked flurry to tidy up both themselves and the room is manic and then by the time Darcy walks through the door they are all sitting primly as cool as cucumbers. Lovely.

Question: What do you think Jane Austen would think of her impact with so many literary offshoots, from parody to pastiche?

Answer: I think she'd be quietly amused by most of it, though probably a bit perplexed about the zombies.

Question: Where do you get your inspiration from?

Answer: The story ideas and the characters come from my own head, but the worldbuilding accretes as I dig deeper and deeper into the history of the period. I can't say that my inspiration comes from any one source. I have a mish-mash of images floating around in my brain that eventually gel into something tangible. When I'm researching, I tend to dip in and out of history books, and I spend a lot of time on Pinterest, collecting pictures of everything from costume and ships to pots and pans and to architecture. It all comes together gradually. The characters and the situation tend to come first and the worldbuilding second. But then the worldbuilding affects the story, too, so it's all interdependent. Even while I'm writing, I'm still researching to add authentic detail. You can't be sloppy on the history just because the story contains magic. It took me ages to research who commissioned the red coats for the British Army, and then to find out where they were made (and by whom). Goblin tailors in my book, but I needed to do the research to achieve verisimilitude, and write about a little Goblin sweatshop in London's East End.

Question: What makes the early 19th century mesh so well with magic?

Answer: It's a really interesting period: the Napoleonic Wars, George III's madness, the Industrial Revolution, bread riots, the age of sail, the echoes of the French Revolution which really put the wind up our politicians. They are frightened of the common people rising up, especially any of them imbued with magic. It's easy to slide magic into such turbulent times. For instance, in my Georgian trilogy (Winterwood, Silverwolf, and Rowankind) we eventually meet George III in the last book, and discover that his madness has a magical origin. Since no one really knows the actual cause (I believe Porphyria has been discounted, now) it's quite easy to offer a logical magical explanation.

Question: The world building and system of magic varies greatly in the regency fantasy genre, how did you go about creating yours?

Answer: I wish I could tell you that I had it all worked out in advance, but I didn't. It grew organically because my heroine, Ross Tremayne, a cross dressing privateer captain, ended up on the high seas, almost by accident, when she eloped with Will Tremayne in one of her father's ships, a lovely tops'l schooner. Will died in an accident so as the book opens Ross has been widowed for four years and she's captaining the ship in Will's stead, supported by a crew of barely reformed pirates. They have letters of marque from the Crown to hunt down and capture (or sink) vessels supplying the French. Ross has weather magic, but her natural element is the land rather than the ocean, and so she's pulled in two directions. Her land-magic develops when Ross first encounters the Green Man and the Lady of the Forests, and realises that her newly discovered younger brother, originally believed to be half-Rowankind, is really half-Fae. This lets me bring in elements of British folklore and magic: wolf shapechangers (don't call them werewolves, they hate that!), kelpies, hobs etc. Land magic. Though my books are set in 1800 - 1802 (the long regency) I don't do balls, and my characters are a million miles away from the ton. They are mostly dealing with problems while keeping clear of the law.

I use settings suggested by my historical research. I have Ross, Corwen and some of the crew being chased through a deserted off-season Vauxhall Gardens by a pack of Hellhounds conjured by the villain, Walsingham. I've used a lot of authentic detail for that (with the help of detailed contemporary maps) and then when they escape to their row-boat on the Thames, they have to run the currents under London Bridge - which was like going over a waterfall with a six-foot drop, as the 'starlings' protecting the bridge piers, narrowed the river channel. I really enjoyed writing that scene.

Question: If you had to choose between writing only period literature or only fantasy literature, which would win?

Answer: I'm not sure I could separate the two. It's true that Regency Romance is my guilty pleasure (I love a Bridgerton-type book) but I don't think I could write something that was just historical. I would end up bringing fantasy and/or adventure into it somewhere. And ditto, if I set out to write a fantasy, it would have elements of history in it, whether it was Georgian or generically medievaloid. I'm currently writing a YA fantasy book that takes place in the modern world and in the lands of Faerie. There are historical aspects to it. My most recent published book, The Amber Crown is set in an analogue of the Baltic States in the 1600s.

Question: Be honest, have you ever dressed up in Regency clothes just to pretend for a moment you are in the past?

Answer: No. I can pretend without the clothes There were some try-on costumes in the Jane Austen Museum in Bath when I went there for research, but they were so obviously easy-on reproductions that I hadn't the heart. I was hoping to have a go at getting into a genuine period dress with its ties and pins (not a real historical one, but one made to the same pattern at least) however these were elasticated so a bit disappointing. I take my hat off to the people who do proper costuming, using real historical patterns and ensuring all the detail is authentic. I can sew, but I don't have much time for it these days.

Biography:
Jacey Bedford is a British writer of science fiction and historical fantasy. She is published by DAW. Her Psi-Tech and Rowankind trilogies are out now. Her latest book, The Amber Crown, came out in January 2022. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic, and have been translated into Estonian, Galician, Catalan and Polish. In another life she was a singer with vocal trio, Artisan, and once sang live on BBC Radio4 accompanied by the Doctor (Who?) playing spoons.

Jacey's Social Media:
Website
Blog
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alpennia, Carnival Row, Caroline Ford, Georgian, Heather Rose Jones, Jacey Bedford, Pinterest, Pirates, Pride and Prejudice, Regency Magic, Ross Tremayne, Rowankind, Sophie Longerbane, The Amber Crown, Winterwood

Scales and Sensibility by Stephanie Burgis
Published by: Stephanie Burgis
Publication Date: Octover 4th, 2021
Format: Kindle, 307 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

When her parents lost everything and promptly died Elinor Tregarth and her two sisters had to rely on the kindness of their relatives. But no one household could be expected to take on three penniless orphans so they were separated across the length and breath of England. Elinor ended up at Hathergill Hall to be a dogsbody to her cousin Penelope. Penelope under normal circumstances is hard to deal with, leading up to her debut she's a nightmare. She is making everyone, in particular Elinor, suffer. But Elinor never knew there'd be a breaking point but the tantrum Penelope throws when she hears her mother's friend Mrs. De Lacey isn't coming would destroy anyone's resolve. It's the fashionable thing for all young ladies to have a dragon, to be nothing more than an accessory, an inanimate object on one's shoulder. So of course Penelope's father got her the best dragon money can buy. Though poor Sir Jessamyn Carnavoran Artos has a nervous disposition and Penelope's treatment of him breaks Elinor. She snaps at her cousin and flees Hathergill Hall with Sir Jessamyn, her meager belongings, and her four shillings and sixpence she has diligently saved. Only to be promptly run over by a carriage, losing all her savings to dirty ditchwater. The carriage belongs to one Mr. Cornelius Aubrey, who is a scholar and dragon expert, so he instantly is more interested in Sir Jessamyn than Elinor, his companion is Mr. Benedict Hawkins, who hopes to be Penelope's future fiance, as his father lost all his money in the same scheme that wiped out Elinor's parents. For the first time in Elinor's life she thinks, if only she could be the type of girl to attract someone like Benedict Hawkins, or if she'd admit it to herself, Benedict Hawkins. The four travelers spend the night in a local inn. Before she falls asleep Elinor wishes she could be rich and beautiful, like Mrs. De Lacey, she could win the heart of Benedict and be able to care for Sir Jessamyn as he deserves. And that's when something magical happens. But everyone knows dragons can't do magic! Yet the next day Elinor is glamoured to look like Mrs. De Lacey and she has to put on the performance of a lifetime to save herself, her sisters, and her heart. If only fairy tales could come true.

I have always strongly identified with Elinor from Sense and Sensibility, so to have a similarly named capable young woman as the heroine of Scales and Sensibility, I couldn't be happier than Sir Jessamyn with a plate full of pheasant. Everything about this book just brought me joy. My love of dragons, happily ever afters, the Regency, house parties, revenge, true love, wait, I'm going a bit William Goldman there... This book at first sounded a little absurd, not that I don't like absurdity, but a world with dragons and no magic? I thought maybe it wouldn't work. But Stephanie Burgis does such a credible job grounding her fantastical tales. Everything makes sense with her worldbuilding. With her Harwood Spellbook "British" society being run by women was historically linked to Boudica. Here the way dragons were discovered was more along the lines of Mary Anning and her hunt for a living fossil. In the last two years I have become more than a little Mary Anning obsessed, I've even read The Essex Serpent twice as well as watching the miniseries to follow Cora Seabourne's desperate attempts to follow in Mary Anning's footsteps. Therefore a world in which a living fossil, a dragon, without magic, without anything other than just being a reptile that is named a dragon makes such sense. Of course there turns out to be more to Sir Jessamyn than meets the eye, but the point is, I loved this realistic grounding. What's more the whole financial scandal that lost Elinor and Beneidct's families their fortunes, The Great Brazilian Bubble, was common with banks and investments during the time period and had a real world counterpart, the South Sea Bubble, which, while earlier, was used to great effect in Andrea Penrose's Regency novel, Sweet Revenge and therefore makes me link the Regency more with the scandal than perhaps it ought. As fairy tales always have their grounding in reality, being written to teach a lesson that would otherwise go unheeded, so does fantasy. And really good fantasy builds it story on a bedrock of truth, and that's what this book is and does, now I need to go find me a dragon, because I now know they're out there.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Benedict Hawkins, Cornelius Aubrey, Dragons, Elinor Tregarth, Fairy Tales, Mary Anning, Mrs. De Lacey, Regency Magic, Scales and Sensibility, Sir Jessamyn, South Sea Bubble, Stephanie Burgis, The Essex Serpent