4/5 stars
Recommended if you like: Victorian era, fantasy, witchy reads, mirror worlds, Fae
Big thanks to Netgalley, Starwatch Press, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
This book is connected to Atwater’s Regency Faerie Tales, but set some time after, once the period becomes the Victorian Era. Characters from the Regency Faerie Tales are mentioned, and Winnie knows some of them quite well, so it’s a little spoilery if you haven’t read the other series. That being said, this one does stand on its own and you don’t need to have read the Regency books to grasp what’s going on here and how the magic system works. (I did not read the Regency Faerie Tales series, but now I’m kind of thinking I might).
I have to say, I appreciate Atwater’s dedication not only to representing the time period she is writing about but also to the style and theme of writing from that time period. She has a ‘review’ here on Goodreads that goes over some pretty interesting things and I enjoyed finding hints of that in the book (it is a somewhat spoilery review though, so only read if you’ve finished or are OK w/ spoilers).
The book opens as all Proper Victorian Books must: with a stormy evening and a governess. You get an immediate sense that something about the manor is strange, first from the fact that the coachman wouldn’t go near it and then from the skittish silence of the servants. I definitely liked how it set up a Slightly Off atmosphere, though Winnie’s humor and matter-of-factness creates an illusion of calm. The weird goings-on at the manor are the result of Fae, not ‘horror’ creatures, and so you know the rules going in. That being said, Atwater creates Fae that are cunning and cruel, quick to press advantages and attempt to ruin things before they’ve begun.
I did think it was easy enough to figure out why the Fae were mad (it takes Winnie longer), but there are some interesting and gruesome twists in there that I wasn’t expecting. I was definitely intrigued by the missing town’s folk and quite enjoyed how some of Winnie’s Fae stories came around in a different way later on in the book.
Winnie is used to Fae, was saved and tutored by one as a child, and so she’s able to have a matter-of-factness about her that many of the other characters lack. Even if she doesn’t practically know certain things, she knows them theoretically, and that’s a leg up compared to people who have little information about them at all aside from their terrorizing of the manor. I enjoyed Winnie’s practicality as well as the humor she suffused into many of her Fae interactions. I found her dislike of Robert to be relatable and honestly think she has more patience than I would in that situation. Despite her semi-tough exterior, and her own best attempts, it’s clear Winnie cares deeply for people and is willing to go to great lengths to protect them, even if she still doesn’t particularly like them.
Quincy is the butler for the Fae side of the manor and plays both harmless and horrifying pranks on the inhabitants. It was hard to get a good read on Quincy because he was clearly not on the side of the humans, but at the same time he seemed to have soft spots for them at times (such as for Cook). I didn’t like him for a good portion of the book, but he grew on me in the last 30% or so and by the end I liked him.
There is romance in the story, and while I liked it, I also am not sure how I feel about it. I knew who would be involved and that it was coming, but I feel like we don’t really get a solid buildup to it. I knew those things because I read fantasy with romance, and I’ve read fantasy/romantasy books like this before, but if I was new to the genre and didn’t know the pattern and tropes, I would probably be confused as to where the romance was coming from. Now, that’s not to say there aren’t hints of the romance throughout, but it is to say that I don’t feel like the hints really build up properly.
I liked the Fae elements of the book and the topsy-turvey version of the house. The mirror world was an interesting aspect, and I particularly liked how it seemed to grow and become labyrinthine as a way of confounding the humans caught in the mirror world. Quincy is the main Fae we come into contact with, but there are the standard Gentry partying in part of the house, and Lady Mourningwood plays a bit of a role too. As usual, I enjoyed the careful wordplay that the Fae engaged in and that Winnie and the others had to accommodate lest they get trapped. Winnie seemed particularly adept at using faerie rules, which proved a nice challenge for the Fae who weren’t expecting her.
Overall I enjoyed this book. I’ll probably read Half a Soul at the very least and see if I want to get the full Regency Era story.
Reading Queen E Reviews 