This was a lovely read - and one that I had trouble categorizing. I wavered between historical fiction and magical realism, but went with historical fiction since the magic was what you made it, but didn't HAVE to be there. I has fun with this one. It moved at a great pace and the intersecting characters' lives and stories were intertwined smoothly and believably. And some of the characters, separate from their connections to each other, were fascinating - The Uzanne and Anna Maria Plomgren specifically, but also Ms. Sparrow. The connections to real history, and an exciting time period in history at that, were seamlessly developed. Also, I have very little knowledge or experience with Swedish history, during this time period or any, and this book definitely made me want to find out more (from a somewhat more historically realistic source). I respect the author's ability to do that. She also brought in some very interesting smaller historical pieces, like the women's use of fans for communication, that I was vaguely aware of, and made them something so magical that I was disappointed in not knowing more about the topic before. Finally, I loved loved loved the role of the Octavo. I think the art of cartomancy is fascinating and really enjoy reading books that include it. I felt that her research of the cards and their meaning was very thorough and made a fantastic centerpiece for a story like this - creating a structure that holds the story up and brings it all together cleanly and very enjoyably.