This one just really nails an inventive hard magic system in an urban fantasy setting.

Sciencey and full of heart

I love how character focused this is. Surprised and delighted me.

The more I read of this book, the more I fell in love with it.
We open with Winnie arriving at a mansion haunted by malevolent fae. She is hired on officially as a governess, and unofficially as someone to deal with the curse on the household.

I love what this book balances tonally. It's gothic and dark. It's romantic and wholesome. It's mysterious and fairytale. It's easy to follow and structured.
It certainly relishes its Victorian era setting by leaning more towards Gothic tropes, while not leaning so hard that it gets muddled in the Atmospheric Plotless Weeds that Gothic books sometimes do.

But after all of that, I think what I love most about this book is the romance. It starts so slowly. For the first half of the book, I was wondering if there was even going to be a romance. But it builds, and is built so well. They get to know each other, and learn to trust each other, and have many cute moments together.

I highly recommend this novel. It does act as a direct sequel to the Regency Fairy Tales series, but can be read without those ones.

Thanks to Netgalley and Starwatch Press for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

It's creepy and deeply thoughtful.

This book has so many POVs, and they are all balanced so well. The best of them is the talking cat

Every singular sentence of The Hexologists is overly long and stuffed with superfluous, puckish, recondite adjectives. When I started my study of this book, it was daunting and snagged my focus on its myriad of dictional flourishes. However, the more I read the more I was endeared to the writing style; I was savoring the paragraphs like cradling a welcome, sapid lemon drop on my tongue.
(That's what reading this book is like.)

This is the story of Isolde and Warren, a married couple who solve crimes. Isolde is a powerful Hexologist, a sharp investigator, and completely lacking in tact. Warren carries her bag (magical), and befriends everyone they meet. I loved their odd-couple dynamic, which is entertaining as it is wholesome.

The drama of this story comes almost entirely from the mystery they are solving: whether a man could be the hidden son of the king. Along the way they get caught up in magical battles and business tycoons, make trips to the mother-in-law and dangerous dimensions. The mystery is done quite well, with a well balanced sprinkling of clues and false-leads along the way.

Thanks to Orbit and Netgalley for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

Absolutely nothing wrong with this book. Just, for my taste, it was too emotionally distant from our protagonist's perspective and made it hard to connect with her.

I asked myself, "Why is this book going on for pages about the different types of FTL travel?" Oh, right, this was written before Wikipedia. The information here is interesting, but the audience this book was written for was 30 years ago.

If you're looking for SFF writing advice, check out Brandon Sanderson's Youtube channel.