I’m so sorry this prose was not it. Too self aware, too self congratulatory, and with this expectation that it’s funny enough to get away with it when it really…isn’t. I couldn’t do it. I should be the audience for this, I LOVE a good clever  fantasy comedy but just…no. 

This book is stunning and utterly haunting, and I’d recommend it easily. Low rating because I felt the magic element was missing some development, and I personally really dislike plot twists that rely on a first person narrator withholding information from the reader. 

I wanted to love this so much. It just really needed some plot-level work that it didn’t get. 

Gets better the more I think about it. Book two now please 

Historical fantasy has my whole heart. I love this concept, and the execution was pretty successful. Wasn’t AS invested in the characters’ journeys as I could have been, because I think I could just see where this was going way before it got there. 

I wanted to like this, but it is unfortunately overly-didactic and under-plotted for a four hundred page book. It could be half as long and far more nuanced, and would have benefited from that edit.