Reviews with content warning for Vomit - The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry

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The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner

9 reviews

basil_touche's review

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I'll just say right off the bat that I found this book extremely disappointing.

At first I was really into the victorian style of writing and a story involving magical female bodyguards with a sapphic romance on the side. But then the book dropped the bodyguarding aspect less than 100 pages into it and instead

focuses on the characters starting a drug ring to catch a murderer.

The blurb for this focused solely on the bodyguarding aspect and I wouldn't minded the change had it actually turned out to be anything interesting, but it just wasn't. I was expecting some deep governmental conspiracy that links in with the classism that the book features (I will give the book that it handles that well), not a narrative that doesn't really deliver anything.

Around five chapters focused on just the romance and

the building of the drug producing laboratory, it was a repetitive cycle of working on in the lab, luncheon, flirting and resting.

It was just so dragged out and unnecessary. All this meant that the ending was extremely rushed and we aren't even given a motive for the antagonist. All the characters are rather one dimensional as well, that by the end of it I didn't care about any of them or if the romance between the protagonist and the rich half-troll clanner worked out in the end.

It's a real shame as I love the idea of a fantasy book set in a victorian setting with the period appropriate writing style but this book just did not fullfill anything for me. Waste of time.

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owlieali's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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nytephoenyx's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I have mixed feelings about The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry.

I picked it up because it looked light and funny, and it was amusing, but not so much funny. It’s a book largely written in a fantasy-style slang and takes some adjusting. The first third of the book requires slow, deliberate reading until the reader learns what some of Delly’s slang, the world-specific and magic-specific terminology, and what things are just verbal mannerisms. If I’d been listening to the audiobook, I think this would have gone more smoothly as I could rely on the narrator’s tone for some interpretation in the early parts. As it was, it ended up as more of a slow read than I would have liked, and that put a damper on he whole thing.

Normally I’d complain about the romance in a fantasy book, but I think this one was well balanced. The book’s description was a little different on my edition, and it made clear that Delly was set to get householded (married) to someone wealthy… or at least have a good romp and acquire some expensive gifts she could pawn. I really didn’t think the romance was too much, altogether. Fantasy was the day job, romance was the night job. Really, like most of our normal lives. And Winn was likable enough, not swooning or distracting.

The fantasy elements of this book was fascinatingly constructed. It is equal parts alchemy and magic, a good combination that at times made things seem just slightly fantasy-steampunk. Dialect choices aside (which weren’t bad once I figured them out, but I’m in enough of a slump that it was a chore) I thought the world was pretty good. Even the supporting cast was interesting.

It does feel like there’s more story here, almost as though C.M. Waggoner has a sequel in mind, or at least other stories in this world. The whole plot with a fine lady and assassins mentioned in the book description only takes up a small part of the novel, with the larger story based around vengeance, justice, and busting up a drug ring. It’s all still interesting, just not quite what I expected.

As I said at the beginning of this review, I am on the fence. Some days I liked the book, some days I didn’t. I think when I was able to sit down and read it for longer spurts, it fared better. Story-wise, I recommend it to folks who like books like Just One Damned Thing After Another (which I do!) so I don’t regret picked it up. Just know that it’s a bit more than it appears.

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