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uehfiwo's review
3.0
It was good. Nice twist on regency type of romance novels. I’d be more interested in the rest of the series if it was related to the sisters or Bentley.
nolegirl's review
3.0
Some romance, some fantasy, some magic, some Victorian England and a hot man who's a shape-shifter...what's not to like? I have to admit that I thought this was more a YA book until I hit the first hint of sex and realized it was meant for adults.
This wasn't a challenging read, I had most of it figured out pretty quickly, but it was interesting and fun, and just what a friend likes to call "good brain candy".
I liked Felicity, the main female character. She has spunk, even though it seems she's almost invisible to everyone she meets until she meets Terrence Blackwell, a shape-shifting baronet who is also a spy for the royal family. Terrance can't seem to forget the beautiful woman he can see through the spell cast by relic-magic, the type of magic that killed his brother. Terrence is a were-lion and his character reflects his animal nature, which made sense and made the story even more interesting in my opinion.
The author does a great job of describing an alternate Victorian England that is filled with magical peers and were-animals, where even the buildings aren't what they seem. This is the first in a series that I downloaded from Amazon when it was offered as a free promotional and is no longer offered free. I liked it enough that I'll be downloading the other books in the series soon since this really gets a 3.5 in my book!
This wasn't a challenging read, I had most of it figured out pretty quickly, but it was interesting and fun, and just what a friend likes to call "good brain candy".
I liked Felicity, the main female character. She has spunk, even though it seems she's almost invisible to everyone she meets until she meets Terrence Blackwell, a shape-shifting baronet who is also a spy for the royal family. Terrance can't seem to forget the beautiful woman he can see through the spell cast by relic-magic, the type of magic that killed his brother. Terrence is a were-lion and his character reflects his animal nature, which made sense and made the story even more interesting in my opinion.
The author does a great job of describing an alternate Victorian England that is filled with magical peers and were-animals, where even the buildings aren't what they seem. This is the first in a series that I downloaded from Amazon when it was offered as a free promotional and is no longer offered free. I liked it enough that I'll be downloading the other books in the series soon since this really gets a 3.5 in my book!
tani's review
4.0
This was fast-paced and fun, and made for a great fluffy read. I breezed through it in days, and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on some other books by the same author.
blodeuedd's review against another edition
4.0
I found this book to be adorable, it was just so cute and fun. Not to mention that I liked the society that in this alternate England.
Magic is still around and English society is infused by it. The Royals have the most powers and then the Dukes and so forth. If you are without then you are stripped of titles and lands. Magic rules and different titles have different magic. I really liked what she created and it was interesting.
Our heroine is truly naive, but that is the only way she could be. No one ever notices Felicity and she believes she is a grey little mouse. But there lives a fighter in her that wants to peak her head out. She was sweet and innocent.
While the hero Terrance is something else entirely. There is one class of nobility that has no magic and that magic can't touch and that are the shapeshifters. But the Royals use them as spies since they can sense relic magic. And Terrance, well I wanted to be angry at him for using sweet Felicity, but at the same time he was falling for her so I forgave him. His beast knew better than he did.
A relic of evil magic must be found, a couple fall helplessly in love and all is not well in the country of England.
Such a sweet story that I devoured in a day. Easy to read, easy to fall in love with.
Magic is still around and English society is infused by it. The Royals have the most powers and then the Dukes and so forth. If you are without then you are stripped of titles and lands. Magic rules and different titles have different magic. I really liked what she created and it was interesting.
Our heroine is truly naive, but that is the only way she could be. No one ever notices Felicity and she believes she is a grey little mouse. But there lives a fighter in her that wants to peak her head out. She was sweet and innocent.
While the hero Terrance is something else entirely. There is one class of nobility that has no magic and that magic can't touch and that are the shapeshifters. But the Royals use them as spies since they can sense relic magic. And Terrance, well I wanted to be angry at him for using sweet Felicity, but at the same time he was falling for her so I forgave him. His beast knew better than he did.
A relic of evil magic must be found, a couple fall helplessly in love and all is not well in the country of England.
Such a sweet story that I devoured in a day. Easy to read, easy to fall in love with.
hedgielib's review
3.0
Got from the library after recommended from SBTB. Wish it had been a little more developed.
kstep1805's review
3.0
Just a cute book. Stereotypical Regency romance plot with a supernatural twist. I did have a little bit of a problem with one of the main characters completely becoming a different person about half way through the novel and then changing back to normal. Maybe that was intentional but it was rather jarring. Simple plot, predictable, easy to read, but entertaining.
lynseyisreading's review against another edition
2.0
jhgufkfyiftyfukgitrftyfkhglh!
Oh, I really wanted to like this! I love the idea of it; the premise. It's an alternate-history, magical 19th Century London setting and had some terrific world-building elements. I love the idea of the magical community's hierarchy based on power levels and abilities. You've got Kings and Queens with the most power, including the ability to alter matter—change one thing into another thing. Then you've got Dukes who can create long-lasting illusions and casts spells and work potions. And so on and so forth with Barons, Viscounts and Marquesses with less and less power each time, right down to the lowest of the low, Baronets, who are essentially shapeshifters with just that one ability—to change shape—but are otherwise immune to magic. Their immunity causes them to suffer scorn and distrust from the upper-ranked magic workers who don't like people on whom their magic has no effect.
So far, it's all good. I liked the world and I even thought I might like the two main characters until I got to know them better. On paper they sound fabulous. There's Felicity, a girl who believes herself plain and forgettable. So forgettable, in fact, that people often overlook her entirely, even going so far as to sit on her because they didn't see her occupying the chair. And then you have handsome lion shifter Terrence (who is not a train), whose visual description made him look like Chris Hemsworth to my mind's eye. Mmm. And their first meeting was kinda sweet. But that's where it all started to go a little wrong for me.
The 'romance' just did nothing for me in the end. Felicity turned out to be extremely weak and timid and rather gullible and, well, just a bit stupid, really. Terrence was...okay, if you discount is horrible deception of such a sweet-natured (and stupid) young girl. The sex scenes were blah, there was no chemistry there at all. The middle part of the now obvious plot had almost nothing happening for pages and pages and also, there wasn't nearly enough exposition done on character behaviour. It would mention Terrence did something or said something strange, perhaps something a bit lion-y, but then in never explained what it meant, or what Felicity surmised it to mean, or whether he'd meant to do it. And for someone like myself who loves reading body language in books—so much so that the in-between parts of dialogue sections I often find more telling that the actual words spoken; sidelong looks, nervous hair touches, etc.—it was most aggravating that those things were included but left dangling in the wind with no explanations. And even the dialogue itself was often confusing and bizarre. A character would blurt something out, seemingly out of nowhere since the narrative hadn't prepared us for what he/she had been thinking, and I'd be left scratching my head wondering where that had come from, what were they thinking there then? Answers on a postcard, please, because the author failed to include any in her story.
To sum up then, it was disappointing, especially after showing so much promise. It was a great idea, good world building and magical social system in place, but bad characters and flat romance.
2 Stars ★★
ARC provided for an honest review.
Oh, I really wanted to like this! I love the idea of it; the premise. It's an alternate-history, magical 19th Century London setting and had some terrific world-building elements. I love the idea of the magical community's hierarchy based on power levels and abilities. You've got Kings and Queens with the most power, including the ability to alter matter—change one thing into another thing. Then you've got Dukes who can create long-lasting illusions and casts spells and work potions. And so on and so forth with Barons, Viscounts and Marquesses with less and less power each time, right down to the lowest of the low, Baronets, who are essentially shapeshifters with just that one ability—to change shape—but are otherwise immune to magic. Their immunity causes them to suffer scorn and distrust from the upper-ranked magic workers who don't like people on whom their magic has no effect.
So far, it's all good. I liked the world and I even thought I might like the two main characters until I got to know them better. On paper they sound fabulous. There's Felicity, a girl who believes herself plain and forgettable. So forgettable, in fact, that people often overlook her entirely, even going so far as to sit on her because they didn't see her occupying the chair. And then you have handsome lion shifter Terrence (who is not a train), whose visual description made him look like Chris Hemsworth to my mind's eye. Mmm. And their first meeting was kinda sweet. But that's where it all started to go a little wrong for me.
The 'romance' just did nothing for me in the end. Felicity turned out to be extremely weak and timid and rather gullible and, well, just a bit stupid, really. Terrence was...okay, if you discount is horrible deception of such a sweet-natured (and stupid) young girl. The sex scenes were blah, there was no chemistry there at all. The middle part of the now obvious plot had almost nothing happening for pages and pages and also, there wasn't nearly enough exposition done on character behaviour. It would mention Terrence did something or said something strange, perhaps something a bit lion-y, but then in never explained what it meant, or what Felicity surmised it to mean, or whether he'd meant to do it. And for someone like myself who loves reading body language in books—so much so that the in-between parts of dialogue sections I often find more telling that the actual words spoken; sidelong looks, nervous hair touches, etc.—it was most aggravating that those things were included but left dangling in the wind with no explanations. And even the dialogue itself was often confusing and bizarre. A character would blurt something out, seemingly out of nowhere since the narrative hadn't prepared us for what he/she had been thinking, and I'd be left scratching my head wondering where that had come from, what were they thinking there then? Answers on a postcard, please, because the author failed to include any in her story.
To sum up then, it was disappointing, especially after showing so much promise. It was a great idea, good world building and magical social system in place, but bad characters and flat romance.
2 Stars ★★
ARC provided for an honest review.
imabrunette23's review against another edition
4.0
This was a cute little book, similar to Harry Potter in that magic is intertwined with reality. I didn't realize it was a series when I read the book (but now I can't really find the other books on bn, so maybe it was a planned series?), so sometimes I was jonesing for more information on specific things (like why Felicity's parents are dead, what exactly happened to Terrence's brother, etc). Quick read, little bit of romance to spice things up, not a lot of sex. It was purely a fluff piece, though it was better written than most romance novels.
jaimewrites's review against another edition
3.0
This is a hard book to judge, for me. I really did enjoy it - I love the world the author has built, and will definitely look for others in the series. I enjoyed it despite the fact that the heroine was of the good-but-vapid old-school Disney heroine stereotype, and the villains were no more than cardboard cutouts. There were definitely a lot of moments that had me rolling my eyes. But, if those sorts of things don't generally make you want to throw a book across the room, it's worth the read for the worldbuilding alone. I have hopes that perhaps later books feature better characterization!