A review by hirvimaki
Witchmark by C.L. Polk

2.0

I'm of two minds here. On the one hand, I feel like Polk did an admirable job of world building, even though at times it felt a little like a cheat based on London, but totally not London. And I always like when magic has rules. I like consistency and a solid framework so that magic isn't just a gimmicky plot device (the good: Dresden Files, the bad: Harry Potter). And I really enjoyed the class structure and the depth that brought to the story. It really was the most fascinating part of this book.

And yet...there was a lot of grey in this book. Slavery being a key component to the tale, it felt...unresolved and a bit dodgey. And as to the magic of the world, I really did not understand who knows what (Does everyone (read: non-magic users) know the upper class are magic users?) and the repercussions that the various practitioners suffer (privilege or punishment) didn't seem very well explained - but perhaps I missed it. And finally, the romance. Meh. It did nothing to add to the enjoyment of the tale and in fact was distracting in that it felt shoehorned in.

I vacillated between two and three stars, but in the end I felt there were just too many little pieces that didn't fit and left me disappointed.