A review by staticdisplay
A Vision in Velvet by Juliet Blackwell

2.0

wah wah. I can only say "it was okay." I have never liked Oscar (the "peeping pig" - is that supposed to be comedic or endearing? hate it), and this whole book is about looking for Oscar and missing him and moving mountains to find him. many things fall to the wayside; Lily mostly stops doing magic, she doesn't do much to investigate the mystery, she's rarely in her shop. those are all things I enjoy reading about.
I didn't like the whole "familiar" plot in general.

Spoiler

well into the book, Aidan sends Lily a dog as a replacement familiar. the dog also turns into a man named Boye. shortly after introducing this character, he turns on Lily and Sailor. it would have been way more effective to introduce him early in the story and provide him with opportunities to interact and develop his character and then have him betray them, and by effective I mean dramatic and meaningful. instead, it was just conceptually very weird for Lily to order around this man and expect him to do what she says even when he's obviously primarily aligned with Aidan. which is one of many reasons I don't like Oscar - why would you keep around a familiar that someone else gave you? get your own. but also, isn't it a huge problem that Aidan is literally effectively trafficking all of these different "familiars"? yikes! makes it really gross when Lily is ordering Boye around and expects him to do what she says. more reasons why it would have been great to treat him as an actual character instead of a prop!

I understand that a part of Lily's growth is connecting with others and forming a community. sure! there's still room for individuation. in this story, she feels unable to cast magic without Oscar and constantly depends on others. where is the super powerful and independent Lily these books have been building up? I felt more and more blah as the story progressed :(
I've enjoyed this series quite a bit and hope my blahs are a one-off.