Jazz Age Magic

Teri Brown’s Born of Illusion is the first of a new series centered on Anna Van Housen, a talented illusionist with legitimate extra-sensory powers. When we meet Anna and her mother, the famous medium Marguerite Van Housen, they have finally settled into a routine in New York of the 1920s. After a lifetime of moving from town to town with traveling circuses and dodging police, the Van Housena ladies finally have permanent billing at their own theater and their own apartment. Anna and her mother have a tricky relationship; Marguerite is nothing more than a gifted actress with a large ego, so Anna hides her real talents even from her.

Everything is going fairly well until Cole Archer moves in with his distant cousin in the apartment below the ladies. Once Cole is in the picture, Anna’s powers intensify. She has recurring nightmares of something horrible happening to her mother and is increasingly aware of the inner thoughts and feelings of strangers. What does this mean? What about this handsome Englishman is causing Anna’s powers to go haywire? Will she ever be allowed to step out from her mother’s shadow and be free to live a life she’s always wanted?

I enjoyed this book; it’s fairly easy to read (that’s probably because it’s YA – but seriously I am SO behind I need light reads to catch up). The pacing of the novel is quick but not to the detriment of suspense. I won’t pretend this is mind-blowingly innovative literature. Some of the plot points I figured out well in advance of our heroine. Anna herself is a likeable main character. She’s loyal to her mother despite having been raised without a lot of normalcy or affection. Unlike most women of her age, she isn’t running around town in speakeasies drinking bathtub gin; she’s grown up learning invaluable skills like lock picking, knife throwing, and self-defense – all from the circus stars she’s lived with her entire life. Despite her ability to read other people, she still entertains the same doubts as any teenager (I think she is 17 or 18). Her flirtations with Cole and Owen (the manager’s nephew) are sort of an afterthought, so if anything was weak it was that. I’d have liked less love triangle and more Anna figuring out shit for herself.

Overall this was an entertaining beach read. Check it out.