I really wanted to love this. Like LOVE LOVE it. Jane Austen with magic? COME ON. And I enjoyed reading it, I suppose. Hell, I read it in a day. But my biggest problem with it? It didn’t give me any FEELS. I want the feels, I NEED THE FEELS.
Jane Ellsworth is a single woman in Regency England, and though she’s only 28 (A BABY), she’s considered a spinster and has all but given up on ever finding love or a husband. Her younger sister, however? Is young and beautiful and everyone loves her and Jane IS NOT JEALOUS don’t even suggest it even though, yeah, she’s kind of jealous because how could she not be?
Jane is inexplicably in love with her neighbor, Mr. Dunkirk, even though he seems like an insufferable BORE, because I suppose she has to be in love with someone. Jane’s sister, Melody, is also “in love” with Mr. Dunkirk (at least until someone else with a penis and the hint of a fortune pays attention to her), who seems to be returning her affection until he witnesses Jane displaying her talents with glamour. Glamour, in this universe, is just as important in a young lady’s arsenal of society tricks as talent with the pianoforte or the ability to throw off a quick quip with little thought. Jane is supremely talented when it comes to glamour, while Melody has to stick with being beautiful and universally adored.
Along the way, Jane meets Mr. Vincent, a glamourist from London who is creating a glamour display for a rich neighbor. At first Mr. Vincent seems not to like Jane all that much, and she can’t figure out why. He doesn’t dislike her, though, he actually has a healthy respect for her talent with glamour, but has trouble saying it at first. Or, like, at all. He doesn’t talk much. I felt like the novel could have benefited from a chapter or two from his perspective, since (until the end) I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to be rooting for Jane and Mr. Vincent, or Jane and Mr. Dunkirk, or for Jane to just get the hell out of dodge and move to London and become a glamour musician or something.
I was just so disappointed in this book. Like, I enjoyed it because I felt like I got what the author was trying to do, but I felt cheated out of swoons in terms of Jane and the “romance” she finds with SPOILER ALERT. I wanted more build up.
I’ll probably read the second one, though. I mean, I got it from the library and all, so I might as well.
I read this last year and had pretty much the same reaction you did, but I’ve heard the later books are better as they get away from being Jane Austen plots with magic.
I’ve still got the second one from the library but I also have all these other books that sound so good. LIFE IS SO HARD.