I am sorry it’s taken me so long to read this book, but it was worth the wait. The world building was intricate and obviously layered in with great care. At first, I felt like I was thrown in the deep end–as it is quite immersive–but I quickly started to tread water and found a world quite unlike any I’ve encountered in fantasy before, which made it refreshing. It was also an engaging read. The heroine was determined and easy to root for and her penchant for uncovering more and more secrets–and get into trouble because of it–kept up the tension. I was a little distracted by the character named Nat, only because one of the oldest characters I ever created is named Nat. So I kept wondering if the author was inspired by the same fictional Nat as me–the Nathaniel (Nat) from The Witch of Blackbird Pond, a book I absolutely adored when I was in 5th or 6th grade.
I’m looking forward to reading the other books set in the Bone Universe and whatever else Ms. Wilde writes in the future. She was kind enough to sign this copy (tbh, my copy has a different cover, but I like the one shown here better) for me at Balticon a while back and we actually have an acquaintance in common, so I’m definitely rooting for her success. I’m also excited because I think this might be a good comp for my WIP, but by the time I get it ready to go, Updraft might not be recently published enough.
and continues with three more, most recent published this year. I don’t see any reason for the series to stop. It seems like it could keeping going for a while and I wouldn’t get tired of it. Jane Austen is a huge inspiration for the series, especially the first book. If you can imagine Jane Austen with magic, this might be what she wrote. Unlike the Regency romance novels found in the romance aisle, this series follows the same two main characters from the first book as they have more adventures. And adventures they have! This structure also gives the opportunity to deeply explore a marriage and some of the pressures on a marriage from the time period. I think the second book and the fourth book have been my favorites, but that’s just personal preference. They are all wonderful. Highly recommended.
by Patricia Wrede as part of my quest to read more books set in the Regency period, with the goal to get ideas of how to do things in my Dakotashi series. A very enjoyable fantasy, just the type of thing I was looking for. The characters were delightful. The authentic dialect was a little overwhelming. I’d like to add more of that kind of flavor to my dialogue without going too far.
