When you swim in forbidden changeling waters, you risk either drowning or transformation. Such is the way of the world we enter in this tale, a dominion where magic is frowned upon as evil, where churches would outright ban it and yet the desperate, curious, avaricious or needy call upon its wonders. Magic is couched as something that can be bought using expensive gifts, secrets and can be presented as a night in a girl’s arms. Some of these charms are fabricated, created by clever alchemists. Others are simply innate and can be gotten only by being born with the talent.
This is a story of immense wealth alongside grim poverty. The former means that there are people willing to buy and sell human beings and the latter means that there are people willing to be bought and sold, although the price isn’t necessarily as obvious as money changing hands.
The reader is immersed in a world of secrets, lies and deceptions, of enchantments that can change a person’s looks or fortune. It’s a clandestine society dominated by females since the magic gets passed down from woman to woman (which may be one reason the church tries to crush them). But these gifts come with a price and their own restrictions.
We watch with interest as the defiant Matilde chafes against the thought of an arranged marriage to a man who’ll want her for her inherent magic, much like another girl would wilt at someone marrying her for her money. As she moves through her society, determined to look and choose her future for herself, the author scripts an atmosphere of glitter, enticement and glorious beauty. We are fascinated by dresses with fabric flowers that can open at a touch, clothing that emit sparks, masks that give off smoke.
Matilde is joined by other questing females—Sayer who despises this ostentatious wealthy world and the young and nervous Æsa, homesick and longing to return to her island home. They strengthen the feel of a female-dominated universe. While this story starts off with one desperate debt-ridden gambler yearning to change his fate, it promises to be a novel filled with strong female protagonists, each negotiating a world that gifts them with power and yet attempts to bind them to its will.
It’s glorious, dazzling and hazardous. It’s a world of femmes and fanatics. The early chapters thrill and leave you dying for more, as if kissed by a nightbird.
This is a story of immense wealth alongside grim poverty. The former means that there are people willing to buy and sell human beings and the latter means that there are people willing to be bought and sold, although the price isn’t necessarily as obvious as money changing hands.
The reader is immersed in a world of secrets, lies and deceptions, of enchantments that can change a person’s looks or fortune. It’s a clandestine society dominated by females since the magic gets passed down from woman to woman (which may be one reason the church tries to crush them). But these gifts come with a price and their own restrictions.
We watch with interest as the defiant Matilde chafes against the thought of an arranged marriage to a man who’ll want her for her inherent magic, much like another girl would wilt at someone marrying her for her money. As she moves through her society, determined to look and choose her future for herself, the author scripts an atmosphere of glitter, enticement and glorious beauty. We are fascinated by dresses with fabric flowers that can open at a touch, clothing that emit sparks, masks that give off smoke.
Matilde is joined by other questing females—Sayer who despises this ostentatious wealthy world and the young and nervous Æsa, homesick and longing to return to her island home. They strengthen the feel of a female-dominated universe. While this story starts off with one desperate debt-ridden gambler yearning to change his fate, it promises to be a novel filled with strong female protagonists, each negotiating a world that gifts them with power and yet attempts to bind them to its will.
It’s glorious, dazzling and hazardous. It’s a world of femmes and fanatics. The early chapters thrill and leave you dying for more, as if kissed by a nightbird.