I decided to give this author another chance, even though she put a tyre swing in the 1870s in The Paper Magician.

The late-Victorian language isn't quite idiomatic, and a tradesperson's assistant coming to the front door of a manor house would be a huge social error in this period, so the author is still not really getting historical fantasy quite right. But the story is well enough told that I can mostly overlook this; there was nothing as glaringly anachronistic as the tyre swing, and the plot and characters were capably handled and engaging.

The world is an interesting one, where some people have magical ability, but in order to harness it they must train through a guild system and go through expensive rites - so, apart from a few scholarship cases (who rise to wealth through their abilities), the people on the top of the heap are mostly the people who were already on the top of the heap. Also, mostly men.

This is a familiar scenario, no less relevant today than in the 1890s, even though the class system has ostensibly changed a great deal since then. Thrown into the mix, though, is spellbreaking - a talent that crops up in all sorts of people and doesn't require expensive training or initiations. Of course, spellbreakers are supposed to be registered, and there are ferocious penalties for those who aren't, since they have potential to undermine the whole system; but our heroine is an unregistered spellbreaker, rescued from the workhouse as a child by a mysterious group she calls "the Cowls" because of how they dress, and given covert assignments to stick it to the Man by breaking spells as the Cowls direct. She sees herself as a Robin Hood figure, and while she has to maintain her cover, so far that's not been too much of a problem in the scheme of things. (She has what I think of as a "superhero job" - supposedly demanding, but actually gives her plenty of time to participate in the plot. This gets explained eventually, though, so it's not as tropey as I thought at first.)

Only now the Cowls are calling on her more, and then she gets caught by a spellcaster who has his own troubles, and their lives become more intertwined, and then her view of the world and what's going on is challenged, and things end up becoming very exciting indeed. While there's plenty of resolution and I wouldn't call the ending a cliffhanger, it does very much lead on to the sequel.

The very slow-burn romance is between two appealing people who have believable issues that are not down to character flaws, but backstory. The minor characters have a bit of individuality. The world is full of potential, though it somehow doesn't quite feel different enough given the magic level; it's as if the author has mostly thought through the parts of the magic that are directly relevant to the plot.

Overall, with a couple of minor reservations, I enjoyed this very much, and it will be on my 2020 Best of the Year list. It's encouraged me to consider others of the author's books (and I definitely want to read the sequel), even though there were significant issues with her first book that almost put me off her permanently.

I received a copy via Netgalley for review.

This was a great story! I lived the Paper Magician story and this similarly creates a beautiful alternate world full of magic. Bacchus and Elsie are both wonderful and I can't wait for more!!

"It is urgent that you break the spell in Kent."

The orphaned Elsie Camden learned as a girl that there were two kinds of wizards in the world: those who pay for the power to cast spells and those, like her, born with the ability to break them. But as an unlicensed magic user, her gift is a crime. Commissioned by an underground group known as the Cowls, Elsie uses her spellbreaking to push back against the aristocrats and help the common man. She always did love the tale of Robin Hood.

Elite magic user Bacchus Kelsey is one elusive spell away from his mastership when he catches Elsie breaking an enchantment. To protect her secret, Elsie strikes a bargain. She’ll help Bacchus fix unruly spells around his estate if he doesn’t turn her in. Working together, Elsie’s trust in—and fondness for—the handsome stranger grows. So does her trepidation about the rise in the murders of wizards and the theft of the spellbooks their bodies leave behind.

"The symbol of a bird's footprint overlaying a crescent moon looked back up at her in vivid orange wax."

Like Elsie's spellbreaking, I think I like this best after it's complete so that I can unravel it all over again. Holmberg weaves a story that's long in coming together but masterful when it does!

I can't wait for the next one.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Holmberg Street Crew for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.