I was so excited to jump back into Emily Barker’s tale of Nora and her adventures. This book did not disappoint me! The Magic was bigger, the stakes higher, the world grew more complex, and the love more solidified. Nora definitely is in my top 10 favorite MCs this year. She’s so real and relatable, stubborn, crass, fiercely independent, clumsy, foolish, but most of all she reflects the hope and faith we all have for things to just be as they will be.

In this tale we find Nora back home and trying to carry on with her life as normal. As hard as she tries though she can’t shake the time she spent with Aruendiel, and the love for the world she left behind. However going back means more than a happy reunion and a fairy tale romance. Instead she finds herself in the service of a corrupt goddess wielding power she’s never imagined. And wondering if this was the life she was meant to return to.

I’m secretly hoping that this isn’t the end of the story and at some point I can return to Nora. tThat she becomes the greatest magician that ever lived and that Aruendiel finally stopped being dense and loved her the way he wanted to and she deserved.

I recommend this to EVERYONE. I will however preface by saying you need to read The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read an arc of the this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an e-book for review.

This is the second book in what is supposed to be a trilogy. After the events of book one, our main character Nora is back in our world pursuing her grad degree trying to put magic and the past behind her to move on with her life. However, she is given the chance to go to other worlds once again and is now faced with resuming her magical education and trying to sort through her relationship with Aurendiel, all while trying to figure out friend and foe in the process.

This one was not for me. I felt like there was very little character development. Nora seems very dependent on everyone else in this book- always following their leads instead of leading herself. I also felt like her relationship with Aurendiel should have been more of a journey. They are apart most of the book. Even when they are together I found the romance lacking. I did enjoy the plot and ideas of this book I just felt they weren't executed as well as in book 1. Aurendiel's POV was great, I loved getting his perspective. I also found it hard to believe that only 1 month has passed since book 1. There is supposed to be another book in this series but it remains unclear if there will be. The wait between books 1&2 was quite a while. This book doesn't end on a cliffhanger so they can choose to end the story there. I do feel ending the story where it is would be a bit lacking for me.

I think this book is for lovers of book 1 who don't mind most of the book taking place in one place, people who aren't big on the romance aspects, and people who dislike cliffhangers in their series.

I gave 3 stars because this just wasn't for me. I do think, however, there are people who will really enjoy this.

Four years ago I read the first book in this series and fell in love with it. Since then I've reread it a few times and still go back and read passages I particularly enjoyed. As the book had been released four years earlier, I think it's fortunate I didn't have to wait quite so long as the first readers to find out the next part of the story. Earlier this year the audiobook was released and I managed to get a review copy of it. But being new to audiobooks, I didn't absorb it as well as I'd have liked. And now it's possible to judge this book more fairly as I really get it now.

At the end of The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic, Nora has returned to her own world. Here we meet her a few weeks later after she has rejoined her old life. Nora is happy to see her family and friends and her academic life has some definite improvements in store. But life feels a bit flat and she's unsettled. She misses using magic and she misses Aruendiel. It's a chance situation that provides the opportunity to return to that other world and she takes it. Her return does not exactly go smoothly but she does reunite with Aruendiel and life is good. Perhaps a bit too good to last, actually.

There's a lot to take in in this installment, with twists and turns along the way that make things difficult for Nora but also allow her to grow and develop, especially in her magic. Unlike the first book, there's no slow burn in the romance department. Things get up to speed quickly once she and Aruendiel are together again. But it's not going to be a happily ever after. And to my mind, this book isn't really about the romance although it's definitely part of the driving force in the story.

Religion plays a major part in this story, with Nora being a non-religious person faced with being dropped into an environment that is almost totally run by it. Her belief, or maybe it's better to say lack of belief, is constantly challenged and she finds herself obligated to become an essential part of the system in order to protect those around her. At the same time, she is constantly trying to find a way to leave too. It's definitely not the life she wanted to return to and there are times when she is ready to stop using magic altogether.

There are a variety of battles that Nora faces in this story and with each, Nora is always conscious of just wanting to win without harm coming to those she faces. Her first major one is a big success, but the cost of it leaves her with really bad feelings despite her actions being her only choice for survival. I think this is part of her character I really like. She has no need for a lot of power and when it's handed to her, she finds it frightening to experience. She keeps a steady head through most of her experiences and she does figure out quite a lot along the way.

I'm sure there are many who might say Nora is just too nice. But what's wrong with being nice. And she's not a pushover. She stands up for herself even though sometimes it doesn't quite work the way she wants it to. She's also extremely compassionate, even with those who try to hurt her along the way. She may not like what's been done to her but she would never wish harm upon others. This seems true right to the end and I think this attitude serves her well in this world.

Aruendiel, despite his advanced age, still manages some development through the story. Even when we meet him in the first book, he obviously has some regrets about actions in the past. He is aware of the hasty reaction he had to the unfaithfulness of his wife and his behavior has put him off investing in that again. Spending time with Nora has opened his eyes to more possibilities for Nora in this world and in his life. He's interested in her not just for her beauty but also for her intelligence and persistence. He likes many of her qualities although perhaps he didn't properly appreciate her so much until she was back to her own world.

Although I suppose this could be read on its own, I think the appreciation for it would be much better for having read the first book. There are some questions from the first book that are answered here and we come to know some of the characters just that much more. Not to mention those we meet in this story.

I find this to be quite a fitting sequel and after both listening to and reading it, I am giving this four and a half stars. I would like to thank Netgalley and Semrland Books for providing a free advanced reader copy. I am providing this review freely.

3.5 stars: This book like 'The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic', had some really slow parts but also fascinating characters and enjoyable storyline. The beginning didn't immediately interest me but fighting through that, it ended up being really good. Thank you Semrland Books for gifting me an egalley copy for review.

In the sequel to "The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic", once Nora goes back to her world, she realizes she no longer fits in there, and she misses learning & performing magic.
I’m giving this sequel ⭐️⭐️⭐️

2 stars

I struggled with this one not only because the paced felt off and although the author did a great recap of the previous book I still feel like you HAVE to read the first book in other To understand some things that happen in this one, but mostly because... how do I say this without sounding too harsh? Well... our main character is stupid. Our dear Nora has the survival instinct of a brick. She was like... someone did something half decent for her and she was like oh hello new best friend. She was just too trusting and that annoyed me to no end.
Also the timeline was too jumpy and sometimes I didn't care but other times it put me off the story.
Anyways, overall I think the execution wasn't the best and ended up hurting an story that had a lot of potential.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this story. It sounded amazing. I was even willing to hunt down the previous book. The fact it took seven years between book one and two made me a little wary. If I liked it, then who knew how long it would take before the next book came out?

Well, I don't have to worry about that.

I just couldn't get into it. The character is stalled. From the first book which was decent enough, to this, where's the growth? I just couldn't really deal with that.

The author did some solid world building which was nice but all in all, this just isn't for me. I couldn't really bring myself to enjoy it, or rather, the book didn't bring me in.

(Review of an ARC via Netgalley)
So this is a sequel, and somehow I did not get that until I had started reading. The book does get you up to speed with the plot of book one pretty quickly, but there was still a disconnect. Nothing is wrong with this, really, I was just not vibing.
Still it's interesting to see how much of a pageturner this was even though I was Not Vibing.

☆☆☆ /5

J’étais très intriguée par ces deux romans. Le résumé et l’intrigue semblaient promettre une histoire épique et pourtant… c’est une petite déception de mon côté.
Pour les deux romans de la série.
¤
Au cours d'un week-end misérable lors du mariage d'un ami, désireuse d'oublier sa rupture désastreuse et sa thèse bloquée, Nora Fischer s'éloigne et se retrouve d'une manière ou d'une autre dans un autre royaume. Là, elle rencontre la glamour Ilissa -qui présente à Nora un nouveau monde décadent- et son magnifique fils Raclin. Mais lorsque l’illusion de ce pays des rêves se brise, Nora se retrouve dans un conte de fées qui a incroyablement mal tourné. Et la seule façon pour elle de survivre est d'apprendre elle-même la vraie magie.
¤
Honnêtement, j’ai tellement aimé la construction de l’univers dans lequel l’autrice nous plonge. C’est féerique, c’est beau et on découvre ce nouvel environnement en même temps que la protagoniste. Le style d’écriture de l’autrice était accrocheur pour moi. L’autrice ne se complique pas la tâche en utilisant un langage soutenu ou en faisant de belles et longues phrases et je trouve que justement, ce style d’écriture simple et fluide m’a permis de dévorer chaque page de ces romans. Également, le rythme et les événements sont plutôt équilibrés. Le premier tome est assez introductif et le deuxième tome fait suite au premier immédiatement. J’ai eu l’impression de lire un seul gros roman en fait, tant la fin du premier tome ne ressemble pas à une vraie fin.
Néanmoins, ce qui a énormément créé et augmenté ma déception a été les personnages, leur personnalité et les choix qu’ils ont fait pour la tournure des événements. Franchement, je n’ai rien compris. Nora est immature, indécise. Combien même, je pouvais accepter son côté passif au début du premier tome, en pleine lecture du deuxième, je ne pouvais plus l’accepter. Je n’ai pas réussi à voir d’évolution dans son personnage. Je n’ai pas réussi à tant soit peu l’aimer ou au moins ressentir de l’empathie pour elle, notamment lorsqu’elle vivait des choses difficiles lors de la confrontation avec la réalité du monde des Faes. Les autres personnages ne m’ont pas touché non plus. La romance qui est présente dans cette série n’a pas de sens pour moi et en fait, je trouve les relations décrites clairement toxiques. Trop de mensonges, trop de forcing, trop de contradictions… Ces romans m’ont perdue malheureusement.
J’aurais voulu aimer cette série plus que ça parce qu’il y avait des idées intéressantes, parce que l’autrice a une écriture qui me plaît. Et finalement, je ressors vraiment mitigée de cette lecture.

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ENGLISH REVIEW:

I was very intrigued by these two books. The summary and plot seemed to promise an epic story and yet ... it's a little disappointment from my side.
¤
During a miserable weekend at a friend's wedding, eager to forget about her disastrous breakup and stalled thesis, Nora Fischer walks away and somehow finds herself in another realm . There, she meets the glamorous Ilissa - who introduces Nora to a decadent new world - and her beautiful son Raclin. But when the sleek veneer of this dreamland shatters, Nora finds herself in a fairy tale gone insanely awry. And the only way for her to survive is to learn real magic on her own.
¤
Honestly, I loved worldbuilding which immerses us so much in the story. It's magical, it's beautiful and we discover this new environment at the same time as the protagonist. The author's writing style was eye-catching to me. The author doesn’t complicate herself by using strong language or by making beautiful, long sentences and I find that this simple and fluid style of writing allowed me to devour every page of these books. Also, the rhythm and the events are rather balanced. The first volume is quite introductory and the second volume follows the first one immediately. I felt like I was reading just one big novel because the end of the first book doesn’t seem like a real ending.
However, what created and increased my disappointment immensely was the characters, their personalities and the choices they made for the turn of events. Honestly, I didn't get it. Nora is immature, undecided. How much, I could accept its passive side at the beginning of the first volume, while reading the second, I could no longer accept it. I couldn't see any evolution in her character. I didn’t manage to love her or at least feel empathy for her, especially when she was going through difficult things when confronting the reality of the Fae world. The other characters didn't touch me either. The romance that is present in this series is meaningless to me and in fact, I find the relationships described clearly toxic. Too many lies, too much forcing, too many contradictions... It was so hard to enjoy my reading.
I wish I liked this series more than that because there were some interesting ideas, because the author has a handwriting that I like. But I was so mixed at the end and I don’t think I will remember anything about this story in the future unfortunately…

So, I have never had a habit of leaving a book unfinished, but I want to be completely honest here and say that I gave up at 60% of this book.

I really wanted to like this book, the first book was awesome, and the concept is great, but I just couldn't do it with this one. Normally, I am a pretty quick reader and I get into books fast, but this one felt more like a chore to me.

The previous book in this series came out about 7 years ago I believe, and it feels like there are about 7 years worth of ideas going on in this book. The story just felt like there was always too much going on without any real sense of flow. I found myself feeling like i was reading a long rambling at points and it was just very distracting.

Honestly, I had trouble even really understanding the overall point of the various events. Even now, when reflecting on what I read, I find myself baffled by what Nora was supposed to be doing and where her character was going.

Overall, I think this book would have been better had the ideas been more focused and perhaps split into another book? It just felt like too many ideas in one story.

Didn't realize this was a continuation of Thinking Woman...LOL. So glad I got it. Loved Thinking Woman and was so glad to read more about Nora. Just like before, I got sucked right back into Nora's world. I thought the story pacing was better in Goddess which was my only real complaint about Thinking Woman. Additionally some of my questions from the last book were answered in this installment. I am really enjoying this series! Need to check out more of Barker's other work.

It has been a long time since I read the first book in this series, and when I began this one I wondered why I had liked A Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic, since the beginning of this book kind of reads like a schlocky fantasy romance.

Like it or not (and it’s a not for me), there are elements of that throughout the book, but what I ultimately realized after digging further into this one is how much I enjoy (and enjoyed in the first book) the author’s sense of humor.

Said humor and tone are what makes Emily Croy Barker’s writing intriguing and likable despite some cringey romance stuff that I hated (though I expect most women won’t) and a touch of high handedness regarding Nora’s refusal to sanction the execution of a rapist/murder (unlike the cheesy romantic elements, this is truly damaging to the narrative and I knocked a star off for it).

The world building is surprisingly good here as well (I say surprising because the particular things rendered here are difficult to get right), and the magical system is quite good (something I rarely say about fantasy novels).

On the whole, the book is more good than bad, mostly because of its clever humor and light adventurous spirit.

I couldn’t finish it. I tried to care and push through but it just didn’t catch my attention. Granted I also didn’t know it was a sequel so I was a bit lost in events being described. I wish I liked it more.

I enjoyed this. It felt a bit whimsy and fun. However, I’m not sure if I’ll continue the series as it took so long for this second one to come out. By the time the next releases, I’ll have to reread the first and second to remind myself of what’s happened. If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t mind it

In the sequel to "The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic", once Nora goes back to her world, she realizes she no longer fits in there, and she misses learning & performing magic, and just as much, she misses the magician Aruendiel, whom she had begun to develop feelings for. So when the opportunity presents itself to return to Aruendiel, she does so with little hesitation. Little does she know, the sorts of adventures that await for her.....

I loved "The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic" so I was estatic to get a chance to read and review this book. I loved it. I will suggest you read the other book first, so you fully understand everything that is going on, but you will want to anyway. These books are so good, once you start, you don't want to put them down. For a recap, Nora is a human who accidentally stumbled upon a rift between worlds. She was discovered by the faitoren, and queen married her off to her son. When he tried to hurt Nora she was rescued by Aruendiel, and stayed under his protection the rest of the time she remained in that world. While she was there she decided she wanted to learn magic and become a magician herself. Nora is fun & spunky and I love the relationship she has with Aruendiel who is old and crochety and exacting. If you are a fan of fantasy fiction, then you definitely need to pick up a copy.

"Real magic isn't just about power. It's about knowing the world around you." [loc. 5613]
It's a long time since I read The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic (on a beach in the Canaries, one Christmas) and I remember enjoying it very much. Graduate student Nora wanders into a faerie realm, is courted by the Faitoren queen and married to a prince: but her days pass in a blur, and she's under the influence of strong magic. She escapes, and ends up working for the magician Aruendiel, and is eventually -- reluctantly -- returned to her mundane life. Now the long-awaited sequel has appeared, and though I didn't like it quite as much as the first book, I found it enjoyable and very much in the same vein.

Nora's life has turned around: she has won a scholarship to England, she's no longer in love with her ex, and she's concocted a fraught tale of injury, illness and isolated communities to explain her absence. The only person who knows what really happened -- knows about real magic, and Aruendiel, and being careful what you wish for -- is her little sister Ramona. When Nora encounters Adam she decides to tell him what really happened: his response? "So many wonderful narrative elements. So much resonance. An anti-Cinderella story that's also reminiscent of Cupid and Psyche... Fictionalizing a bad experience is healthy."

A chance encounter lets Nora return, though her reunion with Aruendiel is not as joyous as she might have hoped, and she's still somehow bound to the Faitoren court. Fleeing danger, she finds herself appointed as high priestess to a goddess of healing, and revels in the power her deity bestows on her. But power corrupts, and gift horses are not always what they seem.

Nora didn't seem quite as independent, or as outspoken about women's rights (or indeed literature), as in the previous novel. Though she has more agency than before, and more (borrowed) power, her story feels less epic. I felt that she was rather too trusting, despite her previous experiences of deceit in both Aruendiel's world and her own. She seems to take things at face value, which is not a great survival strategy in a world of demons, gods, magic-users and illusionists. I was fascinated by Aruendiel's encounter with the real Ilissa: let's just say that underneath the enchantments she is nothing like the elegant lady who took Nora into her court.

I would have liked a more definite resolution to the Ilissa thread, since her malign influence is responsible for one of the more distressing passages in this novel: instead, Aruendiel merely says 'she can cause no more trouble'. And I would have liked more interaction between he and Nora: they spend a great deal of the novel apart. How to Talk to A Goddess... felt, to me, rather more fragmented than the first book, though Barker does wrap up some elements that were left unresolved: Nora achieves some closure, Aruendiel's chapters give us more insight into his thoughts and feelings, and there is a sense of pleasant possibilities opening up as the story draws to a close. Though I'm not confident that Nora will begin to make more sensible decisions, she does seem to be happier, with a firmer sense of purpose.

UK Publication 29 June 2021. Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy, received in exchange for this honest review.

I enjoyed this book immensely. I couldn’t put it down. Easy to read with great character formation.

This was a compelling and thoroughly enjoyable read from start to finish with a great storyline, interesting cast of characters and all capped off by skilful writing. It's well worth your time if you appreciate great storytellers.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

This book was interesting. Great read.

How to Talk to a Goddess and Other Lessons in Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker
Publisher: Semrland Books
Genre: Humor | Romance | Sci Fi & Fantasy
Publication Date: June 29, 2021

How to Talk to a Goddess (And Other Lessons in Real Magic) by Emily Croy Barker and is the sequel to The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic. This was like coming home to an old friend!

If you haven't read the first book, I would definitely recommend diving into that one first, but the beginning of this book provides some backstory so you can catch up.

So I absolutely loved this book. I found it to be captivating, intriguing, funny, and I couldn't stop reading! This book takes you on an adventure with so many twists and turns that you just don't know what to expect next! The characters are great and well-developed. I find Nora, the main character, to be so relatable, funny, strong, intelligent and her story is so fascinating!

I definitely recommend checking out this fantasy series!

I'm so grateful to Emily Croy Barker, Semrland Books, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.