I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Netherford Hall by Natania Barron is a third person multi-POV Sapphic Regency fantasy romance. Poppy and her sister Viola are out in society and under pressure to look for a potential spouse when the head of the Rockwood family comes to town. Gentlewitch Edith has recently been made the head of her family and is struggling with the new attention she is receiving.

Auden was probably my favorite character. As Edith’s uncle, you would think he’d be the head of the family or would be all too happy to be her counsel and assist her. Nope. He wants zero responsibility and gets a headache every time he’s asked to do anything, even by his former vampire lover. He’s hilarious and really subverts a lot of tropes of the uncle with the gentle guiding hand or is secretly planning things behind his niece’s back; Auden has no plans. He just wants to be a happy guy.

As a big fan of Pride and Prejudice, I loved all the references to the book without being a pure adaptation. Poppy and Viola are somewhat like Elizabeth and Jane, respectively, but there are some key differences in how their relationships develop and in how their family dynamics work. Edith is a Darcy-esque character whose closest approximation to Mr. Bingley is her uncle, but he’s not interested in Viola at all. The dance scenes and Edith having many young women being thrown at her also helped sell the Darcy aspects, but it gets twisted when she requests for Poppy to work in her house, which ramps up the tension in their relationship.

The magic system is very genetic and seems to be mostly limited to the gentry. There are also vampires and werewolves walking around and a world of faerie in the very Regency-coded setting. The vampire families are powerful and wheeling and dealing like you would expect, but are also kind of on the fringes of society due to their bad blood with witches.

I would recommend this to fans of Pride and Prejudice looking for a fantasy Regency romance, readers looking for a Sapphic historical fantasy, and those looking for a multi-POV Regency fantasy.

Netherford Hall offers a delightful homage to Pride and Prejudice while carving out its own unique path. It’s a story about self-discovery and finding one's place, enriched with diverse characters, a sapphic romance, and a theme of found family. I absolutely adored the book, though I couldn't quite give it 5 stars. My main quibble was the tendency for POV shifts within the same chapter—a pet peeve of mine—and the somewhat lengthy chapters. Despite these minor issues, I highly recommend Netherford Hall to fans of Pride and Prejudice and anyone who enjoys queer fantasy.

This book has a style and magical world I have not come across before in the regency set fantasy books I’ve read recently. There is family, yes. There is the period set whimsical standing in society, yes. There is financial difficulty, yes. But so much more. There is a mix of horror and sapphic romance. Gentlewitches, hedge witches, vampires and demons. And there is a Manor House. Yes!!!! Read and you will come to understand. With more from Poppy and Edith promised to us by the author, yes. The future holds promise. My suggestion, start at the beginning and read this book now. Thank you to Rebellion and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

In Regency London, Gentlewitch Edith Rookwood and her family are forced to move to their ancestral home, Netherford Hall, after a mysterious fire. Facing financial difficulties and an uncertain future, Edith must consider marriage to secure her standing. However, she becomes increasingly drawn to her tenant, the lively Poppy Brightwell. As secrets from their pasts emerge and various rivals, suitors, and enemies close in, Edith and Poppy must navigate their feelings for each other while fighting for love, family, and their true identities.

We begin Netherford Hall with what feels like a leisurely walk through the countryside as Natania Barron immediately immerses us in Netherford with strategic pacing and worldbuilding that make me feel like I had gently melded into the environment. It has all the makings of a cozy supernatural mystery. Beautifully descriptive prose paints lovely imagery of the town, homes, and clothing from a bygone Regency era. The character interactions are intentional and revealing. The main characters and supporting actors are all fascinating and important. I enjoyed the magic system blended with government in this diverse queernormative world where humans coexist with a number of preternatural beings. The history and lore are so well thought out and presented in a way that the complex concepts are easily grasped. Netherford Hall is its own character. It is the living, breathing, heartbeat that flows throughout the story linking everything. I really liked the Brightwell siblings. It was lovely to see how they cared and supported one another. I also enjoyed the secondary relationships that were building on the sidelines. I believe they will be explored in future novels.
As much as I loved the interactions between Edith and Poppy, and I understand their connection was intertwined with something deeper, I would have liked to see them spend a bit more time just getting to know one another. Overall, it works, and novel length may have been a consideration, as there is already so much going on.
The climax was satisfying, and the ending wrapped up nicely. I cannot say enough about how much I loved the pacing. It was perfect and I was engaged throughout. It was a quick, entertaining read.
I didn't love the author's choice for Viola.
I highly recommend this book and look forward to the follow-ups. I am giving it 4.5 stars, rounded up.
#regency #fantasy #witches #vampires #queernormative #smalltown #Kent #England #butch/femme #magic #oppositesattract #HEA #cozy

I loved this book. The world building was great. loved the magical elements and well developed characters. The romance was sweet and charming. I felt like i could really connect to the characters in their own way. it was a very entertaining read

4.5 stars

My feelings about Netherford Hall are mixed, albeit generally favorable. The plot is quite complex, featuring many mundane and fantastical characters. While the central players - Polly, Edith, and Auden - are well enough drawn, the many supporting players seemed more described than fully painted in. I think that leaving out one strand - perhaps the vampires, perhaps the relatives from overseas - would have streamlined the story and given space to paint the others more fully. Still, this is the first of a trilogy and all of the characters are likely threads from which sequels will be drawn, as clearly intimated in the epilogue. I will read the next book to see how the series develops.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for a fair review.

I keep throwing myself at Regency/Victorian era stories and every time I'm reminded that I don't actually like that era. This one is no exception. It's advertised as Pride and Prejudice with witches, and it's true. Edith is the new head of her family after a fire killed almost everyone, and so she and the survivors, her uncle and nephew, have to move to their crumbling house in the countryside. She's a weak witch who was never prepared for a leadership role, and to make matters worse, she's also received news that there's an unknown American branch of the family who are coming to England to try and claim Netherford Hall. Poppy's family used to be wealthy, but have fallen on hard times in part due to an incident that left the whole family swayed against witches, but since they're technically tenants of Edith's, she becomes harder to avoid. When the two meet, sparks allegedly fly, and they have the most stilted enemies to lovers romance to ever claim to be a romance.
They were an unconvincing couple. They were unconvincing characters, who seemed one dimensional. There's even a side romance that was entirely out of the blue. They say that if two characters have to say "I love you" in order for the reader to see a romance, it's not a good romance. Auden's thing was not a good romance. He saw her and thought she was hot, then thought maybe I'm rushing into this, and then they made out?? What? Barron also opened a lot of threads that mostly fizzled (but I'm not specifying which). There's Poppy's mysterious past, the fire in London, the American Rookwoods and the reason they left the family in the first place, vampires, a High Witch who's connected to both families. It's a lot, and a big chunk of them don't really amount to much. The ending was abrupt and disjointed. It really was the kind of book that was hard to be invested in because I really did not care about the characters, and that bummed me out, because I thought the premise had a lot of potential.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Beware of possible spoilers.

More like 3.5 stars

The first thing I want to mention is that this isn't a Pride and Prejudice retelling. If that's what you're here for, you won't really get it. In fact, it's more like a faintly inspired fantasy Pride and Prejudice. It doesn't follow the P&P plot flow at all. Nor do the characters really match up. Obviously, we have Netherford Hall, which is for Netherfield Hall. And then we have a few characters, including the main characters, that you can somewhat match up with the P&P characters.

However, those characters quickly become their own and it's hard to even see Poppy as Elizabeth or Edith as Darcy. Plus, they have a very different family and friend dynamic, which somewhat takes away from the P&P aspect of the book. P&P is all about society and class, finding love and life in a world that isn't always kind to women, and the pride and prejudice that happens between the main characters that they have to learn their way out of. That's...not really here.

But, I'll start with the things I liked. After I realized the book wasn't a retelling, I decided to just read it like a fantasy. I like the characters, though I think Auden sort of stole the book. I wanted to know more about him and Henry than the women. But that doesn't mean I didn't like Edith and Poppy. I found them really interesting, especially when we got into the magic aspect.

Speaking of magic. While the system was a little complicated at first, it's actually very interesting! I hope to see more of it in the next book.

I also loved that the house became a focal point. The mysteries surrounding it was really intriguing.

The things I didn't like...

The writing style gets a little bogged down from the purple prose of it all, though I'm also aware this is a translation? Correct me if I'm wrong. This could have something to do with that. Sometimes it was just a little too much to read.

I don't have problems with swapping POVs, but I did find that there were too many switches and that some POVs (Auden) were featured quite frequently when it should have been in Poppy's or Edith's POV. The story was ultimately theirs, but they get a little sidelined because of this.

Lastly, I did find the ending a little rushed. This isn't too bad, but with the book's length and the lead up to it...To have it wrapped up so quickly made it feel anticlimactic to say the least.

Despite all these things, I did enjoy it. I found it interesting and I know I'll read the next book when it comes out just to see where this author takes the story.

P.S. I know I'm meant to ship Auden and and the modiste, but I found myself wanting Auden with Basil more...I don't know why. Don't ask me to explain it...I just liked their scenes together more.

This book has a lot going on! It’s a fantasy, pride and prejudice adaptation, Regenecy, and LGBTQ+ romance. Is there almost too much going on? Perhaps.

Yet, if you want a queer-normative take on P&P that is still set in a fantastical regency period, you will likely really enjoy this.

In order to get to this setting, the book pulls some interesting world-building. It’s basically the regency period if a) sexism, homophobia, racism, and the patriarchy didn’t exist, b) primogeniture wasn’t really in effect c) magic existed.

I totally get WHY this has to happen to make the story enjoyably queer without having to address homophobia (because that ain't fun), so if you love the time period but want to see more gay people, you’ll enjoy that aspect (I definitely did love this part).

But here comes me being pedantic. Primogeniture was the norm during the real Regency period in order to keep the family name/bloodline intact when passing down property and titles. Women were generally provided for in that when the dad died, he’d will any daughters (and his wife, if she outlived him), some money to live on, but generally they were beholden to their male relatives to keep them housed and etcetera, or on their husband. Which is why the mother in P&P is so obsessed with getting her daughters married well - she needs someone to marry rich so to keep herself and her 4 other daughters from the poorhouse. When it comes to adoption, often, because of the whole bloodlines thing, adopted kids were left out of inheriting estates or titles.
I say all this because this novel has a worldbuilding where women can inherit and queer people can marry, so, therefore, primogeniture can’t exist. This means the central tension of P&P - gotta marry those daughters off so we don’t starve - also can’t exist. So, if you're going into this expecting to see that plotline, Mr. Collins, all of that stuff, it's not there.

The magic system creates a different issue that the family has to deal with. Does it work? Yes, it totally does ... but it does make me wonder why we needed the Regency period element at all. Why not just forgo all that and make it just a fantasy romance loosely based on Regency customs and clothing?

The magic system isn’t explained in enough detail for me, at least in how it was incorporated into the Regency world. When did magic come about? How is it tied to the crown? If vampires exist who can live for hundreds of years, how does that impact marriages of convenience? If this story hadn’t been set in a slightly modified Regency England and instead set in another world, then I wouldn’t have any questions, really, but because I am very well-versed in the real time period, given I focused on it in university, I was a little bit like “What about this? What about that?”

Obviously, this is a "me" problem and not a book problem. In fact, if you aren't that into P&P you will probably enjoy this more than if you are a fervent Austen fan.

In terms of prose, the book reads in a way that feels like it's trying to mimic a more formal writing style (in that we’re kind of given an “overhead” view of everything).I enjoyed this, actually, as it gave a bit of oomph to the time period aspect and kept it from feeling too modern. Yet, because of this, the characters are, despite being well-formed, hard to bond with as we’re sort of watching everything from afar.

This definitely ties into my reaction to the romances which were like my course schedules in university: they lacked chemistry. Like in P&P, we have multiple romances in the novel, but unlike in P&P, they are all very much insta-love. Even the two main characters (who stand in for Darcy and Elizabeth) pretty much want to jump each other from the first meeting. We are told rather than shown affection (there are lots of musings on how hot the other is, basically), and the two don’t really have any witty conversations to produce the tension we get between Elizabeth and Darcy. I’m not trying to be mean, but it felt to me like the complexity of Elizabeth and Darcy was reduced here as a basic grumpy-sunshine trope.

Likewise, in P&P, we do have insta-love with Bingley and Jane, but that also ties very much into the Darcy and Elizabeth plot - they are intertwined. In Netherford, we don’t have that dependent plotline, so all the romances are separate from one another. It also felt like the other romances developed after one conversation - there was no build-up and they felt inevitable.

I suppose the main issue I’m having is that it should have been a direct P&P adaptation (following the same themes and basic plotline) or just been a queer fantasy, grumpy-sunshine, romance set in a Regency-like setting as opposed to trying to force Regency to fit queer fantasy.

I had really high hopes for this one, as I love queer retellings, but it just didn’t land for me.

BUT if you want magic, lesbians, a manor house, a small town, vampires, and some diversity, do check it out. Maybe the love stories will work better for you!

When I was twelve years old, my English teacher took us to the library and told us to find a book or two that met a few requirements. It had to be something we hadn’t read before, and it had to be something outside of our usual reading habits. Being an RL Stine devotee, I picked up <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/105633/9780141439594"><em>Tess of the D’urbervilles</em></a> by Thomas Hardy, and <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/105633/9780593622452"><em>Pride and Prejudice</em></a> by Jane Austen. I still have a soft spot for Tess, but it was Elizabeth Bennet who stole my heart. Within two years I would be glued to a 12-inch television screen as Colin Firth swam into my soul.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a good story will inspire writers to indulge the wilds of their imaginations with favorite characters and settings. Former GeekMom writer Natania Barron has done that with <em>Pride and Prejudice</em>, taking many of the settings and themes that are so loved and creating a wonderful witchy adventure with a splash of romance. <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/105633/9781837863341"><em>Netherford Hall</em></a> is being released this week by Solaris Books, under their new imprint Solaris Nova, and I could not wait to get my hands on it.

Described by Barron as a “sapphic <em>Bridgerton</em> with witches,” the fantasy doesn’t stop there, as we are treated to vampires, a glimpse of werewolves, and a hint of the Fae roots at the heart of all magic in this world. Personally I cannot wait for her to explore the Fae origins that are hinted at throughout the book. <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/105633/9781837863341"><em>Netherford Hall</em></a> is both epic and lighthearted, silly and romantic. It is full of fun and magic, whilst also meeting us in some dark corners, and is a thoroughly wonderful way to pass a summer evening or three. Beginning with the Brightwell sisters in much the same way Austen begins with the Bennet sisters, it is hard not to fall in love with the duo.
<blockquote>Poppy and Viola shared a certain strength of brow, and strength of will, but they were otherwise quite different. Viola was a socialite, a matchmaker. She reveled in connecting people and was almost offensively outgoing. Poppy, with her earthy roundness, was affable when the opportunity allowed, but took to wandering around the countryside when she wasn't about her studies, preferring to spend time alone whenever possible. This gave her a wild quality that no application of pin or petticoat could alter.</blockquote>
In <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/105633/9781837863341"><em>Netherford Hall</em></a>, gentlewitch Edith Rookwood returns to her family’s ancestral home in the Kentish countryside, in search of magic, stability, and possibly a wife. Poppy Brightwell is the younger daughter of the Rookwood tenants currently living in Harrow House, who immediately both vexes and enchants the gentlewitch. There are meddling families, family secrets, some awful distant relatives, and two persistent vampires. There are some wonderful Austen-like balls, and conversations, and a broad array of characters to keep you engaged. There is even a modiste, which I feel is necessary after three seasons of <em>Bridgerton</em>, and Barron is particularly skilled at describing costume detail in a sumptuous and engaging manner. There is no simplistic undertaking of relationships in this world. Marriage does not have to be determined by societal obligation, financial need, or even gender. This allows Barron to more fully explore what makes a match, and allows the characters to be completely true to themselves.&nbsp;

For generations, the Rookwoods have ignored their ancestral home and the town of Netherford, making their home and their fortune in London. However a tragic and mysterious accident sends the remaining three Rookwoods, Edith, her majordomo who is also her Uncle Auden, and young nephew Henry back home for respite and recovery. Ancient bonds are reignited, and ancient rules and order are restored as the village rallies to the call of their gentlewitch.

<img class="alignnone wp-image-349151" src="https://geekmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Gentlewitch.jpg" alt="" width="694" height="467">

What I truly love about this book, beyond the compelling storyline and the fully fleshed-out characters, is this universe that Barron has created. I am fond of anything that gives a spin on our own reality, especially when the Fae are involved. In <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/105633/9781837863341"><em>Netherford Hall</em></a>, there is a whole world of history and society that is laid out in front of us that we get a mere taste of in this particular story. With follow ups planned, there seems to be even more world building accomplished here than can be contained in three books. There are two confirmed sequels thankfully already signed up to follow, which are currently titled <em>The Viscount St. Albans</em> and <em>The Game of Hearts</em>. The origin story of the closing of the borders with the Fae alone could be an epic series.

[caption id="attachment_349149" align="alignnone" width="1200"]<img class="size-full wp-image-349149" src="https://geekmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/NetherfordHall.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="858"> All Images: Solaris and Natania Barron[/caption]

While giving a delightfully queer spin on <em>Pride and Prejudice</em> (the dedication reads, "For every queer heart who wished for their Darcy."), Barron’s reworking of familiar tropes and characters continued to amaze and delight me right through to the last page. Just to pull one type of character aside, the approach to vampires in this book is highly refreshing, and not at all what I was expecting. Thankfully we are nowhere near the realm of sparkly vampires, but we are given a much richer society and order than they are generally given. Seeing the role that the vampires play in the concluding battle, there is undoubtedly a story to come that will add even more depth (and romance) to their world. Hints are also made to other creatures that may or may not make an appearance, such is the detailed and delightful world to be explored within <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/105633/9781837863341"><em>Netherford Hall</em></a>.
<blockquote>Vampires have a taste for gold, and hoard it like dragons were once rumored to.</blockquote>
The hierarchy in place between a gentlewitch and her town, between the families and their social order, is reminiscent of the Bennets, Bingleys, and Darcys, but adds a layer of ancient rule and magic to it that unfolds throughout the course of the narrative. You can feel Barron’s love of old Arthurian legend and such through the narrative structure she gives to the adventures within this book, and through the relationship building she accomplishes between the levels of society. This new social order she has conjured up, is full of detail and delights for even the most world building weary amongst us.
<blockquote>Oath giving was an old, and somewhat dated, method of preserving secrets between witches and vampires—or, on occasion, particularly clever werewolves.</blockquote>
The world created here is vast, and the storylines meticulously woven together, so there is a lot going on in this one novel. If you are familiar with the cadence of Austen or Aaron Sorkin, you will find yourself falling into an easy rhythm with <em>Netherford Hall. </em>The characters will grip your heart and run away with your fancies. I am thoroughly looking forward to the next volumes in this series, and hope that we don’t stop with three.

For anyone who has ever fallen in love with Darcy, dreamed of Rhysand, mooned over Guinevere, or wanted to cavort with Jonathan Strange, this is the romance you are looking for.

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Natania Barron is an award-winning fantasy author and former GeekMom writer as well as a founding member. Her publications include her 2011 debut, <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/105633/9781645541776"><em>Pilgrim of the Sky</em></a>, as well as&nbsp;<a href="https://bookshop.org/a/105633/9781645540250"><em>These Marvelous Beasts</em>,</a> a collection of novellas. In 2020, Barron's <em><a href="https://bookshop.org/a/105633/9781837860616">Queen of None</a></em> was hailed as "a captivating look at the intriguing figures in King Arthur's golden realm" by Kirkus, and won the Manly Wade Wellman award the following year.

<em>GeekMom received a review copy of this book for review purpos

I really wanted to like this book. I saw the cover and the enticing tagline “Pride and Prejudice and Witches” and thought, say less. However, the only aspect of Pride and Prejudice that this book adopts are the incredibly dull sections where absolutely nothing happens. The romance wasn’t even compelling and I inherently find any queer romance interesting, but this one fell short. It started off promising as I was intrigued by the idea of a “gentlewitch,” and the role they play within a small estate, but then for about 200 pages it was a whole lot of nothing. 300 or so pages and I still couldn’t tell you one discernible personality trait of the main character, Edith. Towards the end it picked up, but by then it was too little too late. I unfortunately do not think I will be picking up the sequels to this one.

The premise was interesting but right off the bat the tone and anachronistic dialogues were too jarring to get invested. Even with the alternate magical era premise, language used was super inconsistent with the world-building. Unfortunately had to abandon.

I liked the idea of this, but it didn't quite come together. It was enjoyable to read, entertaining even, but I couldn't help but notice its faults, and because of that I was not as invested in the couple as I wanted to be.

This is set in an alternate regency England with witches, and some of these witch families have a high social status similar to nobility. Edith inherited the title of Gentlewitch, which is sort of the head of the family, though in her case there's not much family left. The concept here lacked explanation. Gentlewitches take wives though they are also women, and I'm not sure why or if they can have children this way or how this works. Because of this, same sex marriage is generally legal here though there's still some homophobia, but that isn't explained until much later on, and I struggled with what the concept was actually supposed to be here. The magic system is there, but not super explored, but I guess that's to be expected in a regency romantasy, and I think the lack of explanation of the gentlewitch concept was a bigger problem.

The pacing was a bit weird at times. In the beginning, there were lots of infodumps, but not on what I actually wanted to know so it took a moment to get started, and after that the pacing picked up but still felt off. The romance suddenly moved very fast when they initially disliked each other and I didn't really feel them fall in love, but then there were still a lot of obstacles keeping them apart, but I was not super convinced they should be together at all.

Edith was an interesting character, and she had something of a character arc, but it didn't always fully come together and I think some more editing could have tightened this arc. I was less interested in Poppy until later on, though I was curious why she was so obsessed with the house.

A significant chunk of this book is writting from Audel's POV, who is Edith's uncle (though not much older than she is), and at times I really didn't get why the book was from his POV. I actually liked his character, he was charming and fun to read about, but it did take away from the main couple and might be why the romance didn't feel as developed.

While I did enjoy the book at times, I think this needed much more editing and as it is I don't think I would recommend it.

I really struggled to get into this book and after several attempts and reaching about 40% I've had to give up. The premise of "magic pride and prejudice with lesbians" sounded amazing but I found the execution so dull, the two female MC's have interacted about only three or four times by the 40% mark and most of the novel so far has been from the POV of the witch's cousin, Auden. Others might love the slow pace, but it just wasn't for me.

ARC provided by Netgalley.

Netherford Hall is a regency period story about a witch who is displaced to her ancient ancestral home. I enjoyed it a lot and recommend it to readers who love Pride and Prejudice, stories set during the regency era, and paranormal beings.

I found this book very boring. I think the style and pacing was intended to mimic Jane Austen’s works but it falls flat.

I didn't mind the writing style at all. It was flowery and a bit pompous but in a fun way. It was the slow pacing that I had issues with.

There was a lot of info dumping at the beginning of the book which slowed everything down. Most of it I didn't need to know, or it could have been brought up at a more appropriate place in the book.

For a book that moved at a glacial pace and was unbelievably boring for parts of it, it jammed in a lot of stuff! I do wonder if it would have been better to have saved some of the stuff for the second book.

The romance was very lacklustre. There was no chemistry between the characters and there wasn't any build up. It felt forced.

This isn't a witchy version of Pride and Prejudice (or if it is, it's a bad one). If you like historical fantasy with a bit of romance then you might enjoy this but don't go expecting Austen. You'll be disappointed

It is a truth universally acknowledged that there aren't enough queer Regency books out there, but Natania Barron takes it up a notch with her addition of Netherford Hall. I absolutely enjoyed this book from start to finish. The characters were realistic with their virtues and flaws on full display, including and particularly the secondary characters that turned this into a deep, complex, and believable world with underpinnings. We hear about places we aren't visiting and how they affect the protagonists, how what the protagonists do affect others: this is not a brief touch, but the threads of the world all elegantly interwoven. The pacing is solid throughout, with my only quibble being that the latter 1/4 seemed to have a lot happening all at once compared to the earlier slower pace, but given the context, is eminently reasonable. There's a lot happening in Edith and Poppy's world!

This very much *felt* like a Regency piece with the right language and details included, the right concerns for characters (including social perceptions of roles) rather than a story slapped in with Regency wallpaper. The author's clear research and attention to detail were evident, which made for a pleasant and consistently immersive reading experience. There were no moments of disbelief or language misuse to throw a reader out of the period/story. Every character's voice is clear and distinct, making POV transitions smooth.

The queer relationship*s* in this book were excellently written and there was no queerbaiting (hallelujah!); we have well-developed relationships of all flavors, including platonic familial ones. Edith and Poppy stand at the top, all of Edith's concerns and insecurities hidden behind her proper visage, and all of Poppy's chaos and misapprehensions making for, once again, *believable* relationships, believable people, which make it a book I know I'll be re-reading.

DNF at 26%

The writing style of this one was just not working for me at all. It all felt like it was trying to be flashy and ended up feeling stilted instead. Dialogue felt cold and clunky and these characters all felt hollow.

I believe this book wasn't written for me - but people who enjoy magical realism that's more of an alternate historical universe than magic in real history will enjoy it!