This book is a Not For Me title. I mark titles with competitive qualitative content NFM when I find the content personally disinteresting or the writing style to be dissonant to my preferences.

Marked overall as 3 because, while I randomize checks for qualitative markers I do not read anywhere near enough of the book to give either more or less than that rating and a blank rating is not an option.

I never would have guessed a book about Victorian con artists and elemental magic. A fairly quick and compelling read, though perhaps for a rather narrow audience as the magic plays a rather significant role and the plot takes us pretty far from the familiar world, even for readers of historical fiction.

Julia and her bother, Dack, are part of Spira City's underground. Working for a group of spies and thieves, Julia finds herself spying in a grand house full of mystery. Her interest in the house's activities are piqued when a witch and her young son enter the household.

Julia Vanishes has such a rich setting. I love that Spira City is split into many different sections and it's easy to tell the rich areas from poor ones based on their names. There are many religions in this book as well as folklore, witches, and magic, all with great details. For instance, witches only do magic when they write things down.

Catherine Egan has truly created a magical world and I loved every minute. (It was also a great audiobook!)

JULIA VANISHES has the potential, but it didn't quite reach it in this first instalment. There was a lot of info-dumping and it really felt like the author tried hard to make the world this book was set in unique. It was, in its own way, but it would have been better if the author went about it in another way.

Unfortunately, I never got around to downloading Julia Vanishes prior to archive. I apologize for the inconvenience. I have since read, enjoyed, and ordered for our collection.

This is an interesting first book in a new series. Julia is not a witch, although her mother was drowned as a witch when Julia was 7 years old. However, Julia can hide from other people's sight. She works in the seedier side of town and her current job is to be a maid in a house as she searches for something there, she is not really sure what. There is mystery, action, and magic in this intriguing book!

Julia has the ability to become invisible. This trait is her means of employment, and her new assignment is tougher than she could have thought. Working as a housemaid at Mrs. Och’s, she encounters strange people who seem to be using magic, which is banned in the city. The strange professor, the man who gets locked in the basement and the woman who seems to be on the run with her small child all have Julia confounded. All she longs to do is finish the job and return back to her life of thievery and fun, but soon the job becomes more involved than she could have ever imagined.

Lovely read!