Magic and mists!

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A Crown of Ivy and Glass (Middlemist Trilogy #1) by Claire Legrand    

⭐️⭐️💫



This had all the right tropes. A kingdom of magic! Fantasy, romance, revenge, an alluring young woman who didn’t quite fit—allergic to magic, a Capulet and Montague-type family feud, a missing mother, lovely swanlike swain who I didn’t like or trust, green ivy pathways—transiting points that the family can use except they always spit Gemma out and she’s always dreadfully ill. Then there’s the monsters in the edging mists (Middlemist) fought by the selected warrior women who transform (usually the youngest daughter in the family but because of Gemma’s reaction to magic, it’s her sister who has to go!) Oh those mistlands, the deformed beings, part of the Mistfires! Yes!

I mean so much happening that I was  dizzy. High fantasy exploding! I should have revelled in it, I didn’t. Gemma is beautiful, facile, beguiling  and nasty (I know magic makes her wretchedly tempered, but she’s mean!) The tone is totally Young Adult and a disappointment. Regency style or really just a fairytale-like fantasy? The Regency description is a step too far for me.

The story became a struggle to finish not long after I’d started.


A Sourcebooks Casablanca ARC via NetGalley.  

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