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WORK TITLE: Season of Spells
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://sylviaizzohunter.ca/
CITY: Toronto
STATE: ON
COUNTRY: Canada
NATIONALITY: Canadian
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/245437/sylvia-izzo-hunter
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Calgary, AB, Canada; married; children: one daughter.
EDUCATION:York University, B.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer; scholarly publishing professional.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Sylvia Izzo Hunter, author of the “Noctis Magicae” series of fantasy novels, studied medieval and Renaissance poetry and drama at York University in Toronto. Her books, set in an alternate Regency-Era England and Europe, combine elements of fantasy and romance, and have earned high praise for their world-building, engaging characters, and intriguingly twisty plots. A native of Calgary, Alberta, Hunter lives in Toronto with her husband and daughter. She works in the field of scholarly journal publishing, and in addition to knitting, baking, reading, and writing enjoys singing in two church choirs.
The Midnight Queen
The series opens with The Midnight Queen. At Merlin College, Oxford, the Kingdom of Britain’s elite sons are sent to study the philosophy and practice of “magick.” Gray Marshall, the most talented of these students, suddenly falls into disgrace and is stripped of his magical powers after he witnesses another student’s death and is blamed for it. Gray’s demanding mentor, Professor Appius Callender, arranges for the young man to spend the summer working at the professor’s country estate while the scandal cools, and Gray hopes that this break will enable him to regain the powers that he has lost.
At Callender’s estate, Gray meets the professor’s daughter, Sophie. Despite her father’s strong wishes to the contrary, and in defiance of social norms that forbid it, Sophie is determined to learn everything she can about magick–and Gray encourages her interest. Before long, the two fall in love. Meanwhile, Gray begins to suspect that Callender has brought him to the estate for reasons that are not entirely benign. In fact, Gray fears that the professor is involved in a conspiracy to murder Lord Halifax, head of Merlin College. As Gray and Sophie try to learn the truth, Sophie discovers that she possesses magical abilities that her father had tried to keep secret. And she discovers other secrets about her family as well.
Writing at her book blog, NYX Book Reviews, Celine Nyx hailed The Midnight Queen as “a breath of fresh air.” Describing the book as “a sort of mash-up between Jane Austen and Harry Potter,” Nyx especially liked the story’s focus on characters rather than fast-paced plotting. Romantic Times contributor Annalee Schuck likewise appreciated the story’s many mythic influences, as well as its “creative and suspenseful” plot. In Publishers Weekly, a reviewer said that the novel’s romance, intrigue, and enjoyable mix of Regency and fantasy “will charm fans.”
Lady of Magick
Gray and Sophie, now married, are drawn into a deadly plot in Lady of Magick. Feeling unwelcome as the lone woman student at Merlin College, Sophie welcomes the chance to move with Gray to the northern kingdom of Alba, where he has been invited to lecture at the University of Din Edin. She happily resumes her studies there and hopes to be able to fully develop her magick skills. But Gray is suddenly called away to London–and does not return. Unable to find him or any information about him, despite using all the spells at her disposal, Sophie fears that he is in grave danger. With her sister Joanna, Sophie sets out to save her husband, discovering that the future of Alba itself is also at stake.
The novel’s “charming world, just a few steps off-center of our own, continues to offer many possibilities for future adventure,” observed a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, who enjoyed the contrasts between Alba (an alternate-reality Scotland) and Merlin College. Annalee Schuck, writing in Romantic Times, made a similar point, pointing out that both settings are “creative and fascinating.” Schuck also admired the way in which the novel’s characters “continue to grow and change, as individuals and as a couple.”
Season of Spells
In Season of Spells Sophie and Gray return to London after three years in Alba. With them is Lucia MacNeill, heiress to the Alba throne, who is set to meet her betrothed, seventeen-year-old Prince Roland, for the first time. Lucia fears that she will have little in common with her future husband, whose letters suggests a dreamy temperament at odds to her more active one. Sensing Lucia’s unhappiness and realizing that a crucial dynastic union is at stake, Sophie hopes to create a shared interest between Lucia and Roland by asking them to help her reopen Oxford’s women’s college. It will be no small feat, since traditionalists have long opposed higher education for women.
At the same time, a daring prison break has freed the rebels who had conspired to kill King Henry–and they are nowhere to be found. It is up to Sophie and Gray, with all their magic skills and intelligence, to find a way to save the kingdom from a powerful dark magic intent on destruction. Gray heads off to search of the fugitives, while Sophie and her friends uncover a crucial secret while searching the neglected women’s college library. Praising the novel’s “compelling blend of fantasy, intrigue, and Regency romance,” a writer for Publishers Weekly said that Season of Spells “adds up to a thoroughly satisfying adventure.”
On her home page, Hunter commented that though the world of her series is based on Regency England, there are important differences. The political borders in the “Noctis Magicae” series differ from those of the actual Regency Era because the author has imagined that King Henry V of England had lived long enough to consolidate the territories he had won in France, making them an integral part of the Kingdom of Britain. Hunter has also given her fictional England a diverse mix of religious and spiritual traditions, drawn from Roman and Celtic culture; by contrast, Regency England had been mostly Christian with Anglicanism as the established national church. “The absence of Christianity as a load-bearing wall in the edifice of society,” explained Hunter in an interview at the Qwillery blog, provides a very different perspective in the series. And though Regency England suffered the enormous effects of the Napoleonic Wars, Hunter’s fictional England has not been financially and socially drained by this protracted conflict. In addition, the world of the “Noctis Magicae” series includes access to safe, reliable birth control, which provides its characters with freedoms unheard of in the actual nineteenth century.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, May 25, 2015, review of The Midnight Queen; September 21, 2015, review of Lady of Magick; November 7, 2016, review of Season of Spells, p. 45.
ONLINE
Fantasy Cafe, http://www.fantasybookcafe.com/(March 30, 2016), review of The Midnight Queen.
Night Owl Reviews, https://www.nightowlreviews.com/ (February 1, 2017), review of A Season of Spells.
Night Owl Sci-Fi/Fantasy, https://scifi.nightowlreviews.com/ (September 1, 2015), review of Lady of Magick.
Nyx Book Reviews, http://www.nyxbookreviews.com/ (October 16, 2014), Celine Nyx, review of The Midnight Queen.
Penguin Random House Web Site, http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/ (July 21, 2017), Sylvia Izzo Hunter profile.
Qwillery, http://qwilllery.blogspt.com/ (September 2, 2014), interview with Hunter.
Romantic Times, https://www.rtbookreviews.com/ (July 21, 2017), Annalee Shuck, reviews of The Midnight Queen and Lady of Magick.
SFF World, http://www.sffworld.com/ (August 27, 2014), review of The Midnight Queen.
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/ (January 5, 2017), review of A Season of Spells.
Sylvia Izzo Hunter Home Page, http://sylviaizzohunter.ca (July 21, 2017).
Vampire Book Club, http://vampirebookclub.net/ (Noember 22, 2016), review of Lady of Magick.
Sylvia Izzo Hunter
Photo of Sylvia Izzo Hunter
Photo: © Nicole Hilton
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sylvia Izzo Hunter is the author of the Noctis Magicae novels, including Lady of Magick and The Midnight Queen. When not writing, she works in scholarly journal publishing, sings in two choirs, reads as much as possible, knits hats, and engages in experimental baking.
About
Author photo by Nicole Hilton
Sylvia Izzo Hunter was born in Calgary, Alberta, back in the days before Star Wars, and started making up stories at approximately the time she learned to talk. A couple of decades ago she moved to Toronto, Ontario, where she now lives with her husband and daughter and their slightly out-of-control collections of books, comics, and DVDs. She studied English and French literature (with a particular focus on medieval and Renaissance poetry and drama) at York University; she has since discovered that her mom was right: in order to be a functioning grown-up, you really do need to know how to do math.
Over the course of her working life Sylvia has been a slinger of tacos, a filer of patient charts and answerer of phones, a freelance looker-up of unconsidered trifles, an Orff-singing stage monk, and an exam tutor, but has mostly worked in not-for-profit scholarly publishing, where she started out making lots of photocopies and now gets to make XML and EPUB files (which is more fun). She also sings in two choirs (including the Orpheus Choir of Toronto), reads as much as possible, knits (mostly hats), and engages in experimental baking.
Sylvia’s favourite Doctor is Tom Baker, her favourite pasta shape is rotini, and her favourite Beethoven symphony is the Seventh.
FAQ
Author photo by Nicole Hilton
Q: So, your books are set in Regency England, right?
A: Well, no, not quite. While the worldbuilding does owe a great deal to Regency England, there are some pretty crucial differences (aside from the existence of magic!), of which I will mention five. First, the very different borders of Europe, including the Kingdom of Britain, which — unlike the real England of the Napoleonic Wars period — includes bits of real!France, but does not include real!Scotland or any part of real!Ireland. (Remember when Henry V of England conquered all those bits of France, but then died of dysentery, leaving his very young son on the throne? In the world of MQ, he had a talented healer handy and therefore lived a long and healthy life, during which he consolidated his hold on those Continental territories.) Second, this kingdom has a king, not a Prince Regent. Third, the real Regency England was a very largely Christian country with an established church, whereas religion in the Kingdom of Britain in MQ is a messy patchwork of Roman and Celtic cultic traditions that developed over the centuries since the retreat of the Roman Empire; for the purposes of our story, one of the main effects of this difference is that divorce is a pretty ordinary and acceptable event rather than a social disaster. Fourth, the real Regency England was profoundly shaped by the long and taxing Napoleonic Wars and by its burgeoning overseas Empire, neither of which exists in the world of MQ. Finally, three words: reliable birth control.
Q: Do you really speak all those languages?
A: Alas, no! Of the languages used in MQ, I speak only English (obviously) and French (Français). But in the world of MQ, educated people — and some of the characters are seriously over-educated — learn a bunch of languages as a matter of course; a variety of languages (including Cornish [Kernowek], Breton [Brezhoneg], and Welsh [Cymric]) are spoken in the Kingdom of Britain alongside the normative English and French, and the educated person also needs Latin, Greek, and Old Cymric to read sources (and for spells, if you’re a mage). This taken-for-granted multilingualism is one of the characteristics of the world, and the characters’ choices about what language to use when tell you something about them (for example, it’s not coincidental that the Breizhek-born Professor insists his Breizhek servants speak to him in Français). So I wanted to put enough of those languages into the book to at least give the reader a taste. The Brezhoneg (Breton) and Cymric (Welsh) bits were constructed with the help of phrasebooks from the library and online sources. For the Latin bits, I had the help of a crack team of Latinistas — Kristen and John Chew, Patricia Larash, and Michael Appleby — who not only checked and corrected my made-up Latin but also made creative and sometimes hilarious suggestions for improvement.
Q: Where do you get your earrings?
A: Thank you for asking! I get them from various sources, but primarily from the wonderful Elise Matthesen, who as well as being an inspirational human being is also an amazing jewellery artist. Check her out on Twitter: @LionessElise!
Q: What do you like to read?
A: All sorts of stuff! My favourite genres are fantasy, SF, and mystery, but I’m also (in case you hadn’t guessed) a huge fan of Jane Austen. I like books that mix genres a bit: I like romances that aren’t just about the love story (e.g., Mary Stewart), SF that focuses more on the social than on the technical (e.g., Lois McMaster Bujold), mysteries that are psychological more than procedural (e.g., Ruth Rendell, Ian Rankin), and fantasy that thinks outside the high-mediaeval box (e.g., Kate Elliott, Nalo Hopkinson, Seanan McGuire). A not-necessarily-comprehensive list of some of my most memorable reads over the past few years: Lois McMaster Bujold’s Chalion-verse books and Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance (the latest Vorkosigan book); Kate Elliott’s Spiritwalker Trilogy; Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series; Marie Brennan’s Lady Trent novels; Scott Westerfeld’s steampunk WWI trilogy; Jim C. Hines’s Libriomancer books; and Jo Walton’s Among Others and My Real Children. I read a lot of YA, particularly SFF YA. And I have a long-standing soft spot for Ngaio Marsh’s Roderick Alleyn mysteries and the non–Brother Cadfael mystery novels of Ellis Peters.
Q: Where do you get your ideas?
A: I’m a writer! I get ideas everywhere! Seriously, though, it varies a lot. I know writers whose minds are constantly burgeoning with stories that want to be told; mine gets crowded with people and settings and, sometimes, really great first lines, but stories I have to work for. So my ideas for characters, worldbuilding, language, and so on come from all over the place (or, sometimes, from nowhere at all that I can identify), whereas my ideas for what those characters are actually going to do in that world are generally the result of sitting down with my notebook and a pen and brainstorming. Sometimes, though, those ideas also happen serendipitously. Often a comment or question from an early reader will send me off in a different direction, to the vast betterment of the story. A technique my editor suggested is to think through the events of the story from the antagonists’ POV: what motivates them? what are they doing this stuff for? how do they expect it’s going to work? (Bad guys work better when they don’t think of themselves as bad guys. Fictional evildoers whose main motivation is “Hey, let’s do some evil!” can be a lot of fun in parody but are unsatisfying elsewhere.) So … tl;dr answer … YOU JUST NEVER KNOW!
Q: What do you like to watch on TV?
A: At the moment, my very favourite things are Sherlock, Orphan Black, and The Bletchley Circle. And, of course, Doctor Who, which I’ve been watching more or less obsessively since I first saw Tom Baker offer someone a jelly baby on the Spokane, WA, PBS affiliate sometime in the mid-1980s.
Q: What do you do when you’re not writing?
A: Well, like a lot of writers I know, I have a day job; so, mainly that. I also have a husband and a 12-year-old daughter, and every so often we like to hang out ;^). Two nights a week I go to rehearsals for two different choirs; I’ve been singing in choirs for more than 30 years, and have learned by experiment that I am a lot happier when choral singing is part of my life. And of course I read, watch TV, bake cookies, eat chocolate, fall into the black hole of the Internet, and so on, just like everybody else. So how do I find time to write? Well, mostly, to be honest, by neglecting the housework.
Q: Tea or coffee?
A: I sometimes drink coffee, but I’m seriously dependent on tea! A typical day in the office might involve up to 1 cup of coffee but generally runs to 2 pots of tea. My current favourites are the Cream of Earl Grey (black) and Silk Dragon Jasmine (green) from David’s Tea, but the standard tea of my formative years was Twinings Earl Grey (in the yellow and gold tin), so that’s my default. Very hot, not too strong, nothing in it. Yum.
Q: Do you have any regrets from your misspent youth?
A: I wish I’d done more piano and clarinet practice, and that I’d blown off my maths homework less frequently (although I don’t think I could realistically have achieved both of those things except by actually not sleeping ever). I wish I’d been nicer to other people – particularly my mom – when I was an angsty teenager. And I wish my little brother and I could somehow have captured on video the time one of our cats leaped off the back of the sofa, landed in the basket of potato chips on the coffee table, and sailed across the room to land dramatically on the carpet in front of the TV, because we would totally have won the grand prize on America’s Funniest Home Videos.
Q: Do you really have a plush skull on your desk?
A: I absolutely do! And you can get your very own here.
Tuesday, September 02, 2014
Interview with Sylvia Izzo Hunter, author of The Midnight Queen - September 2, 2014
Please welcome Sylvia Izzo Hunter to The Qwillery as part of the 2014 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. The Midnight Queen is published on September 2, 2014 by Ace. Please join The Qwillery in wishing Sylvia a very Happy Publication Day!
TQ: Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?
Sylvia: Hi, and thank you! I'm delighted to be here :)
I don't really remember when I started writing; if you ask my mom, she'll tell you that I've been making up stories and inflicting them on people basically since I learned to talk, and at some point I started writing them down. Creative writing assignments were always my favourite thing. I also started writing fanfiction long before I had ever heard the term "fanfiction". For instance, I may be the only person ever to have written All of a Kind Family fic -- at least, I'm the only one I know -- but I spent almost the whole of Grade 6 doing that, in a very big stack of exercise books. Pro tip for teachers: do not assign your students to write a novel unless you are REALLY SURE that's what you want!
I started writing this particular book because of a conversation that I started overhearing in my head (don't look at me like that; it happens!) between two people in a garden. Which, not coincidentally, is one of the places where THE MIDNIGHT QUEEN does in fact start.
TQ: Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Sylvia: Um … let's say I'm trying to become more of a plotter and leave it at that, okay?
TQ: What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?
Sylvia: Plot! Hands down, it's plot. (Well, that and carving out time to write in the first place.) That probably sounds weird, but: I'm good at the mechanics of writing (in my day job, I'm an editor), I enjoy worldbuilding, and I only occasionally struggle to work out what a character is about. I'm always coming up with interesting premises and really cool first lines. But then what? What are these characters I like so much going to do? Where in this really cool setting I just thought up is there going to be a story? One of the hardest writing tasks for me is doing a synopsis, because synopses are completely made of plot.
TQ: Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors?
Sylvia: In terms of the language and the setting, this book in particular owes quite a lot to Jane Austen, who is in fact one of my favourite authors, and in some of the characters there are echoes of my favourite Austen novel, Persuasion. I won't pretend that my book is as clever as any of hers, though.
My favourite authors are those I can re-read. I almost hesitate to start making a list because we could be here a long time … but here goes. In no particular order, Lois McMaster Bujold, Jo Walton, Kate Elliott, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Sarah Rees Brennan, Violette Malan, Naomi Kritzer, T.H. White, Marie Brennan, Georgette Heyer, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Rutu Modan, Gabrielle Roy, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, Timothy Findley, André Norton, Holly Black, Goscinny & Uderzo, Madeleine L'Engle ...
Yeah, I'm just going to stop now.
TQ: Describe The Midnight Queen in 140 characters or less.
Sylvia: Magic, mystery, mayhem, and marriages, set in a Europe where Christianity never really took off.
TQ: Tell us something about The Midnight Queen that is not in the book description.
Sylvia: There is a lot of music in this book, and it's not just for decoration. All the songs in it are real ones (or are based on real ones).
TQ: What inspired you to write The Midnight Queen? What attracted you to Regency England for a setting?
Sylvia: Well, as I mentioned earlier, one day I overheard these two characters having a conversation in my head. One of them was a university student, and for some reason he was working in the garden. The other was the daughter of some important person whom the student was, for whatever reason, worried about. I didn't know much about them to begin with, but I did know their names! At first I thought the setting was sort of Edwardian, but the more I wrote about these characters the clearer it became that they belonged in an earlier, more mannered and agrarian age -- or, at least, to a world without steamships and a comprehensive rail network. And of course, as generally happens to me, their world turned out to have magic in it.
So the worldbuilding does owe a lot to Regency England, but there are some pretty crucial differences -- the first and most obvious of which are, of course, the very different borders of the Kingdom of Britain (which includes what in our world are bits of France, but does not include Scotland) and the fact that this kingdom has a king, not a Prince Regent. The absence of Christianity as a load-bearing wall in the edifice of society is also a crucial difference: some of the things we take for granted are shifted around a bit, or approached from a different angle, because of that change.
I'm not sure how to answer the question "Why the Regency-ish setting?" except to say that these characters wanted their story told in that kind of voice, and as soon as I worked that out, the writing got easier. I expect that makes me sound a bit unhinged, but it's the best I can do!
TQ: What sort of research did you do for The Midnight Queen?
Sylvia: To keep the voice/style on track, I did a sort of continuous-loop Austen re-read for quite a while, and also spent some quality time with the OED Online. I read books about social customs and etiquette (and food and clothing and crockery) in Regency England, and did a lot of research online. I researched Roman wedding customs, Roman and Celtic gods and goddesses, Greco-Roman temple architecture, contredanses, and the history and micro-geography of Oxford colleges (particularly Balliol, which is in many ways the model for Merlin College). I drew lines on Google Maps, researched types of carriages and who used them, and pestered horse-loving friends for equine and equestrian information. I acquired an English-Breton phrasebook, a book on classically influenced interior decorating in Regency England, a Welsh phrasebook, and a great big Latin vocabulary file (and I threw myself on the mercy of some friends who have actually formally studied Latin, who helped me avoid some fairly embarrassing faux pas). Also, I once proofread a book on the topic of ceramics and society in the Regency period, and the author generously gave me a comp copy, which I used quite a bit for visual references.
And then I mixed it all together, stirred briskly, and made a bunch of stuff up.
TQ: In The Midnight Queen, who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?
Sylvia: I found both Sophie and Gray very easy to write, but perhaps easiest of all was Joanna -- whom I originally intended to be a minor character who would provide a bit of comic relief in one chapter and a bit of drama in the next, then exit stage left to make way for the main plot, and who instead marched into the book, grabbed onto the plot with both hands, and refused to be shifted. Joanna might actually be my favourite character (but don't tell any of the others!). The only bit of her that gave me trouble was her name, which, as you'll have noticed if you know your etymologies, is completely inappropriate to a non-Biblically-influenced world, and which I tried and tried to change but couldn't. You will not be surprised to hear that Joanna is an extremely persistent person who really knows her own mind (and also where her towel is).
The character I had most trouble with is probably Sophie and Joanna's sister Amelia. Whereas many of the other characters had very strong personalities right up front, Amelia didn't -- but I didn't want to write her as stock footage of Every Young Woman in an Austen Novel Whom I Dislike. There's more to Amelia than may at first appear.
TQ: Give us one or two of your favorite lines from The Midnight Queen.
Sylvia: When I thought about this, I realized that most of my favourite lines belong to Joanna. Here she is summarizing her father's approach to ethics and fair play:
"Father can scarcely manage not to cheat at chess, if he sees any possibility of losing; what might he do in a contest whose outcome truly mattered?"
TQ: What's next?
Sylvia: Well, right now I'm working on the sequel to The Midnight Queen -- it hasn't yet got a real title -- which continues the adventures of Sophie, Gray, Joanna, et al. a couple of years later. After that, book three!
On the back burner I've got a kind of quirky fantasy novel set in present-day Toronto, where I live, and one day I want to write the "Jewish colony in space" story that includes this line:
Even were we all wise, all women of understanding, it would still be our duty to tell the story of the departure from Earth. And the more one tells of the departure from Earth, the more is she to be praised.
TQ: Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.
Sylvia: And thank you for having me! :)
Season of Spells
Publishers Weekly. 263.45 (Nov. 7, 2016): p45.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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Season of Spells
Sylvia Izzo Hunter. Ace, $15 trade paper (464p) ISBN 978-0-425-27247-3
The third chapter of Hunter's Noctic Magicae fantasy series (after The Midnight Queen) launches readers into fresh intrigue and magic in an alternate 19th-century London. After working to develop their magical abilities at the University of Din Edin, Britain's Princess Royal Sophie and her husband, Gray Marshall, are returning to London and escorting Lucia MacNeill, the heiress of Alba--soon to be Sophie's sister-in-law--for her first meeting with her betrothed, 17-year-old Prince Roland, and the rest of the royal family. After months of correspondence, forthright Lucia and dreamer Roland know they have little in common. Sophie hopes that she can change that by having them help her reopen the long-shuttered women's college at Oxford, a decidedly unpopular plan with orthodox scholars who insist women can't learn to use magic responsibly. Complications ensue when the rebels responsible for an attempt on King Henry's life somehow escape from prison and can't be found. After two previous books, Hunter's characters and setting feel fully formed, and the story moves briskly through its twists and turns. This compelling blend of fantasy, intrigue, and Regency romance adds up to a thoroughly satisfying adventure. (Dec.)
A Season of Spells by Sylvia Izzo Hunter
by Carrie S · Jan 5, 2017 at 3:00 am · One comment so far
A Season of Spells by Sylvia Izzo Hunter
A Season of Spells
by Sylvia Izzo Hunter
DECEMBER 6, 2016 · ACE
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B-
GENRE: Science Fiction/Fantasy, Historical: European
A Season of Spells lured me with its pretty cover (owls!), a promise of romance, and a hint that maybe it would be winter-themed and thus go nicely with my holiday reading. It turned out to be the last book in a trilogy. My tip: don’t start with the last book in a trilogy.
A Season of Spells, which is not seasonal by the way, is a fantasy book with several plots that are haphazardly glued together. Initially the plot seems to be that Sophie, the main character of the trilogy, has to convince two people to get married for royal purposes. But that plot is abandoned in favor of two other plots. One involves a plot against the king, and the other involves an abandoned university for women. Within those plots are various subplots and developments, and the book careens from plot to plot in the most confusing way.
I’m fairly certain that one reason I could not get interested in any of the plots was because I hadn’t read the other two books. However, I also think that I couldn’t get invested in the plots because as soon as I felt a flicker of interest we were off to something else. The pace was unbelievably awkward and nothing seemed to connect in a meaningful way until very near the end of the book. Nothing that involves so many couples, magical owls, and a feminist university, plus a garden maze and an attempt at regicide, should be so incredibly boring. But it was.
The book does have romantic elements, but they are very minor. It kicks off with a plot thread about two people, Roland and Lucia, who are supposed to get married in a political marriage. They meet for the first time and sparks don’t exactly fly. Will they or won’t they? There’s also the romantic relationship between Sophie and Gray (their romance drove the first book but by this book they are a comfortable established couple). Another established couple that could use some more development is that of Joanna (Sophie’s sister) and Gwendolen. They are in the closet and the story seems to be offering a solution to their problem.
Unfortunately, all these relationship issues are pushed to the side when the book starts focusing on the plot against the kingdom and the magical university plotline. I wasn’t disappointed that the romances weren’t central focus, but I was disappointed that ultimately they weren’t dealt with at all except in the last two chapters, which serve as very short epilogues. Lucia and Roland seem to appreciate each other better as their adventures continue, but while on screen their small moments would shine, on the page they fade into the background. Joanna and Gwendolen, and Sophie and Gray end where we first found them.
There were things I liked about the book. I liked the characters very much, which was one of the reasons that it bugged me when the book would drop a bunch of them and skip on to a new issue. Almost every character is presented as a complex person. It also aces the Bechdel test time and time again. The interactions between characters are believable. Even the best of friends, when they find themselves cooped up and helpless to take action, tread on one another’s feelings. They all have flaws but they are also all smart, competent people who care deeply about one another. Even the traitor among them is given humanity.
I thought that the descriptive language and the way magic was incorporated was wonderful. I have to admit that while I liked the idea of the university, the actual pages and pages describing the plot thread about the university bored me. But if you are into, for instance, maps, this kind of prose is just delicious:
No well-supplied cartographer had drawn this map. The rough and ready lines, the cramped script, suggested a military man working in the field, marking out rivers and roads and wagon-tracks, the ponds that might serve to water cavalry and pack-horses, the villages and farms where supplies might be replenished and officers quartered at need, the obstacles and fortifications that must be taken into account in planning and executing a military campaign. Borders had been drawn and then scratched out, till in some long-contested territories -along the river Loir, for example – the map was a palimpsest.
This book almost works as a stand-alone. I had no problem figuring out who everyone was and what was going on, although I did lose interest about halfway through the book. The reason I suggest starting with the first book is that I assume that even given the pacing problems, it’s probably much easier for readers to get invested in the plot(s), which involve recurring characters, if they’ve been following these characters from the beginning. The plot(s) appear to have been a long time in the making and I think it’s safe to assume that at least some of the time when I said “Huh?” longtime readers probably would say “A HAH!”
I’m grading this book a somewhat generous B- because I suspect that most of my problems with the book came from reading it without reading the first two books. I’d tentatively recommend this series to fans of Regency-ish fantasy, but I do have to warn you that while there are many romantic couples, there isn’t much actual romance, at least not in this installment. There’s feminism though, and a guy who shapeshifts into an owl, and a lot of books and maps and codes, plus a nice focus on eating, bathing, sleeping, and wearing nice things – all of which I’m highly in favor of. So despite my lukewarm reaction to the plot, I think the series taken as a whole is highly promising.
A Season of Spells
A Noctis Magicae Novel, #3
I enjoyed this book. It has magic, mystery, mayhem and escaped prisoners all in a bundle. This is sure to keep you glued to the novel, but only if you don't mind historical settings. The setting is very much into respectability and manners, so be aware of this when reading this novel as it will feel constrained at times, which is exactly what the author intended. Any other book would not be able to successfully pull those feelings of constraint or even freedom to the extent the reader will feel it too. But Ms. Hunter is able to successfully pull it off. This novel is part of a series, but it can stand alone as well.
It starts when Sophie and Gray go back to London with an heiress, Lucia MacNeill, who is going to meet her betrothed: the prince. Sadly sparks don't appear to fly for Lucia and Prince Roland. But they do take a stroll through a maze garden where they can hear the trees talking. But Roland goes into magical shock, so Lucia huddles next to him for hours until help arrives. Her behavior is shocking even when she stays the night in his bedroom to help him sleep while chaperoned. But even she is not as shocking as Sophie.
Sophie wants to reopen the defunct Lady Morgan College in Oxford: a college for women. This is so revolutionary that scholars lined up to sign a protest letter sent to her to explain how and why women cannot go to college. But Sophie cannot resist looking into it and figuring out how to reopen it as well as find the escaped prisoners who vanished the same time Sophie arrived in London.
I had fun with this novel. One of the best novels I've recently read. Ms. Hunter does an excellent job weaving a tale at the same time as she spellbinds the reader. While this is in a series, this novel is fine as a standalone. I look forward to reading more of her works in the future.
Book Blurb for A Season of Spells
In the latest novel from the author of Lady of Magick, Sophie and Gray Marshall must save the Kingdom of Britain from a tide of dark magic...
Three years after taking up residence at the University of Din Edin, Sophie and Gray return to London, escorting Lucia MacNeill, heiress of Alba, to meet the British prince to whom she is betrothed. Alas, sparks fail to fly between the pragmatic Lucia and the romantic Prince Roland, and the marriage alliance seems to be on shaky ground.
Sophie tries to spark a connection between Roland and Lucia by enlisting them both in her latest scheme: reopening the mysterious and long-shuttered women’s college at Oxford. Though a vocal contingent believes that educating women spells ruin, Sophie and her friends dream of rebuilding the college for a new generation of women scholars.
But the future of the college—and of the kingdom—are imperiled when the men who tried to poison King Henry escape from prison and vanish without a trace. Sophie and Gray will need all their strength and ingenuity—and the help of friends both present and long past—to thwart the enemy at Britain’s gates.
4 stars
Review of The Midnight Queen by Sylvia Izzo Hunter
Mar
30
2016
The Midnight Queen
by Sylvia Izzo Hunter
432pp (Trade Paperback)
My Rating: 8/10
Amazon Rating: 4.1/5
LibraryThing Rating: 3.53/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.5/5
Sylvia Izzo Hunter’s debut novel The Midnight Queen was published in fall 2014. Since then, a second book in the Noctis Magicae series, Lady of Magick, has been released. A third book, A Season of Spells, is scheduled for publication toward the end of this year—and I am delighted that there are more books in this series to read since I thought The Midnight Queen was quite charming.
Gray Marshall, an especially powerful mage studying at Merlin College, finds himself in quite a predicament after he and several other students do a job for Professor Callender: one of the other young men was killed during their outing and the others decided, rather unfairly, to blame his death on Gray. While recovering from this incident, Gray awakens and overhears part of a conversation between Professor Callender and another man outside his door that leads him to believe they are plotting to remove the Master of Merlin. Later, Professor Callender informs Gray he shall be spending the Long Vacation with him at his country home—and Gray knows this is not a request but a command, as the Professor also states he will otherwise have to agree with others that Gray no longer belongs at Merlin College.
After their arrival at the estate, Gray becomes acquainted with the Professor’s middle daughter Sophie. The two enjoy each other’s company but are each puzzled by the other. Sophie finds Gray very unlike the students her father has brought home in the past: he’s far more clever and less pompous and sycophantic, and it’s quite clear Gray and the Professor despise each other. Gray is confused to sense magick when the only other person nearby is Sophie, who—despite being interested in the study of magick—insists she has none of her own.
The longer Gray remains the Professor’s captive, the more he wonders exactly what secrets the man is keeping. After Sophie’s younger sister Joanna nearly falls to her death at the Temple of Neptune (a trap Gray is quite certain was intended for him) and a visitor arrives who sounds exactly like the man plotting the downfall of the Master of Merlin in the hallway, Gray begins to investigate, and later shares what he’s learned with others, including Sophie. As Gray and Sophie further unravel these mysteries, they discover a conspiracy with even larger, farther reaching consequences than they’d feared—and that the Professor’s plans involve revealing the truth about Sophie, previously unknown even to her.
The Midnight Queen is a delightful book. It’s not particularly complex with the major characters fitting rather neatly into “good” or “evil” categories, it can be predictable, and it’s a little slow to start, but it was completely enjoyable nonetheless. Though it took some time to get going, I was immediately interested in reading about Gray and Sophie, and once the secret about Sophie was brought to light, I was hooked.
It’s a difficult book to categorize. My first instinct was to call it “historical fantasy” since it’s set in British lands and feels quite like a Regency novel—the elaborate prose style, the expectations society have of women and Sophie and Joanna’s rejection of them, and the expectations Gray’s father has of him and the consequences of his rejection of them. However, despite the overall atmosphere seeming like it could have been Great Britain with magick, it’s very different from our world’s past and it’s altered enough that I’m not actually sure what era it would be. The current monarch is King Henry the Twelfth, and a variety of gods, including Greek and Roman, are worshiped since Christianity never became a major world religion. I really loved how the differences between our world and this fictional world were woven into the story: it was quite unobtrusive and integrated in quiet ways, through the language, traditions, local temples, and rituals.
The romance between Gray and Sophie is also a central part of the story. It’s a rather low key romantic relationship that grows through friendship and mutual respect, and as such it’s free from a lot of tension, angst, and drama. Sophie and Gray have alternating perspectives, and even when it’s clear to the reader that each admires the other, they are each oblivious to the other’s feelings. This is the closest to dramatic romance the story comes, but it’s still not terribly overwrought with misunderstandings galore.
Though they weren’t terribly complex characters, I enjoyed reading about both of them and thought they were great together. They’re both clever and brave people who want to do the right thing. Sophie not only finds someone who encourages her interest in magickal studies, but someone who appreciates her intellect and doesn’t feel threatened when she’s better at something than he is (which is the complete opposite of the way she’s been treated most of her life). I loved Sophie’s tenacity that kept her from letting obstacles get in the way of her desire to learn.
The two main characters aren’t the only ones who work together to prevent the Professor’s dastardly plans from coming to fruition, and the other characters are also wonderful. I especially loved Sophie’s bluntly outspoken younger sister Joanna and Gray’s kind sister Jenny. As much as I did like them, some more depth could have made them more memorable overall since they were rather black and white, though. The “evil” characters other than Professor Callender also weren’t terribly fleshed out, and he had no redeeming qualities at all that I could see. He was greedy, condescending, not particularly talented or clever, and commonly regarded as being laughably incompetent.
Although more complexity could have moved this book from “great” to “phenomenal,” I still enjoyed The Midnight Queen immensely. It’s less dark than the books I normally love, but I found it to be an engaging story with a likable main cast, family secrets, hidden identities, and plots to foil that kept me eagerly turning the pages.
My Rating: 8/10
Where I got my reading copy: Finished copy from the publisher.
The Midnight Queen
Sylvia Izzo Hunter. Ace, $15 trade paper (432p) ISBN 978-0-425-27245-9
MORE BY AND ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Magic, intrigue, and romance fuel Hunter's debut fantasy, which is set in an alternate Regency England. Graham "Gray" Marshall has been drained of his magic and blamed for the death of a fellow student at the College of Merlin in Oxford. He can't really refuse when his teacher, Prof. Appius Callender, drags him off to his distant country house for the summer break—even though he thinks Callender is part of a conspiracy to murder Lord Halifax, the Master of Merlin College. Gray is befriended by Callender's middle daughter, Sophie, and the two set to work uncovering the truth about the conspiracy. Along the way, they discover that Sophie's father has lied to her about her own magical abilities, and find the hidden truth about Sophie's own family history. Although the novel begins as Gray's story, Sophie quickly takes over the spotlight. Their romance, the twisty intrigue, and Hunter's colorful alt-Regency setting, complete with drawing rooms, balls, and barouches, will charm fans of romantic fantasy. (Sept.)
Review: The Midnight Queen by Sylvia Izzo Hunter
16/10/2014, CelineNyx, Review , 4 Comments
Title: The Midnight Queen
Author: Sylvia Izzo Hunter
Series: A Noctis Magicae Novel
Rating: 4 Stars
432 pages
Published September 2nd 2014 by Ace Trade
Bought
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
In an age of instant gratification, a scrambling rush for “fast-paced” and “nail-biting” reads, The Midnight Queen is a breath of fresh air, recalling books as they used to be – stories to be savoured.
Grey is asked by his fellow Merlin college students on a strange mission. It goes out of hand, leading to the death of one of his friends, and Grey tumbles head first into a conspiracy that is much bigger than he could ever imagine.
The Midnight Queen is a story that follows characters rather than a plot. It reminded me of a sort of mash-up between Jane Austen and Harry Potter – on one hand we have the sweet unfurling of a romance, and on the other we have a magic college set in some sort of alternate history. The writing has put off a lot of readers, but I thought it quite beautiful. The story isn’t to be rushed, and neither are the sentences themselves.
Beautiful, Callender Hall’s gardens might be, but after only half a day he had already conceived a passionate hatred of them, and of flowering shrubs in particular. What was he doing in this distant corner of the kingdom, so far from all he knew? Why condemned to this sweaty, thirsty, apparently pointless labout?
Also reminiscent of archaic books, The Midnight Queen uses the descriptive type of chapter titles, like Chapter II: In Which a Prediction of Sophie’s Comes True, and Sophie and Gray Discuss Magick. The chapter titles were very well done, raising just the smallest amount of suspicion of what is about to come, without spoiling any of the fun. You can safely read through all of the chapter names before starting the novel.
The Midnight Queen is the sort of book I love, but don’t nearly read enough. It provides a world that can enfold you like a warm blanket. For a debut novel I found this to be very impressive – even accomplished novelists don’t always manage to build a world from scratch, inhabited by genuine characters, with specific mannerisms and constructed through and through, a world that feels like it lives on even when you close the book. Although there might be more books set in the same world, The Midnight Queen stands on its own exceptionally well.
If you enjoy the writing style in classics, The Midnight Queen might be for you. Its world is a mix of historical, feint magical, and mythological elements, and instead of writing historical through a 21st-century lens, the language fits the time period. The Midnight Queen is a long journey through mistaken identities, conspiracies, and finding the limitations of magic capabilities, and a journey that was highly satisfying in the end.
Blurb
In the hallowed halls of Oxford’s Merlin College, the most talented—and highest born—sons of the Kingdom of Britain are taught the intricacies of magickal theory. But what dazzles can also destroy, as Gray Marshall is about to discover…
Gray’s deep talent for magick has won him a place at Merlin College. But when he accompanies four fellow students on a mysterious midnight errand that ends in disaster and death, he is sent away in disgrace—and without a trace of his power. He must spend the summer under the watchful eye of his domineering professor, Appius Callender, working in the gardens of Callender’s country estate and hoping to recover his abilities. And it is there, toiling away on a summer afternoon, that he meets the professor’s daughter.
Even though she has no talent of her own, Sophie Callender longs to be educated in the lore of magick. Her father has kept her isolated at the estate and forbidden her interest; everyone knows that teaching arcane magickal theory to women is the height of impropriety. But against her father’s wishes, Sophie has studied his ancient volumes on the subject. And in the tall, stammering, yet oddly charming Gray, she finally finds someone who encourages her interest and awakens new ideas and feelings.
Sophie and Gray’s meeting touches off a series of events that begins to unravel secrets about each of them. And after the king’s closest advisor pays the professor a closed-door visit, they begin to wonder if what Gray witnessed in Oxford might be even more sinister than it seemed. They are determined to find out, no matter the cost…
The Midnight Queen by Sylvia Izzo Hunter (Noctis Magicae, Book 1)
Rob B
August 27, 2014
2 Comments
Set in an alternate England somewhat reminiscent of the Regency era, where Magic is taught to young men at Oxford’s Merlin College, Sylvia Izzo Hunter’s debut novel wastes no time introducing the protagonist, Graham (nicknamed Gray) Marshall, and the situation which propels his plight through The Midnight Queen. Specifically, some of his college friends encourage Gray to join them in a night time escapade, a heist of sorts, which ends in tragedy and Gray receiving a forced dismissal from the school. Gray is taken by Appius Callender, the Professor who sent Gray and his friends on the ill-fated mission to Callender’s estate where Gray is something of a prisoner and indentured servant. The only thing that gives him respite during his dreary days is young Sophie Callender, the Professor’s middle child.
th_b_Hunter_MidnightQueen
Cover Art by Diana Kolsky
Gray soon learns Sophie is not his true daughter, Sophie’s mother having married Appius years prior. Also in Callender’s Hall are the Professor’s eldest daughter Amelia (whom Sophie calls ‘Miss Callender’), his youngest daughter Joanne, and the housemaid and guardian of Sophie, Mrs. Wallis. When a visitor arrives, Gray’s suspicions about the Professor are raised even more. He comes to realize the Professor is part of a plot against the King of England.
While Gray is initially our point of view character, as soon as Sophie is fully introduced, we begin to see the story from her point of view. Her ‘father’ shunned any magical tutelage in which she expressed an interest, because teaching young ladies the arts of magic were against society’s better judgment. Well, she’ll have none of that, and fortunately for her, neither will Gray. Although Sophie has been reading texts on the history Magic from the Professor’s library, Gray joins her and helps her learn more about magic and its history. Soon enough, they realize how fond they are of each other and when they additionally realize the full scope of the Professor’s plot, they are whisked away from the Professor’s estate and journey back to Oxford with the hope and goal of thwarting his plan.
So that’s the bare bones of what happens in the novel, but to suggest that The Midnight Queen is merely a period piece / fantasy of manners / romance / conspiracy mystery is selling the novel and Hunter quite short. Sure, it is essentially a mash up of those four things, but there’s quite a bit of character development, world building, and fun storytelling throughout its short, but densely packed pages. It isn’t even in the explicit details of the world and magic that provided for the depth of the world but rather those elements only hinted at by the characters and the narrative. Although superficially, the church depicted in the story initially has a vaguely Catholic feel, there are actually multiple gods worshipped as the Roman and Celtic pantheons/religions dominate. I liked how Hunter made Sophie the co-protagonist in the novel and provided an alternate view (from Gray) of the events as they unfolded. This may be an odd comparison, but it was a bit like when Karen Hill (as portrayed by Lorraine Bracco) began speaking her side of the story in GoodFellas.
Hunter pulls off the affected and mannered speech very well, both in dialogue and narrative. Early in the narrative, Gray has a stammer that could indicate a genuine speech problem or simply nervousness. The more he interacts with Sophie; however, the less prominent his stammer becomes. Sophie also has a difficulty of her own to overcome, a block is placed on her magic while she was under the Professor’s roof. As the novel’s plot progresses, we (and Sophie herself) learn Sophie is much more than she initially appears to be.
While there is a great deal to enjoy in the novel (the game of rewriting history and geography, the character of Sophie as a whole is a lot of fun and more than just a ‘plucky heroine’, I also enjoyed Joanna’s precociousness more than I expected), I did feel the pacing a bit uneven. Gray’s introduction grabbed me, but some points along the way the plot fell into a bit of a lull. I suppose it is a parallel to the times Hunter is trying to evoke, but there seemed to be a bit of forced awkwardness as Sophie and Gray’s relationship grew.
The comparisons I’ve seen to The Midnight Queen are to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, but in reality, that is only superficial because both novels deal with a magical alternate London of the past in an academic setting. More practically, I felt a kinship between The Midnight Queen and Kate Elliott’s Cold Fire / Spiritwalker books, Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, and to a lesser and superficial extent, Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials novels, at least The Subtle Knife. All told, Sylvia Izzo Hunter has crafted an impressive debut novel and begun a provocative series.
Recommended
© 2014 Rob H. Bedford
Lady of Magick
Sylvia Izzo Hunter. Ace, $15 trade paper (448p) ISBN 978-0-425-27246-6
MORE BY AND ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Hunter's entertaining second Noctis Magicae installment (after The Midnight Queen) follows mage-in-training and lost princess Sophie Marshall and her husband, Gray, deeper into court and magical intrigues in an alternate Regency-era Britain. When Gray is invited to lecture at the School of Practical Magick in Din Edin, capital of Scotland stand-in Alba, Sophie is excited by the opportunity to study at a school that welcomes female students; in Britain, such learning is thought to damage the "delicate female mind." Their visit is complicated by civil unrest, fed by rumors of a possible famine in Alba and news that Sophie's half-brother, Prince Roland, is to be prince consort to the daughter of Alba's head chieftain, creating a formal alliance between the two nations. When Gray is kidnapped, Sophie—with the help of her sister, Joanna—must call on the unique and powerful bond she and Gray share to try to find him and stop a plot that would change Alba forever. Sophie and Joanna play central roles, which will delight fans of strong women. Hunter's charming world, just a few steps off-center of our own, continues to offer many possibilities for future adventure. (Sept.)
Review: Lady of Magick by Sylvia Izzo Hunter (Noctis Magicae #2)
Posted by Amy on Nov 22, 2016 in Fantasy, Reviews | 0 comments
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Lady of Magick by Sylvia Izzo Hunter // VBC ReviewLady of Magick (Noctis Magicae #2)
Sylvia Izzo Hunter
Published: Sept. 1, 2015 (Ace)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review
Reviewed by: Amy
Rating (out of 5): 3.5 stars
Note: While this review will be spoiler free, it will reference previous books. If you haven’t started this series yet, check out VBC’s review of book 1, The Midnight Queen.
It’s been two years since Sophie and Gray Marshall thwarted a plot to kill the King, and along the way revealed Sophie as the long lost Princess of the crown.
Sophie has been diligently pursuing her studies at Merlin College, while Gray has been teaching. Being the only female student has not been easy on Sophie. Despite all her hard work, genuine desire to learn and be at the college, many regard her as an interloper. Her royal status also doesn’t help with those who view it as more of a means for Sophie to gain special treatment, however much this is untrue.
So when Gray is invited to teach at the university in Din Edin in the Kingdom of Alba, Sophie is excited to go to a place where female scholars are treated as equal to male. But once they arrive it seems that things in Alba are not as peaceful as they thought, and when certain clans voice discord in an apparent marriage alliance between Alba and Britain, Sophie and Gray find they might be in danger.
When I started reading Lady of Magick and realized that Sylvia Izzo Hunter had picked up a couple of years after the first book, I was happy she decided to do this because the image that readers get of the characters is one of growth. All of the characters have grown up and had more experiences (whether good or bad) separate from that of the conspiracy plot in the first book, and I rather liked seeing where everyone found themselves this time around.
Of course, it’s not long before Gray and Sophie, along with Sophie’s sister Joanna and Joanna’s friend Gwen, find themselves in an equally messy situation.
I’d say that the complaints I had about the first book pretty much stand the same for this second book. The progression is pretty slow. It takes quite awhile to understand the overlying conflict of the book and from there the action tends to ebb and flow. Once the path is known I kind of wish it would have kept the faster pace, but alas it was not to be so.
I also found myself never really warming up to Alba, which is the reason why this book got a lower rating from me than The Midnight Queen. For all that Sophie and Gray are there for months, I felt like I never really got to know their acquaintances or friends in the way I should have. They form relationships with people but that verifiable connection was never there for me. I’m thinking this is a result of the fact that most often a month’s time would pass in the change of each chapter.
What doesn’t disappoint of course are Sophie and Gray. Their sweet relationship has only grown stronger in the intervening years, and though they are not ones to overtly show their affection, I find I like the small subtle way they do show it. I also liked when seemingly inconsequential occurrences from the first book would pop up again and actually have an effect on what was happening in the storyline. Based on the blurb, I think we’re going to be in for more of the same in A Season of Spells.
Sexual content: kissing
Lady of Magick
A Noctis Magicae Novel, #2
It’s time to jump into the second book in the Noctis Magicae series.
Sophie and Gray are at the College. Don't worry if it’s been a while since you read book one. You will catch up in no time at all. I know I did. I was debating wither or not to go buy a copy of book one so I could read it again. But, it became unnecessary. The author does a wonderful job reminding us of all the things we needed to know.
I’m a huge lover of books about woman with magic. Many of them are so good. In Lady of Magick Sophie and Gray are moving to Din Edin UN because the place is opener about people like them. But, then Gray disappears. So now Sophie is on her own with magic, being a girl. I really loved how Sophie did in this one. She didn’t let the disappearance of her husband stop her. She went after what she needed to do etc.
This was a great fantasy read. It was very quick and well I will have to track me down a copy of both books now. Fans of Robin McKinley will enjoy this one as well. I know I did.
The author did a wonderful job continuing the story. With magic, romance, and mystery this is sure to make your toes curl.
Book Blurb for Lady of Magick
Sylvia Izzo Hunter brought “both rural Brittany and an alternative Regency England to vivid life”* in The Midnight Queen, her debut novel of history, magic, and myth. Now, in her new Noctis Magicae novel, Sophie and Gray Marshall are ensnared in an arcane plot that threatens to undo them both.
In her second year of studies at Merlin College, Oxford, Sophie Marshall is feeling alienated among fellow students who fail to welcome a woman to their ranks. So when her husband, Gray, is invited north as a visiting lecturer at the University in Din Edin, they leap at the chance. There, Sophie’s hunger for magical knowledge can finally be nourished. But soon, Sophie must put her newly learned skills to the test.
Sophie returns home one day to find a note from Gray—he’s been summoned urgently to London. But when he doesn’t return, and none of her spells can find a trace of him, she realizes something sinister has befallen him. With the help of her sister, Joanna, she delves into Gray’s disappearance, and soon finds herself in a web of magick and intrigue that threatens not just Gray, but the entire kingdom.
*National Bestselling Author Juliet Marillier
Night Owl Reviews Sep, 2015 4.00
LADY OF MAGICK
Image of Lady of Magick: A Noctis Magicae Novel
Author(s): Sylvia Izzo Hunter
The second installment in Hunter’s Noctis Magicae series will attract both familiar and new readers. The new kingdom of Alba is a stark contrast to Hunter’s version of Britain but every bit as creative and fascinating, allowing for a completely new and unexpected plot. The characters continue to grow and change, as individuals and as a couple, as they face both magical and personal challenges. A new twist in every chapter will keep readers desperately turning pages until the end.
Sophia Marshall is thrilled to finally achieve her dream of studying at Merlin College, but after spending a few years there, she sees all too clearly that a woman is unwanted among the almost exclusively male population of students and professors. When her husband, Gray, receives an offer to give lectures in Alba at the university there, Sophia immediately agrees to go and study there — despite rumors of unrest and hatred for Britain among the population. Sophia instantly thrives and even begins to consider a permanent stay until many among the community begin violently protesting the British. Sophia’s worst fears come true when Gray disappears without a trace. When she sets off to save him, she realizes that Gray is not the only one who needs saving. The future of Alba will be in the hands of a foreign princess. (ACE, Sep., 448 pp., $15.00)
*Web Exclusive Review*
Reviewed by:
Annalee Schuck
THE MIDNIGHT QUEEN
Image of The Midnight Queen: A Noctis Magicae Novel
Author(s): Sylvia Izzo Hunter
In The Midnight Queen, Izzo Hunter pulls from a multitude of mystical tales and myths to create her own magical version of Britain that is both innovative and intriguing. The plot is creative and suspenseful — and never predictable. Your affection for the dynamic heroes will only grow as Hunter’s characters face challenge after unexpected challenge. The Midnight Queen is a novel that readers will be unable to put down.
When Merlin College student Gray Marshall is pressured into joining a secret mission, he has his reservations, but has no idea just how wrong the mission will go. Gray is blamed for the death of his friend and tutor, Professor Callender, who invites Gray into his country home under the pretext of escaping the fallout. But Gray soon realizes that the professor has other intentions. Determined to uncover the truth, Gray and Callender’s daughter, Sophie, uncover more secrets than either could have expected, and they quickly realize how many lives are at stake. (ACE, Sep., 432 pp., $15.00)
Reviewed by:
Annalee Schuck