Starred review from October 26, 2020
Waggoner makes a delightful return to the vibrant, Victorian England–inspired world of Unnatural Magic for a rollicking standalone fantasy featuring a scrappy but endearing heroine. Dellaria Wells is a no-good guttersnipe who runs petty cons in order to keep a roof over her head and look after her even more no-good mother. She’s also an uncommonly talented fire witch. When Delly joins a misfit team of female bodyguards protecting a wealthy woman in the weeks before her marriage, she thinks it will be easy money—until horrifying necromantic mechanical spiders are sent to attack her boss’s carriage. The culprit who unleashed them slips through the team’s fingers, leading Delly and the other bodyguards on a hunt to bring her to justice (and, more importantly to Delly, to collect the reward money their boss is offering). In between a grisly murder, several extortions and explosions, and encounters with an extremely unsettling zombie mouse, Waggoner finds plenty of room for wry humor and a refreshingly wholesome relationship between Delly and fellow bodyguard Winn Cynallum. With this winning ensemble adventure, Waggoner again proves her skill at crafting immersive, historically flavored fantasy. Agent: Jennifer Udden, New Leaf Literary.
December 15, 2020
Waggoner brings new characters to the historical fantasy world introduced in Unnatural Magic (2019). Dellaria Wells, Delly for short, is a streetwise, charmingly garrulous con artist and fire witch. Her verbosity tends to get her into trouble, but all she really wants is enough coin to pay her rent and get her wayward mother into a sanatorium in the country. A permanent and fiscally sound lover would also be nice. To alleviate her financial woes, Delly signs up for a lucrative position with a group of martially and magically talented women to guard a Lady of Some Importance. While escorting their charge across the country for her forthcoming nuptials, Delly becomes attracted to one of the guardians and is delighted to find her equally interested in return. Things are looking up for the charming swindler until she begins to suspect someone in their party is out to commit murder. Clever romantic banter, an inventive, Cockneyish dialect, monstrous mechanical spiders, and an undead wizardly rat named Buttons will have readers clamoring for more of this enchanting world.
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Starred review from January 1, 2021
Dellaria "Delly" Wells is a fire witch, as well as a petty thief. Desperate to pay her rent before her landlady extracts her hard promise and infects her with face pustules, Delly takes a job guarding a young society lady on the way to her wedding. Also on guard duty is a necromancer; a teenager who can turn into a giant pig; a senior student at the magical university; and Winn Cynallum, a genteel woman from a very influential magical family. Delly takes an immediate liking to Winn, both because of her physical appearance and because of her money. As Delly flirts with Winn and they grow closer, the team faces many magical enemies. Throw in a long-dead wizard inhabiting a mouse corpse and a drug-addicted mother and you have one exciting adventure. VERDICT Waggoner (Unnatural Magic) crafts an excellent historical fantasy that also manages to have a sweet and hot love story at the center. At turns laugh-out-loud funny and heartwarming, this fast-paced book is for fans of romance, historical fantasy, and Theodora Goss's "Athena Club" series.--Lynnanne Pearson, Skokie P.L., IL
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