RogerBW's Blog

Spellswept, Stephanie Burgis 27 March 2025

2018 fantasy novella, side story in the Harwood Spellbook series. Before the events of the novels, Amy Standish is a rising young pollitician who must marry a magician to gain rank in the Boudiccate. But Jonathan Harwood, resolutely non-magical, remains her temptation…

Amy is mostly a supporting character in the novels, so it's good to see her get centre stage here; she's not just there for her future sister-in-law to fall back on, she has hard decisions of her own to make, and while there's no tension about what she'll decide (even if you haven't read the novels, this is romantic fantasy) there is some doubt about how she will do it, and indeed how she will come to terms with what she's giving up for true love.

All right, even in this female-dominated society there seem to be an awful lot of men telling women what they can't do; all right, it isn't meant to be a utopia. Still, for the most part this is frothy and enjoyable, but at the same time with hard decisions and serious peril. I think the main reason I keep coming back to Burgis is her mastery of this kind of tonal shift.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Series: The Harwood Spellbook | Next in series: Snowspelled

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