A Shadow Bright and Burning

Such fluff! It feels like a dating sim adapted into novel format. One special girl surrounded by eight similarly aged guys. There's the easy but shallow guy, the cold and aloof guy, the damaged guy with a dark destiny... and all the other guys nobody really pursues on their first playthrough. They exist as scenery but are really interchangeable.

The story is enjoyable but gets bogged down in exposition in the final act.

This book took me a bit to get into. When I first started I really struggled to immerse myself in the world and really start to care about the story and the characters. I do not know if this was due to poor writing at first or just a general lack of interest on my part. But once the story started to unfold and I got further into the book, I really started to love this book and start to theorize about what was coming next.

This book has a very unique magic system that I really enjoyed learning about as Henrietta does. I personally tend to enjoy books more when I get to learn about magic at the same time as the protagonist rather than it being already established for them. The whole idea of controlling the elements with your stave (wooden wand-like object) and working to master those abilities to get approval by the queen was fascinating to me.

This book left me with many questions about Henrietta, the ancients, the Magicians versus the Sorcerers, and what is to come next. I have many theories about Henrietta's origin and what her connection to magic really is and I cannot wait for the series to continue to see what the truth is.

This book was definitely female empowerment even in a Victorian time period. Henrietta always stood up for herself and protected those under her even if she was told not to. I really enjoyed the banter she had with countless secondary characters who were trying to tell her what to do or how to behave. The many love interests kind of irked me especially given the time period and Henrietta's upbringing. Jessica Cluess definitely set it up that it could be one of at least three characters. But she did not make romance a huge part of this book, it was there but not a focus. This story was more about Henrietta's journey finding out about her abilities and planning her fight against the ancients.

I really enjoyed Jessica Cluess's take on the chosen one's story and am really intrigued by what is to come in future books!

Copy provided by BloggingForBooks for review

I really enjoyed the world built by Cluess and her writing was easy to read and follow. However, some of the archaic misogyny - while presented in and for the purposes of historical accuracy - was a little jarring and unnerving. I found a lot of Henrietta's ideals and thought processes made me wish she was a little more developed as a modern character and not like something out of a British historical melodrama. There are also some racist and classist ideas represented in the writing that, while again historically accurate for the time this was inspired by, brought me out of the story with shock. I still overall really enjoy the book and plan on moving on to the sequel just released but felt that these things could have been edited out in a way that kept the historical aspects still there.

This book has the typical YA storyline – orphaned young girl Henrietta is living a dull and occasionally tortured life until she is told by the sorcerer Agrippa that she is the Prophesied One who can destroy the Ancients and bring an end to the war. She travels with him and her childhood friend Rook to London Proper to train formally and receive a commendation from Queen Victoria. She joins with the other young boys under Agrippa's tutelage and all of them train together. There are many who don't like a woman with magical abilities and she has to fend off a lot of attacks – both physical and verbal. When she is rocked by the truth of her lineage and betrayal from unexpected quarters, she is forced to make choices that might change the fate of England forever.

The story was okay and I was able to get through the book. I didn't really like Henrietta's character because she I felt she was too selfish sometimes and would do anything for Rook, the whole world be damned. I think I expect a little more from the main protagonist. Rook was not a very steady presence in the book, so I don't know if have formed any opinion about him yet. I really liked the characters of Agrippa, Magnus and Blackwood. They are almost always there for her and are ever ready to fight to protect her. The loyalty of all the boys is commendable but I especially liked Magnus, the charming flirt and Blackwood, the eternal brooder. I think I will read the next book in the series for their sake. I am usually a big fan of fantasy world building and it was missing here, so I still don't know a lot about the world and its villains. My final verdict – the book is fairly enjoyable due to some good characters.

Maybe it's because I went into reading this with low expectations and I didn't even read the back of the book (a friend loaned it to me) but I found the book to be better than I expected considering the glut of YA titles similarly vague sounding magical titles.

If this book had been published 20 years earlier (at the height of HP popularity) it might have been called “Henrietta Howel and the Seven Deadly Monsters” or something in that vein which paints the story in a very different light, doesn't it?

It's more engaging than the early Harry Potter novels with a strong female lead. There is a romantic love triangle that feels a little forced. I kept reading these two romantic “interests” more as Henrietta/Hettie seeking acceptance and security than romance.

Overall, it was an interesting tale with more crosses and double-crosses than in books like Harry Potter. While it still takes place in England in an unspecified time (Victorian era, I assume, early 1800s as Queen is young), the characters are predominately white but the author has made an effort to give the female characters strong leads and concern for others, be they human or faerie. Hopefully, as the series progresses, there are more diverse characters but the divide between magician and sorcerer is a good stand-in for many of the social divides in our culture today.