Summary: In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family’s social position.
What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain’s king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England’s heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king’s favor.
Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition’s wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both. (Summary from goodreads.com – Image is ours.)
My Review: Leigh Bardugo is one of those authors that ifyky, ya know? Many people just blanket read what she puts out no matter what. She’s great at world building and storytelling, and she does a good job of making distinctly different worlds as well, which is fun. It’s not just more of the same.
First of all, we have to mention the coolness of this cover art. I mean…super cool. I love the vibe, the art, and the fact that it actually has to do with the story itself. That doesn’t always happen. I do love a good cover.
I enjoyed this story a lot. First of all, I enjoyed the sort of magical powers the characters had. They certainly weren’t magical realism by any stretch of the imagination, they were straight up magic, but it was interesting and mysterious and everyone’s was a little different. Bardugo did a good job of giving enough information about the different magical powers of each person that I felt like I knew what was going on, but she didn’t get bogged down in the details of how it came about. We do know some about the lineage of the main character, Luzia, and that made for a cool and mysterious backstory.
The story itself rests on a tried and true story of magical people being pitted against each other in a contest of sorts, and that always comes with a lot of interesting magic exploration and creative happenings. I won’t go into too much detail here because I don’t want to spoil anything, but suffice it to say that we do get to enjoy the magic from the characters in this book.
I found the other characters in this book to be strong and interesting as well, and Santangel, who is one of the main characters, is particularly interesting. After I finished this book I was thinking that he could have his own prequel and it would be a great story as well.
Bardugo is a solid writer who creates great worlds and a fun, interesting story that keeps the reader captivated from beginning to end. There is romance, mystery, and magic. I mean…this is pretty much up everyone’s alley who knows anything about Bardugo and her writing. I highly recommend you check it out if you haven’t already!
My Rating: 4 Stars
For the sensitive reader: There is some language and some love scenes.
