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A review by kblincoln
The Seat of Magic by J. Kathleen Cheney
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series for the formal, alternate-turn of the century European society tone, engaging hero (Duilio) who is earnest and doggedly pragmatic (who chooses to snag pastries from the kitchen on the way to a morgue), and interesting political scheming in an alternate Portugal that has outlawed nonhumans-- selkies, otters, and sereia. (The heroine--Oriana--is okay, she's a bit too emotionally reserved for me, I liked Duilio better).
This second one is even better: with more juicy relationships and revealing layers of character backstory as well as ratcheting up the politics around gruesome murders.
We get alternating POVs, here, with both hero and heroine, as well as a bit of Duilio's police-inspector Joaquim (who is slowly realizing he's not so entirely human as he once thought) which didn't tick off my anti-multiple POV peeve because of the tightly interlaced plot and emotional, romantic arc Joaquim is also experiencing. Sometimes, thought, the POV change didn't "feel" like a change so much as a reason to follow Joaquim somewhere Duilio wasn't going. Small quibble.
Did I mention a tight plot? Tight as a corset (that Oriana can't wear because her sereia lungs are too small-- but I'm getting ahead of myself) both with seemingly unrelated murders and Joaquim's mysterious dreams of a woman, as well as Oriana's betrayal by her people and Portugal's Prince's continuing persecution of non-humans.
It all comes together in the end in a lovely, satisfying way, revealing even deeper issues between Portugal, the Sereia, and Spain.
So there's lots of poncing around talking to people, carefully trying to be discreet with love relationships, Duilio trying not to call attention to his family for fear of revealing his selkie heritage, and speculation. Some of that tempted me to skim at times, but then we'd get to a juicy relationship, gruesome murder, or political revelation and i was drawn back in.
Or the invisible infante would show up. Or Duilio's mother would make some very proper kind of statement condoning improper behavior.
Lovely second book overall, I am definitely heading out to the third one as I can't wait to find out how Duilio and Oriana fare in the new sticky situation set up for them at the end of this.
This second one is even better: with more juicy relationships and revealing layers of character backstory as well as ratcheting up the politics around gruesome murders.
We get alternating POVs, here, with both hero and heroine, as well as a bit of Duilio's police-inspector Joaquim (who is slowly realizing he's not so entirely human as he once thought) which didn't tick off my anti-multiple POV peeve because of the tightly interlaced plot and emotional, romantic arc Joaquim is also experiencing. Sometimes, thought, the POV change didn't "feel" like a change so much as a reason to follow Joaquim somewhere Duilio wasn't going. Small quibble.
Did I mention a tight plot? Tight as a corset (that Oriana can't wear because her sereia lungs are too small-- but I'm getting ahead of myself) both with seemingly unrelated murders and Joaquim's mysterious dreams of a woman, as well as Oriana's betrayal by her people and Portugal's Prince's continuing persecution of non-humans.
It all comes together in the end in a lovely, satisfying way, revealing even deeper issues between Portugal, the Sereia, and Spain.
So there's lots of poncing around talking to people, carefully trying to be discreet with love relationships, Duilio trying not to call attention to his family for fear of revealing his selkie heritage, and speculation. Some of that tempted me to skim at times, but then we'd get to a juicy relationship, gruesome murder, or political revelation and i was drawn back in.
Or the invisible infante would show up. Or Duilio's mother would make some very proper kind of statement condoning improper behavior.
Lovely second book overall, I am definitely heading out to the third one as I can't wait to find out how Duilio and Oriana fare in the new sticky situation set up for them at the end of this.