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A review by branomir
The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker
3.0
I mostly enjoyed reading this, but as I finished it, I'm sort of left wondering why that was. When I look back at the book's troubles, I feel like I'm being generous by giving it three stars instead of two, but it would be morally dishonest not to. I did enjoy picking it up.
So let's unravel this.
First off, the title is just stupid when you look at the story. There is no guide and the book itself doesn't function as one. "The thinking woman" and "real magic" are referenced but as far as the former is concerned, it is more in name than anything else.
So the world is fun and so are most of the characters (though we see far too little of the best ones) and this is why I enjoyed my reading it of it. The problem was that I kept reading expecting something to happen in the next chapter or the next one, but for 300 or so pages (in the middle) NOTHING happens. The events of the end of the book should have been moved to the middle and she should have gone on from there, rather than stretching what she had and declaring she'll make a trilogy out of it. 6 years later there is still no sequel, I might add.
For those of you who don't know, this book is supposed to be a Pride and Prejudice type of work with a magical twist. The only problem is that Nora does not seem to have quite the backbone that Elisabeth has. (She does eventually tell him where to stick it but it is far, FAR too late in the novel) And where Mr. Darcy was rude at first, he learns from his faults and betters himself. He is very much redeemed by the end. Aruendiel however, is an arse. He is one in the beginning, he's still one near the end. His behaviour against her is just inexcusable, especially considering he can't even claim he doesn't know better because of the time and place he lives in, as, by his own admission, he has visited other worlds. It just baffled me that not only did Nora put up with most of it, she even defended him against others. Worst of all, this is not his worst characteristic. Are you ready for it, mild spoiler warning, he is a murderer! Yep, murdered his own wife. I kept waiting the entire novel for something to redeem him for this, some explanation, some excruciating regret or some enchantment that made him do it or something else that left him with no choice, but no nothing. He's a coldblooded murderer, but apparently that doesn't faze our Thinking Woman much. I do believe she even mentions feeling jealous of the murdered spouse. I mean...what?!
The ending was worst of all. There simply isn't one. The book just stops, like she reached her maximum word count. No resolution, no wrapping up of anything, it just stops. I feel like I bought half a book, even though it's far too long for its own good.
The writing definitely needs work as well. Her descriptive writing is poor, half of the time I had no idea what exactly was going on and she keeps forgetting little details like people picking up or putting down certain things, or wearing certain things, so you're constantly find yourself correcting the image in your head, through no fault of your own. It took me a long time to get an idea what our MC looked like as well, as she was so sparing with her details.
At the end of the day, the book started off promisingly, I liked the premise, the characters had promise but it all went horribly wrong somehow and the ending was ridiculously bad. And yet, somehow, I mostly enjoyed it. Sigh. I don't know, give it a go if you think it is for you, I can't say I would recommend it.
So let's unravel this.
First off, the title is just stupid when you look at the story. There is no guide and the book itself doesn't function as one. "The thinking woman" and "real magic" are referenced but as far as the former is concerned, it is more in name than anything else.
So the world is fun and so are most of the characters (though we see far too little of the best ones) and this is why I enjoyed my reading it of it. The problem was that I kept reading expecting something to happen in the next chapter or the next one, but for 300 or so pages (in the middle) NOTHING happens. The events of the end of the book should have been moved to the middle and she should have gone on from there, rather than stretching what she had and declaring she'll make a trilogy out of it. 6 years later there is still no sequel, I might add.
For those of you who don't know, this book is supposed to be a Pride and Prejudice type of work with a magical twist. The only problem is that Nora does not seem to have quite the backbone that Elisabeth has. (She does eventually tell him where to stick it but it is far, FAR too late in the novel) And where Mr. Darcy was rude at first, he learns from his faults and betters himself. He is very much redeemed by the end. Aruendiel however, is an arse. He is one in the beginning, he's still one near the end. His behaviour against her is just inexcusable, especially considering he can't even claim he doesn't know better because of the time and place he lives in, as, by his own admission, he has visited other worlds. It just baffled me that not only did Nora put up with most of it, she even defended him against others. Worst of all, this is not his worst characteristic. Are you ready for it, mild spoiler warning, he is a murderer! Yep, murdered his own wife. I kept waiting the entire novel for something to redeem him for this, some explanation, some excruciating regret or some enchantment that made him do it or something else that left him with no choice, but no nothing. He's a coldblooded murderer, but apparently that doesn't faze our Thinking Woman much. I do believe she even mentions feeling jealous of the murdered spouse. I mean...what?!
The ending was worst of all. There simply isn't one. The book just stops, like she reached her maximum word count. No resolution, no wrapping up of anything, it just stops. I feel like I bought half a book, even though it's far too long for its own good.
The writing definitely needs work as well. Her descriptive writing is poor, half of the time I had no idea what exactly was going on and she keeps forgetting little details like people picking up or putting down certain things, or wearing certain things, so you're constantly find yourself correcting the image in your head, through no fault of your own. It took me a long time to get an idea what our MC looked like as well, as she was so sparing with her details.
At the end of the day, the book started off promisingly, I liked the premise, the characters had promise but it all went horribly wrong somehow and the ending was ridiculously bad. And yet, somehow, I mostly enjoyed it. Sigh. I don't know, give it a go if you think it is for you, I can't say I would recommend it.