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A review by cupiscent
The Seat of Magic by J. Kathleen Cheney
4.0
This continued both the things I enjoyed and the things that annoyed me from the first book. In the former camp: a delightful world of manners and magical waterfolk; a proper grown-up romance with genuine issues to make work; a great cast of capable and foible-icious characters. In the latter camp: a predilection for detail that often swamps the big plot and emotion points.
Those details seemed particularly problematic in this second book because there was so much going on that I really begrudge the use of those words to give us all the little twiddly bits of society manners and explanations of things. Indeed, the awesome foursome of special investigators were almost entirely sidelined because there just wasn't space for them amongst Oriana and Duilio's story. Now, I love Oriana and Duilio, but I love Nadezhda, and I really wanted to see more of her arc throughout this, especially considering how important she is for the finale.
But overall, I enjoyed this and look forward to the third one bubbling to the top of my to-read list.
Those details seemed particularly problematic in this second book because there was so much going on that I really begrudge the use of those words to give us all the little twiddly bits of society manners and explanations of things. Indeed, the awesome foursome of special investigators were almost entirely sidelined because there just wasn't space for them amongst Oriana and Duilio's story. Now, I love Oriana and Duilio, but I love Nadezhda, and I really wanted to see more of her arc throughout this, especially considering how important she is for the finale.
But overall, I enjoyed this and look forward to the third one bubbling to the top of my to-read list.