“You are standing in a viscount’s back garden in your unmentionables, washing your dress in a fountain. Have you truly no concept of the strangeness of your situation?” Dora paused, looking down at her dress where it soaked beneath her hands. Oh, she thought. He’s probably correct. [loc. 709]
Ah, publishers, so keen to pull in an audience: 'Bridgerton meets Howl's Moving Castle!' I am not at all convinced by the latter comparison, except that there is a dashing and rather rude magician (the Lord Sorcier, also known as Lord Elias Wilder) and a hapless young woman (Dora, half of whose soul has been stolen by the faerie Lord Hollowvale). Dora has a pleasant low-pitched existence, without any disturbing emotions: she's fond of her cousin Vanessa, who stabbed Lord Hollowvale with a pair of embroidery scissors before he could steal all of Dora's soul. She is less fond of Vanessa's mama, Auntie Frances, who regards Dora as a kind of doll and heartily disapproves of her unconventional behaviour.
In London for the season, Dora meets war veteran Albert and becomes involved with his mission to improve workhouse conditions -- a subject also close to Elias Wilder's heart, since he is investigating a 'sleeping plague' amongst workhouse children. He takes an interest in Dora's case...
I enjoyed this very much: it's lighthearted and amusing, while not pretending that everything is delightful in Regency London. Dora's behaviour could be read as neurodivergent, and Elias has some ... issues of his own. There are plenty of anachronisms ('auntie' would not, I think, be used in upper-class society; 'brunch' wasn't coined until the 1890s; 'dinner and a show' jarred) but they don't spoil the story. I found Atwater's prose light and charming, very readable.
I'd had this in my TBR for over a year. What other joys lurk there?
Fulfils the ‘title matches song lyrics’ rubric of the 52 books in 2024 challenge - Amanda Caesa's song Half a Soul matches on title, though not on mood / subject.
Fulfils the ‘a book with green in its cover design’ rubric of the Something Bookish Reading Challenge.
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