Magic Under Glass -- Jaclyn Dolamore

After her family's fall from favor at court, Nimira left her home country to seek her fortune.  Despite her dreams of sweeping success, the only steady work she's been able to find is as a dancer in a run-down music hall.  So when a wealthy sorcerer offers her a job singing accompaniment to a automaton pianist, she disregards her second thoughts and takes the leap.

Once she begins her new job, though, she quickly realizes that there is much more going on at Vestenveld than she had been led to believe -- not the least of which is that the automaton is actually the prison of a trapped fairy gentleman.

Magic Under Glass features a suspicious (in action as well as personality) housekeeper, ghosts, two suitors of very different types, a rambling house with a locked wing, the possibility of war, and a couple of genuinely swoon-worthy moments.  It shares plot points with Jane Eyre and features a world that will appeal to readers who enjoy their fantasy with a historical fiction flavor.  Issues of discrimination and -isms play in without being overbearing, and I do think it will be popular with younger YAs looking for magic and romance and mystery.

That said, it didn't do a whole lot for me personally.  You'd think, with all of the above, that it would have -- but while it had a bunch of super-fun components, it lacked... sparkle.  The characters were stock:  Nimira was The Plucky Heroine; Erris, the Romantic Lead; Hollis, the Nice But Spineless Secondary Romantic Lead; Miss Rashten, the Henchwoman; Mr. Smollings, the Villainous Villain.  Despite the many dangers Nimira faced, the many mysteries she had to unravel, and the short time frame in which she had to resolve them, I never actually felt a sense of tension or urgency, and I didn't find the intrigue very... intriguing.  I felt that the ending was very rushed -- so rushed that I actually double-checked the page numbers to be sure that there wasn't a missing section -- and that slapdash feeling made me feel especially irritated when I realized that it's clearly the first in a series.

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Book source:  Review copy from the publisher.

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Comments

[Chelle]

While I enjoyed it, I agree with you about the ending. And I did the same thing, triple checking the page count. I even emailed the author to find out if the ARC was missing pages. She hasn't been contracted to do a sequel, she said, but would love to. I can't see how this book could *not* have a sequel, actually, because that really wasn't an ending at all. f

[Emily]

Lovely review- I had a lot of the same reactions after reading. The premise of the story was fantastic but I think the delivery definitely left something to be desired. Have a great new year!

[beth]

Hmmm. I've not read this one yet. I think I'll still give it a chance; it does have all the elements I love, but I was a bit worried about the start of a series...

[Angie]

Sadness. I've been looking forward to this one but these points you've made make me quite leery.

[LaurieA-B]

So... what did you think of the cover? Not a baiting question, just curious because of the posts like this one: http://galnovelty.blogspot.com/2010/01/stop-failing-bloomsbury-aka-bloomsbury.html, and I haven't read the book.

[Leila]

I just wrote about it. Gross.

It's interesting that the book trailer gets it right -- maybe that was all the author, and Bloomsbury wasn't involved?

[LaurieA-B]

The author wrote enthusiastically about the cover back in July. http://fabulousfrock.livejournal.com/329455.html
I hope she will share her thoughts now.