The following post includes affiliate links. More details here.  As you’re doing your Amazon shopping, we’d be ever so grateful if you’d use our affiliate link to do so as it helps pay the bills around here!

We are counting down the days until Virtual Book Club with you lovelies, and yet, neither of us has started.  That’s right, we’re dead treeing it (or perhaps audio), and will be starting the week off.  We appreciate your witchy Ts & Ps darlings, and send you ours as well, while you’re finishing up reading The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman so we can gather as a coven group to discuss it on Friday, October 21, 2022 at 7:30pm Central.  Don’t forget to sign up here and gather your festive attire and potions beverages.

Oh darling readers, how I loathe the way life interferes with my reading plans.  Last week was a comedy of errors and I did not get to consume read this week’s title as I prefer.  I want it stated for the record that fact may affect my feelings here.  

Let’s start with the story – The League of Gentlewoman Witches by India Holton is the second in a series, (and yes, we skipped the first, more to come on that), set in Victorian London, with some adventures through other parts of England as well.  We have pirates who fly battlehouses through the air, and women who are certainly not witches because witchcraft is illegal (except of course they are), a prophecy, and a museum exhibit that contains certain relics of old.  Naturally, antics ensue, with fabulous “hold my beer” style energy that is just magnificent.  Our pirate hero is super grumpy, our witchy hero (because I loathe gendered words, especially in English) is sheltered sunshine.  Yes dear readers, this is a romance, complete with HEA, open door scenes, and upstairs / downstairs fun.  The antics include a heist, a domineering aunt, and more, but spoilers are the worst.  

The League of Gentlewoman Witches is a really fun hang, with picturesque writing, snarky dialogue, so many hat tips to my beloved Jane Austen, and it really ticked a lot of my boxes (witches, magic, historic, fantastic inn scene, a readerly main character, etc.).  It’s a layered story once you dig into it, with some really complex, interesting characters.  While my reading experience, due to life being too much last week (late evening appliance deliveries, trying to catch up on work before some time off, and last minute family trip preparations, all at the same time), wasn’t everything I wanted, I think when I get around to reading the first in the series, I’ll enjoy it a lot more, and hopefully the third book even more.  (I have my suspicions about the main characters of the first in the series and most definitely look forward to picking it up when it becomes available.  Yes, I know I could read the marketing copy, but that doesn’t mean I’ll remember it, and does feel a bit like cheating.)  I’m giving The League of Gentlewoman Witches 3.5 stars and rounding up because my week was a struggle bus.  

What’s a novel that real life got in the way of you enjoying to its fullest?

~Nikki 

India Holton is the author of the Dangerous Damsels series. As Nikki mentioned above, The League of Gentlewomen Witches is book two. It is preceded by The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels and followed by the anticipated 2023 release of The Secret Service of Tea and Treason. Holton lives in New Zealand in a cottage by the sea where her writing is fueled by “tea, buttered scones, and thunderstorms.” The Dangerous Damsels series is described as “books about unconventional women and charming rogues … think slow burn romance with literal explosions.”

And that brings me to the first bit of what disarmed me (ha!) about The League of Gentlewomen Witches, the literal explosions. I was not prepared for the multiple types of magical and actual violent explosions that take place as distractions for thievery and to hide illegal use of witchcraft. I don’t know what I went in expecting but to be thrown into the world of the Wicken League and Wisteria Society like I had a whole book’s worth of background was a bit of a struggle to get through. Not that it was overly difficult from context clues, but there was a little bit of a struggle for me. I was also distracted by the epigraphs at the beginning of the chapters that were written like headlines in the gossip pages, but that actually gave away the plot before it happened. Once I started ignoring them, around chapter 5 or so, my reading became more enjoyable and the story progressed in the fashion in which it was written. I highly recommend ignoring the epigraphs in this case, but that is not usual for me. I did enjoy Holton’s word play, like when the bust of Melpomene is broken in the British Museum and our heroine says “Tragic.” (Melpomene being the muse of Tragedy.) This was quality. It happened two more times with two more muses, but I won’t spoil their identities in this post, let me know if you find them.

Overall, my expectations were met. There were witches and magic and pirates and romance and adventure, even though I wasn’t expecting the literal explosions to happen as often as they did. I’m giving  The League of Gentlewomen Witches a three star review. Will I read the other titles in the series, more than likely yes, but I’m not clamoring for them, and I definitely don’t foresee me re-reading them in the future. It was a solid, magical, romantic comedy of manners and mayhem. Would definitely recommend for those readers who loved Pride and Prejudice and Zombies for many of the same reasons.

What book recently disarmed you with the plot devices or plays on words that the author used?

~Ashley

PLEASE SUPPORT US WHEN YOU SHOP BY FIRST CLICKING ON THE IMAGES BELOW: